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| Image from Danny G on UnSplash. |
For me, timing was everything when it came to completing my male to female gender transition. Plus, there was no way possible to think I would take nearly a half of century to do it.
The problem was, I never considered the extra layers of a
ciswoman’s life rather than what a man had to go through to live. Just having
to put up with a man in a relationship would have been enough for me to drive
me into a lesbian relationship. Although I never really understood why more men
don’t want to accept trans women because we understand so much about the way
they think because after all, we had to live as a man for a while. But that is
a long, drawn-out story to be saved for another time.
In many ways, timing comes down to everything when you decide
to jump out of your closet and enter the world. Just a few things to consider
are what would happen to you if you were out as your authentic feminine self
and ran into someone you know. It happened to me one time long ago when I was married
to my second wife. I was happily following my shopping routines in the small
Ohio town we lived in when I parked in a parking lot, slid out of my car and
right into the on-coming face of my wife’s boss. As I panicked and headed the
other way as fast as I could, all I could hope for was he did not recognize me
in my wig, makeup, mini skirt and matching leotard top. Fortunately, as I got a
quick glimpse of his face, he showed no reaction to me at all.
I thought the experience was behind me until a week or so
later, we were invited to a party at their house. At the party, her boss
casually brought up how he had seen this big woman at a big box store he was shopping
at the other day. As I ignored the
comment the best I could, I saw my wife suddenly glaring at me from across the
room, and I knew what she was thinking. It was me; her boss saw that day. It
took me a long time to live that one down because I was never supposed to leave
the house as a trans woman unless I was somehow supervised.
Timing kept me living on the edge with my job too. What if
my “hobby” of being a cross dresser was discovered? I knew I would not be able to
function the way my male self-had all his life. I was stuck between the rock
and the hard place on several personal fronts. I was becoming increasingly dependent
on my lessons I was teaching myself as a woman and keeping my personal life together.
All I could do was keep on working towards my dream of living as a transfeminine
person. As I progressed along my often-rocky gender path, all I could do was
look for a quick exit. But I found out, exits were as rare as on a long-deserted
interstate highway.
It was not until I reached my mid-fifties, did I begin to
see the faint out-lines of a possible gender exit ahead for me. All I needed to
do was time my male exit correctly so I could cover the main living basics such
as spousal support (or nonsupport), a job to support name changes, all the way
to all the identification forms I would need such as a new driver’s license.
For me, the name change was the most challenging because I needed to go before a
very conservative judge I even knew before as a man. Surprisingly, he just
smiled and approved my paperwork and name change and the rest was basically
easy. So timing on that exit went smoothly with no roadblocks.
Other exits were not so forgiving for me. Such as what was I
going to do about a job at that time. I had just closed my restaurant and was
essentially broke, and I needed to find a job fairly quickly to support myself.
I guess timing was everything and I took an easy exit into a job that I hated. I
took the job anyway and managed to keep it for the couple of years I needed to
work to claim my early retirement and keep myself afloat by selling vintage collections
that my deceased wife and I had put together over the years. During this time
of my life, there were other main detours which were difficult to navigate.
That was when my current wife Liz stepped in along with a
huge push from destiny to erase any doubts in my mind that I was making the
right decisions. I can not forget to mention this was also the time when I was
able to begin HRT or gender affirming hormones and take another smooth exit
away from my old male life. Putting him in my rearview mirror was the best move
I had ever made in my life. I had a new me to go with my new name, and I was
ready to go by the time I hit the age of sixty-two. I did not even have to revisit
another job exit and just totally retired and moved in with Liz. Where I still
am nearly a decade later.
Timing was everything for me, and even though it took me
longer than I ever expected to reach my dream, the trip was worth it and I
managed to even stay on a very rocky gender road full of roadblocks without
wrecking.
