LGBT Coming Out Day

Actually, "Coming Out Day" was a couple days ago, so I am a little late writing about it. But, here it goes anyway.

Coming out for me was certainly the slippery slope. I was entertaining the idea literally for years until I could figure out a way to do it as easy as possible. What happened to me was a series of gentle/not so gentle nudges from friends until the deed was done. They were viewing me as a transgender woman with no strings attached, so, why shouldn't I?

One person, my partner Liz, gets the most credit for making me a trans believer in myself, although there were others too!

My daughter's total acceptance of me really helped and there was so much more like being asked to tag along to events such as an NFL Monday Night Football game, lesbian happy hour parties and many others.

After much consternation, it all became increasingly routine as I reached the point when I could start HRT, retire, grow my hair out and eventually change my MtF

Pre-HRT transition picture

gender markers. Again it was Liz pushing me ever so slightly to be myself.

So, I can't celebrate an actual "Coming Out Day" as some do. I can celebrate though, my partner, daughter and friends who wouldn't give up on me until I got it done.

What is next? Living my dream of navigating the world daily as a woman after jumping through all the LGBT hurdles I had to jump through.

I'm walking everyday to help jump anymore hurdles I may have to negotiate in the future and maybe there will be fewer of them too!

Mile Stones

And, not the stone (chip) on the shoulder of quite a few LGBT transgender people.

For whatever reason, I neglected to mention I celebrated my 68th birthday last week, and on almost the same day, we passed the two million "hit" mark here in Cyrsti's Condo.

I would like to thank my long deceased parents for their tenacity in having me and all of you for stopping by the blog so regularly. Your comments make the effort sooooo worth it!

Thanks all again!

Going All the Way

Could not resist passing along this comment from Connie, even though it included a reference to a rare football loss by my The Ohio State Buckeyes. Oklahoma played us tough and won and we have a tough schedule the rest of the way, headlined by Penn State. Until Connie mentioned it, I wasn't aware anyone played "big boy" foot ball in the Pacific Northwest :).

"I have to wonder, in your Crossport group, if there are any who could...go...all...the...way!

Sorry. It's the middle of college football season, and we happen to have, here in Washington, two of the thirteen teams that are thus far undefeated. Sorry for your loss. ;-)

Really, though, based on your own experience, do you think you might be able to predict the future of a trans woman by getting to know her? I have known some who seemed to have jumped right out of the closet and into a full-blown transition. Then, there are others (more like myself) who had procrastinated for years before realizing that they were really transitioning all along, albeit very slowly. Knowing what I do now, I could have given myself some good advice years ago. That advice would probably be somewhere between diving straight in and dragging heels (pun, if you want it to be). I also wonder how much influence we might have toward someone else's decisions. 

I haven't attended a trans support group meeting for years. I came to the conclusion long ago that I can only offer my own experience as support, and there has been little support I can get for myself. I think that those with whom I may better relate are living their lives more as I do, so they don't attend those meetings, either. Cross dressers may admire me for my presentation, but I have actually experienced admonishment from the non-binary group for being too feminine. I find little value in participating in an often-patronizing mutual admiration society, nor do I relate to the often-confused gender fluid trans people. 

I think that I can read fairly well when a cross dresser is not interested in transitioning, even if they may have a fantasy of doing so. I know a couple who have gone into a transition by chasing the fantasy, only to find that they end up to be still a cross dresser - but with real boobs. One of those, I could have predicted as much, but I dared not give cautionary advice. 

I have felt for a long time that I have taken on a responsibility for others by being in my own transition, as we all should realize that it is not just ourselves, but everyone with whom we interact who transitions along with us. I can try to change hearts and minds better, then, through being a good example, I think.

Back to the football analogy: I might just be punting on this. :-) "

Yes, for sure I have met several cross dressers whom I thought were "naturals" for the change but for whatever reason never went through the process. Then there were the others who did it seemingly for the "thrill" and lived happily never-after.  I always speculated they weren't really transgender down deep and should have stayed in cross dresser mode. Which would have been fine since they seemed happier.