Virtual Outreach

Image from the Jessie Hart
Archives.
Ohio River in background...

 Recently I experienced a busy day virtually on the old laptop.

First of all, I needed to go through the pre screening process for another colonoscopy. I just had one a year ago but the doctors removed a sizable polyp which fortunately turned out to be non cancerous. Even so, instead of waiting the usual three years between check ups I was scheduled for to come back in a year. If you are not familiar, colonoscopies are not the most pleasant procedures to go through but on the other hand, having intestinal cancer is a terrible alternative. 

I don't know how many of these procedures the Cincinnati Veteran's Administration hospital does a year but the woman doing the intake on the phone almost immediately said, I remember you. Being transgender I am used to being remembered. However, this is one of the times I would have preferred not to be remembered. The woman I was talking to on the phone possibly reacted at my often poor attempt to sound feminine on the phone. Part of my transition I am always working on. Hopefully this time, I won't be miss-gendered when I go in early January for the procedure as I was last time.

The second part of my virtual day occurred later on when I attended the monthly meeting of the Greater Cincinnati Alzheimer's diversity committee. As always the meeting was very gender affirming as the other four participants were all women. It's almost as if I was in another mini girls night out. Plus, I am a big believer in helping anyway I can with the association because years ago, my Dad passed from having Alzheimer's. When I approached them to do more, I was pleasantly surprised to learn the association already had some guidelines in place to deal with LGBTQ patients. However as we all know, being transgender presents more unique opportunities we have to encounter than the rest of the gay or lesbian community. 

One thing I have had to do (which I have been putting off), is write a short post for the Association's Facebook page. It should be noted several of the members have made it a point to go to several of the regional Prides this summer to help publicize what programs are offered to help those in need. So hopefully I will be just aiding in the process. 

I also write for the local transgender - cross dresser monthly newsletter and each time I encourage anyone else to wants to become involved a path to do it. So far, no one has come forward to volunteer which is no real surprise because so many members are still deep in their closets. On a wider scale, if you have ever been touched by Alzheimer's and have time to spare, seek out your local association and see if they have a diversity committee to volunteer with.

One thing with a virtual day is, I need to apply makeup and fix my hair which is always good. In addition to my virtual appointments recently, I also had another one a couple days ago when it was time for the Dayton, Ohio VA LGBTQ support group. I learned then my long time (ten years) therapist is leaving for another job. I was very sad because I have always looked up to her as one of the top three influencers in my life. It will be interesting to learn if anyone else will run the group. 

Now, for awhile, life will settle back down as Thanksgiving has now passed us by and it has occurred to me I have not written about my family experiences yet. Where does time go?

Stuck in the Middle with Me

 

Image from Rene Ranisch 
On UnSplash

Once upon a time and probably more than once, my second wife told me my cross dressing existence wasn't all about me. 

We were usually fighting about my feminine existence when she came up with the same comment. The unfortunate truth was it was all about me. I had a singular desire to look better as a woman and I knew deep down the whole femininization process would not be accepted by my wife and if I was to succeed at all, I would have to do it myself. Since she was unable to help, it meant I was on my own to discover my own fashion, makeup etc. So, for the most part, we never saw eye to eye on anything when it came to my cross dressing. Over the years, it became obvious she didn't like my inner woman at all.

Even though I knew it was and had to be all about me, life went on and we were able to stay together for over twenty five years until her untimely death. Until the end, she resisted any idea of mine I would ever want to begin down the road to trying a transgender lifestyle by starting hormone replacement therapy. When she always stated she didn't sign up with me to be with another woman again I had to agree with her.

Since she did not accept me, I started to sneak around behind her back and found out it was possible I could follow my ultimate dream. In the world I was beginning to discover, I was able to begin to carve out a new life as a transgender woman. When I did I became stuck between the two binary genders. I was trying to live as my old male self a couple days of the week and my female self the remainder of the time. Of course my life became unbearable and I sustained dark days when it came to my mental health. Being stuck in the middle with myself was not a fun place to be. I would come to learn in her own way, my inner woman who was doing battle with my wife was just as strong willed. 

I quickly figured out my old male person was going to be the first person to go away when my wife passed. I'm sure in the next life, my wife wasn't surprised to see I quickly transitioned totally into a feminine world. She always said my dog would never miss her if anything ever happened and she could have added my inner woman would not have missed her either. To make matters worse with my overall mental health, my male self desperately missed her. Possibly knowing my wife was his last chance at maintaining any sort of life.

 Even though the times I was out exploring the world as a novice transgender woman on occasion I was terrified, I pushed on to experience the excitement of exploring a life I had always dreamed of. When I did, often I was surprised at the outcome. I never expected many of the results I had when my inner feminine self took over. Quite a few times I couldn't believe how easy and natural life turned out to be.

Being stuck in the middle with me turned out to be worth all the hassles I went through to arrive there. 

Gender Variables

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When I was first looking at myself cross dressed in the mirror and when the mirror was lying to me, I felt as if I was well on the road to understanding what my life may be like if I ever had the courage to transition.

Of course I had no idea of the obstacles and challenges I would need to face as I attempted to live a life I had only dreamed of. There were plenty of times when I woke up in the morning following a vivid feminine dream wishing I was still the female I dreamed of being. The problem being was dreams don't ever equal reality. 

Reality meant I needed to learn all the gender variables I would have to learn the hard way if I was ever be able to follow my dream and live full time as a transgender woman. The first example I ran into was how I was dressing myself. I mistook trashy for sexy and tried to validate myself as a woman by trying to dress as a teenaged girl. Happily, I learned quite quickly I was dressing for the wrong gender. I was dressing how my male self thought I should, when in fact I should have been dressing to blend in with the other cis women around me. Cis women are women who were born female. 

Once I started to be able to blend in with and exist in the world as a visible feminine person, I found out again the hard way, how many gender variables I still needed to face head on. The main issue I always mention is how quickly I needed to learn to communicate in public. Unlike the mirror, these people really wanted to talk to me. At the time, I had barely given any thought of how my voice as a woman would even sound to another person. What I ended up doing was I tried to mimic the woman's voice who was talking to me. Men, for the most part, left me alone so I didn't have to worry about them. I think other women were just curious why I was trying to live in their world. Whatever the case, I needed a vocal or communication plan and quickly.

What I learned was women (as I already knew) operated on a totally different wave length than men. There were to be no more direct conversations which men do so well. I needed to learn the power of non verbal communication clues as well as the passive aggressive nature that women deal with. There were many times I ended up with scars on my back when I thought a smiling face meant support. All a part of dealing with the new gender variables I was learning.

As it turned out, I was learning new layers of the feminine gender I had only dreamed of living. Plus I was ultra confident I made all the discoveries I could when along came  even more challenges. At that point I developed the small group of women friends I needed to rise to the next level of gender variables I needed to face. Often I was terrified but determined to stay the course I was on. 

I learned once and for all what I had always known deep down. Women live a much more layered existence than men. Little did I know I would end up living all the gender variables and then some as I lived my life as a trans woman.