Okay, I thought I would share with you guys an interesting experience that has really opened my eyes and allowed me to sympathize with the transgender community. For the last 3 weeks or so I have not had my own personal uniforms to wear at work. I was given one uniform of another employee who had just quit and told to just use that one until my personal uniforms come in and are ready for me to use. The uniform reads "Will" on the name patch. My name is not Will. So, for the last 3 weeks every customer that has come in has been calling me Will. I explained this to my mother and sister. It's my understanding that transgender individuals usually adopt a name that aligns with their internal true gender and not their physical gender. People address them incorrectly either using the wrong pro-noun, name, or even both. I have now experienced just how FRUSTRATING that can be. Customers will call me Will and since I'm not expecting to be called that, I keep walking by mistake and they feel ignored. Customers will say "Thank you Will, you were very helpful" and I hesitate confused for a second because I still haven't gotten used to the fact that I'm wearing the wrong uniform. There is no use in correcting them because they leave and I never see them again for a long while. I have corrected corporate employees so that they know who I am, but I have just been letting customers call me Will and letting them go. So, I just wanted to say that I now can sort of sympathize with all of our transgender family in the LGBT boat and now knowing what it feels like being called by the wrong name (and possibly also the wrong pro-noun even though that hasn't happened) I will never make the mistake of doing so and I will correct anyone who continues to use the wrong name or pronoun with a transgender individual even after being asked not to. It's a strange feeling and I can imagine with anxiety and panic associated with being transgender, that it can even trigger a bout of nervousness and depression. It has been interesting to say the least. My uniforms are coming in soon, and the experiment will be over. I won't forget it though. I don't know a whole lot about the transgender community, but I do know a few basics and this has been a good chance to learn more. (*hug*)
That's actually a very interesting experience. It just goes to show how important names and pronouns are to our identity. Glad you had a positive experience. Have fun with your job, Will .
Yeah, that's my life, lol. Whenever people say my legal name it always takes me a minute to realize they mean me. So it's like wearing the wrong name tag and a wig, basically.
Yep that's how it is. I worked in a shop and the costumers had no idea that every time they used my name or wrong pronouns while just asking a question it was like they were saying "hey! You were so busy working that you forgot you are transgender, here let me remind you! If the shop was busy I knew I'd be in for a bad day with costumers constantly reminding me what I am or worse was the "are you a boy or a girl?, why do you look this way? Questions like seriously sir I thought you just wanted to know where the peanut butter was stop questioning me
