So I was at lunch here at work. I was sharing some chicken tacos with my ex-girlfriend and we were sitting with two other women we work with. They were talking about makeup and their morning rituals and one lady said "I put on as much as a female impersonator." My friend monica was like, "What's that?" and suddenyl there begins a whole conversation about crossdressers and the difference between crossdressers and transsexuals. I wasn't really giving a whole lot of input because I'm not out at work, even though my ex knows. It was really kind of strange because I don't ever eat or talk with these girls and the one topic they end up talking about is freaking transgenderism. I felt like I was in the twilight zone. lol
Your experience made me smile. I guess it is good that they have talked about transgenderism. Did you get any sense from the conversation as to whether they would be supportive, if you would decide to come out or be more open about yourself at work, at a later point in time?
It's hard to tell. It's obvious they don't really know anything about being transsexual. They were under the assumption that it mean a gay male who liked dressing like a woman. They didn't have any idea that it's an actual medical condition and that treatment is necessary for resolving gender dysphoria. In the least, I'm sure they would be polite Which is really all I'd want anyways. People will always have their opinions about the LGBT culture in general, and I am not one to force people to think a certain way. I just want to be able to live my life happily without fear of discrimination or hatred. I'm far from going full-time though so it's definitely not something I need to worry about right now. I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing and when it comes time to tell others, I will deal with it then.
I know that, from my experience, it's been random conversations like these that help me to determine whether I should come out to people. I usually just start out with listening really closely to see what the tone of things are, then decide how sympathetic those people may be. Coming out as trans is always so hard I think, rather than being gay, since people get & understand being gay but you sometimes have to explain what being trans is. I've been really lucky that everyone I've come out to gets things & has been supportive...
