I recently met this cool woman, and over the course of the conversation, she revealed that she was born a man. K, cool, as Billy Joel said, she's always a woman to me. We've hit it off and become pretty good friends. Then just yesterday, as we were meeting at a coffee shop, I saw her walk in after she had been presenting as male all day. She went into the bathroom to change, but before she did, I realized that I had met her a year or two ago, when she was presenting as male. I thought I might bring this up as an amusing anecdote, but then I realized she might not find it to just be the amusing anecdote I thought it was, since it could be bringing up an uncomfortable part of her past. So my question for you trans folk is: if you had met someone after you started presenting as your true gender, and they remembered meeting you back when you were presenting as your assigned gender, would you feel uncomfortable with them bringing it up?
Good question, it may startle me and create an awkward moment, then I'd probably laugh it off and make a joke about it. If it's a good friend I'm talking with it could also be a good conversation opener for the topic. I don't see myself feeling shamed that I'm trans or anything...
I would also feel awkward. I would laugh, knowing me, but I would feel self-conscious. Whenever I see someone from high school, I pretend not to notice them. It's just a situation I would prefer to avoid.
Wow, that is an interesting question. I honestly don't know. If she freely chose to reveal that she's trans, I'd say it's okay to talk about meeting her as a man. If it does make her uncomfortable, you can always apologize and avoid the subject in future. I often wish that people would ask me more often about what I want to talk about, and what I'm not comfortable talking about. I've had almost no success "passing" as agender, so maybe my situation is different.
