I'm having some friends over tomorrow. One of them, Mason, is a female to male transgendered person. I have a pool in my backyard, and we've all casually suggested maybe going swimming. I'd like to send a text and encourage everyone to bring their swimwear if they want to go swimming, but I wonder if this could be a touchy subject for him? I don't want him feeling left out and not swimming, but (though I don't know how transgendered people feel exactly) i'd imagine, especially for a FtM transgendered person (because of the cuts of female swimwear and the obvious issue of still having breasts that he usually binds), swimming could be a difficulty. Girls swimsuits I would imagine could be uncomfortable for him to wear for obvious reasons (being that he's not a girl) but, since he hasn't had surgery or anything, he does have breasts. I'd be fine if he wanted to swim in his clothes, but I don't want to suggest that like that's what he needs to do. I want him to feel totally comfortable. Because of that, I also fear suggesting he needs to bring some sort of swimsuit, as that could be difficult? What do you all suggest I say? What do other trans people here do about going swimming while still feeling comfortable being who you are?
I have no personal experience with this, but I've known a few people who prefer to swim with a shirt on for one reason or another. If he can wear his binder in the water, he could just wear it with a t-shirt and regular swim trunks on the bottom. Granted he might not be able to keep up with Michael Phelps with all that drag but it shouldn't stop him from having fun.
Honestly, I would be speaking to HIM about it...as you've said, you've already considered various things that could work but don't know how he would feel about it, your best bet is to talk to him and see what he thinks.
Yeah, I figured I'd talk to him after getting a couple opinions here. Me and him are jsut now starting to get close, so I just fear offending him or making him uncomfortable in some way, so figured it would be best to get a bit of input first.
Honestly, as long as you make it clear that you are coming from a place of support you should be fine. You've already said you don't want him to feel he HAS to do one thing or the other, and as long as he knows I don't think you should have much of a problem.
I think that it would be totally okay to check with him first. Maybe let him know that he has the option of wearing a shirt instead of a swimsuit, or if you don't want to tell him that specifically you could ask him what he's comfortable with. Then again that's just coming from me. I, personally, would not be offended in the slightest about people checking to see if I'm comfortable, but I can't speak for EVERY FtM transgender person.
