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Anyone not care about family acceptance?

Started by LearnedHand, February 26, 2013, 12:06:15 PM

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DriftingCrow

This post here got me thinking: https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,136326.0.html

I haven't come out to my family yet, I currently live with my father and 4 of my younger siblings and a niece because I am currently to poor to reasonably move out right now. My dad is pretty anti-gay (he used to beat up gay guys back in the '70s), so I think he'd be anti-trans since it falls within that umbrella, though he could be accepting of me since I am his "daughter" and he'll need me to take care of him when he's old. Though, since I am living under his roof, and since there's a percentage that he'd not be accepting, I figured I should wait until I move out to come out to him, which will hopefully be by September 2014 at the latest.

But, even though I do love my dad, I am really not worried much about him not accepting me. I don't think it'd come as a huge blow, or that I'd be wicked sad or anything if he disowned me. I am not worried about any other family members either. I am not very close with anyone in my family (besides my older sister, who I know will be fine with me being trans). We're all just very distant with each other, we don't share our feelings often, etc. When I lived about 1,000 miles away from home for about 2 years, I would hardly talk on the phone to my dad, and I never spoke with any of my younger siblings. Even now that I am at home, I hardly ever speak to my siblings besides something like "don't forget to do X", and my dad and I mainly talk about his 401K or the electric bill.

So, just wondering if anyone else just didn't really feel too distressed if they had unaccepting family members? I just feel like, if my dad's accepting, then that's pretty cool, maybe he can teach me how to change the oil in my car; if he doesn't accept me, then opps, too bad.
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Robert Scott

My parents don't accept me as trans and I am okay with that.  My kids and wife get far more upset when they use my birth name and female pronoun that I am.  I guess my thoughts are in time they will and if they don't it really doesn't matter.  I know they love me and I don't need them to call me by my name in order to feel that.
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Elspeth

I think you're being prudent to be concerned for your safety if he has a history of violence. Even though I do have some doubts whether his gaybashing would translate into rejection or worse, I can definitely see the wisdom in avoiding that risk, at least until you're in a position of self-sufficiency.

My one concern (and this comes from my own perspective, having a dad who was not actively violent to my knowledge, who asked in my teens whether I was gay, but did so in a way that expressed more his sincere concern rather than active rejection) -- my concern is that sometimes avoiding coming out with those close to us can create unnecessary and hurtful barriers. Still, I could see the culture around me, and it gave me cause to be very cautious about what I expressed and how detailed I was about it, even though it had relatively little impact on my public presentation -- I suppose I'm being delusional about that, though, since I did avoid presenting unambiguously as female when that's really what I would have done without any external pressures.  My androgyny from teen years onward was a kind of concealment, a compromise that enabled me to continue, more or less, to function.

It doesn't sound, though, like you are prepared to compromise that much, and that you do have a fairly good sense of what your next steps are.

I would also tend to hope that, given how misogyny plays a part in gaybashing, you may find that his antagonism for feminine males has little impact on how he will respond when you find the time is right to put it to a test with him, once you are in a position to separate entirely should that become necessary.
"Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others. Past and present. And by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future."
- Sonmi-451 in Cloud Atlas
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Zumbagirl

My life, my right to keep breathing air and existing is not contingent on whether or not someone else in my family tells me I am allowed to keep breathing. So why would trans be any different? If they don't buy it they don't buy it but it will never alter the reality of your own existence or mine. If someone rejects me in the face of my own reality I have the right to reject them family or not and live my own life on my own terms. I think of it that simply.
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