I went to my first support group today and had a great experience. My fourth time being out in public and I had zero fears about going out as myself. I didn't do anything really special, just wore my favorite jeans with a cute colorful shirt and a pair of sneakers. Didn't wear any makeup as I'm still terrible at doing that right and I had my hair down like I almost always do when I'm out in public presenting as myself or in stealth mode. I had a few face to face hello's with random people who weren't part of anything that has to with the LGBT community as far as I could tell and didn't get any double takes or OMG WTF's! It helped that was dark but still I'll take the win. That was the first good thing that happened.
The big compliment was during the group session. The person who was running the session and another said that they couldn't believe how natural, confident about myself and how darn happy I was considering how recently I had came out and wasn't on HRT or anything. I was sitting there all dumb founded as I'm thinking how could I not be happy right now? I feel alive for the first time in my life, really alive. I don't know if a lot of folks show up the first few times and don't present as themselves or are near wrecks emotionally but I said that they just have to be humoring me and they were both adamant that they have never seen anyone like me as I am right now this early on in the transition process. It's been just over a month since I came out to my therapist and my parents and I guess I haven't noticed how much I've changed recently in the positive ways. I still focus on the negative stuff about myself and them saying that actually swept me of my feet so it was a good thing I was already sitting down
I even learned of a trans woman who use to work where I do that apparently had VERY positive results with being out at work and also attends this support group but she wasn't there today unfortunately
She was a contracted employee and got fired by the company she worked for and not by the company I work for because she legally changed her name. Sucks that we live in a state that doesn't protect people from this kind of discrimination. I had heard through the rumor mill that she was fired by my company because she was being uncooperative with other employees. Now I really want to meet her just to hear what she has to say as this might ease a BUNCH of fears I have about coming out at work in the near future.
I feel like I'm floating above the ground right now, I'm in such a great mood
