Hello everyone! I guess you could say I'm new here- I've been using Susan's Place for resources for a while now but just got an account yesterday. I've been meaning to get more active in the Trans* community but I'm shy and never really knew where to start... but now I'm here with all of you!
I'm a 21-year-old student majoring in Art and minoring in Gender and Women's Studies. My friends and family know me as Indigo (my given name) but I prefer Theo and use male pronouns. I've identified as FtM for about 5 years now, since my Junior year of high school, but have only now, in my senior year of college, began seriously preparing to transition. My major obstacle when it comes to transitioning is that I'm not out to all of my family. My biological dad is the only family member that knows the extent of my gender identity, though my mom knows that I don't identify as female but I'm afraid she thought it was just a phase I went through is high school that I've grown out of.
My dad came out as MtF when I was about 14 and was the first person to introduce me to the idea of Trans* identities. I'm so scared my grandparents (my dad's parents who practically raised me) will "blame" her for influencing my gender- which is totally ridiculous. Just because she taught me about the possibilities of gender doesn't mean she forced me into the lifestyle, but I'm sure that will be there argument because they didn't receive her coming out very well. I AM happy to say she's having her first surgery and is returning to estrogen therapy this year!
AND I've recently discovered that my university offers FREE psychiatric care for students so I'm planning on taking advantage of it this coming semester so I can get the ball rolling on my transition! If anyone has any coming out advice I could really use some help (or direct me to some helpful threads on here!) I'm also looking to make friends within the community and I feel like there's so much more I could say but I've already written a novel so feel free to message me!
