Sooo a bit of a major update here. I figured I'd start a new thread, but then realized this is just a continuation of the issues, so I'll just put it here.
Yesterday I came out to my wife's older daughter (from another marriage). She's not really my step daughter as she's only about 6-7 years my junior and she still has a very good relationship with her dad. That said, she and my wife are very close and my wife wanted me to personally tell her about me being a transgender woman and transitioning. We also have a good relationship. So we had lunch.
First of all I told her that I needed to tell her something about me. Then I showed her my avatar picture on my phone and said, "Remember when you last saw me and told me I needed a haircut? This is what I need to tell you. This is me. I am transgender. I've dealt with this all my life and now I'm in transition." I showed her a bottle of estradiol (I carry a small amount with me because I take a divided dose and don't want to forget) and said, "I am taking hormones, you can see the prescription bottle with my name on it, so you know I'm telling the truth."
But the biggest surprise was that she said, "and, what's the problem?" as if it was no big deal.
We had a discussion about it and she said she gets it because she knows my gender identity is an immutable part of me, and I am who I am and that can't change. I cried and cried, I couldn't believe it. I got so emotional. It's almost as if she was expecting it. A few days ago her mom (my wife) had told her she was having trouble at home. She asked a number of questions, then out of the blue she asked her mom, "So does R want to become a woman or something?" My wife didn't answer her, dodged the question. So I guess she got a hint of what was going on.
So it went really well and she said that she'd support me, especially with regard to her mom.
We talked a few other things and she told me a couple places I could go get my eyebrows and nails done too.
Oh, and maybe she's a bit understanding because she also works at a gay bar some nights. She did say she has met some transsexuals there, along with crossdressers, drag queens and similar and the rest of the LGBT spectrum. She says she knows we're not one and the same but she also said that it's a different world today and people should be more tolerant of others who have different sexual orientation or gender identity.
So I'm happy somewhat, and relieved. Hopefully things in life can start to look up a bit more.
