Hi! I'm Sequoia. Yes, like the tree. Exactly identical in spelling, but much smaller physically
I'm 28. My favorite things are skateboarding and guitar. I am a femme tomboy.
I started by transitioning socially (legal name change, pronouns, presentation) in March of this year, followed by HRT which I started about 5 months ago in July of this year. During the beginning of my transition, I didn't reach out into the trans community much, if at all, for any kind of support. Most of this was me feeling about the same as other trans people as I did about cis people. I felt jealousy since I saw people living their lives as themselves, but felt like I was invisibly a woman as much as I was also invisibly trans, but did not think I would be accepted into either community (online or otherwise). This was very disconcerting for me. I had already had my name legally changed, was out to friends, family and at work, but still felt like strangers were interacting with a different person.
The past few months have been really good for me I suppose. I have gotten to a point where my finances are not in chaos, proactively taken care of my health and dental issues, worked through a lot of things in therapy and have pushed my employer, a large international non-profit to create a trans inclusive health care plan at our offices here in the US, mainly through threatening to quit and go to the media. One of the best things is that after a couple months on HRT I stopped getting misgendered completely by strangers, with only a few slip ups from people at work who have known me for a longtime, but haven't seen me in person in over a year. I have been lucky enough to have a supportive understanding family as well.
All in all, life has gotten much better. So much so that I feel like I can be there to support folks who may have a similar experience. I promised myself from the day that I realized internally I was a woman, that I would always do whatever I would to make sure I include invisibly trans people and help make them feel welcome. To support those who didn't have access to my privilege of access to healthcare, a great employer, an understanding family and living in a trans-friendlier area (San Francisco bay area). People should never feel like they are being punished for not being able to transition for one reason or another, and I can never do that to anyone.
At the same time, I think I am realizing what I may have missed out on by going through everything in the beginning alone and how helpful it might have been to become an active part of the trans community earlier. Anyways, sorry for rambling. I am super happy to be here finally
-Seq
