I post this on the "You Know when you pass" thread, but I shared this on ->-bleeped-<- and had an enormous response ( and gilded) I decided to post it as it own topic here in cade anyone missed it.
Wednesday was the memorial service for my mother-in-law who passed away in February being held in TN. (We live in NY/NJ area.) Most of my wife's family had already seen me after I transitioned with a lot positive support. One of my wife's friends has a 7 year old daughter that has seen my twice since I transitioned but she never asked about my change even though she saw me a month prior to transitioning so we just let it go and she has just called me Ms Sydney. So tonight she asks if I was my wife's cousin because she thought we looked alike but I was much taller. (I'm 6'7") Her mother wasn't sure what to say, so the subject got changed. So then she asks my wife, "What happened to your husband?" We weren't sure what to say, so we told her it was complicated and changed the subject. She then says "Don't change the subject mom, where did he go?" My wife and I are cracking up and we just said it was complicated. She runs into the other room thinking we were talking about adult things. So I tell her mother, tell her whatever your comfortable with. She apologized in that she hadn't thought of it, but she wanted to raise her child open minded. She calls her daughter back in. Here is how the conversation went:
7 Year Old's Mother: "Come over here so we can tell you what happened to her (my wife) husband."
Wife: "Sydney used to be my husband, but is now my wife!"
7 Year Old: "What are you talking about?"
Me: "I used to be her husband!"
7 Year Old: "No, your kidding me, that's not true."
Wife and 7 Year Old's Mother: "Yes, it's true, she used to be him."
7 Year Old: "I don't believe you, your teasing me."
Me: "Yes, it's true, I used to be him."
7 Year Old: "Wait, but your a girl!!"
Me (after being told it was OK to explain it from her mom): "I was born with a female brain and a male body, it's very rare, but it does happen. I decided to change my body to match my brain to be my true self, but yes I'm a girl."
7 Year Old: "Oh, that makes sense now. I wondered why you were always around her. (pointing to my wife.) I though maybe her husband was hiding upstairs this whole time."
Me: "Do you have any questions about it?"
7 Year Old: "I like you much better as a girl and your very pretty. I want to be tall like you when I grow up."
Me: "Thank you, I like myself as a girl better too and being tall is pretty cool."
Of course she continued to gender me female the rest of the evening.
