My transition has been going amazingly smoothly. I wish I could share some of my good fortune with those of you who are having a rocky road. I had an encounter this morning that illustrates how it should be.
I live in a rural area where I am the first trans person that any of my neighbours have encountered. There is a weekly coffee group at the community hall. I have been out to them for months and the regulars are all cool with me.
Today, a new person showed up. He's not new to the area, but he's not a regular, and I've never met him before. I was standing closest to the door when he came in. He seemed to be avoiding eye contact with me, so of course I went over and said, "Hi, I'm Kathy!" My wife is really quick. She saw this and came right over and introduced herself too: "Hi, I'm ____, Kathy's wife." The message was clear: Welcome to 2017!
The cool part is that he very quickly adapted and settled into the default attitude in these parts: if you don't know what to make of someone, be nice. We had a really good conversation over coffee, talking about rescuing cats and dogs, and other such subjects.
Wouldn't it be cool if everyone behaved as well?
