So, I rarely make new friends. I'm in the public high school system currently and it's uncomfortable trying to navigate while trans. (I'm also mentally ill which adds a whole other crock of worms to that can.) I have 2-5 friends and they're all really close to me, people I've known for years. I rarely really open up to people, even ones that most would say are my friends.
Recently in my mythology class, I started to open up to a girl named Esme. She seemed pretty cool, she didn't judge me for my mental illnesses and she's has shared experiences. All of this put me fairly at ease. I let her in fairly quickly and after a while, I considered her a close friend.
Then the other day, I was talking about a speech I'd seen at a tournament for the school's forensics team. It was on transphobia and I'd had a crush on the speaker all season, so of course, I started gushing to my new friend. I saw no reason not to.
Halfway through she stops me and insists on knowing my "stance on the transgender movement" and if I am a "lesbian or bi". The second is easy, I give her my canned response of my relationship with gender and sexuality being complicated (which is true). The first seems a little bit fishy though so I ask what hers is first. Better safe than sorry.
She proceeds to go on a long transphobic rant about how dysphoria should be treated like body dysmorphia and we're all just sick and a majority of trans people detransition. (Yikes). There was almost some violent stuff in there too.
Now, she probably doesn't know I'm trans, I didn't say much since I was pretty shaken. I rarely let people in then I do and this is what I get? I felt a little off the rest of the day, and even now I'm not sure how to deal with this. I'm 17 with mostly unsupportive family so I'm not terribly open so I don't deal with this a lot and I'm just not sure how to.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I sit at a socially assigned seat by her table every day until June (the teacher didn't assign it but all hell would break lose if I moved). We also may have group assignments and I'm not sure how to handle this.
TL;DR: A new close friend was super transphobic and now I have to deal with her until June. How do I survive baby's first close-to-home transphobia?
