Quote from: Michelle_P on October 05, 2018, 01:33:45 AM
You may be surprised by your gamer friends.
I was active in, and at the time i came out was the president of an amateur radio club. These clubs are mostly older men, often tied into law enforcement or community emergency services, and tend to be somewhat conservative.
When i came out to them, there was very little fuss or misgendering. I continued as president of the club. It turns out they valued the skills, not the gender.
The gamers may turn out the same way.
My experience has some similarities to Michelle's. I've had an Amateur Radio license for 40 years (been licensed since early 1978 [when I was 14], was a certified examiner until 2001, and have held an Extra Class License since 1994). I used to be the secretary for the Ham Radio Club in my hometown, and also supplied the special antennas that Ham Radio club used to operate a special event station from a WW2 era submarine (they were special kind of dipole was draped from the sub's conning tower). In 2001, I told the club president that I'd help out with submarine radio operating event, but that they would have to deal with the fact that it would be Ellen providing the antennas, and helping out with the radio operating, not the deadname person (who legally quit existing in late 2000). The club president, said he had no problem with it (and even said that he'd dealt with transsexuals, when he was a police radio dispatcher in California), and I went ahead with participating with the submarine ham radio operating event. It went pretty well (other than it being kind of cold and cramped in the sub [we operated below the water line from the crewman's mess, and WW2 subs aren't very good at keeping cold water temps from seeping in]). I did a ton of radio operating (I've always had a good female voice, and a lot of people wanted to chat with the YL [young lady - me], who was operating the radio). The other submarine special event ham radio station participants didn't seem to have many issues with me (I wasn't misgendered, and nobody got my name wrong), so other than it making for a long weekend (when I could have been relaxing), I had a lot of fun.
Still as Danielle alluded to, the success rate was not 100%. Several years ago (after I moved out of my hometown to the Milwaukee metro area, for my present job), I ran into some of the members of my hometown Ham Radio club, at a local Ham Radio flea market/swapfest. One of the members didn't seem to be too comfortable being in my presence, and the other one (who was the same club president I dealt with for the Ham Radio operating event from the WW2 submarine), accidentally called me by the deadname (which I wasn't too happy with - especially since I'd been post-op for a number of years), which elicited some strange looks from the people around us. I quietly bid the two members of my old radio club adieu, and made myself scarce from them.
In short, it will be a mixed bag, but Aiofe, if you like gaming, and like interacting with the gaming community, don't give it up, just realize that there will be some people who have issues with you transitioning. I certainly didn't give up Amateur/Ham Radio (though I admit that from about August 2001 to late 2004, I was inactive, due to deciding to concentrate on my transition, and lacking Ham Radio gear [I'd sold off most of it to help scrape up money from covering transitioning costs]) because some people had issues with me transitioning (I still occasionally encounter over the radio, some Ham Radio operators who know I've transitioned [questions were asked, when they noticed that I kept my old ham radio callsign, so I ended up telling them what happened], and by and large, the response [typically, "I don't understand why you did what you did, but I respect your decision to do so"] has been positive). I'm still active in Ham Radio (mainly Ham Radio contesting - I belong to a major Ham Radio contesting club [I suspect that another member of this club may be a post-op MTF, because her name and callsign seem similar to the name and callsign of a post-op MTF I briefly chatted with back in 2000], and some vintage radio operating [I have a few vintage ham radios I've restored, that I operate from time to time]), and despite living in a second story apartment, still manage to do Ham Radio operating.
73 (best of luck and regards),
Ellen
