I came out to my closest friends and family while I was still presenting as male only. They actually helped me along during my transition.
My therapist gave me homework to do, to get "hardened" for fail situations. The toughest part was, she wanted me to go bra and female underwear shopping in several stores while presenting as male.
I almost s*** into my own underwear ,prior to entering the first store for this kind of shopping. And to my surprise, hardly anybody cared, some older ladies looked a little funny at me, but that lasted only a second or two, and they went back to their own shopping. The second store was way easier, and when I went into the third store, I could care less what others thought about me.
The next hurdle was bathrooms, I hardly drank anything prior to going out, because I was scared t death to go into the ladies room. And nobody there killed me either.
e were out last night, and i had to go to the bathroom, and all stalls were occupied, and two other women, also waiting, and I had a nice chat about the event going on in town. Going to the ladies room is as norml for me now, as going to the mens room used to be.