How old were you when SOMEONE ELSE realized!

[Dorothy]

My mum says she knew when I was very young, 5 or 6.

[Butterfly]

My nan realised it whilst I was in kindergarten.  I suspect there must have been something 'amiss' with my 'behaviour'.   

[Blanche]

People knew when I was a wee child.  There are some things in life that are very difficult to hide & this is one of them.

[Kay]

When I was very very young.  People knew I was different, but they didn't really know what to make of me.  I'd get teased incessantly about my non-masculine traits.  I knew why...but I wasn't about to tell them and add fuel to the fire.
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My dad was a bit of a raging control freak (to the point that it wasn't even safe to tell him about the mundane aspects of my day...much less something like this.), so I was always very mindful and careful about what I did. I usually stayed pretty quiet and out-of-the-way, so while I was still different, as I grew, people tended not to notice as much.

[sylvie]

Everyone's response are touching, thanks. It is interesting to go back through memory lane, some memories more painful than others. I will share as it can be helpful to tell our stories and is good for me to tell mine.

My father knew when I was young. My mother had died and I was raised by him, along with 3 sisters and a brother. When I was 10 he grabbed me by the arm and forcibly dragged me sobbing into my sisters room. He was a man of much rage, an alcoholic (though that doesn't excuse him), and very frightening. He lined up my siblings and had them stand there in silence while he made me change into my older sister's nightgown in front of them. He then forced them to all mock me. I still hear their voices after all these years, calling me by my name, 'Valerie', with mocking, singing tones, while I stood there shaking. All the while, he had a look of shame and disgust on his face as he recognized that I was a girl. He taught me shame.

I fear him to this day.

Oh Valerie, I'm so sorry.  I went through something very similar with my father.  After my mother died he married a woman who had 3 daughters who were very close to my own age.  When therapy, kicking me out of the house when nobody else was home, and handcuffing me to the stairs didn't work my father and stepmother had me parade around in my sisters' clothes in front of the whole family.  They kept asking me if this was what I wanted, and how silly I looked.  They had made me feel so ashamed that I had to bury it soo deep that it would never surface again.   Although there were times that I had flareups I was able to keep my GID under control.  Everything came crumbling  down when I was 36 and I decided to finally be me again.  Big Hugs hon.  I understand.

[spacial]

I too understand and sympathise.

I know, in my case, my parents were frightened. Their generation was brought up believe their parents, that there would be no more war. Then WW2 created so much fear. In the 50s, everyone was certain that another war was coming so all young men would need to fight.

A gay, effeminate son would not only be useless, he would bring shame on his brave brothers and family.

[eshaver]

  This story is entirely true :
I had the opportunity to have had a chance to have interviewed the Late Christene Jorgensen in 1970 at Virginia Commonwealth University. We were just kind of talking casualy when she " Outted me " about ten minutes into the interview . Now it was a one on one deal . There was no one else there . I was totally blown away like I had never been blown away before either ! Rememeber it was Richmond Virginia , and 1970 ! I asked her as to where I would continue to transition and retain work . I reminded her that Richmond wasn't then and or now exactly a metropolis mecca. I also reminded her that where she was in Los Angles that Transpeople even there wern't exactly wanted either . I reluctently stayed in the closet until 1994. Ellen

[kyle_lawrence]

1st or 2nd grade?  We would have huge boys against girls tag games at recess, and finally one day the boys let me be on their team.  They claimed it was because teams would have been uneven otherwise though, but I didn't care. 

The first time I was referred to as male was about a year ago.  I was at an art gallery, when an MtF (who became one of my closest friends soon after) came over to a mutual friend of ours and asked "What's his name?".  I hadn't told him anything yet, so my friend corrected her, saying I was a girl, while I said nothing.  Later that night I was talking to her and said "You were right, but he doesn't know yet." and I introduced my self as Kyle for the first time IRL.