OMG!!!!!

[symempathy]

  We're a great big happy family and I believe that we are all far more normal than we think.

Unfortunately, we are normal in our feelings, but we are not so normal in biology. I sometimes doubt that I am fighting the nature by trying to modify my body part to match my feelings, which are natural themselves. Then I believe that we should follow our heart because that is the most natural place where we can reach.

[ativan]

(I am super drunk at the moment and lack the attention span to read or comprehend much)
  We're a great big happy family and I believe that we are all far more normal than we think.

Drunk or sober, you say the darndest smart things.
Here's one of those big drunken hugs, you deserve one!

[Kinkly]

there are comments about us being "Normal" personally I hate being defined as normal.
"Normal" is a washing machine setting - I am not a washing machine.
Most people want to be seen as Normal like it is some kind of security blanket.
for me it is a prison with all the forced manliness I've had to endure being the cell I have escaped from

[regan]

there are comments about us being "Normal" personally I hate being defined as normal.
"Normal" is a washing machine setting - I am not a washing machine.
Most peoplI e want to be seen as Normal like it is some kind of security blanket.
for me it is a prison with all the forced manliness I've had to endure being the cell I have escaped from

To the extent that people want to be normal, I think they don't want to be percieved as their gender pre-transition.  However they define, I do think most people would be happy to just blend in.

[symempathy]

To the extent that people want to be normal, I think they don't want to be percieved as their gender pre-transition.  However they define, I do think most people would be happy to just blend in.

Exactly, "to just blend in" is what I want. Fortunately, although I'm feminine, I'm not effeminate, flamboyant, or manneristic. Hence, I don't have to have fear of being ridiculed. So far, no body questions my behavior. The only person who has problem is myself. My feminine side cannot get along with my masculine side. Although my inner self has a place for both, my physical self doesn't, and I feel stressed about this. I want my physical femininity to be recognized as much as my mental femininity if you know what I mean.

That's why I want a vagina because that is the strongest feminine recognition, but I don't want big breasts or wide hips. I'm still a male. I simply want my touch of femininity to be recognized.

I know. It sounds simple, yet it is complicated. It took me years to understand myself better. Certainly that doesn't mean I completely understand myself.

[Kinkly]

To the extent that people want to be normal, I think they don't want to be percieved as their gender pre-transition.  However they define, I do think most people would be happy to just blend in.

blending in doesn't work for me blending in would mean being invisable I demand to be seen as my true self I'd rather be seen as a bearded lady then as a "man in a dress" I had a strange experience a couple of months ago where I was called "Jesus in a dress" Long Hair & beard must have been the look everyone thinks Jesus must have had.  I've been called worse.
I guess for most people fitting in is more important then most other things I spent the first 30 years trying to fit with no sucess now I'm being me and have much more luck finding/making friends now
although Love still evades me

[Amazon D]

blending in doesn't work for me blending in would mean being invisable I demand to be seen as my true self I'd rather be seen as a bearded lady then as a "man in a dress" I had a strange experience a couple of months ago where I was called "Jesus in a dress" Long Hair & beard must have been the look everyone thinks Jesus must have had.  I've been called worse.
I guess for most people fitting in is more important then most other things I spent the first 30 years trying to fit with no sucess now I'm being me and have much more luck finding/making friends now
although Love still evades me

TO ME:
Love is God and God is Love 
I Don't let the superficial relationships between people be seen as love.
When two people know love they know it independent of one another and then they share it with each other because they have it to give.  Yes many think they found love in another person but that puts it on that person to be the love they seek and not just be someone who shares the love they found. Today i have this love and if it is meant to be for me to share it to one person on an intimate situation so be if not so be it but my love is God resting in my heart and God in my heart is love.

The above is just my interpretation of God and love and if it speaks to you so be it.

[Pica Pica]

there are comments about us being "Normal" personally I hate being defined as normal.
"Normal" is a washing machine setting - I am not a washing machine.

I am normal and proud of it. Little bit distrustful of those who feel, or wish that they are not. A normal person is someone who wants respect, love and all that as far as I can see. All people want the same things, we just have different ways of getting about it.

[Jaimey]

By normal, I meant that more people probably identify with us than with what each gender is stereotyped as.  So normal is more of a consensus.  I suppose you could say that more people are moving toward the middle (if we put one binary gender on each end) than are way out on the ends.  It's a number thing, not a concept (or washing machine setting).  I get the need to be different, but in the end, we're all human and probably not so different when you get down to it.

Drunk or sober, you say the darndest smart things.
Here's one of those big drunken hugs, you deserve one!

Why, thank you, dear!  *huggles*   

[tekla]

probably not so different when you get down to it
Agreed.  What unites people is huge, what divides them tends to be trivial.  But humans do love their trivia.

[sfem]

You are a very strong person to have lived fulltime, then gone back and still live otherwise the same life. I seriously doubt I could do that. I am curious about one thing. Why the change from Tara to Shelly? Is it a recognition that Tara was not the right answer, and Shelly has it figured out much closer to the truth you see now? A different persona to accompany a different perspective?

[shelly]

Sfem, ive had several aliases, Mandy being the first (first crush)then changed name by deed pole to Tara when i was on the verge of changing. Came up with that name from trying to  picture my life after i had surgery and for some reason Tara fit the bill, god knows why. Shelly came about from my wife, this person only came out originally once in a while in the bedroom, cant believe how things have moved on since those days, used to be quite happy expressing my female side once or twice a month, nowadays its daily.

[Kinkly]

used to be quite happy expressing my female side once or twice a month, nowadays its daily.

I'm the same but it is more that showing my true self to the world then my female side or maybe it's not hiding my femme side
the more I'm me the more I need to be I just hope that there will not be any more times when I'm forced (for no real reason) to hide who I am