A minor event

[Tammy Hope]

Not really sure entirely how I fell about this but I need to speak of it and I'd rather do it among friends.

If you've paid attention to my ramblings here you know I worked for the census and that I bragged at how well I was treated there.

Flash forward to the weekend paper and there was an article about a man - a consultant - speaking to a group (businessmen? government? i forget) about the value of diversity. At the end of the article was a contact e-mail for the man and on a whim i decided to write him.

I asked if his vision of diversity included LGB and particularly T people, knowing as I did the difficulty in being trans in MS.

So he writes back and offers for an example of how he feels on the subject a story - about how, while working for the census he hired a transseuxal woman, and defended her right to use the ladies room even though some employees resigned over it.

I had NO IDEA I was writing to the guy I used to work for !!!  For some reason I didn't make the connection on the name in the article at all.  Now I'm wondering if my initial letter seemed hostile or bitter (I don't think so, it wasn't intended as such) or how he might have taken it.

In any case, he affirmed that yes, whatever his personal beliefs he was committed to inclusion of LGBT people in his vision. I wrote him back and thanked him for standing up for me, and expressed (sincerely) my pleasure that people like him are involved and volunteered my services if there was ever any way I could help.

By the way, the man is a Black Baptist Minister (not the background you'd expect to be LGBT friendly)

It was an...odd...feeling when I realized what had went on without my knowledge in that job. Very grateful to him, but a bit down to have been a flashpoint for conflict.

[Tammy Hope]

On another, totally unrelated, note, (since I'm basically just venting anyway) the usual home-front drama continues in a regular pattern, the latest element is really playing up how much my younger son is(according to her) having a lot of trouble with this. That's really not surprising because he's very close to her and shares some of her emotional difficulties. He won't talk to me about anything important, and he's taking all his views from her. Basically she's resorting to, "if you won't stop for me - stop for him"

- but here's a bit of a new twist. She has a graduation ceremony for the group who passed their GED in the last year - which she refuses to participate in unless she can be there "with her husband"

In theory, it amounts to "wear a mask" which is not impossible to do - but it's impossible to do and be happy about it and she just takes the view if I can't do it happily then i'm spoiling her occasion (and knowing full well if i seem happy she will use it as leverage to prove i can do it all the time if i wanted). The main thing I hate is that what you end up with is a life where nothing can be trusted, everything is part of some strategy or manipulation. It get's tiring.