Have you been or are you a member of a local off line trans-support group?

[cynthialee]

Sevan and I volunteer at the local LGBT and we are helping to get the trans support group onto solid footing.
Spokane ussed to have a group known as Papillion. (pappy-on) They devolved into a cat fight and disolved. Allot of negativity is associated with that defunct group.
A couple years ago a friend of mine started a trans group. Mainly it was a bnch of trans guys and me.
Eventualy the thing fell apart due to lack of the ability to finance a meeting place and my friend was too tight with control and he wouldn't let anyone help him. As a result the group fell apart.
The local LGBT recently offered our people a place to meet. There is no charge for space and the coffee is free.

Recently the group put Sevan in charge. It was a good choice. As Sevan is both spouse and trans, and we both come from other sides of the equation ze has a good grasp of what it takes to transition MTF or FTM.

The last group we went to it was a bunch of newbie trans girls and Sevan and I. The amount of misinformation these women had was stagering. (one of them thought MTF srs would cost her $50,000+! Anouther was sure laser hair removal is a scam...)
Honestly not a one of them is where I am in transition and none of them had a thing to offer Sevan or I. However....How can I sit back and watch these other women flounder and blindly search for good information that I have?
If there would have been someone there for me when I came out life would have been so much easier. To be able to sit across the room from anouther woman who was once where I was at would have been a god send.
Myself I wasn't able to find that woman until I was well on my way to transition and I had found my path. She has been a good friend and a god send but if she could have been there a few months earlier I might not have had the near suicide episodes I went through.

Anyways, I am part of a trans group. All I am really getting out of it is a sense of doing the right thing.
(besides I met a woman there recently that I have a sneaky feeling that we are going to be friends for a long time.)

[regan]

Spokane ussed to have a group known as Papillion. (pappy-on) They devolved into a cat fight and disolved. Allot of negativity is associated with that defunct group.

Unfortunately, I think that happens with a lot of support groups along the GLB T spectrum.  The drama level is high among these groups and sooner or later it reaches a critical mass and the group implodes.

[Ann Onymous]

I belonged to one in Houston in the early 90's...smallish group, primarily M2F and almost everyone was scheduled for surgery within the same general window of time.  It became more of our little coffee clatche than anything else though since we all pretty much had life in order save for the surgery...so we tended to do a lot of stuff together just as friends.  I stopped going not long after surgery since, among other things, I had moved further from the area and so it was a nuisance to drive down instead of just staying home to do things with my partner and her child. 

[tekla]

I've been a member of several social groups and political groups, support, not so much.

[Constance]

Hmm, I guess I've been lucky so far.

[tekla]

Well the 'community' (however you want to define that) in the Bay Area has been around for a long time and those 'growing pain' type issues are decades and decades in the past now.

[mechakitty]

Bah, I wish I still lived in Berkeley, I would have access to many more social trans-resources than I do currently.

[Ryno]

I went to one a couple of times in my old city, but the first time I went just as a supporter of my friend, and the second time, about two years later, as fresh meat who had just come out as trans within a week of going to the group. I had meant to go back but work kept me away, and then I moved.

But I did get some good information regarding transitioning, name change, and some unrelated advice, like how to replace my SIN card, which I still can't seem to find....

It was a little overwhelming at first and I think if I started going again I'd benefit more. I'm hopefully going to be going on T within the next few months and could definitely have some questions answered about the doctor I'll be seeing.

But alas, I no longer live in that city and can't easily make it into town just for a two-hour group meeting. And my little city barely has a gay scene, let alone trans support groups to pick and choose from.