This year has been my first semester fully passing as male. I have been invited on a fishing trip with one of my study buddies to celebrate our victory over a brutal statistics test. We'll be camping out over night and hanging out. I'm just starting to know the guy, but he seems really cool. No one at my college knows I'm trans except for my professors who are supportive and use the proper pronouns. I want this fishing trip to go successfully and I want to make friends. But I'll be sleeping over, and hanging out in the woods and on the boat with the guys. I could get soaked through my shirt, or have to pee when there isn't a bathroom. I feel like I might have to disclose, but I don't know if I should because of how that might effect everything else. How he would see me, interact with me. And then after the trip would he tell people. But during the trip, if it becomes obvious I'm not a cismale then what. Are there any older transfolk out there with experience with these types of situations who can offer advice?
Please help, the trip is from tomorrow evening to the next afternoon.
If it's just a friendly trip and he's not someone you're romantically interested in, I don't think there's a need to disclose. Especially if it's important to you that no one in your extended social circle finds out, I don't think it's wise to disclose.
The only similar situation I've been in was also an outdoorsy one, and the excuse I used then is one you could easily use tomorrow. I told the folks I was camping with that I had a stomach issue and that while I had taken my medication for it, I'd feel a lot better if we chose a camp site that had a bathroom nearby just in case. That way, if I had to pee, I could just mosey off to the bathroom under the guise of my fake diarrhea.
Practical advice - take a change of clothes in your bag in case yours get messed up, but also consider layering your shirts so that you won't have to change in the morning (wear 2 shirts on Friday, bottom one comes off in the morning so you're wearing the "fresher" one for the rest of the day). If you're wearing a binder, I'd say maybe add a tank top layer to mask the appearance of it just in case your shirt gets wet. And use the bathroom at every available opportunity so that having to pee won't be an issue.
Hope this helps!
A relationship doesnt have to be romantic and all relationships are built on TRUST. If you consider this guy a friend or are interested in taking it to a true friendship level, then disclose to him.,but only when you are ready to do so. I make it a point to make it very clear who I am to anyone and everyone that I see as a factor in my life. Im a transwoman and I am proud of that. I stand up for that. I dont hide it.