I live in suburban Orange County, California for most of the time.  For those of you who don't know, this is a very right-leaning, highly religious part of the state, at least when you're in the upper-middle class areas.  In my city (Irvine), there aren't even any Gay community centers, much less transgender resources.  This is the kind of place where people still send their gay kids to camps or therapists who will "cure" them, so I'm loathe to think of what general public opinion is about transgender individuals.

I do have a second option, though.  For about half of the week, I'm up in the Los Angeles area.

Part of me is thinking I should just give up on Orange County as a place to find assistance or information.  Los Angeles is only 40 miles away, and I'm guessing there are a bunch of excellent resources there.  I've already found the LA Gender Center.

Does anyone know of any good groups in Orange County within proximity of Irvine?  Or do you think I had the right idea, that I should just talk to the groups in LA instead?

Maybe these might be a good place to start.

http://thecenteroc.org/programs_transgender.php

http://www.otherbear.com/socalsup.html

http://www.lgbtrc.uci.edu/

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/group-262222-call-drive.html

I think I wub you now, Ms. O'Brien.  (in a Platonic way, of course)  That's a lot of stuff to look at.

Yeah, I guess I prejudged a little.  Orange County is such a weird place.  It's this strange mix of California inclusiveness and Inner America exclusive religious conservatism.  I guess I'm just biased because of past experiences.  I remember when Prop 8 was up for vote (banning gay marriage), someone had set up a little outpost on the corner with signs supporting it.  It seemed like most of the people driving by would honk their horn in support or cheer.  I guess it really depends on where you go.  There's a big difference between Irvine and Long Beach (where some of the groups you linked are based).

Anyway, thank you for all of your responses, both here and in other threads.

Hey Kupcake,
I started my transition by getting therapy in Newport Beach and going to the Orange County BeingMe group. I lived in Laguna Niguel, so basically take all the OC conservatism and multiply it by a million and there you go. If you are looking for free group meetings to talk about whatever, that's a good group. Tell Cheryl Meghan said hi LA Gender Center is also a good resource, it's worth the drive. They also have a group that meets there. There's another group like BeingMe (free and not facilitated by therapists) at the Village of the LA Gay & Lesbian Center called Transgender Perceptions. It's free and every Friday night from 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm. Both the BeingMe and Transgender Perceptions meetings have dinner afterward from what I remember. The OC Being Me (Center OC) webpage has quite a few therapists on it as well. There's a lot of stuff in LA but going to group in the OC and individual at LA Gender Center is a good call. If you want gender overload you could do BeingMe the first and third Friday of each month (that's when they have it) and Transgender Perceptions all the other Fridays.

Good luck Kupcake, stay positive and don't let anything get you down Meghan