I'm just starting out on my journey & pre-T.  I'm going through a range of emotions as I've experienced an awakening as to who I truly am, which is a male. (I am man hear me roar, lol)

I'm sure most if not all of you have experienced the fears of social acceptance, finding a loving partner & friends who accept you. One of my fears in the beginning of my transition is not having a social outlet where I can be accepted, thus living a lonely life. I'm living as a lesbian now & some of my peers have already backed away from me after I told them I'm transitioning as FTM. I wont feel as comfortable in the lesbian environment & not in the hetero male environment either, while I'm transitioning & not passable.

For those who are transitiong & those who have walked the path for awhile, what have you experienced in the relationship/friends dept?

I live in San Diego & havent met or experienced a big trans scene yet. How have you guys met & gained relationships while transitioning?

Being MtF I know it may sound shallow or something, but I formed a deep relationship with ME. Now that I am happy I have more friends now than when I started. I didn't think I would have anyone accept me for who I am, but I have been pleasantly surprised.  I had zero before transition and now I have so many I can't please them all. I actually get invited to things now. I had the same fears it sounds like you do,  but they never materialized. Hope this helps.

when i first decided to transition, i didn't have any trans friends, or even many gay/lesbian/bi/pan, anything that i knew of a tleast. i didn't even come to these kind of forums, i just dealt with it on my own, even though i did have support from my family. it gets lonely when you don't have anyone to talk to or who can relate. if you have pflag groups around you, you should go to those. that's where i started when i wanted to start making friends within the LGBT community. they didn't back away and they supported and understood.

in the end you will realize people who don't stick around or back away, they don't respect you or your identity. you don't want those kind of people around tbh. as you get further in your transition and become more confident, passable and w/e else, you will find out where you fit in more and it will be easier to be more sociable in those situations. my experience at least but i wasn't as confident as i am now even though being seen as male but now that i'm more comfortable and confident with who i am..it's way easier to navigate through social situations.

Take each day as a new. People are funny in they sway towards public option. As it changes so do how people react.

I wish to add do not forget to look back within the community itself. Love and a lifetime of happiness could be a community brother or sister.

Wish you well in your future. Again, just be happy.

Izzy

Disclaimer: This is only my experience.
I was more awkward than usual when I first came out and started socially transitioning. I felt awkward about correcting people about my gender, but once I got used to that (with friends anyway), it got quite a bit easier.
At first, I reached out more to the LGBT community, but quite honestly, I just didn't click with most of the people I met in that community mostly because of personality differences. I ended up making a lot of friends at university and in a group I'm in. Some of them happen to be lesbians, some of them happen to be straight men, some of them happen to be straight women, and some happen to be bi. No gay men, but that's coincidental same as the other people's orientations are coincidental since we became over shared interests and not shared LGBT-ness. The point is, I made friends like a regular guy. I hope some of that made sense.
To be honest, my transness isn't really important to the friends I have now. Mostly anyway. There are a couple I need to keep correcting, but for the most part, they see me and treat me like a regular guy. Or as regular as one can see and treat a madman, but you get what I mean.

Congrats on finding yourself.

Regarding advice on relationships and friendships in the early stages - I don't really have any because I was pretty much a social recluse for 10 years up until I literally up and moved countries and transitioned in secret.  My only support during that time was my partner (now wife) - we met online and she assumed I was cismale until I came out to her - and she was totally non-chalant and supporting of me.  She's only ever seen me as a man (she's hetero, not a lesbian).

I was never immersed in the lesbian community, but from what I've seen and heard from others who are/were - the LGB community overall can be pretty disparaging of trans* folk although there are those who don't really seem to mind.  It depends on the person, location and group, I suppose.

I think that something to remember really is that if someone you deem a "friend" isn't willing to stand by you or suddenly drops out of your life just because you're transitioning, then that says a lot about them as a person - they're not your friend if they're so shallow that what you have to do in your own life in order to be happy puts a bee in their self-righteous bonnets.