There was a time when I was young and very female presenting inadvertantly when I worked in a factory in a redneck town.  It was a bit unpleasant.  There was a guy that was constantly messing with me, the usual bull, name calling and belittling etc.  Well there was a fan full of dust and if you tapped it it would unload a cloud of dust on who ever was in front of it.  It was pointed at me.  This guy reached over to tap it with a stick to unload it into my face and took a whack at it.

The fan spun around and unloaded.  It looked like that same guy was covered in flour, just his beady little eyes peaking out.

The whole factory was falling on the floor laughing at him so hard.  Stopped production for a few minutes.

He eventually was shut up since I kept buffing more steel than he could, and they said that if I could pull off that quota, they wouldnt care if I came in wearing a leather tu tu.  And I wasn't even out yet.

Our protection can come in strange ways.

Whats your favorite story?

Quote from: Satinjoy on May 01, 2014, 06:22:50 AM

Whats your favorite story?

My victories have come in words. I have a cousin (well, by marriage) who excoriated me for transitioning. I asked him, given that transgender wasn't something we choose, that it can lead to serious emotional problems if ignored, and that no one had ever come up with any other successful treatment, what he would have me do.

His silence said it all.

Another moment occurred during the senate hearings on our transgender rights bill. A woman spoke out against the bill, saying that it would allow men in her bathroom. One of the senator's asked her what she wanted a transgender woman to do if she needed to go to the bathroom. She was speechless for quite awhile, but then finally said "that's not my problem." It did more for our cause than any of the testimony in favor of the bill.

I don't have any really good gotcha stories, but I was once told by my wife that I make a trans-obvious, ugly woman.  This was pretty early in the process - The next day I fixed myself up, went shopping, used the women's restroom and nobody batted an eye.

I glowed, and still am.

Julie

I have actually had quite a few such moments. My absolute best though happened in Washington D.C. Family court during my imancipation hearing in when I was 15. My adoptive father was your typical gung ho macho man heavily into boxing and sports, whom always had trouble with my girly appearance and by then, my telling he and my Mom I was a girl with the wrong body parts. Anyway, long story short, the family court judge had called myself and my lawyer, and my adopted Mom and father back to his chambers to what I can only assume, have a one on one talk with me and my adopted family, and, "get to the bottom of this," so to speak. After warning me that I under the law didn't have to answer if I didn't want to, The judge then asked me to explain in my own words exactly why I was seeking imancipation. By this point in my young life I had no problem speaking up, but I didn't get the chance because my adopted father interrupted me with a spiel on the verge of yelling about how he tried to force me into boxing and other sports in an attempt to make me more "manly" as he put it, then if this didn't make him look bad enough, he then went on to tell the judge how his biological son Wayne didn't have my problems, and how much more "manly" he was, etc., etc., etc. He would point at me saying: "look at him!, look at him!"

The judge finally had heard enough and slammed his gavel down to shut my adopted father up. It took a few bangs. My lawyer just smiled as he patted my right shoulder. Though I didn't know it at the time, my adopted father's rant did more in my favor for imancipation than any in court litigation could have. It gave the judge a demonstration of what I'd been going through living under his roof. The funnyier thing was though, as he was dismissed my adopted father gave me one of his snyde looks showing confidence his rant worked. After a brief talk with myself and my adopted Mom where I had assured the Judge that though she and myself had our problems, she wasn't the reason I was seeking imancipation. My order for imancipation was signed by the Judge then and there.

Ally

Before transitioning I was into parkour on foot and also on a bicycle some of my friends said that girls can't do those kind of stuff. Ill admit it was pretty difficult at first seeing that I lacked strength and such but soon after some practice I got better than those boys. So when I ride past them and pull of a jump from railing to railing they be all 'whoa" so I can finally say 'HAH!"

A few moments:

1. When I was ready to take hormones back in 2001 I went to a therapist who was on the committee who formulated the Benjamin guidelines (no informed consent back then). I spent the hour telling him that treating trans people as automatically mentally ill is no different from how gay people were treated in the 60's and 70's. He prescribed me hormones on the spot.

2. I still find it hilarious when I walk faster in 3" heels than Wall Street bankers and they try to catch up but can't.

3. This one is really petty but whenever I've said no to a guy's advances I feel like I'm making up a little bit for all the times my transsisters have been rejected. Can't help myself.

I went to my first party as myself. Some random jerk, we'll call him Chet, introduced himself, "Hey man, why you wearing a dress, dude?"

I corrected, "Ma'm."

He was like, "Whatever bro! Hahahahaha!!!"

He kept laughing as he walked towards the biggest group at the party.

Then the prick unknowingly walked over to my wife and started chatting her up. He was flirting with her! I kept an eye on this, my wife can handle herself. We were trained in NYC. After about ten minutes, I'd had enough, and I imagine my wife had too. I walked up, behind my wife, and gently put my arm around her. Chet looked, curiously at my wife, and she gave him a knowing smirk. For the first time since he had arrived, Chet was silent. He turned pale, and silently walked away.

My wife was thrilled that I had, "Saved" her, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to see Chet put his tail between his legs. He deserved it.

My dad was making comments about how no one at the airport or anywhere would believe I was actually male. But in the airport, during the patdowns, and for the entire trip people referred to me as male very excessively. Never got a single "she."

I think he was surprised, but, since then he's been much better about using the right pronouns for me. I was very satisfied that he got to see that I'm living properly as male.

Many, many years ago a terrible woman I was in conflict with accused me of being "a sneaky misogynist". My comeback - "just because I hate you doesn't make me a misogynist" - was pretty damn good (if I do say so myself) but her insinuation of me being a sneaky misogynist still galled and baffled me years later. Turns out I did have some pretty deep issues of anger and resentment towards women which I managed to deal with. Anyway, as I was saying, it happened a long time ago but even so I'd love to be a fly on the wall when this woman hears of my transition.