Quote from: SarahBoo on June 12, 2015, 06:58:36 PM
No, not at all.

If somebody takes issue with me, they are hardly going to attempt a friendly conversation.

Those who do talk with me and ask questions are genuinely interested, and I am not on guard about going there with them.

I take people at face value, and go with gut feeling. I offer people my trust, not my suspicion.   

+1

That's a good attitude to have Sarah. Heed her words everyone.

Well, first of all I'm a shy introvert so I like to hang out with about 2-3 people at a time.

And I don't date men and didn't like the sorority scene... which is partly a cop-out but also means I just have some prearranged ways of redirecting the conversation. Periods? Well, I'm in early menopause thanks to needing surgery, let me talk about hot flashes instead (totally true, btw, if I skip over which gonads were removed). That sort of thing. I'll happily admit I was a geeky sort of tomboy. Etc.

Being stealth, I used to think this was a nightmare. I was super nervous first time I went and got my nails done. That's make-or-break right there. But I passed fine, talked about school, clothes, whatever, and otherwise just listened to them and reacted.

Now it's a lot easier for me. I've gained a lot of confidence and my social skills have caught up. My boyfriend and I recently moved to a new apartment and there are sometimes some social gatherings here, largely dominated by the women that work here. But I get along with them just fine so I haven't had any issues. Periods? I get those sometimes (the hormonal aspects) so there are times were another woman and I will both gripe about feeling like crap. Parenting? I plan on having kids and otherwise I grew up with foster babies everywhere all the time so I was practically raised to be a mother and have more experience than most mothers. Non-issue for me. And as far as relationship stuff goes, I have a boyfriend and he's easy to gripe about so... plenty of material there. I've also had girlfriends too, which oddly enough makes me either cool with the actual lesbians or a woman with an interesting past to everyone else, lol. Only thing that kinda stresses me out anymore is tweaking my past. Like, I don't go into detail about my ex-girlfriends. I just mention 'oh yeah my ex-girlfriend and I did [whatever] one time' and don't get into how I "used to be a lesbian". Oh, and apparently I used to play softball and was in the girl scouts? News to me, but it's my new truth.. One tip though... learn to talk about diet and exercise and clothes. Those are eeeasy standby topics that most women can relate to. If you can't, it's usually easy enough to feign interest in.

I've never been in a situation like portrayed in these photos. But I try to be nice to everyone and say stuff to get them talking details first. This gives you ammo for continuing the conversation.

A very interesting thread. When I transitioned the first time in mid 80's my next door neighbour , a really nice young woman aged 29 - A marketing Manager with a Software company and I became great friends and she invited me out to dinner one evening with a group of her gorl friends (5) so making me the sixth member. The thing here though was that she had told them I was trans, but that I was living full time, was on HRT and had been working by them for about 5 months as a woman. Naturally they were very curious and a lot of that first diner at a local wine bar and then our at aother of the groups houses was about me, what was it like, how was I finding transitioning, what was good, what was difficult etc etc.
But after that evening my girlfriend next for neighbour drover us both home, she said that when I was jun the toilet, all the girls said they wanted me to be part of the regular group. They met once a month as they just thought I would be great to have around and felt that they could also help me. From that moment onwards I was Judith one of the group. Theuy treated me from then on just as any other woman, although once discussing one pot the girls periods, Katie said well at least Judy yopu don't have to go thru that and they all giggled when I said no not the bleeding, but that I do seem a to get symptoms of PMS which reminds me then I need to be on my Progesterone cycle. It was just normal conversations, but as I think Aleah said  how you interact with other women is quite fundamentally different as a Transwoman and somethings that you have to lean. As Magggie (my girlfriend) said - until they get to know try to be  quite submissive. They will then be more relaxed with you in their coterie. It was tvery true. I only stopped going when Maggie moved to San Jose with her job from Buckinghamshire we we both lived.

Talk about the modifications to my car usually. To be honest I have never had anyone straight ask me about my period, if they did I'd just say I don't get them.

I find talking to group of girls a lot less awkward than trying to pretend I was a boy in a group of boys.