What people say on anonymously on the Internet is not representative of the way people will treat you in person. Well, most of the time... There are a lot of people who still view being transgender as immoral, and try to come up with nonsensical excuses why we shouldn't be allowed to be ourselves. But depending on where you live and how you present yourself, your experiences can vary greatly as far as how many of these people you meet and have to deal with. Not once since I started to transition have I had an experience where a stranger walked up to me and said something negative to my face. I might have been lucky, because I live in a place where transgender acceptance is relatively high. But it just goes to show that attitudes are changing, and the horror stories you sometimes hear are increasingly the exceptions rather than the rules. In many places there are even legal protections in place so that anyone caught discriminating against us could be fired or worse. I can't promise you that you will never have a negative experience as you transition, but I can promise you that there are plenty of places now where you can live your life without constant fear of public humiliation. The real challenges I've faced during transition haven't been in public. They have been in private, with my family, and with myself.
