So I've wanted to come out to my sister for a while now, but I could never bring myself to do it. Well, last night I got really drunk, and before I passed out, I sent her an email coming out to her. A few days earlier I wrote a similar email, but I could never press the send button.
She's in china on a business trip right now. She calls me at 3:30 in the morning. "You sent me a weird email", I said "no I didn't". "You're transgender, do you know what that means?"... anywho, we had a chat and it seems that she accepts me, but she doesn't understand... at all.
"You never wanted to play with my barbies when you were a kid, you always played with tonka trucks"
"So you want to wear dresses"
"So you want to be a woman"
"But you're my brother"
"Do you not fit in or something"
"I've met transgender people, and they knew their whole life since they were a kid"
"So you like both guys and girls"
I was surprised at how many of these I could respond to while still being pretty drunk. I'm genderqueer and I identify as both male and female. I tried explaining that to her, but I'm REALLY bad at explaining what I'm feeling or thinking. She pretty much thinks that the person she knew is dying or something and that i'm not the same person. I tried telling her that I wanted to appear as androgynous in the future, or as male, or as female. I explained how I've been like this and have realized it for a long time, but I was "in the closet". I said "would you describe me as masculine" she said "no, you've always been a gentleman" She asked me if I wanted kids. I said not really. and "but I want nieces and nephews"
It feels really good to have come out to her. After we hung up the phone, I cried for a half hour for no reason. I wasn't sad, but it felt really good. It was a huge emotional release.
Now I have 2 days to prepare for when she comes home. She's probably going to try to "reason with me" and get me to believe that I'm not actually transgender or something. She probably thinks it's a phase or something and that she can talk me out of it.