This is a story from the first time I transitioned. It was 1987, and I I then was living as Marco here in California with the girl who had come here with me. My name was changed and I bound my chest, and dressed as any other guy. Things were good. I passed 100% of the time. I was not on hormones yet, but I think because of my youth, I was 21 and looked 16, a beard was not a factor at that time. Both my girlfriend at the time and I worked at the same place. Mind you, she thought me to be a guy, that just needed a slight physical adjustment. Well we had made friends within the place we had worked. There was this one guy I worked with, he was married and had a daughter. We would hang out with them sometimes, and he and became good friends. Now, I can't recall the reason for what I did next, but him and I were at the beach one night just talking. The fact I was stelth, and always planned to stay that way, I don'y know what possesed me to tell him of my ideintity. I don't even remeber the conversation, just that he did not believe me that I was born female. So he says show me. Well like an idiot, I did. I do believe he was shocked. But said that it was cool, and would not affect our friendship. Not too long after that I found wires cut under the hood of my car I then had to fix. Somehow I think I had found out that this guy had feelings for my girlfriend, and that maybe her for him as well. I'm pretty sure he did not keep to himself what I had reveled to him. Then there came the night I came home from somewhere and opened the door to a fist square into my face. I flew back up against the wall, and he comes at me again. I ducked and hit him once. He flys back, I stand there with blood on my face, for one moment to know atleast I split his lip, but after that I was doomed. He was so mad that before I knew what hit me, he had punched me 3 times in one second, and spun around, and round house kicked me in the face and I was DOWN. I started to pass out but kind of saw him walk over me and went to grab my girlfriend. He was telling her to get her stuff and go with him up north to San Jose were he was from. I guess he planned on leaving his wife and daughter for my girlfriend. I don't even know how I got up and as fast as I did, but I went and grabbed her away from him and said she is not going anywhere. I think she was so freaked out by what had happened, she told him to leave. I was a bloody mess. I don't know why I did not let her go, because I did not love her and our relationship was rocky all the time because she would get so mad when other girls would come on to me 😉 I never thought of it as a hate crime until recently, I think it was, but the moral here is "if only I were a blackbelt". I can hit hard and fight a good fight, but when you come up against someone who is trained the way he was, you have no chance. That was a hard lesson for me to learn.
Marco
