Youngest in the room...

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I can relate in a variety of ways.

Well, my body is 57. So I'm not allowed to associate with the youth groups.
Who cares, my mind is stuck at 7 in just enough ways, that I don't even understand teens either.
So I don't really want to hang out with them (I tried briefly back at 5).

I try and do adult things, which often confuse me. Dating, an impressively pointless stupid effort for those 3 years. First I wasn't post-op initially and did NOT want to be with a man while I had a penis. So why was I even trying to date one? Second, I wasn't even emotionally ready for a man when I was finally post-op.

The thing that makes D'arcy special, is she's good at letting me be me.
She knows I struggle with adult behaviour frequently out of the blue.

My interests rarely sync up with a lot of people. But I guess I have so many hobbies, people find me 'interesting'. Plus I'm great to have around if you have kids. Because odds are I want to do what they want to do. I make a great distractor. The kids and I can play Lego or colour while the adults socialize.

I have trouble at group meetings, because I talk about the most unusual things, in the most awkward of ways. I tend to just blurt out things without realizing it might have been unwise. I just plain talk too much. I tend to interrupt. I don't realize I'm doing it.

But I also come from a distant time. My mind is largely still in the 50s even though I was born in the 60s because I studied the 40s for the first 30 years of this body's existence. So all the data in my head is largely out of whack with today. All I know how to be is a 50s housewife. And considering I was a defacto stay at home mom for 20 years, and only really experienced 5 years of conventional employment in the 80s (if you discount the 4 years as the graveyard shift of a convenience store, where all I did was clean up restock and listen to the drone of machines for 8 hours). On my resume, all I have to offer is 20 years housewife and writer of romance novels or a landscape artist. Because mentioning the 80s is simply not worth it.

Well, the reality is, I don't have memories past 2012. The rest is just data in my head I don't recall learning.

We have a PFLAG group in town (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). Almost no lesbians and gays. Well, that is cisgender and not transgender. I'm demisexual, D'arcy is pansexual. And two of the other kids is a bit young to really know their persuasion with certainty.

I meet with a group of transgender persons on Tuesdays (twice so far and it is a 10 meeting duration). A random mix of ages and types. Finding a single person in 10 you can relate to well enough that you remain friends with beyond the span of the meetings is rare.

There are likely 20 transgender persons in town all ages and types. I'm probably marrying the only one I can interact with meaningfully. That is what I call very lucky. I'd be surprised if I found more than 5 friends in a place the size of Toronto.

I think, if not for D'arcy being in my life, my future, if I decided to have one at all, would probably be very soon to be one where I claimed to be cisgender and acted as if I had always been. Not because I was afraid to be real. But because I had no real reason to be visibly transgender.

Part of the real problem of being transgender is it simply shouldn't be a detail society should make us have to endure making a fuss over. The bathroom thing for instance, why the fuck is anyone interested in what I urinate out of? The only people molesting children are religious leaders. Keep THEM out of the fucking restrooms.

It was excruciatingly painful trying to date. I think most of my troubles, were I was using a method, that hasn't been worth shit for 10 years. Match and all of the slices of its empire are simply too 2000-2010. I should have been using Facebook. Facebook is actually free, and not some bullshit pretend 'free'. And it's a lot less vulnerable to fakery and scams.

I'm sure glad I don't need to care though now.

I'm looking forward to being a teenager on a senior's pension and getting older and older reading my romance novel collection When not playing with my Barbies and my Legos or making a model.

The ONLY 'group' I seem to enjoy, is you guys right here.

I am not in the same position but I certainly understand; being out in the sticks makes things more challenging then I would like logistically.  The 'local' trans community is fragmented and cliquish from the few times I attended.  They were however trying to do community type things which is important but is not feasible for me personally.  And much like Lesley, there is a large percentage that clearly are not a good fit for me.  (and that is not even considering the kink aspects of me)

Community and the like seem to be rather elusive at the moment but like everything, steps and more steps to reach an unknown destination.  

I should look at lesbian groups at some point, so thank you for the idea

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CarolynAH wrote:Tread very carefully and respectfully in lesbian circles.

Remember, they (collectively) don't need us and we shouldn't need them.

Carolyn
Thank you for the advice. When I was contemplating the ramifications of outwardly changing, romantic relationships was one of the things I realized would be more difficult to find. Reading through the old forums also had made that clear to me (long way of saying I don't expect romance ... ever)


Miki
I am not quite sure how you are meaning that...

Last I knew lesbians were people and quite frankly I need people(friends); ergo they are a potential source.

Hi Everyone!

Yes I would advise you to be careful. yes they are people, they are human and obviously the default of a Lesbian, be she quite androgenous or otherwise, is not necessarily TERF, there are though many that I have encountered that are, bigtime.

You may well leave any situation, which can only mean a club or a generic meeting of some kind, feeling quite deflated and perhaps even humiliated. I received a comment in a pub some years ago, it was from a lesbian couple that did not even know me, "I'll bet he has a hairy back!"...  I felt pretty awful and humiliated when that quite spiteful comment was made... and angry, and I rarely get angry. I'm not saying anything like that will happen to you, but you may be resented and made unwelcome. You can find romance, I'm not really having much luck lately, but be optimistic, I am sure it will come.

Well, I'm not trying to teach you or anyone else how to suck eggs, but I have encountered and know of many examples that LGBT is not an all inclusive club that cares for others under the rainbow umbrella outside their kind.

Celia xx

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xfortan

I was not very specific in my use of the term collectively. I divide the LGB....T term by separating out the T because the LGB part is really about sexuality and the T part is about gender.

I was wrong in stating lesbians don't want us, but be careful. Many lesbians are close to being TERFs and I would scope out any lesbian bar before walking into one.

Also, many gay bars are not trans-friendly as they want partners with boy stuff.

Yep, what Miki said.

Some TERFs will flat out deny a transgender woman is a woman, and some gay men will just disregard a transgender man if he doesn't have an arrived into life with it penis.

And sometimes they will 'seem' like nice people, but, in the end, if one of the main organizers of your local LGBT Pride event is a gay man who says a transgender man is not a man, then it's clear they are all about the LGB and not so interested in those of us in the T. And they might not be friendly to intersex as well.

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CarolynAH wrote:I have yet in my many conversations been treated as anything else but a woman.

Hi Carolyn,

I do doubt that any of us have found otherwise. I had not spoken to the women I mentioned in my post, for example, and have not conversed with them since. It is best not to enter conversation with bigots and I certainly would never do so. It does not worry me too much from a romantic aspect, I am not interested in intentions of any women anyway, Lesbian or otherwise.

I do not go as far as separating the T from LGB Miki, I believe we need all the support we can get. As I said, it is not panarctic, but I do think the majority of LGB support us.

Celia xx

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CarolynAH wrote:
I don't care to wear makeup most days but I wish there was a "I don't give a fuck about what you think" pallet or a "I bite... Off cocks". eyeliner.

Well that was good for a smile  (rough day at work) ... I am sure there is something that can be found ... given some of the names of makeup these days.

CarolynAH wrote:
To me we are all linked and honestly I feel the transgender community is more of a bus stop anyway.

I wanted to throw this out there too ... this is something my therapist has hinted at (because she rarely tells me anything but rather lets me figure stuff out on my own); and one gay friend I have doesn't know how to relate to me as trans (although he is getting better) but he can relate to me being lesbian.

I feel a bit disjointed with this thread as for some reason all of CarolynAH's direct posts and OP are missing or invisible on my phone's browser. However, I can see the quotes.

That being said, I did latch onto a few things in the thread that I thought might be pertinent.

One thing would be the letter community at large.

Now, when I began the medical side of my journey at large I lived in the Tri-County area of central Mississippi. You can't get much more deep South with a sense of Urban development than that. And yes, it's very Church centric as far as being conservative in that way there. But, that is the topic for a thread unto itself when I'm ready to talk about it to others.

So, since I was getting care from the VA and I was told by the VA that they ONLY do HRT, I felt like I needed help finding other resources if I were to eventually get the surgery. My insurance with the Company I worked for only covered a smaller part of HRT than what the VA was doing.

So, I started searching and I ended up reaching out to the local chapter of HRC, Human Rights Campaign. I figured what better source of information at least. Right? Wrong!

The Chapter Director lacked so much in the way of information and resources that it was insane and it kind of broke my heart that such a HUGE organization could lack so much. Even for an area like I lived at the time.

So, I attended meetings and got active anyway. I figured I might be able to push things just a tiny bit and be able to find the resources I needed.

However, I was literally the only trans individual in the group and had a hard time connecting to ANYONE else there. Hell, I even had a hard time getting anyone on the phone to talk to them about an HRC event we were planning.

Sure, everyone was cordial and courteous with me at the meetings and during meeting breaks. But that's as far as it went concerning myself.

I'm sure had I been at a chapter in a more developed Urban Center things might have been a lot different with better resources.

But, my days of activism are cold at best for now. I really don't see the point at this time due to my experiences.

That doesn't mean I've given up. It just means I've taken other avenues.

While that was going on, I was utilizing the internet to the best of my ability. I met my Skippy over the Internet and found a kind of safe haven with her over a thousand miles away.

She opened my eyes to some of the deeper parts of myself and we fell for each other.

Yes, at first we both vetted each other like you wouldn't believe to make sure the other wasn't a catfish. I mean seriously, we connected so well it seemed to perfect after all.

Now, we have been living together for over three years and I've found the "Home" I've been looking for for the better part of my life as well as finding my other half that's been missing for so long.

So, never give up. Always be open to the possibilities and ALWAYS be careful no matter what.

P.S.
Don't let age be to much of a factor as long as both parties are adults and open and honest communication is the foundation of the relationship.