Token Trans

  • click to rate

    It's hard for me to believe, but I have been going to three of the same places for over four years now. Yes they are straight venues and yes I am talking about going in there as me. At the risk of sounding like an alcoholic, all of these places are pubs or taverns of sorts.

     

    All three are very civilized of course and I'm not talking about a bunch of redneck bars in Ohio. Along the way, I became a regular and began to know some of the other regulars.  I'm sure at the beginning most of them didn't really know much except that's a guy dressed as a girl but I was harmless.   On occasion I did run into a rest room problem and the typical snickers (and not the candy bar).  But life went on and actually all the employees have been exceptionally nice to me over the whole time.

     

    Early in my experience though,  the most jaded of some of the male regulars were never really mean or negative but they always had to slide in the man word into our conversations.  A couple of them even went  out of their way to shorten my name to "Chris" (which isn't my male name anyway).

     

    If nothing, I was persistent and ignored it all. Slowly but surely times started to change.  The effect of HRT and wearing my own hair was huge of course but perhaps the bigger change had to do with meeting my friends there..they validated me as a real person,. I wasn't just a guy dressed as a girl, I had a life. All of the sudden, I moved from "man or Chris" to a person.

     

    For sure, I do get discouraged at the timing of all of this. I'm an impatient person and four years is an eternity! On the other hand, essentially I am transitioning in front of their eyes.

     

     Who knows, a few of them may even look up the transgender word. In the meantime,  I really enjoy the friendly acceptance I get. Even though I'm their token trans girl.

8 comments
  • Briana Lynn Rekowski Cyrsti, another.........sort of similarity, first, I don't live full time and, I do go to a lot of "local" places. But in my neighborhood, I have "Bri" places, and drab places. The only blurs are a couple of drug stores, one...  more
  • Jessie Hart I understand BrianaThat used to be me quite a bit. All of a sudden the "blur" got me in a few unsettling situations as a few peeps started to recognize me as both. "hey wasn't that you?" "were you going to a party?" etc...ever happen to you?
  • Briana Lynn Rekowski Hi Cryrsti, no, haven't had that experience yet. I live in a city that is about a million people, and western cities are very spread out, but I know there are at least 8 or 10 people I work with that live within a few miles of me even though I live no...  more
  • Jessie Hart Briana, I live in a much smaller place but I'm lucky to have metro areas close to your size in close proximity. My first experience at a "blur" was early in the game when I ran smack into my wife's boss at a shopping center. I got through that...  more