So I went out to one of the old haunts this weekend. This is where I met most of my Transgender friends, and have not seen many in more than a year.
My best friend and often sidekick had initiated the visit and accompanied me, as usual.
I had decided to let my old friends in on the fact that I am on HRT. I had already made this information open to my family and closest friends, but this was a more public announcement.
There is one friend who was close and have not seen for quite some time that would be there. I envisioned a nice long talk, catching up and giving her all the news with me. The place had a live band playing so it was hard to hold a conversation over the music. When she arrived I followed her outside to the smokers den where it was quieter. I'm not a smoker but it was fairly empty at the time so I just took a seat across the table, attempting to stay out of the smoke. She dropped a few bombs on me about legal troubles and would not elaborate, as was her prerogative. Then she blurts out " So, are you out? Are you a fag?" . This I found both shocking and insulting. I told her "No, absolutely not!", and said "I'm transitioning, but keeping my boy parts". But about that time she was approached by someone else who began talking to her without waiting to see if she was engaged in an existing conversation, so I could not further explain. Now yet another girl pulled up to the table next to me a lit up, this was now beyond my tolerance level for smoke, so I went back inside. BTW, thank you city council for making smoking indoors illegal!. My sidekick and I left for the evening.
So there is was , my big reveal to my friends, a big nothing. One sentence, bang it's over, move along, nothing to see here!
It's easy in hindsight to see that things like this, that are so big and important in our own minds, are really just a footnote in the life of the rest of the world. That does not change the thing for us, and we should just be happy in the knowledge of who and what we are.