Another close friend gives acceptance of Dawn!
Oh My! After the wonderful weekend I just had, I'm not sure if anything in the future will be able to top it. I told you all in another thread how my Sister-in-Law arrived and with unequivocal acceptance has embraced Dawn as a sister. Well, last evening life for Dawn got even better! I'll explain.
We had a get together at our house with family and friends last evening. A good time was had by all I am sure. There came a time near the end of the gathering that I had engaged a good GG friend in a light conversation about the holidays upcoming. She mentioned that she was out with her husband and another couple doing a little early Christmas shopping that day. They had gone into Ross' Dress For Less. While there, she and the others were approached by an S/A. Nothing to odd about that, except this S/A was quite obviously a MTF transgender individual. She said he was wearing all femme clothing and had polish on his nails.
Now this friend is a very conservative and at times quite opinionated person. I've been aware of her lack of (seemingly) tolerance for sometime and we have even had some rather animated arguments over certain issues. However, we always remain on a very friendly basis. What surprised me and took me off guard was that she said of this instance that "she did not know what to make of it and that" she "just thought, poor fellow, he's just trying to find himself". I listened to what she was saying and expected the normal objections to start, i.e., how wrong it is, men wearing women's clothes or the person has obvious mental issues. But, she never said anything of the sort. Instead, She explained that she did not "understand why he was doing this or the whole Transgendered thing" and that it left her "confused", "why would someone chose to do this, especially in public".
Ladies, I could no longer resist the opportunity. I asked her, "What lets you think that it is a choice to be Transgendered?" Her response, a look of surprise. I continued, "It is becoming more clear everyday on the scientific front that issues such as being Gay or Lesbian or Bi or.......Transgendered are not something a person chooses to do. Rather, they are quite clearly born with the predilection to be who they are." She started to scoff at the idea. I interrupted her with "Well, listen, you've heard of hermaphrodites?" She said, "yes". I explained, "If nature can make a person this way. A way that is so unambiguous as to the person being two distinct sexes on physical appearances, then why could nature not also make a person one sex physically in appearance and the opposite sex mentally in expression?" I apologize Ladies, but, it is the best analogy I could think up at that moment. Though, it must have changed her opinion on that same moment.
Later in the conversation, she started asking why I knew so much about this one issue. UH OH! I'm thinking well, loudmouth, you got yourself in a corner this time. I started with, "you know there are more Transgendered people around than one may think. Truly they tend to keep to themselves for fear of ridicule.............WE are not as openly accepted as Gays, Lesbians or Bi." She caught on to the 'WE' immediately. She said, "Are you...?" After a long moments pause she saw the tears welling in my eyes. I reached up to my collar and pulled the shirt back far enough that she could see the pink strap of my Playtex bra. For a moment I thought "Well, this is it. My life is over, Or at least this friendship." I could not have been more wrong! Stunned to say the least, she reached out took my hand and said " It's alright, I think I understand!" After which we embraced in a very nice hug. We conversed over this for better than an hour. Only the fact that her husband entered the area where we were did we end our talk. During the last part of our talk, she did promise only to let me tell others about me if I so desired. Her lips, she said were "sealed". Please bare in mind that this is a very condensed version of the whole conversation. Just trying to save you all from lot more reading, this one is long enough!
I'll tell you, this is almost too incredible to believe, for me. With first revealing to my Wife (nearly two years ago) and then my Sister-in-Law. Now this GG friend of ours. And, very soon, I will be telling my Mother. My head is in a spin! All of this has turned out so good. A person could not have planned it better. So far it has worked out in my favor. Yes I know "the cats out of the bag", but, telling one somehow makes it easier to tell another and so on. I just hope it does not turn out to be a snowball thrown uphill with me waiting to catch it on the return! Actually I think everything is going to be good.
Dawn
