Acceptance happens one person at a time.

[kay2]

I went to a party wearing a skirt, velvet top, boots with heels, and my usual long red nails and rings and bracelets. As always, no wig nor forms. An elderly man, who I did not know, walked up to me, shook my hand and introduced himself. Then he said, "My son and his partner live in San Francisco." I said "How nice." Then he said "You look great" and he turned and left.

I took it as he came over to me to show support for being gay (though I happen to be straight ). Normally, when people assume I am gay, I take a moment to explain that clothing preference does not correlate with sexual orientation. However, I imagined that this was part of his personal work on accepting his son and other people that are considered atypical.

It was a nice moment. Acceptance happens one person at a time.

[Starr]

That was really very nice of him, I think maybe he was just letting you know he understood how hard it can be to be different sometimes.

[Suzette Muguet de Mai]

Its nice to get a number of acceptances till one gets a couple of rejections. Then one begins to question if it is worthwhile to request acceptance and seek acceptance when rejection hurts. One bad rejection can be such a negative to some of us that solitude is seeked because we may accept ourselves for who we are but fear rejecting ourselves. Then if we accept defeat through rejection do we try again or simply give up.

[juno]

Rejections are hard because crossdressers have tender hearts. When it happens, just how fortunate you are not to be one of them.

Public understanding of transgender being different from sexual preference will take some time. If they are willing to accept you as gay, they are likely to be accepting of being transgender. They are just clueless about it. It would be nice to teach this stuff in the first year of public school. Maybe in 50 years?

[Sheila11]

Kudos to you for being so gracious. It seems to me that the man in question was really trying to make you comfortable, in his own understanding.
Sometimes "setting the record straight" only comes across as prissy.

[juligirl1984]

Its nice to get a number of acceptances till one gets a couple of rejections. Then one begins to question if it is worthwhile to request acceptance and seek acceptance when rejection hurts. One bad rejection can be such a negative to some of us that solitude is seeked because we may accept ourselves for who we are but fear rejecting ourselves. Then if we accept defeat through rejection do we try again or simply give up.

WOW that's DEEP! thanks for sharing that thought.