More milestones

For those that have read my previous posts, home life is now as good as it has ever been. My wonderful wife has moved from accepting to embracing and actively encouraging.

I am now out to close friends and family, all of whom have met Natalie, with the exception of my Dad. That will happen this weekend.

A number of people at work know and tomorrow I will be coming out to all in face to face meetings. Work have been hugely supportive. Toilets have been changed to gender neutral and we have run equality and diversity training for all staff ahead of me coming out.

I am a senior manager in my company and will be following up with messages to key suppliers and contacts in the wider company group in a couple of weeks.

My first appearance as Natalie at work will be on Friday.

Last weekend I picked out some new glasses which I pick up in a couple of weeks.

Hormones will start in spring of next year, as agreed with my wife. We are on this journey together and it is very important to me that we respect one another during this.

To top it all off, I get my ears pierced this weekend.

Thank you all for the advice, as it is very much appreciated and welcome.

Natalie x

Congratulations Natalie, I am so happy to hear that you are at a good place at home with your wife and family. Also its great to hear that your workplace is supportive. All the best of luck on Friday your first day of work as Natalie. I am sure it will go wonderfully. It sounds like you are moving forward, in your transition, in a thoughtful. well planned and well prepared manner. To me it sounds like the recipe to a successful transition and a positive outcome when all is said and done.

All are good news Natalie.
I'm glad for you.

Hi Natalie,

I can only imagine the courage it takes to make this visible transition at work as a senior manager, a person in charge of communicating with many people in and out of the company. It is huge! I had my first conversation on Monday with HR, and that was only because they asked me to come and explain my conversation with a colleague of me coming out as trans. I should have known better that talking to lower ranking HR colleague, that she will report it to her boss. In my case, I told them that despite being out in my personal life, as a non-binary person, I am ok with my work environment as is, especially, because I can wear casual gender neutral (aka all female but not in your face) clothes. I told them that I didn't bring this up because I don't seek at present name/pronoun change, or permission to use female bathrooms. Kind of leave me alone to do my work. She was relieved (I found it a bit off putting) that she doesn't need to do much at work to accommodate it. One thing she did, that she didn't have a right to ask, is whether I am on hormones, which I am, but it is not her business. I answered quickly yes, but felt violated about discussing it, and also later about breast development, etc. WTF! She wouldn't discuss it with any other person. Despite that Transgenders are protected in NY State from anti-discrimination, she doesn't know the difference between transgender, non-binary, etc. You would think, an HR manager would know a bit more about the people they are not allowed to discriminate against.

In any case, didn't meant to rant here but you company sounds like a much more educated and better place, and you deserve a lot of courage and credit! This is a win for you and for our community, to have another great person, living openly and setting a good example for others!

Kudos to you and your wife!

Katya, I?ve been very lucky with the level of support that I?ve had. Sorry you?re not getting that.
Sara, that?s what I?m hoping for and working it through with my wife is the way we want to progress.
By way of general update, my coming out at work couldn?t have gone any better. I received lots of positive messages, several hugs and even rounds of applause in a couple of the groups. It was a very humbling experience.
Off to work in full fem mode today!

What great news, Natalie. It is great to see the support you have from family and work.

Robin

I am so happy for you. It sounds like you work with a lot of amazing people. I am really curious to hearing about your first full day as Natalie. Though its been over two years for me I still remember how my heart was beating when I first walked into the office that morning.

The day couldn?t have really gone any better.
There was a lovely welcome from my team with a ?Welcome Natalie? box of cakes and a congratulations card with some lovely messages.
Many emails addressed to Natalie and messages of good luck.
What was really nice was that there were no diverted eyes in conversations and people just reacted with me as normal.
It was a good day x

Natalie,
Do you hire engineers? Where should I send my resume? 😉

Happy for you, Natalie! Hugs Lana Mae