Hi Girls,
As you know I came out to my 14 year old daughter on July 28th. She handled it very well but I didn't really know how she would react until she saw me dressed for the first time.
I was going to be in Houston last Friday night on business so we decided to have her and my wife go with me on the trip. The Transgendered Resource Center of Houston was putting on a social so we thought that might be a good way to expose her to this without putting her in an uncomfortable environment. I took my oldest daughter (22) out to a club but that obviously wouldn't be appropriate for a 14 year old.
Here is what we did...
Thursday night my daughter, wife and I all did each others nails in our hotel room. I decided to got with hot pink. I thought it woud go with any of the outfits I was planning to wear the next evening. It was fun to pamper each other and gave us some girly stuff to do.
Friday night we started the evening off with a trip over to Vanity's Transformation Studio for makeovers for all three of us. I went first so she could see the whole process from start-to-finish. Once my makeup was done I let her help me pick out a new wig. I then got dressed. I decided to keep it fairly low-key so I wore some new MEK stretch jeans, a nice black halter-top blouse and a pair of elegant black heels.
After I got dressed Vanity went to work on her and my wife. They both really enjoyed getting pampered and doing some really dramatic makeup. It also gave her a chance to talk to Vanity for a while on her own. Vanity is such a sweet person and their conversation helped her better understand not only me but a little more about the TG community as a whole. She just loved the experience.
Once all the makeup and stuff was done we went over to Mo Mong's. It is an asian restaurant in the Montrose section...a very friendly restaurant in a friendly part of town. We met a married couple (CD/GG) and a really close friend of mine that is a TS. We had a great dinner and a few drinks and chatted about just about everything you can imagine. We had a lot of laughs too. It was so much fun and my daughter really enjoyed it.
Around 9:30 p.m. we went to the TG Center for the social. We met a lot of really nice people from all walks of life. There were M2F and F2M CDs/TSs there. A really nice mix of people. We met a member of this group, Steffi, that came down from DC. I wish I had more time to talk with her but I had a crew of people that I came with that I needed to pay a lot of attention too. We went upstairs and listened to a couple of girls (one being my TS friend) play guitar and we sang along to some songs. We chatted with a few people there about all sorts of stuff. It was a very relaxed, comfortable environment for everyone.
We left there about 11:00 p.m. and went back to our hotel. We had a chance to talk a little about the evening, her thoughts on what we did, what we saw, who she met, really everything. She was very receptive and got a lot out of the experience.
I would say that it was a very successful evening. We had a great time together and she realizes now that it isn't as "strange" as one might think. She also realized that I'm still the same person when I'm in boy or girl mode. My exterior might be a lot different but I am still her father and she hasn't lost that...she has just gained a new understanding of who I really am through and through.
I really hope that telling these stories will encourage others that are wanting to tell their children about their dressing. It has really helped me tremendously and has brought me even closer to my wife and daughters.
Kisses,
Allie