Today marks the low point of the past year and a half in my life. For the past 18 months since starting to live as Sara full time, I have been treated with respect and kindness by everyone I've met. In that time I have virtually never been misgendered and the few times it happened it was family and friends who knew me long before my transition and they always caught themselves right away, corrected themselves and apologized. That was until last night. We were invited to the home of our best friends to celebrate New Year's with them and some of their neighbours whom they had invited. These neighbours were strangers to us. Both my best friend and his wife have been friends for over 30 years and were in our wedding party. Someone whom I thought had accepted me as Sara though whom we haven't seen that much in the past few years because we are all very busy with work, raising children, and such.

Back to last night. Without fail, and without ever apologizing or correcting himself, my friend referred to me as "HE" all evening long to his neighbours. At least a dozen times that I was aware of. Not wanting to make a scene I pretended not to hear and kept ignoring it. The male neighbors quickly joined in in referring to me as a "HE". We were sitting around the friends kitchen island on bar stools except for two of us who were standing due to a shortage of bar stools. One of the neighbors wives said to her husband "Can you please get a chair for Sara so that she can sit down as well." His response " I already offered HIM a chair but HE said he was ok standing. This went on all night. I have never been as humiliated and upset in my entire life. The person whom I considered one of my best friends totally gutted me. My wife is upset because she is very close with my friends wife and really enjoys socializing with her. Now all seems at risk of collapse. Not sure that I want anything more to do with my friend. My suspicion is that the invitation for New Year's came more from his wife and not from him. I think he was embarrassed to have me around his neighbors and subsequently let me know his displeasure by misgendering me at every opportunity, knowing that this really upsets me.

Anyways I am writing this more to vent than for any other reason. I suppose that most likely the year is bound to improve from this dismal start. At least that is what I tell myself.