Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts. Just to clarify I am a "senior lecturer" at a university and, until last week, director of a popular, admired academic program. The directorship, and the extra pay that came with it, was taken away. I'm still employed but paid less and made much less visible. I have consulted an attorney. There is no state law that can help specifically re gender identity, but there may be labor practices that were violated, and internally, the university does have gender identity protections, so there's that. There's also the fact that no one is stupid enough to say out loud or in writing that they are demoting someone because they don't want to be around that transgender stuff.
What's frightening is the impulse to turn back from transition, toe the line, cut the hair, all that. That's of course what they want - to intimidate, if not me, then anyone else who might see the example of a successful person successfully and publicly transitioning and then think it's safe here. Given my age (wrong side of 60) I'll probably stay here, defiantly transition, seek mediation to get my extra $ or some portion of it back, and just focus on self-care.
But I'm still meditating. Meanwhile, I'm somewhat distracted by having my marriage seemingly end last night. It's all connected of course. Thanks for all the good wishes; I'll update this when I know more.
elizabethamy
p.s. I recommend hefty doses of estrogen for the mental health part. That seems to be working !
