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Originally Posted by Skeezyks
Hello Keyplayer: Well... I don't know how old you are.  I'm pushing 70!  I guess I've been trans (MtF) my whole life, although I really didn't understand what it was all about until just a few years ago. (I'm still not sure if I really qualify.) Up to that point I just thought... well... actually I guess I really didn't put much thought into it. I just assumed I was the only person in the world who was afflicted with some kind of disgusting compulsion.  And I just went on living a relatively normal male life on the outside while doing all of the things closeted transgender individuals do in secret.  I never transitioned & I never will although even at my advanced age, it still haunts me. (If you're truly trans, you're trans for life. It never goes away... as I have heard it phrased.) 
The only people who know anything about my situation are my psychiatrist & a former therapist I saw for a few months several years ago. Oh & then there's my wife. How she found out was I left her a note with a link to a YouTube video & then proceeded to try to kill myself for the second time.  I woke up in the hospital a day or two later.  We don't talk about it though. We have sort-of a "don't ask / don't tell" policy I guess you might say... 
Anyway.... I don't really know how you find the courage to tell someone you may or may not be close to you're transgender.  Obviously, I don't have much experience with it. I presume it's a matter of practice makes perfect. Start with a person you feel the most comfortable with whom you think is likely to be supportive & tell that individual. Then begin moving "up the ladder", so to speak. The more you do it, the more self-confidence you'll build. Over the past few years I've watched a lot of videos on YouTube on the topic of gender transition. And it seems people generally find that it goes much better than they would ever have imagined.   |
It is rather fortunate and unfortunate during this time period. The topic of discussion has become widely accepted by some, condemned by others, and it has evolved into a political war between numerous ideologies. The support exists, so a transition is most certainly an opportunity for many, but it is also dependent upon the individual's age, immediate financial circumstances, and a number of other unnamed variables. Gender dysphoria is already enough of a curse on its own, but when accounting for the stigma and political attention that it receives, it is no wonder that so many transgender individuals end up attempting or considering suicide at some point in their lives.
I probably could have received better circumstances myself, seeing that my parents are somewhat of religious extremists, and they are both likewise very conservative. But at the same time, it could have very well been worse. At the point in my life in which I am able to make that revelation myself, I cannot be certain as to how my parents shall react. For that reason, I have decided that my best course of action shall be to prolong this dilemma until I preferably graduate and have my own method of financial support. However, the stress itself is crippling, and it merely elongates the period of time in which I am forced to attend my university in the first place. It is basically a circular gridlock.