Family

More often than not the most challenging hurdle for any openly living transgender person will be extended family. There will always be at least one person who isn't accepting and even if everyone tells you they are, there is often considerable lip service involved. The stories range from tolerance to outright rejection where the transgender person is basically disowned.

You need a big back and a stiff lip to live your life honestly and sometimes this will mean loosening some ties in order to keep self respect intact. For people just want the comfort of the person you felt you had to sell yourself as and perhaps we can't entirely blame them for that.

I am still trying to figure out this tightrope act of embracing a new life while keeping bridges standing except that those crossings these days seem more kept together with frazzled rope than solid steel. The pandemic allowed the absence of overlap to be weighed and assessed all the while I formulated a new road from which I am not turning back for to do so would be to undo years of work in building esteem for an identity I was taught from earliest memory to reject.

Others don't live in our heads and can't fully relate to our struggles which is why I don't overly blame but when things turn to apathy it's another matter altogether. Good thing then that family is something one inherits but doesn't freely choose and if need be we can seek a new and more supportive circle.

I already have.