Thanks a lot hun. I'm passionate about trans, gender diverse, non binary and intersex rights and quite a few other social justice causes and I'm doing something about it most week days. I don't care what people think really, because ultimately it's none of my business. Being made fun of for the way I look is something I've always had to deal with but the cis world still think it's ok to make fun of us and that needs to change. I figure those people are probably bigots in other ways as well and need help, not my anger. I think non binary and other gender diverse people have a harder time though because it's not been as visible as being transgender has been for as long, of course, people have been non binary since forever as well. I hope you did something special for your special day on Friday!!

Even some allies still seem to think of gender being binary. Its not about who's suffering most of course, when one of us gets bad treatment we all suffer and we're all united under the gender diverse banner, always! It's not always appropriate to call enbys trans because there's not always a transition into another hormone biology. So I'm careful about using the word trans to describe everyone with some kind of gender non-conformity. I don't quite understand because it's not who I am, just like I never understood what it was like to be a man or straight.

Even my mother who is a staunch supporter of myself and another trans family member got annoyed when I told her my son's half sibling stated to me she was a demi-girl because sometimes she (her chosen pronouns) is a boy. That she confided in me about though and hasn't really talked to anyone else, was great of course, I love that people I know now have that outlet. I wish I hadn't told mum though.

I dress pretty androgenous and its likely no one else noticed. I didn't want to create a fuss, I just left an uncomfortable situation and felt good about knowing when to leave. I didn't say anything at the time, as it would have been seen as inappropriate in that particular venue, it was an AA meeting and culture war stuff is not discussed. It's tiring trying to educate people honestly. I only bother explaining things to allies. Most people don't read my pronoun badge or see the fucking trans flag patch on my sleeve because they haven't been educated or just don't care.

So proud of you for living your truth, we still live in one of the best cities for being ourselves and living our truths and I'm thankful of that every day. Sometimes I wish I had a tshirt which read, no one knows I'm transgender lol. Like I said, I'm proud of it and see not being my gender assigned at birth as a very rare gift. Cis people don't get to spend years thinking about being cis, but we have a unique other layer to our identities.

Oh and I too extend the hand of friendship, and thank you for reaching out.