Reply To: The first time you were taken as a woman.

[DeeAnn Hopings]

In thinking about this a bit further, there are other first time events. Not saying that everyone experiences them as it can be more situational than anything else.

Some of the ones that come to mind are:

• First compliment about your outfit
• First time an unknown woman starts to talk to you out of the blue like you are “one of the girls”
• From a USPS/FeDEx/UPS driver: “I have a package for Ms. DeeAnn Hopings. Is that you?”
• After informing medical staff of my preferred name (I have no intention to do a raft of legal changes), having them refer to me as such without hesitation or misgendering mistakes

I probably would not use the term Validation. I would characterize it as Recognition.