Reply To: Hi Girls💃

[DeeAnn Hopings]

Michelle:

Glad to have you with us! I hope that being here will be useful as your journey continues.

As you might expect, the membership here pretty much covers the spectrum from those who will, or have, fully transitioned to those who are not and all points in between. Our lives, histories and family situations have a lot of variability such that no two stories are exactly the same. However, there will always be some of the same elements.

In my case, for example, I have essentially transitioned socially. The only thing left would be changing the name on various legal documents and other things. I’ve pretty much decided against that owing to the amount of effort. Most folks only think in terms of driver’s license and birth certificate, but I think it would eliminate a lot of spurious things that could happen by changing everything: bank accounts, mortgage, credit accounts, pension accounts, medical records, school and university records, taxes, etc. If that isn’t done, there are likely to be some issues somewhere when things don’t line up.

I am fortunate in that I’ve never felt that I was in the wrong body. What I did eventually realize (and this took several decades)  is that I have never been completely male nor completely female. I have always been this combination of both in terms of likes/dislikes, perspectives and energies. It took me a long time to understand this, but when I did, many things began to make sense. Currently I hold office on a city government commission, 3 LGBT related organizations and my car club. I am also a member of 3 other organizations where I do not hold office. In all, DeeAnn is the person of record. Very few here have ever met Don.

While I have run across others with similar stories, we are clearly outliers. But, all that means is that there are many roads to town. Somewhere along the way, you will discover your road and we will be here to support that.

So, a couple of house keeping things:

I encourage you to complete your Profile page. That goes a long way towards other members understanding you, your situation and what’s difficult for you. All threads will eventually sink to the bottom of the pile, but your <b>Profile</b> page will always be readily available and can be updated at any time.

You can search for other members near you by clicking on Social in the menu and then Member Directory. Going from memory, Canada is the 2nd or 3rd largest concentration of members.

Be Well!