We already have been out together. Just before he flew back to Ohio, we visited the Palm Springs Air Museum. I am a docent there and I dressed as I normally would for being on duty. Afterwards, we went to lunch.
We don’t see each other that often. Such is the distance between Ohio and California. The previous time was 2018 when I was in Toledo.
The important thing for me was doing this in person. Since that is fairly infrequent, it is was it is. With the exception of my daughter and son, all of the coming out discussions I’ve had have been in person. My kids and I have not lived in the same state for over 20 years. Those discussions were done by individual phone calls. Flying to Chicago and Atlanta from New York State wasn’t an option.
For all of the people with whom I’ve had The Conversation with over the years, I’m fairly practiced with it by now. For the others that I come in contact with in daily life, either they don’t care or don’t wish to talk about it. No one has brought it up. The only thing counter to that is 2 people over the last 7 1/2 years trying to tell me that I was entering the women’s rest room. My response was simply: “I Know.”.
There’s another part to this that some may not realize. I saw some survey data a few years ago that said well over 60% of the general populace knew someone who was gay or lesbian, but that number was only about 30% for trans people. It becomes very easy to demonize people that you don’t now and don’t have contact with.
