Family and friends of a transexual
By Stephanie Castle
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With a new mental attitude
strengthened as it now was by hormones and the knowledge that I had
entrusted myself to the support of expert guidance, my
confidence increased and I faced up to challenges which I had feared
in the days of my great secrecy. One of these challenges was bringing
children, close relatives and friends into the picture, all with the
idea of maintaining the social life I wanted and was used to. The last
thing I wanted was to drive any of these people away, and thus fall
into the lonely life of many transexuals who have become social
outcasts because of the rejection of family and friends.
I considered that the two most important people in my
scheme of things were my adult son and daughter, and the way they
reacted was interesting. I started out with a one on one discussion
with each of them, about a week apart. I had carefully chosen
occasions when there was no likelihood of interruption.
I hid
absolutely nothing and answered their questions with total
honesty. Needless to say the news hit them like a bomb, how could it
have been otherwise? To their credit they kept their cool and their
sense of humour, and there was no anger, no recriminations, but there
was some scepticism. In this regard I think their first reaction was
that Dad had gone off his head in his dotage. Was I sure that it could
not be 'cured' by taking huge doses of testosterone? Had I caught
something from someone? How long had I believed I had this problem?
How would they explain it to their friends? Would a future wife or
husband think it might be an hereditary problem? Was it contagious?
Had it been known to happen in my family before?
With patient reasoned
explanation I answered their questions and parried their
misgivings. Both had suggested spiritual counselling at the
commencement of our discussions, but eventually both had to agreed
that the councellers they had in mind probably knew little if anything
about the subject. This was the one thing I refused, as I had long
since come to terms with the spiritual aspects as I saw them.
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