Wow!

[Guest My_Genesis]

I posted a Facebook note that is only visible to certain people in which I basically described my experiences growing up as FTM and explaining how transsexualism and transgender stuff works. I tagged the max # of people (25), but it is viewable to two different "groups" of friends which extend much further than these 25 people (if you know Facebook, you know you can kinda categorize your friends based on how you know them, how close you are, or whatever else you want to do.) I changed my name to my male name, made my profile male and all that.

I've gotten responses from several people already, which generally were along the lines of "I'm just glad that you're figuring things out and that you're happy" "I am honored to have been tagged in your note/I am honored to have been a part of something so personal", and a few "That was really brave of you" and "I admire your courage." I also got a "You seem like a pretty cool dude. We should hang together sometime." (This was after some PM-ing back and forth, where he mainly said the stuff I just quoted above.) And this came from a guy who met me in a psychology class in college and has known me as a girl the past several months.

A bunch of people started messaging me and texting me, asking if I would like them to call me by my male name. I told them sure if it isn't too weird for them, because I know it can be. One person did refer to me as my birth name but he wrote me a private message letter saying he is honored to have been a part of my life (as i mentioned in the note), supports me in whatever I do, and respects me as an individual.

Given that a lot of these people are somewhat more on the conservative side, I'm actually a bit overwhelmed with these responses I've been getting. It all feels very surreal and I'm not sure how to feel about it. I think I'm supposed to feel happy?

Another thing: For those of you who are going by the name for your target gender, did you find it a bit weird at first having your friends who knew you as your birth name call you by your new name? It works just fine for me online, like say on YouTube and stuff, I'm comfortable with it and with people seeing me as the guy I am and everything... but for people who knew me in person as my birth name, it does feel a bit weird. Just wondering if anyone else felt that way about it at first. Hopefully I'm not crazy.

But wow.... I feel like this is all one of my strange dreams.

[Guest Anna_Banana]

I'm very glad this experiment went well for you. However, what attracted me here was the topic title. When I was on the forum list and I saw the title, I said to myself:

"Yes, I too can't believe it's not butter."

But when I actually clicked on the topic, it turns out you weren't astonished by that discovery. I apologize.

Good day,

.Anna

[Guest viv]

Thats one gigantic leap forward hun,,,bet your confidence went ballistic.!!

more of the same ??????you bet . luv,viv

[Guest sarah f]

I am very happy for you that you got so many of your friends to accept the real you. You are very lucky to have such open minded friends. Good for you. I wish you all the best with the rest of your friends and family when you come out to them.

Love,

Sarah F

[Paula ult]

My Genesis,

I am happy to hear your friends are accepting, it makes this journey easier, i did much the same with my graduating class, our 40th reunion is this August and i am going as my true self and wanted as many to know as to not disrupt it too much, i have reconnected with quite a few and they pretty much said the same thing as your friends.

Paula

[Guest My_Genesis]

My Genesis,

I am happy to hear your friends are accepting, it makes this journey easier, i did much the same with my graduating class, our 40th reunion is this August and i am going as my true self and wanted as many to know as to not disrupt it too much, i have reconnected with quite a few and they pretty much said the same thing as your friends.

Paula

Well I have definitely learned from this experience that I need to have a little more faith in people. I mean I know I can be skeptical and mistrusting of others (that's kind of part of my personality - I'm kind of a born skeptic, I have a scientific mind and I question everything ) ...but this has really showed me that there are good people in the world, and if you are a good person you will surround yourself with good people. I should have had a little more faith in the people I wasn't sure were my true friends or not, turns out they are. Most of them, so far, anyway.

Now my mind is just "Must find gender therapist..must get hormones...must go all the way."

lol. Patience really is a virtue.

One problem I'm having on Facebook is getting my name (R.J.) to show up in capital letters, the j comes out lowercase. i have a male friend on there named J.C. and his seems to work just fine. I asked Facebook to change it for me b/c the little "j" has been bugging me. lol.

Other than that I'm just glad my profile can actually reflect who I am for once.