That is great MarieChelan that you have made that next step in your coming out !  Congratulations !!

I agree. @Heather Shay is loved! ❤️

'twas a rhetorical question. 😉   Things are getting a bit weird here. Less than a month from winter and we're still getting warm days. It's lovely and all, but jeez, it's dry. Nights are cccold too. Nothing compared to what most of y'all get in equivalency, but yeah. One thing that happens around March/April here is switching from occasional barbecue dinners to barbecue lunches instead. Just every now and then, a sausage in bread with onion and ketchup x2, washed down with a glass of red or more, staring up at a blue sky with zero risk of sunburn, thinking How Good Is Life. It just seems like the season for that is already extended. We're going for 25C/77F on Tuesday!   @KymmieL I'm so glad that things are working out! Onwards and upwards!!! 😀   @Willow dogs are way smarter than humans! 😆

Hey all -   Thank you so much for the wonderful greetings !  For those of us who found ourselves later in life it is a shame that we could not have discovered and enjoyed our true selves much earlier in life, guess myself it was a combination of not understanding entirely what I was feeling along with being in a less secure and self confident place. I also had a few things in my way that made it hard to see this side as it was and is.    

May the forth be with you

G'day @Jaye, welcome aboard. I'm also in my 60's, but towards the lower end.   I also describe myself as Bi-gender, but this is only a personal observation. I have never sought an official diagnosis, and I am not undergoing therapy.   That said, I totally get it! There is just something so special, so right, about letting ourselves be who they need to be. It's like a natural high. It is euphoria! Like you, I don't experience a relative level of dysphoria (the opposite of euphoria) that makes me feel compelled to permanently act on impulses either. We are who we are.    My situation is slightly different though. I can blur things and live as both at the same time. Simplistically, it could be described as some form or androgyny, but I prefer to consider myself as the simultaneous type of Bi-gender. I can still totally understand what you're feeling though!    

The whim of the king is the new science.     Hugs,   Charlize

Just for everyone's information, we had a federal election here this weekend. The incumbent party had a skinny majority leading in, but it is now much larger. This ties in with the recent election in Canada where the conservative side of politics was also rejected. It also signals a global pushback amongst American allies against Trumpism.    The center-right party here (perversely known as the Liberal party) ran an absolutely schemozzle of a campaign. Besides coming out as anti-worker, they also promised higher taxes, believe it or not. They also looked for every opportunity to engage in culture wars. Their willingness to emulate King Donald (oh wait, that was last week) Pope Donald cost them dearly.   I'm not even going to pretend that our Labor party is perfect. But they are openly more inclusive than the remnants of what was once a proud organization that has lost the middle ground, who couldn't help trying to pander to the extremes instead.    

Heather, just know you are loved.

Good things still aren't helping mood.

To paraphrase a paraphrase in "Blazing Saddles," Science? We don't need no stinking science! 

We did not expect anything well done or well reasoned, and it does not disappoint that expectation.

https://www.science.org/content/article/researchers-slam-hhs-report-gender-affirming-care-youth     Carolyn Marie