This weekend I was camping at a faire with some friends, and resolved to tell the last person in my friend group about my transition.
The talks went over really well with my other friends, but I have been pretty anxious for each of them because I feel like I never have a good idea what the reaction will be.
In full disclosure, by this point in the faire all of us were fairly inebriated. The group had kind of fractured off into smaller clusters, so it was just me, my friend I hadn't told, and one that I had. We were walking back to camp from a spot where we had been watching the stars, and I felt like it was as good an opportunity as any.
"Hey, now that we have a moment, I've got something I've gotta tell you," I said. My friend inmediately froze in place, arms spread in a T-pose, eyes wide like a deer in headlights. I thought perhaps the way I lead into the convo sounded like I was going to say something grave lol.
"So... I've been going through a bit of a transition," I say. She immediately loosens up once again and nods, following along with what I'm saying. "I've actually been on E for about two months." "Uh huh," she says, with a look that implied she was waiting for the bombshell she expected me to drop.
"That's it," I said after a moment. "That's all the news," I followed, laughing a little. "Oh ok, nice!" She replies. "That's cool!" I guess she expected me to tell her I had cancer or something. I told her it seemed like she was taking this very casually, and she said that gender has always been whatever to her. "You're still my friend. I think that's awesome!"
I had not anticipated such immediate and unflinching acceptance. I count myself very fortunate to have such cool friends. Anyway, I thought it might be nice to put that story out there! I am still kind of reeling from the support I have received, and wanted to share.
Congratulations on coming out! I remember when I first came out to a friend and then she was like "What!!!" and I was really worried for a second until she said, "No way, I'm trans too!".
Also I'm wondering if maybe the reason she froze is because she thought that you were going to ask her out, especially with the place and moment where you said "I have something to tell you".
Thank you! Aw, that's a really cool moment with your friend. Both coming out to each other, at the same time!
God I hope she didn't think that lol. She is the long time girlfriend of one of my best friends, who was also at the faire. The next day she remembered the conversation, but not the freezing. I feel like the substances we were on were a major factor in how it played out, everybody was pretty deep in it by that point haha
Who knows what she thought but since she's taken and she knows you know that she probably didn't think that. It's probably just the substances then lol.
Yeah it was hilarious in retrospect. I think she was like startled by something that needed her undivided attention and so entered the most stable and powerful pose known to man
That's so nice to hear! I'm glad everyone was accepting and kind. I just came out to one of my friends as nonbinary, but I'll never be able to tell my parents or classmates because they're all transphobic christo-fascists... Hope you meet many more supportive friends. Ik how bad it can be with family for some of my nb and trans friends, you're very lucky. Never take your friends and their acceptance for granted.