For me it's been liberating to be my true self, but of course it's had challenges, push-backs and struggles along the way. I lost a lot of friends when I first came out, and I have lost others since then because of being trans, and that was hard to take. It's an unfortunate reality for any LGBTQ+ person, of course, no one wants to lose people just because of who they are. It's also not very nice being the new "hot button" topic that people feel the need to have strong opinions on, but aren't really that educated on. Trans isn't about playing dress up and saying look at me I'm a woman/man because it's how I feel. It's so, so much more than that, and the mainstream understanding is lacking a lot of basic education about what trans truly is, so when you're out in the world and people discover you're trans...it gets messy. Not ALL people, of course, there are people that understand and are accepting, and welcoming, and that's fantastic! We need more of that in this world. But for every understanding person it feels like there are two or three people who don't understand and don't want to understand that make you feel like a monster, try to intimidate you and even threaten you. I've been down that road before, it's scary! The average trans person is just a normal person looking to live their lives except that they happen to be trans. It's not a choice to be so, and the vast majority of us would much rather not be. But that's not a luxury we have. You also have to just accept the fact that no matter what people are going to deliberately misgender you, and as much as it hurts you can't react to it because that's what they want. I hate being he/him'd, hate it, but it's a constant part of my life. If you don't want to accept me as a trans woman, at least do the me service of dismissively calling me an it or a they rather than he/him. It's cruel and hurtful. When friends do it I politely steer them in the right direction, I've never had issues after the first time, but I get people that do it deliberately to me and having to ignore it and pretend it didn't happen is hard. Petty as it sounds, I struggled to be the person I am today, I think I've earned just a smidge of a right to not be misgendered. These are all things that play on your mental health as you try to navigate the balance of LGBTQ+ life. It's always a struggle, always some new challenge.
