Friends and Family Of a Transsexual
By Stephanie Castle
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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