raccoon

This conference, we had a dinner by the end and I was drunk enough to feel uninhibited and came out as trans to several people on separate occasions. One asked (as my therapist once did) if I was female-to-male. And another two said they had not guessed.

These people have hung out with me all day and heard me give a lecture.

Are they just kind? Or is it actually possible that, weird and impossible as though it seems, I am able to pass for a cis woman now to people not actively looking for someone to clock?

This is weird! Do I dare believe it? Can it be possible, weird as it sounds, that I have some ability now to pass as cis?

This is weird!!!

staggra

Epiphanies come quickly these days one after another. Experience is so intensive and it shifts. My life has weird dynamic ranges. I go from the very detailed or the very obscure to the very high level. In the past weeks I hung out in squats and witnessed the Babylon arch-Chancellor inaugurate something. I hang out with drifters and philanthropists and teenagers and medical bosses, and am at once a patient and part of the treatment infrastructure. I really am spanning systems at this point, in one way of witchery.

By way of the less impressive watch tool, I found Suporn dates in November opened up this morning. I’ve been dazed all day since, but I emailed. I expect someone else requested them before me, but it lets me know I must escalate, accelerate, proceed.

And if I get a November date, that is less than nine months ahead. Almost nothing. I feel like someone who just stopped using contraceptives, still not expecting a pregnancy so soon even though she planned for it, set it in motion. Like the process falls out of your control and it’s time to struggle to get all in place. But I don’t know yet. It’s like I wait for a pregnancy test. It may well be negative still.

Today I didn’t shave and didn’t put on foundation, but still went to another inauguration ceremony and talked to people. I feel individual hairs but don’t see them. Need to let them grow until I see them, to see colour. This is less scary now. As is being out and social.

Core to that is, I believe on an emotional level that I either pass for cis or am read as trans. I don’t expect to be misgendered or parsed as cis male. Surely I am clocked often. But at the same time, I know on some level I have passing privilege now, to some extent. I am treated better than some of my sisters because some of my changes went quicker, some of my starting points were better. Increasingly I have to remember that also. Still really wondering how often I am not clocked. I’m really curious about this.

salience

Making a brief post instead as the caffeine need is very high, along with the tiredness. Found something empowering while at the same time humbling, and my own responses interesting. At a scientific conference, we were sorted into tables randomly for dinner. Another girl sorted to the same table sat down next to me, whom I am 90-95% but not 100% sure is also trans, but possibly stealth. I am confident she passes as cis to any cis person, and it is interesting that I cannot be fully sure. Spending time with her in this manner felt very validating, also because with that, my presence in a scientific space like this is further normalized – there ends up being almost the expected population fraction of trans people present and it does not at any point become an issue.

I also became slightly less secure than otherwise – while I was older and professionally more senior, she would clearly be further along and definitely more confident. I would have felt insecure but used once more the Maiden techniques to shut that worry down. This is the humbling part, all of us maybe become somewhat uncertain when with people we admire, more self-conscious. I am glad of learning to handle it. Did not expect to meet another girl like me in this context, curious if I have, happy if so, would want to be friends with. If things progress, it will eventually cease to be remarkable and just be safe and peaceful integration and acceptance.

Also still very very wondering how often I am clocked versus passes for cis. I really cannot know. And feeling in a tenderized body kind of way that I need to work on my voice.