I've been curious about my gender for years now, and I've finally allowed myself to acknowledge I'm trans. And I want to tell my mother. However she says about my trans friends, that they are too young and immature to know what they want. And she jokes around and when I don't laugh, she tells me that it's okay because the community is funny. But I have a letter, and was wondering if you guys thought it would be okay. I'm unsure how she will react, but I have support systems in place for sure if things go sour. So, I've prepared a little mini speech for today. It's about me and something I've been thinking about for maybe a year or two now. And I've sort of been scared to tell you. Very few people know, like Maddi, the girls, and of course Vince. They've all supported me, especially Vince. The train I've been scared to tell you is you talk so much and joke so much about the community. And I think I know what you'll say to me today. That I'm young and too immature to know who I am. But all that aside, it's how I feel right now, and it makes me happy when I'm addressed as such my others. I have not been comfortable with being a she. I've been raised thinking that was the only option. Now this community has been opened up to me and I identify with them. The dysphoria, the inner doubt. I just feel upset kind of. I'm comfortable as a he, that's why I chose the name Harvey. It was a genderneutral name that I liked and could be called and it made me happy. Would I like to go by a more masculine name, yes, but I've been Harvey for three years now, I can't change it. I'm not jumping on a bandwagon. I couldn't jump on a bandwagon for ridicule and hiding from people, I'm not one to want to be called out, but if it's who I am, I will proudly try to be myself. At con, I bought trans pride stuff. I bought a pillow and a flag and some lgbtq prints as you saw my Klance button and print, but besides that. At con, I was proudly displaying who I was. I came home, and I felt I couldn't. I felt the need to hide. I brought it up to Vince and he told me that it would be okay. He felt that you guys have loved me for 17 and a half years, and that can't change, even from this. And I hope his feeling is right. I know about shooting, I dress up, I do makeup, this and that, but that's a character, that's why I've taken to wigs. Who I am shooting, doesn't matter when it comes down to the real me. I may not be trans, I'll admit, maybe it is just how hormones are hitting me and my 17 year old body right now. But, even so, I just want to be respected.
Well, I came out to mom, and it went well. She even said gender therapy could be a thing we could think about and do and I could be myself.
