It was definitely an interesting and intriguing week for Melissa although I am sure it was a whole lot more interesting for others I know. Thanksgiving week has come on gone and it brought some interesting situations for a few members of my transgendered support group who announced at our last meeting that they were planning to come out to their families on their Thanksgiving gatherings (bet that made for some interesting discussion over the turkey and pumpkin pie for sure!) I look forward to hearing these reports at our next group meeting. I spent the week, besides Thanksgiving with the family members where I decided not to disrupt the food consumption process with any such similar disclosure although I suspect a few of the outlaws( in-laws) have a few suspicions for sure, with a social outing where I was among a group of lesbians who were great company and much fun. The other part of my week was spent with a another member of such community doing an interview with her on growing up and being transgendered in Appalachia for graduate research paper she is doing on the subject.
The social outing was fun and I had a blast and spent a good amount of time discussing points with the bartender whose name consequently was also Melissa. I think for the most part lesbians and transgendered (MtoF) people get along pretty well. I think this because most MtoF transgendered people would be considered lesbians since many are attracted to ggs or other tgs and therefore it is essentially two women together (kind of like the welcome to the “male bashing” club). I learned that Melissa at one time had such long flowing beautiful hair that I would die to have but she shaved it off to a thin crew cut haircut and she now mostly wears caps. I also met her former lover who she still gets along pretty well with as well. Melissa took good care of me at the bar serving me some nice drinks that actually contained some alcohol as opposed to the water downed versions one usually gets. She also included me in her occasional intriguing and unusual shots she poured for all the girls including me. I really enjoyed spending time and having some fun with these girls and learning more about them and most were very open about discussing their sexuality which defiantly kept the conversation more livelily for sure.
On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving I met Lori who is also part of the “L” community to discuss my life as a transgendered person growing up in what our nation defines as Appalachia. Appalachia is an area of land of rural mountains mostly inhabited sparsely by a group of lower educated people who also tend to be more conservative in their social values driven by their more fundamental religious upbringing. This topic has also fascinated me and so after some exchange of e-mails I agreed to meet Lori for an interview which was recorded and is put to be put on reserve at her university library to document along with others out transgendered histories. She is planning to use these interviews as a source of reference along with her research to formulate a research paper and ultimately her Master’s thesis on this subject. I am definitely interested in reading her research paper on this process. Growing up and being transgendered in Appalachia is not easy for sure. Contact with others like me was not common and still is not common today. Most of us here grew up in towns so small and rural that everyone knows everything about everyone (I bet you most people in this town could tell you what you had to eat for breakfast before you even get it digested). Appalachian people are good natured people for the most part but they do not understand or deal with people part of the LGBT community well. They see us as freaks, deviants and “sinners” who need “redemption”! Obviously growing up and living in such areas as a member of the LGBT community is not easy and I am sure Lori’s studies will verify all of this in her comparisons with those who grew up in more metropolitan areas of this nation. I really enjoyed chatting with Lori and getting to know her as well. She is really cool person with a big heart and warm smile and I wish her all the success she dreams of and maybe one day we will both find that Appalachia and being part of the LGBT community do not have to be so mutually exclusive but we have a long way to go in that regard for sure!
No comments:
Post a Comment