I was kicked out of my home by my abusive parents shortly after I turned 18. Out of my parents, the most actively antagonistic was my mother, who refused to even acknowledge that I was trans. A year after I was kicked out, I moved across the country nearer to the area where my mother's extended family was. A few days after I arrived, I received the news that my grandmother, my mother's mother, had passed. Too worried about addressing the issue to my relatives in their grief, I stayed away.
Eventually I worked up the nerve to visit them, mainly to see and console my grandfather, but also because I couldn't bear the thought of losing all of my family because of who I was. I hadn't intended to come out, but when my grandfather asked me about the rift between my parents and me I ended up sitting down and crying as I came out to my grandfather, my great aunt and two of my second cousins.
My grandfather is definitely very neurodivergent and didn't seem to entirely grasp the concept of me being transgender, but he still told me encouragingly that it was not his job to tell me what I should do with my body, and that he was proud of me. My cousins both held me and told me they thought I was brave and would support me no matter what.
But I will never forget what my 92 year old, very southern, very religious great aunt said to me that day. She took my hand and called me by name, as I wept, before she leaned over to me knowledgeably and went, "There were some people I knew as a girl who were- they were born girls, but in their hearts they were really boys. And you could tell from the way they moved and acted… but their families wanted them to be girls. But I have always known people like you, and they were made that way because God wanted them to be that way and be true to themselves.
"I have loved you since the moment I saw you and I will still love you! You are becoming who you are, and that's good, because God made you that way! You are happy and I am happy! I am glad to have a nephew! I love you!"
Anyone who says older people get a pass to be transphobic just because they're old is full of shit.
blakekathryn
gummygunk
dailybridgerton
prguitarman
izzy806
