thingsbox

the cashier that I normally see at rite aid in my town has been there at least a decade (since I was in hs). he has always been kind and seems like someone who is into lgbtq+ rights, for a boomer+. (I don’t know or presume to know his age.)

I was buying toilet paper, lotion, and two bottles of liquor. when I got to the checkout (mask on, mind you) I realized I’d forgotten my ID, so I promised to come back before they closed. the cashier was very accommodating and held the bottles for me behind the counter, since the security boopies (?) had already been taken off.

I went about the rest of my errands, got home and grabbed my ID, and went back to the store.

Waited in line. Told a different cashier (young white dude) that those were my bottles and I could pay for them now.

I showed him my ID when he asked, then noticed the friendly older cashier coming over. He said “can I see that? I’m just curious.” And grabbed my ID.

Our of awkwardness I said “yeah, I know it’s funny to try to read people’s ages, especially with masks!”

He nodded and said “yeah well, can I tell you a story?”

I said “... sure”.

He responded by saying “okay. Interesting.” While he looked over my ID.

Then he elaborated: that he’d had a customer recently who had had to go back home to get their ID to buy liquor. And when they came back, they gave him a passport. the passport (he told me) had a Different Gender (!!! Wow!!! You are an asshole!”, said my brain) marked on it than the “obvious gender” of the person.

So he told me his response was (and you can believe he wound up to this, being an Informed Person) “are you going through a mode of transition?”

And he said the person responded “yes I am”.

.... so I said “well, I’m sure they have heard that many times before.” And left the interaction at that.

So this leaves me with a lot of questions and feelings. Most of them being: god damn I cannot even understand how hard it must be for trans folx to exist, during quarantine and always. And I would like to give a huge lockdown loving hug to anyone who has to deal with that shit daily.