Some time ago, I made a stupid decision and outed a transgendered person without thinking before I spoke. Looking back, I’m not sure why I did this, and due to my anxiety disorder I’ve been unable to stop myself from feeling guilty since this happened and constantly stress over it. I feel like what I’ve done is completely unforgivable but I need some closure, and I wanted to ask for your opinion on it as you’re someone I greatly admire.

Firstly I want to say congratulations on your self reflection and assessment; I think it’s very bold to own up to past “mistakes”. Secondly I also want to remind you that, well, you’re human! We are fallable and often make mistakes in order to learn from them.

I can understand Anxiety Disorder, and if you were to message me off Anon, we can speak about that at length if you wish.

You need to understand that no amount of guilt or self punishment will “retract” past actions/words, nor will they make you feel any better about the situation. In fact, it’s likely to do the exact opposite.

If you are still in contact with said person, perhaps to gain the much needed closure you speak of, perhaps write them an Anon email or message or something similar, and apologize.

What you did wasn’t nice, but it’s certainly not “completely unforgivable” – I think by the way you have phrased this you are more than aware of the reprecussions of outing someone. That is more than enough of a lesson learnt; many trans people still don’t understand this.

Give yourself a break. You are human, and we all make mistakes. What is impressive to me is that you are working actively to try and rectify what you see as a wrongdoing. Again, much more than most people ever do. Well done.

Get a wedding invite from friends in the mail: explicitly mentions children are not welcome at the reception but are welcome at the ceremony. Both reception and ceremony are being held at the same damn place – do people not realise how challenging it is to be a parent when things like this happen?!

We will have to pay for a baby sitter, and drive K to/from ceremony before we can attend the reception. Bit inconsiderate.

Whenever someone emails me or Kik’s me – I tend to give them a false name to call me by. Only one person on tumblr that doesn’t know me IRL knows my actual first name.

All of the others… I’m just trying to remember which name i used!
Often I’ll be all “Hello (insert name here), you can call me XYZ.”

So yeah. Apologies if I don’t remember the name I gave you.

Edit:

I’m pretty sure a lot of people know me as Mike Kaiden, so call me that.

Did you grow taller when you transitioned? Did your hands and feet get any bigger either? Just something I’ve always been curious about.

Unfortunately I did not.
I medically transitioned when I was legally able to, at 18 years old – as my parents were not willing to be supportive with regards to the medical side of things.

I have always had a short stature, especially when comparing my height to the rest of my family – but unfortunately I had finished all the growing I was able to do prior to the introduction of T.

Growth plates are fickle things; if you begin medical transition early enough (or before your growth plates fuse) you may be able to benefit from some height growth, alongside other body parts.

I think perhaps my feet grew half a size, but I can’t be exactly sure because I never really bothered to find out my actual foot size to begin with. Other people I have know that are on T have reported an increase in foot size, however – so it’s not totally impossible.

As far as hand size goes; same deal, I didn’t experience any change. I am relatively happy with the overall size of my hands, just wish my fingers weren’t to thin, long and bony – purchasing a wedding band was an absolute nightmare. I had to get a men’s ring sized down to a very small size.

If anyone else has any experiences, feel free to chip in?

Kids and Triggering Medical Issues.

So, my Son is uncircumcised – this has been causing a few issues of late…

We took K for a general health check-up yesterday; there’s a few things that have been out of sorts including his legs being sore when playing basketball or excercising, and the fact that his foreskin still isn’t able to retract much, if at all.

I knew this would be slightly triggering, but I didn’t understand just how severely it would affect me.
Our family Doctor is fantastic, especially with children, and put K’s mind at ease about speaking to him regarding his penis. He made sure K felt comfortable with the examination, and gave him the utmost respect and privacy which was very appreciated. He prescribed some steroid cream to hopefully aid in thinning out his foreskin so it can be retracted over time, and gave K the direct instructions on how to apply it properly. K thought this was absolutely disgusting and gross, but understood that it was better than a surgical alternative.

Our Dr asked my Wife if it was okay if he could show K a photograph in a medical book of an uncircumcised penis with the foreskin retracted fully, so he understood what he was aiming for. My Wife was more than happy to let him see this, as I can’t provide it. The Doctor had difficulty locating a photograph that wasn’t an erect penis, and discussed this with my Wife. She was not concerned if he saw a photograph of an erect penis, due to the nature of the photograph itself (very medicalised) and the situation at hand. K was absolutely disgusted with the photo and thought it was pretty funny!
It was then that I realised he probably had never seen an adult male’s penis before, and that he didn’t realise my body was different from his. Dysphoria central.

Fast forward to when we arrived home and K had to apply the cream. I bowed out of this one due to me already having dysphoria around it, and let his Mum explain the application procedure one more time before she left him in his room with the door closed so he had privacy. K has obviously not begun his journey of physical discovery just yet, but I think having to apply cream to his penis twice daily will get the ball rolling, so to speak.
We explained about masturbation, and how that it’s perfectly normal etc.

So, the kid is doing well with his medicine and is now very comfortable speaking to us about his genitals, which is great. We explained that we are here to talk to, answer any questions etc.

Then, in the midst of discussing this I simply blurted out “Daddy doesn’t have a penis like yours, the testosterone makes a very small penis for me but I still have the parts that female’s are born with.”

He was shocked, and began asking questions which I didn’t have trouble answering. He used words I wouldn’t use to describe my own anatomy, but I understood he needed to use words that meant something to him.

I then also explained that I could not urinate while standing without using a device. I said “When you grow, your penis will grow. As it is now, your penis is already larger than mine – and it will continue to grow perhaps to the size of the penis you saw a photo of at the Doctor’s”
He was really surprised to find this information out! He was very respectful and understood the conversation completely. He apologized for having a larger penis than me, bless his little cotton socks, and I laughed and said “No worries mate!”. I needed to show him that I was okay with my genitals, even though I’m not. Not at all.

After K had gone to bed for the evening I retired to my bedroom and my Wife came in, realising that I had taken this very hard. She attempted to comfort me, but it’s very difficult to comfort someone when there isn’t really anything that can be done.
She listened whilst I blurted out a million different reasons why the situation upset me, including not being able to deal with “penis problems” like most other father’s can.

I am not sure why I am telling you this, but I felt I needed to write about it here. For those of you who perhaps know me IRL, please keep all of this confidential.

I have finished my assignment obligations for today exceptionally early. As a treat to myself I am procrastinating housework.

If you’d like to help in this process, you can submit shit or ask questions.

Ask or Submit.