Just wanted to comment on the pronoun thing...
As far as pronouns, everyone but Scriver, Forsaken, Vector and Truean are "its" to me.
Truean is not actually female, though, because she insists on both calling herself female, calling herself gay, and liking guys, which manages to completely and totally fuck me up in the head. As such, she's like an electron cloud of gender in my mind. As such, my pronouns will tend to switch depending on the situation.
Anywho - Things that made me sad
Wife had a bit of a stress breakdown and took off with the car to drive to Florida. I'll assume she'll be back in four or five days, just need to hope I don't have to drive anywhere before then.
Actually, this is sort of a pre-emptive posting, I probably won't start getting properly sad about it till I wake up alone tomorrow morning.
[Shrugs]. I have a complicated situation; I stopped trying to explain. I'm transgender, like only men, and can't practically transition, because people are assholes. You know how many openly transgender attorneys there are in Ohio? 0, because no one hires you after that happens and odds are you get either fired or made so miserable you're all but forced to quit. In jail and facing prison? I know an excellent attorney who can ... yeah they're transgend... ok we'll find another one.
I don't really blame you for being confused. I know exactly what I am, but explaining it to other people is immensely difficult. Try explaining that you're forced to live as a male in everyone's eyes but you're really a girl when you're explaining stories from your life. It's hard. So, I'll say "gay" to shorthand it and make it something people can sort of get.
Thinking way too much about it.
Sexuality is a social construct. Possibly gender too since the rise of the tranny.
There have been lots of transexuals throughout history. Even not counting eunuchs,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TransgenderMeh. Being gender different was a pretty good way to end up in jail for "sodomy" or "buggery." So, it got hidden and that's why people don't know about it.
Also "tranny" means "transvestite", doesn't it?
Practically speaking there isn't a hard definition. It's a blanket term. Trans -vestite, gender, sexual.... whatever really. It's not even necessarily bad, but unfortunately people often use it with bad and harmful intent, so.... It's quickly becoming bad and has been for some time.
'Tranny' is a slang term for transvestite, but usually these days used as a slur against trans* individuals in general. Not a good word to use in general.
And seriously, I've had extended conversations and even friendships where I'm not sure what gender someone identifies with. Either they identified female but were very easy to read, a transvestite rather than transsexual (so identifying male while dressing female) or actually identified as trans* rather than actually male or female. It's not that hard to be gender neutral in conversation, and I can't really think of many situations where it would be a big deal either way.
I also have avoided talking politics with many of my GLBT friends. It's often too hard to avoid depressing subject matter.
I can mostly sign into this, and talking politics with anyone today is risking an emotional argument at best. I've never seen someone talk about mechanics of it. If I said, "I'm considering how HR ##### could potentially effect capital gains taxes and if it would actually effect hiring," most people don't care at best. They will repeat soundbites though. GLBT in the US have a lot to complain about, but at least it's gotten a little better in the recent past.
As for referencing pronouns with a transperson. Might be a good idea to ask discretely. My close friends know me as female, but also know to keep up the charade for my protection when I'm forced to live as a male 90% of the time, sadly. They can pretty readily switch from calling me female pronouns to male if someone comes around in everyday life. They talk to and treat me entirely differently when no one else is around, because it's safer. Some of my girlfriends even pretend to be in romantic relationships with me for cover. Then again, that's my situation and it varies from person to person.
Thanks for putting in the effort though; most don't.