[TheSkronkDonkey]

I don't go out of my way to tell people, but a few know.

My brother is one of them. I was actually looking at some t-girls on this very forum while he was in the same room. He looked across to see what I was doing and caught me checking out pictures of a cute ladyboy. He casually remarked that they weren't for him and carried on listening to his music. My brother is like that. Very matter of fact; no more, no less. He couldn't really care what I like or don't like. If only all relationships were like that, eh?

The other is a friend of mine. Well, more like ex-friend at this juncture. I let him go on my PC for a bit the last time he visited. He said he wanted to use the net and check out the football results (etc). Fine, I said. I went out the room for a bit because I'm not a guard dog and I had other things to do. Of course, he couldn't resist going through my favourites while I was gone. Transwomen this, shecocks that. I guess he got a nice surprise. :D The way I found out is when he made several not-so-subtle comments afterward. But really, if he's going to go snooping on someone else's computer, what does he expect? Sad that he had to betray my trust, though. Give people an inch ...

I think I wax and wane on the issue. Sometimes, I'm very uptight and it's my "big secret". Other times, I don't really care and whatever happens is whatever happens. I did subtly hint about my attraction to another friend, but he was quite snide and dismissive. Par for the course, really. Some people are tolerant; most people aren't. It can be a bit of a crapshoot. That said, if you're leaning one way or the other, lean on the person being intolerant -- more often than not, you'll be correct. After, and during, childhood, when you begin to shore up your beliefs, when the insidiousness of social conditioning has invaded almost every crack and crevice of your mind, when you begin to be convinced of what you know being more important than what you don't, difference is an enemy to your being, provoking fear and disgust, and the common way to dispel what one fears and finds disgusting is to mock, demean and destroy it. Sad, really.