One of my friends recently texted me a very unique comment that immediately caused concern. It was a simple, “It’s Steve (name changed to protect identity)”. Followed by, “Still Steve. For now at least”. My first thought was that a friend of mine who I had known for over thirty years (since we were in sixth grade) was going to do something rash in his life. When I called him, I was fully expecting to hear his last words, and there was nothing I could do to save him.
But that was not the case. Steve told me that he is transgendered. I had a little bit of a surprise in my voice, when I said “Really?”, but other than that, it was more like questions entered into my mind. “How did you find out? When did you start dressing up in women’s clothes? Did your wife ever catch you dressing up? How far down the transgender spectrum do you think you’ll go?” So many questions went through my mind with that phone call. After a while, I told him that I support him and will always be there for him.
A week later, I texted him and asked if he was free on the weekend. His reply was that he had potential plans on Saturday but will call if things change. Just before Saturday, we got into a weird Facebook discussion on current politics. We are both on opposite sides of the political spectrum, so obviously we didn’t see eye to eye on something. I replied with a very curt tone on a slightly different political topic. It was implying that I was anti LGBT rights, which stung me, so I replied back. Saturday came and no reply from Steve. I texted him only to find out that he had solid plans on Saturday. We agreed to get together at my house on Sunday.
Remember what I had stated about the path of life? That the future path is shaped by the decisions we make? Well little did I know that something significant was going to happen on Sunday.
My friend Steve came over that fateful Sunday. He was dressed up in plain woman’s clothing, nothing fancy, provocative, or outlandish. He introduced me to Jennifer or “Jen”. After a brief conversation about Jen, we sat down and started talking politics and its impact on LGBT. Kind of interesting that we immediately got into that, but obviously we needed to clear the air. She even commented to me how she didn’t think she could be friends with me because we were so different.