[AnnieBL]

I do feel for you having just come out to my wife of 35 years and friend for more than 50. I too found that it went surprisingly well, but your case sounds much more difficult than mine. Both my parents are dead, and my gender variance sounds less severe than yours - in fact I only fairly recently began to understand it and still don't fully. During most of my life I had very limited understanding of my problems, and at school I was perhaps fortunate to get labelled by my peers as a 'licensed eccentric' (being very big also helped then, although I am now finding it a disadvantage). I did suffer at the hands of some staff members. Any way, I hope that you are feeling as much relief as I do to have things out in the open with the people that really matter to one. I look forward to meeting you in Atlanta.