[Dianna1395]

OK, need to reply in a few pieces here.

Okay, so Caitlyn had, no, TOOK a leg up that those teens never had/took. Bruce didn't CHOOSE to be famous, he chose to try his damndest to win at the Olympics! He did and the fame followed him! Otherwise, he was NO different than any other potentally TS kid! Most recently, his fame comes from his pointlessly famous daughters! If it wasn't for them, his TS story would just be in a back page somewhere.

I need to nit-pick a little here. Bruce HAD to know that fame would follow the Olympics. So, in a real sense, he DID _CHOOSE_ to be famous. Unlike being TG, which I think most of us would gladly give up if we could - just to be normal... Not have the "voices", if you will. It would make life SO much easier...

Bruce Jenner gets a sex change a bus in Hoboken ran over a puppy today! More news on the puppy after these words!

I think that's an indictment of our "news" (edutainment) system. ;-) You're right about it, though, except without the Olympic angle, we'd never have heard of Bruce Jenner. (There'd be no Kardassian connection, either.)

Caitlyn faces torture and death from religoid pinheads who SHOULD be wearing white hoods and burning crosses on peoples' lawns! I don't understand what's so hard to get about that? Maybe you had to be in her shoes at least once to see it for real!! I KNOW what it's like!! One night, I stepped out on stage in a mini skirt and pantyhose behind my drums and some asshole filled with hate and prejudice rushed the stage and tried to tackle me!! Not horrific enough for you? Okay, a few years before, we were playing a party in the house where we rehearsed. The house was LOADED with people, so I went to one of the bedrooms upstairs to change into my tights and mini skirt just before going on in the basement. I came downstairs to first floor to look for the rest of the band and 5 or 6 guys started chasing me through the house yelling, "Kill the faggot!!" I ran back upstairs to one of the bedrooms but couldn't lock the door!! I had to hold it shut with my foot! They figured out I was in there and tried to push the door open! They could get the top open enough to reach in and then they threw beer on me, then tried to set me on fire via the beer!! THAT'S the kind of bullshit Caitlyn faces!!! Maybe even worse!! Who KNOWS what some sick fuck-up has in mind?? And, I STILL don't get how just because someone's famous, they don't deserve the same rights as everybody else! What does fame have to do with it?? Anybody that risks life & limb is brave!

I grew up with a lot of rough-and-tumble play. I can't guess about the attempted tackle (I think A-hole). I can see humor in the attempted burning, actually, but that's because of my chemistry background. (Alcohol burns... Beer not so much. How drunk were those idiots, anyway? Hence, "funny." But I wasn't there. I'd be shitting bricks if I were, I'm certain - because of the beer didn't work, they might well find a way in. I'm guessing you're not built like me, especially at that age: People crossed the street to stay away from me. 5'8", 175#, and a lump of muscle head to toe. Usually with an angry look. I'd guess you understand that look, I think most of us have it; it's the mask we wear, though the details change - we wear masks all the time, to hide and protect our true selves. Weightlifting, swimming, and escapism in video games and books was how I dealt with it. Never a team type, either. So the "angry young man" bit served to keep potential enemies - and I'd been the target through grade school, this was high school, and I'd already had one testicle ruptured, wasn't going for two. Anyway) - I DO understand the terror, though, from other incidents. SOBER people, mind, and not even because I was "transgressing." Merely breathing was enough. People who wanted to injure me because I was there, when I was alone, and they were alone... When they were in a group? I can still feel the impotent rage, the fear never lasted with me. It turned immediately. Like the bit from the original "Red Dawn." The colonel, I think he was, sees one of the kids carving notches into his AK-47 stock. "All that hatred's gonna burn you up." "Keeps me warm." was the response. Still there. Still burning. I need to make sure I don't erupt - which works well with (a) being an introvert, so fewer people to deal with, less stres and pressure; (b) women don't get angry like that (I know, untrue, but if you're trying to live up to the ideal? Controlling anger or not having anger, which works better? Women seemed able to "let it go" much more than men. Probably aping my parents, one a neurotic, one an authoritarian egotist.)
Also, the idiots you dealt with didn't necessarily MEAN anything by it - they just thought it would be fun (for THEM...) - hence the sort of anger I face, too. I wasn't allowed to fight back, you see - that was wrong. Evil. To DEFEND myself. That old routine of, School punishes you, then Mom chews you out, then Dad comes home and punishes you. And the bully? Gets sympathy. And this is mid - late Eighties. Not even the f*cked-up socailist indoctrination "equality" centers we have now. (Example: SO's daughter was being bullied in school. She complained. Reported events. WE complained to the school. 6 months later, they're still, "Building a case," when M. has had enough, and drags her bully around by the head. M. got in trouble, and we couldn't get the SOBs to acknowledge the original problem. How long are we supposed to wait? And what are we if we DO wait the way I did, go to authority figures and avoid the problem people? Then we're sissies... I even had one woman, a playground monitor, tell me she wouldn't do anything. I shouldn't be around her. So, Authority is useless; fighting is evil. What's left, curl up and die? (Which, again, almost happened, and the actual assault was about half a second, and left me unable to walk.)
I prefer Rayve's solution, and I disagree with government: No such thing as overkill, for reasons like my and your examples. There's more than one? They attack you? Kill all but one, or try to, and I don't care if you're armed with a flamethrower and they're not. It's too easy to be swarmed and killed even if you're armed and they are not. (Cops do a 20-foot drill, IIRC - whole point is, within about 20 feet, someone can close the distance and take you down before you can clear gun from holster. Space is your friend. So for us, who DO NOT have "color of law" authority, and who WILL likely be prosecuted for self-defense anyway? Dead men tell no tales. So, a double-tap is fine by me. Even brutalizing the bodies afterwards. 'cause survivors may come back with friends to finish the job. So in your example? A few shots through the door, and an aggressive chase afterwards hunting survivors. Finish the wounded at your convenience.... And that's ASSUMING they were just a-holes (males) "Having fun." (Bear in mind, the dumber the male, the more they find that shite funny. Chlorine in the shallow end of the gene pool is a GOOD thing. Darwin's Law is a GOOD thing. Ensuring children never mature is a BAD thing - and to then subject US to those 40-year-old children's abuses, and tell us we can't defend ourselves - while cops can shoot fleeing supects in the back without repercussions, mind - No, I can't deal with that. No witnesses. If done right, no bodies, either. They can ID the skeletons if they ever find them. Log chippers make that hard... Etc. I know, tough-guy talk. But enough is enough. the fact that we bear these mental, emotional, and PHYSICAL scars is too much. We allow the guilty to go free and punish the victim. So, I understand the fear and the anger, and I understand where you're coming from. I understand where they MIGHT have been coming from, and can sort of give them benefit of the doubt, as to intents. They still pay the price, though, and I now beleive in being thorough and complete... Because our laws will punish US, and exonerate THEM, when THEY initiated. If I'm going to be presumed a criminal, I might as well act the role and get that pleasure of "settling the score."
That would also end the "white hoods" side pretty fast. (Trivia: Original gun control laws were used to preven "Negros" from obtaining weapons, regardless of satatus as slave or free. Last thing a bully wants is a well-armed target who refuses to be a victim... And at this point, it's been refined to, "we is all n*ggers, now." Slaves just get to vote who runs the tax plantation. Remember, the Soviets got to vote, too... someone controlled the counting of the votes, and who got on the ballot, though.)
I refuse to be slave to my hormones (male OR female doesn't matter, you're not supposed to be ruled by them. "Feelings" are for children. Adults take emotion as part of the picture, not as the controlling influence.) Won't be a slave to a distant "government", either. Avoid if possible, stay invisible, and go where the government is less onerous.

Yeah, I'd love to just jump into a shirt and go shopping or what have you regardless of pantyhose or shaved legs, OR trying to be the least bit fem, too!! What the fuck? Women wear pants all the time and nobody says a thing about it!! Why shouldn't I be allowed to wear a skirt?? Again, safety in numbers and the more of us that do it, and the more often we do it, the more acceptable it will become!! Got any male friends, potential TS's or not, that would like to wear skirts in public with you? Get them all together some day and go someplace where you'll be seen by lots of people. Take girlfriends with you so they can't say you're gay! MOST people will either applaud you, or join you!! The more you have, the less likely you'll all be attacked!! I've had guys show up on their own at our gigs wearing skirts and they walk up to me and say they did it in my honour! Others would DEMAND that I wear the skirt!! They knew I had a girlfriend!
The strange thing about guys wearing skirts, though, is that women that see you will happily walk up to you, flip your skirt into the air over your waist and go "Woohoo!!", and expect you to just stand there and take it, but, as soon as you try to do it to them...!!

Yeah - the women. They think they are "getting even." They're SO OPPRESSED, the poor dears. Men tried for generations to shelter them; the code of chivalry was meant to prevent women from being injured, in part; it also regulated conduct on the battlefield. In addition, there were rules for the WOMEN to follow - which we have essentially thrown out. Modesty, chastity, honor, these were feminine values. Women were expected to live up to the code, too, in order to GAIN the respect a LADY - not just a woman - was due. Now, reality vs. chivalric ideals, I'd wager reality was different. But you can't demand all the perks, and provide nothing from your end of the contract. Women demand the man pay. Women demand to be cherished, treated like a queen. What happens when a man does this? If he's lucky, she sort of "throws it back at him" now and again - like one ex GF, she'd pay the bill when we went out whenever she could, she'd take care of me whenever she could. The current one? Not so much - I got played for a sucker. And I'm still paying. and it's truly amazing when you read of a man paying half his income in alimony, and he says he's happier than he's been in years, and there's always money. More money than month, for the first time since she entered his life. And she might've even been earning more than he, that's becoming more common, too. But again, if he doesn't pay for it all...? He's not worth her time.
SO oppressed.... Men try all sorts of stupid actions and activities just to get her attention, and the women chastise those men for being "neaderthals" or such. But withdraw all that attention, what do they do? Cutting is up, alcohol abuse is up, satisfaction with life is down, antidepressants are being popped like tic-tacs.
But if you'll go out in a skirt? They'll ridicule you, flip the skirt up, I've even heard of groping and being hit in the crotch.
All in the name of "equality" and "Now YOU know what it's like." (and that's the ones who don't just yell out, "PERVERT" or such.)
But GOD FORBID you try to defend yourself, even just holding her off if she's trying to claw you. [also suggest the Amazon Prime series, Transparent. See the bathroom scene at the mall. Makes both examples, in fact.]

As to bringing others in on it - I think we'll always be "abnormal" in that sense. Androgynous or male-oriented skirts have been on the runways for years already; they don't sell. Men don't take "skirts" seriously. (and many women leverage this, too. I guess it's true that men can only think with one head at a time...? :-P :-( Given my SO's idea of foreplay would make a sailor blush... It's real easy to keep the RIGHT head focused.)
Men for some reason prefer to have on trousers. (Technically, "pants" are for women - contraction of "pantaloons," aka bloomers.) I agree it's more practical; I'm irritated by the fact that women can dress as they want, to the point of being inappropriate at work, and no one says anything... But a man can't wear panties, even "granny panties," without being shamed, maybe attacked. "People of walmart" has many examples, including guys wearing women's thongs. They're held up for ridicule. They'd be held up for ridicule if they were wearing Men's thongs, too. But a woman's thong, when that shows, it's "sexy." Why? Because, really, she's ADVERTISING. (I.E., saying she's easy, in the warped but "normal" mind. WTF?) Same as a low-cut sirt, a short skirt, sheer blouse, "FMPs," etc. What's the male equivalent? The fast (expensive) car, expensive watch, Italian leather shoes, and deference of other men to his "status" (Charisma and power, mostly by raw physical power and force of personality. Any sort of non-Alpha male is discarded as "not a man" by women. She might settle for one when her looks start to go - she'll also ask, "where did all the good men go?" while pretending that "40 is the new 18".... Hey, it's a free country - she can pretend and be delusional all she wants. And I can walk away. :-) I don't owe her anything, she doesn't owe me anything (beyond basic courtesy; we still must be civil to each other. Which stops the Skirt bit, too, which is also classed as "rape" now, BTW - if you do it to her.)

We also need to keep in mind that women are at least as competitive as men, it's just not as blatant. (It's also ongoing, she's ALWAYS competing - whereas, with men, it's usually not a grudge match. One beats the other, they shake hands and move on. Women will continue to shun and snipe each other, even at work.) Maybe it's more of a, "I don't really know what's coming." (Meaning, for me, wanting to be feminine.) I'm also coming tot he conclusion that MANY people are in fact, low-class, in the old sense, "commoners." Peasants, who will never be more than. Parochial (closed-down, small) minded. petty, venal. Again, claiming for be religious, they'll claim they're inclusive and Christian (or other), and then they go out of church and beat their children, abuse their wife, slander their neighbor, etc, etc, etc. Christian in name only, to riff on "RINO." Whatever happened to the "golden rule?" Do we NEED weapons at all, if people would be decent? No. But since we're in the real world? Well, mentioned that above.

I am hopeful I can get some of my basics straightened out, and move on a bit - got a LOT of baggage, it would be helpful if I could just leave it behind somewhere. It's the sort of approach I'd treid to use on this: Finances and work sorted, cute girl who's "in the know" about me, and still wants to be with me; and, she's an adult. Control body weight, work on beard removal and FFS, do as much of a "stealth" transition as possible. Come out only when necessary, and enjoy life at that point (not that I was supposed to be miserable in the lead-up to that.) Somehow, I went so far off course, I don't even know what PLANET I'm on any more.
I think it would be GREAT if I could rewind life a bit... Failing that, lose the whole bi-gender bit. Failing that, if I can make myself passable. Failing THAT, ... Dunno, I'm stumped.

So there IS some envy of Jenner, no doubt. :-)