My family doesn't accept me, it feels like.

[Guest]

When I came out about being Transgender in 2016, my dad and his girlfriend totally dismissed the idea and told me to knock it off and be a girl. I stayed on the down low for the rest of that school year, because I was going through programs and I didn't want to make my situation more stressful, but in doing that, I wasn't happy at all. I just wanted to be myself. My dad and his girlfriend thought that meant being Rachel Marie, but it really meant being Rea Micheal. Then I thought, if I come out as Gender fluid, it might ease somethings up a bit. When my dad got rid of the abusive girlfriend, I came out via Messenger through Face Book. He said he's happy with me no matter what, but to me, it feels like he's making fun of me. I mean, granted one day, he respected my pronouns and said, 'Son,' And I thought I was going to cry because I was so happy, but one day, he asked me 'What are you today? A boy or a Girl?', at my uncle's house, in front of half of the family. My brother and cousin said non binary, laughing at me, and every body else just stared at me, bringing up the anxiety. He wanted to argue about my gender in front of my uncle, which is not how I wanted him to find out.

It just feels like every time he brings it up, he means it out of mockery, which kind of makes me regret bringing it up to him in the first place. I don't know how to make it more apparent to him that I'm serious.

[2NDFLOOR]

So you're describing some good and some bad things in your post. On one hand it's good that you're father at least says he accepts you and used your pronoun correctly. On the other hand, I can only imagine how that made you feel saying things like that in front of your family. Sometimes people make jokes about things they don't understand or make them uncomfortable (doesn't make it ok), maybe if your Dad had somewhat of an education about transgender he would be more understand of your situation. Maybe refer him to a website like this http://www.thetrevorproject.org/page...ender-identity and see if that does anything to increase his understanding. I don't know if you've already tried this, but maybe sitting down face to face with just you and him and telling him how that behavior made you feel may help. Maybe he doesn't fully realize how much he is hurting you. Also if you do that, make sure you also tell him how happy it made you when he used your correct pronoun. People tend to respond more to positive reinforcement than being told they're doing something wrong. Call or text us anytime at 888-222-2228.