The building I work in houses two companies. So today, when we had a fire drill, the employees of both companies filed out to the parking lot.
While I was waiting for the drill to end, I was standing next to one of my fellow workers, who is gay. I mentioned to him that you do not realize how many people work for the other company until there is a fire drill.
He asked me if I had ever noticed the transgender person who worked for the other company. He added that the trans person was very tall, wore heels and did not pass.
I admitted that I had never seen her. And the conversation shifted gears.
Here are a few takeaways from that exchange.
1) My fellow worker used the word "transgender." It was refreshing to hear a civilian use the correct terminology. Perhaps, the fact that he is gay made a difference and/or maybe he used the correct term in deference to me, which brings up the second takeaway.
2) He knows I am transgender. (Ya think!?!) Maybe after my three Halloween at work en femme appearances, he put two and two together (or should I say, three and three). He was very good friends with a former employee, who I came out to. She was prone to gossip, so maybe she told him.
3) If he knows, I am sure other people at work know or at least suspect.
I don't mind or care who knows, but I am always curious about how people find out or figure it out.
Three femulators at a bar in Provincetown, Massachusetts, during Fantasia Fair in 1993.
Wearing Tahari Arthur S. Levine.