Denise - New Beginning

She felt great gratitude to her parents for supporting her. And thankfulness that they could afford the expenses associated with preoperative transition. They had been able to send her to a supportive school that had allowed her to attend as a girl. She had even had a date for the prom. Good grades had gotten her a full ride to the state university that didn't care about her sexual persuasion.

Surgery was another matter. It would have been terribly expensive. As she felt shouldn't place any further burden on her parents and opted to postpone it indefinitely. She had settled into a job she really enjoyed with a good company. I knew she was somewhat socially active in the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual) community. As to whether she had a sex life, she didn't tell and I didn't ask.

So life was pretty comfortable with my intelligent, appreciative, possibly celibate, preoperative transsexual roommate. We enjoyed each other's company and made no demands on one another. I admired her strength and courage.

*******

A new phase in our relationship launched when Denise's birthday rolled around. Her parents had missed her birthday last year because of her dad's work, but they were going to come up this year to help her celebrate. She was really excited. I was looking forward to meeting people who could be such loving, supportive parents. My parents had been good to me and loved me. I would like to think that they would have reacted as Denise's mom and dad did, but I had never confronted them with anything near the magnitude of a gender identity problem.

We spent the week before their arrival tidying the place up and preparing Margot's old room for them to stay in. Fortunately, Margot had left her "so last year" bedroom furniture behind, including a queen size bed. As their arrival on Thursday approached, I began to feel a little trepidation. After all, theirs was a tad beyond the typical relationship and my relationship with Denise wasn't what you'd call normal. I knew I would have to expend every effort not to commit a major faux pas. Oh well, I would put on a happy face and do my best.