It's National Coming Out Day, dear readers!  I had dozens of mini-coming out stories submitted to my little contest, and wanted to share my top 10  favorites with you:

I was 18 in Idaho in 1980 when I fell in love with a girl.  I came out, got fired from my job, kicked out of an apartment, driven off the road, threatened with a shotgun and blacklisted in the town I lived in.  I moved to Los Angeles.
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Told my parents I was bisexual. They asked, "Are you sure you're not a lesbian?" Oh, good job. 
Told my mom. She cried. Then I got a girlfriend, told everyone at my Catholic school I liked girls, and buzzed my head. She got over it.

Me: (on ladder in Mom’s apartment, hanging paintings)
Mom: Honey, why do you dress like a man?
Me: (gets off ladder. deep breath) Because I’m gay, Mom. Actually, I’m bisexual, but gay will do.
Mom: (shocked pause) Does your husband know?
Me: Yes.
Mom: (thoughtful) Oh. My goodness. Okay then.

37. Dyke teacher. Dream. She actually had a two flat. One and a half hours of "ummm"..."ah"...and silence. Her patience. My revelation. Coming Out group. Me to therapist "I just realized I'm a lesbian and I'm happy. Is that normal?" Validation. A femme is born.

Was on the phone with a friend, joking that telling my parents I had a girlfriend wouldn't be a big deal, but since they had always said I was the son they never had but this might be taking it too far. Mom walked in, said "your dad owes me money. I won the bet."

I won this huge ass button that said, I like boys, at a carnival when I was 11. The next day in the girls bathroom at school, I asked a friend if she wanted the button. She asked me why I didn't want it and I said " I like girls."

Coming out to my grandfather. Everybody in the family thought that this would kill him. Me: "Pop, we have a huge thing in common..." He: "...?..." "Well, we both fall in love only with women - this is still great, isn't it?" He: "...*pondering*...*penny has dropped*...*beaming*..."
 
I was 24 and engaged to a guy. Decided to go camping overnight with a couple of old high school friends who were lesbians. Played truth or dare and stated that I really wanted to kiss one of them. It happened. Next day I dumped my fiance and moved out.

I was 22 and married when I started to get those "uh oh" moments. I didn't know who I could tell, and for some reason I went to my 17-year-old sister, terrified. Now, we share that day as our coming out day to each other!

My daughter came out to me one day when we went out to lunch and that gave me the strength to come out, 2 weeks later! That was about 15 years ago!

I picked that last one as the winner.  Something about the idea of someone from the younger generation giving someone from the older generation the inspiration to come out just really moved me.  Thanks to everyone who shared their coming out stories.  I know how hard this can be, even if you always seemed like a lesbian . (Longtime readers will remember that I shared mine in five parts back in 2011.  See Butch Wonders, Coming Out Married, Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.)  Happy coming out day to everyone who is out, as well as everyone who is thinking about coming out.  We're rooting for you!
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I got a question from a reader  wondering whether she should come out as bi: "Is it worth coming out as bisexual if you're not dating someone of the same gender?  Should I just wait until it's necessary to say?"

This is a great question--and one with which lots of bisexual people struggle. Ultimately, it's highly personal, and like any coming out question, the key isn't when it's "necessary" to anyone else; it's whether coming out is important to you. 

(<Btw, Kalinda Sharma on "The Good Wife" is the most interesting bisexual character on television, in my opinion.)  

Bisexuality can feel "invisible." When you're with someone of the opposite sex, people tend to assume you're straight; when you're with someone of the same sex, people tend to assume you're gay.  

I know it's not fair that people make these assumptions, but I admit that I do the same.  I know at least two out bisexual women who are married to men and have biological kids with them. They're living a "straight" life and are indistinguishable from other straight people. It's not that I'm "denying" their sexuality, just that I don't really think about people's sexuality beyond their current relationship unless they're talking to me about it, referring to a same-sex ex, or waving a Pride flag at me.

Here are a few things you might want to consider in your decision about whether to come out as bi:

• Some people don't like "passing" as straight when they're not. Will it bother you if people assume you're straight? Will you feel like you're "hiding" part of yourself?
• Some people prefer to pass as straight because it makes life easier with family, strangers, etc.  One bisexual woman told me, "Since I have a choice, I only date men. Why would I make my life harder than it needs to be?"  Does this resonate with you?
• Will it bother you if you're dating someone of the same gender and people assume you're gay?  Some people are bothered by this. Others prefer it, because they like being part of the queer community.  
• For some people it's important that their friends know who they "really" are. 
• People in social circles do talk about this stuff.  If you're out as bi, prospective dating partners of both sexes might feel free to express interest in you.  
• How long have you known that you're bi? 
• You don't have to come out to everyone at once.  You might come out to one or two very close friends and see how you feel.  You also don't need to come out in every setting.  For example, some people don't come out at work because they don't think it's important.
• If you haven't done so already, you might read some stuff about coming out as bisexual.  This will help you anticipate some of the comments/questions you might receive.  

Since this is a decision I've never had to make, I can't speak from personal experience.  But I can say that I much prefer being "out" as who I am over not being out as who I am.  

I know I have plenty of bisexual readers out there.  Any other advice you'd share?

First off: Caitlyn Jenner is a brave human being.  Anyone who has the courage to come out as something different--as something that others make fun of or ridicule or malign is brave.  It takes courage to be yourself whenever "yourself" isn't what most other people are.  

I've been increasingly bothered by the rhetoric surrounding Jenner's coming out, and about the precise nature of the ostensibly supportive comments I've been reading and hearing.  The ones that bother me most have come from well-meaning straight women in the public eye who talk about how beautiful Caitlyn is (true) and how courageous she is (also true), and who show a sudden empathy for the plight of all trans people (by which, frankly, they tend to mean trans women).   (Sidenote: I'm going to use the term "straight women" in this post to refer to a particular kind of straight woman that tends to: (1) embrace the gender binary (2) but support gay rights (3) but glare at me in the women's restroom.  You know the type.  If you're a straight woman who reads this blog all the time and doesn't look askance at butches in the restroom, please know that I'm not talking about you.)

It's not that Caitlyn Jenner doesn't deserve kudos and support--she certainly does!   But a significant chunk of the mainstream support I've seen seems to totally embrace gender norms.  If Caitlyn looked like, say, Rachel Maddow, I daresay that she would have fewer straight female supporters talking on podcasts and posting on Facebook pages about much they love and support her.   Nor, I suspect, would she have graced the cover of Vanity Fair.  I do not think Bruce Jenner coming out as a woman is the big draw.  I think the big draw is Bruce Jenner coming out as a woman of a certain kind--as a woman who embraces the type of femininity that fits neatly into the existing gender binary with which people are comfortable.  I don't think they're thinking, "Wow, this really complicates how I think about gender!"  I think they're thinking, "Wow, this gorgeous woman was trapped in a man's body!"

As a New York Times article astutely pointed out the other day, the brain-body distinction is not so clear. Here's an excerpt:

While young [Bruce Jenner] was being cheered on toward a university athletic scholarship, few female athletes could dare hope for such largess since universities offered little funding for women’s sports. When Mr. Jenner looked for a job to support himself during his training for the 1976 Olympics, he didn’t have to turn to the meager “Help Wanted – Female” ads in the newspapers, and he could get by on the $9,000 he earned annually, unlike young women whose median pay was little more than half that of men. Tall and strong, he never had to figure out how to walk streets safely at night.  Those are realities that shape women’s brains.

Which is true, at least to some extent.  To say that Jenner always had a "woman's brain" doesn't take into account that she had a man's social experiences--and that our experiences powerfully shape our brain chemistry, our pocketbooks, and our self-understandings.   Acknowledging this doesn't make Jenner any less of a woman (something the article really seems to miss).  But not acknowledging this minimizes the social experiences of cis women and girls, and reduces trans identity to a simple case of "wrong brain, wrong body."  Jenner had a certain set of experiences particular to her identity, and they should be respected in and of themselves.

Frankly, I'm also jealous.  I wish that straight women would embrace women who look like me with as much openness as I see them embracing Caitlyn Jenner.   In short, I wish that straight women's newfound "acceptance" of different versions of what it means to be a woman extended more broadly in my own direction, not just in Caitlyn's--that they would show so much love and support for women whose gender presentation and ideas of womanhood don't look like their own.

I don't remember much about my sex ed class.  I attended a handful of different elementary and middle schools, and I remember: (1) the girls being separated from the boys; (2) being shown some kind of cartoon about sperm and eggs; (3) our PE teacher telling us we needed to use deodorant from now on.  I also remember leaving the sex ed video being suddenly unsure about whether sex was what made babies.  I had thought so going into it, but the movie hadn't said anything about sex, and the animated version of fertilization seemed pretty divorced from two people doing it.

There was, of course, nothing at all about homosexuality, bisexuality, or gender identity or expression.  The curriculum basically assumed that when girls grew up and got boobs, they would suddenly be interested in boys, dresses, and makeup.  Growing up meant a continued separation of the sexes, and it meant that girls and boys couldn't really be friends after puberty.  If you were a "tomboy," you'd grow out of it.  Even if the curriculum had included something about homosexuality, the culture in the various working-class suburbs from which I hail would have never allowed it to be taken seriously.  If anyone had "come out" in my high school or middle school, they'd have been ostracized and probably beaten to a pulp.

I know that some schools still teach sex ed basically this way, and in other schools it's way more progressive.  I was super heartened to stumble on a blog post written earlier this year that translates part of a pamphlet that Dutch girls are given.  I was floored by how incredibly progressive and awesome and inclusive it was.  Here's my favorite part:

Take the time to figure it out! Are you uncertain whether you’re lesbian? That’s perfectly natural. Often, you’ll know after puberty what you are exactly. In any case, try to enjoy it if you fall in love, whether it’s with a girl or a boy.

Wait, what?  Seriously?  No big deal either way?  Love is love; just enjoy it?  Can you imagine having been given something like this when you were a kid? Would it have mattered?  And can any of my younger readers talk about what sex ed is like in the U.S. these days?

Trans issues have popped up on Butch Wonders quite a bit in the past, so when a super-smart English professor I knew came out as trans, I shamelessly pounced on the chance to ask him all kinds of questions about his process and identity.

BW: How long have you "known" that you're trans?  What does it mean to know?

Allen: I've known that I was not quite cisgendered for several years, and I've felt trans off and on for several years, but more solidly during the last six months.

BW: Can you give an example of something that makes you feel non-cisgendered?  After all, I've always hated and felt totally uncomfortable in "girly" things.  It just feels not-me.  Is that what you mean by feeling non-cisgendered, or is it different?

Allen:  Those feelings of discomfort with "girly things" are part of it for me, but it also includes dysphoric feelings about my body, such as feeling really psychologically uncomfortable with my female chest and even more minor things like my female-looking neck, female hairline, etc.  I have also never liked to be called a girl, woman, or even "tomboy," since "tomboy" suggests that one is not a real boy!  So all of these things are part of my feelings of not being cisgendered.

BW: I hate the word "tomboy," too.  To me, it always suggested that my "boyishness" was a phase I'd grow out of!  I resented that, even as a kid, because I knew that there was something in me that other people saw as boyish, and I knew that it wasn't going to change.  Okay, so say more about the feelings and knowledge of being trans.

Allen: I use those words--felt/feel trans or male--instead of "know," because to me, the transition process centers on feeling more than knowledge.  For me, it's not an issue of "knowing" I'm trans, but one of being ready and willing to feel my feelings.

BW: How do you know you're not just taking advantage of "male privilege," since in most places it's easier to be a gender-conforming male than a non-gender-conforming female? 

Allen: Because when I'm allowing myself to feel male and when others view me as and call me male, I just feel happier and feel I'm more able to express myself and let go of hesitation and self-consciousness and depression, even when I'm only in the company of loving, supportive people like my wife and my mom.  Male privilege doesn't come into play with such people, yet I am much happier being male even in such small company.

BW: So, with these people like your wife and your mom, what does it mean to be treated "like a man?"  Can you give an example?

Allen:  That’s a great question.  They don't treat me especially differently, actually; I think the main things that make me feel male and make me feel good in such circumstances are that they don’t call me girl terms and that as male I'm able to feel happier inside my own head, which causes interactions to automatically feel better.  An example of the first is that my mom has always called my wife and me "the girls," but now she is trying her hardest to not do this.  And my wife calls me "hubby" instead of "wife," which is validating. 

BW: Do you still ID as butch?  Do you ID as a straight man? 

Allen: No, I don't identify as butch anymore.  To me personally, "butch" implies being something other than a guy, and I feel like a guy.  I'd probably just lean towards calling myself a guy, or a trans guy.  I like those terms.  I'd be more likely to identify as a straight man than as butch, but "straight man" feels a bit confining.  I am about 99.8 percent straight, but the associations that go along with that term—e.g., uptight, not queer or trans, "bro"—don't feel so great to me.

BW: What's the other .2%?  Attraction to guys (since you're a guy)?

Allen: Well, yes; in my lifetime I've had genuine crushes on two men!  But nothing ever happened with that.

BW: It seems like few trans men date butches, though I can think of plenty of trans men who date men (either cisgendered or trans), as well as plenty of trans men who date feminine-presenting women.  Why so few butch-trans male couples?  Or am I wrong about this?

Allen: Yeah, I can't think of any transmen dating butch women, that I know of.  But maybe there are some!  I don’t think I have any answers here.

BW: I suspect there are some out there somewhere.  (Any BW readers want to chime in?)  So as you were dealing with all this gender identity stuff, how did your wife respond?

Allen: We've been together for more than nine years, so I've talked with her about my gender feelings for the entire time I've been exploring my identity.  So it is certainly not a surprise to her that I'm trans.  She is very supportive and happy for me, which I'm grateful for, and she is excited for my future happiness and our future in a potentially better relationship!  After all, if both people in a relationship are able to be fulfilled and comfortable, doesn't the relationship end up better for it? 

BW: I would certainly think so!

Allen: Also, she's had relationships in the past with cisgendered men, women, and transmen, so she can certainly be attracted to maleness.  While she feels disappointed about not being able to refer to her "wife" and thus be recognized by others as queer, and while she's sometimes nervous about how my personality may change on T (I don't think it'll change radically), she is supportive and hopeful.

BW:  How are you going to decide whether to get surgeries?  Is that a hard decision? 

Allen: It's an easy decision to get top surgery, which I'm getting on August 5!  Or rather, the decision is easy at this point, after I've debated, analyzed, and overthought about transitioning for at least eight years!  I decided to get top surgery because I am mentally uncomfortable about my chest every single day of every month and year. 

BW: Uncomfortable how?

Allen: The look and feel of my chest bothers me intensely.  I feel a deep, intense, and excited longing to have a male chest.  To me, it sounds better than any Christmas present I could imagine!  As for lower surgery, I'm not even thinking about that right now.  I have always thought I will not get lower surgery, due to the cost, pain, risk, and my current lack of desire for it (partly due to the less than perfect results of FTM lower surgeries).  But we'll see how my feelings develop over the years. 

BW: Are you worried about any changes in your social life?

Allen: I'm worried about cisgender guys saying sexist things while hanging out with me (which I've not yet experienced but have heard a lot about from other transguys).  I think that would be depressing, and it could be challenging for me to challenge them and "call them on it," but I would do my best, since anyone who spouts sexist ideas or attitudes should be called on it. 

BW: Any medical worries?

Allen: Medically, I'm most worried about increased risk of heart disease and cancer of female reproductive organs.  However, these are not gigantic risks, because I read a scientific study on somewhat long-term HRT in trans people which suggested that FTM heart disease risk is not really higher than that of cisgender men, and I have a healthy lifestyle.  And like many transmen, I plan to have surgery to take out my ovaries and uterus in several years, if I still feel like I want and need to be on T long-term.  This prevents cancers of those organs and also reduces internal hormone "battles."

BW: You've referred in the past to having "access to the male parts" of yourself.  Which are male non-physical parts, and which are female?  And doesn’t almost any answer assume that women "are" a certain way and men "are" a certain, different way? 

Allen: This is a very complicated question to answer.  I'm not sure it can really be explained.  The short version is that my deepest spirit feels male. 

BW: I think I understand that.  Because even though I have a ton in common with lots of trans men, reject many socially "feminine" things, etc., men remain "other" to me.  I guess a lot of women remain "other" too.  But I have no desire, for example, to exist in all-male social spaces as a man.  I don't know if I ID strongly with one gender or the other, really.  But being called "she" is much more comfortable to me than "he."  My own deepest spirit feels female, I suppose, though in a different way from stereotypical femaleness.  I am very aware, on a basic level, of feeling "other." 

Allen:  I'm not sure that I feel much of a female part of my inner being.  To quantify it, I feel like 80% of myself feels male, and the other 20% might be genderless.  Obviously there are many stereotypical activities, mannerisms, etc. that could be labeled as female or feminine, like certain ways that I sometimes sit on a couch, for example.  Or being emotional.  These things don't feel very female to me, when I do them; they just feel human.  So I won't even get into any such stereotypes any further right here.

BW: Are you afraid of getting a hairy chest?  I totally would be.

Allen: Haha.  No.  I think that a hairy chest would feel foreign to me at first, but then, it would occur very gradually.  Especially after I get top surgery, I think a hairy chest would be OK.  Sometimes it seems weird to me that I am currently relatively hairless (since I've only just recently started T), so perhaps more body hair would actually feel less weird.

BW: You've said that you prefer to be treated as male.  In social situations, does being "treated male" mean being treated with more respect?  If men and women were treated identically in social situations, do you still think you'd want to be male? 

Allen: Yes, I would still feel male and want to be male regardless of social equality issues, since I feel much better, happier, and more like myself as male even in private social situations, even in groups of women.  Especially in groups of women. 

BW: Like when, for example?

Allen: A few years ago, I was part of a lesbian book group that met monthly.  I always felt a little "off" or like a misfit in this group, and I always felt angsty when I would prepare to go to the group: I'd have this urge to dress not just in a T-shirt, which is what I wear on 100% of my days off, but something more decidedly masculine like a button-up shirt.  I really chafed against blending in with the other women.  They were very friendly and cool people, but still.  I felt frustrated when I would sit with them in the book group. 

BW: That is so interesting!  I'm guessing that plenty of them were butch or masculine-identified women.  But you still felt a desire to define yourself oppositionally to the others in the group.

Allen: I felt that in portraying myself as a woman (since the group was only for women), I was not revealing my real self and was thus invisible.  This is a horrible, depressing feeling that I think no one should have to experience.  So now, presenting as male in social or work situations, I feel happy and visible, and instead of the dulling and quieting feeling of invisibility, which just made me feel like not talking a whole lot, I feel a positive energy that inspires me to talk more, put myself out there more, and let others get to know me more. 

BW: Are you afraid of not being treated or seen as "one of the butches?"  (This comes from your earlier statement that you don’t ID as butch—I’m not suggesting that trans men can’t be butch.)

Allen: No, I’m not afraid of not being seen or treated as "one of the butches."  I don't identify as butch and am extremely far from wanting to identify as a woman, so I would feel more validated and comfortable if I were not viewed as a butch woman.  I actually don't think things will change much for me in this regard, as I have never felt like "one of the butches." I've never had any close butch friends and have never been part of a butch group of friends.  This is kind of sad, since I wanted this for many years.  But I found that butch women who wanted to be friends with me were almost nonexistent, and many butches were in cliques that I couldn't manage to work my way into. 

BW: You're awesome! I want to be your butch friend!  I have a few close butch friends, but never a group of butch friends.  In part, I've felt like butches en masse can sometimes be a little "bro"-ish.  (I'm not saying this is how butches are, just describing my own experience.)  Particularly since I don't date femmes, I tend to feel like a bit of an outsider.

Allen: I can relate to that; I have also felt that groups of butches were like that!  I've already made a number of FTM friends and am surprised at how much we relate and how easy I find it to talk with them and how much I DO want to be one of them.  I guess that's a sign that I'm doing the right thing in transitioning!  Most of the transguys I've met are less "bro" and more "regular guys" and seem to have less of a "macho" front.  I don't know if this is just reflective of the types of guys who choose to go to the FTM support group where I've met friends, or what!

BW: That's super interesting.  I've never been around big groups of FTMs, but have been in mixed butch/FTM groups, which to me didn't feel significantly different from all-butch groups.  But in any case, it sounds like you have an awesome support group!  How are your female-ID'd butch friends reacting?  My background for asking is this: I had a close friend transition, and although I was super proud of him, it was weird being seen in public with him as a man and a woman, rather than as two gender nonconforming women.  We had been existing in the world in a similar way (as people who "didn't belong"), then all of a sudden, he was seen as a "regular" person—just a normal dude.  But I was still a gender nonconforming "other;" he fit in and I didn't!  Does this make any sense? 

Allen: Yes, that does make sense.  Well, as I said, I have never had any close butch friends, none that I hang out with regularly.  But the ones I know, like on Facebook, have been very supportive of me, as far as I can tell.  I value that a lot.  Yes, I do get to fit in—at a stranger's first glance, anyway—more than a visibly genderqueer person or butch woman would. Actually, for many years now, strangers in public have tended to perceive me as male about 90% of the time, judging by the frequency at which I was "sir-ed" and so forth.  So I think strangers often view(ed) me as a "regular guy," even when I was pre-T, so this will not be much of a change, actually.

BW: Gotcha.

Allen: One example that comes to mind is when I was walking to the BART train after attending the Trans March in San Francisco last week.  There were two couples ahead of me, further down the block, who had a "dykey" appearance.  A couple of homeless guys called out some mildly insulting remark about "lesbians" to them, which I thought was awful and scary.  The men hardly looked at me.  Really the only thought I had here was that I felt sorry for those folks ahead of me and glad that I could blend in.

BW: That reminds me of a time my butch-appearing partner and I were walking back from dinner with a friend and got yelled at by some guy who called us "batty men" (an offensive slang term for gay men).  I wanted to tell him, "You’re mean--and wrong!"  It was odd to be gay-bashed incorrectly.  But I did think about how encounters like this would be easier if I/we looked like a more conventional couple.

Allen: Yeah, it just happens to be that I feel most myself when I appear to be kind of a conventional dude.  By chance.  So I can sometimes avoid people viewing me as unusual.  But this is a side effect of my transition and my clothing choices, not a reason for them.

BW: Do you expect that being a man will affect your career as a professor positively or negatively? 

Allen: I don't expect it to affect my career much either way.  The hiring process at state-funded colleges, the only places I want to work, is very regularized and doesn’t allow (in theory) for any discrimination or personal preferences of the hiring committees.  However, many English departments are predominantly female these days, so, ironically, I could potentially add some diversity by being male!

BW: Okay, one more question: Is it the case that you were always "really" male, or that you have decided that you would be more comfortable "becoming" male? 

Allen: I feel mostly male on the inside—in my mind, heart, and spirit—so I am already male, rather than becoming male, in those ways.  I am becoming male on the outside, and I'm thus giving more life and sustenance to my mind, heart, and spirit, which are in the process of becoming less hidden and quiet and more alive and visible and strong.

BW: Good for you!  I think it's awesome that you have the courage to be seen the way you want to be seen, and to live life as your true, authentic self.  Thank you for taking the time to chat, particularly about something so important and personal.