Dear Emma,

There will always be a certain number of Lesbians that will not accept you as a woman. They, hopefully, will be in the minority (large minority?), or even the majority (small majority?)

The question is, do you need to be accepted and friends with EVERYONE? 

In my case, some people, Lesbians included, do not accept me for being a woman of size, poor, disabled, and average-looking. As I see it, that's THEIR LOSS, not mine!

You have to accept, like me, that you will win no popularity contests, but should REJOICE that you have a SMALL CIRCLE OF QUALITY FRIENDS. 

Take my word for it, most "popular" women (and men for that matter!) are NO MORE HAPPIER in the long run than the average Jane or Joe. Saw this for myself over and over, and now studies prove it!

Accept their friendship for what it is, and always keep searching to ADD to your circle of friends. Perhaps they will rethink their attitudes when they see your new friends accept you for the woman you are.

Your friend,

Monica

Hi Emma, you brought up a subject that weighed me down for so many, many years until I finally reconciled during a long process (almost life-long) of self examination.  I can only relate to myself as we are all different and similar, but still quite unique in our own right.   That is just it, I am unique, I don't think of myself as a woman, but never ever thought of myself truly as a man...for sure.  I am transgender, which is quite a remarkable thing, and I am happy beyond any belief I could have ever expected..  I truly believe I have the best of both genders, now, and not everybody can say that.  Have always wanted to be some beautiful, shapely, feminine girl with long flowing hair, but that's never gonna happen, no matter how much surgery I get.  But....nobody on this planet is better than Emma, just as nobody on the planet is better than Jessica, either, and that holds true for all of us!  I may never be able to get GRS, much less FFS, but you know what?  I'm gonna make damn sure that other people see me as I feel, not as I look, and I'm proud of it.

Jess🙋‍♀️   

Yeah, I keep at it, trying to just be myself and let my freak flag fly. That’s what we used to say back in the day about our long hair. It felt cool to stand up against the Establishment. Funny that at my ripe age that it’s more important for me to assimilate. 

The main problem, my therapist advised this morning, is that I get too wrapped up in my thinking patterns, which have been my go-to patterns for ~60 years. The key is to recognize the thinking and then focus attention elsewhere, on almost anything, to break the pattern even momentarily. That’s my assignment for this week, give it a try. 

Aye aye, Cap’n! Will do.