F-A-G-E-T-T-E

Camp Trans was amazing.

Our friends were picking R and I up at my house, so she met me an hour or so before we left. I checked my email, and found a response from my boss.

She said that she was worried at first that I was quitting, due to the mysterious long email. I had hoped that her response would be positive, and it ended up exceeding my expectations. She is "100% supportive", and has conveniently had a friend transition. The friend is a trans guy as well. So it's pretty much the perfect starting place. My boss even said that she's excited about all of this, and she had a meeting with everyone in the office on Monday to explain things to the rest of the employees. Everyone was apparently fine with it, and I was told in the email that if anyone ends up having a problem, "they can leave".

There's a possible staff "retreat" in the works (nothing cheesy, just something fun and short) - some safe space to talk about serious concerns and bring everyone together. While the idea of a staff retreat is kind of hilarious to me, it's a whole different ballgame when your boss is a radical agnostic(?) trans-friendly queermo who would be just fine with capitalism ending tomorrow. Aside from some accidental pronoun slip ups here and there (which I expected), everything is going perfectly.

Anyway, R and I finally met up with our ride, and met a new friend who filled our remaining seat. After a quick lunch, we set out on what ended up being a fairly short ride. For those who don't know, Camp Trans started as a protest against the Michigan Women's Music Festival's "womyn born womyn" policy. There's a lot of controversy surrounding the policy, and lots of internet arguments for different sides. I personally think that the policy is unnecessary and transphobic. Lots of info is available on the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Trans

There has been a lot of work done to combat the policy, and this year, transwomen from Camp Trans were admitted into the Fest. They voluntarily outed themselves at the gate to contest the WBW policy, that has been changing in the past few years. When asked if their trans status would be an issue with getting a ticket, the gate staff replied "No, why would it be?"

My favorite part about Camp Trans was the feeling of being in a giant family. Everyone said hello to each other as they passed, conversations with random strangers felt comfortable and warm. My friends and I conveniently camped next to some of the most hilarious and rad kids in the known universe. I learned that Sailor Jerry spiced rum and A&W rootbeer are perfect for stargazing. One of the things I miss most in the city are the stars. In the middle of nowhere, you can see the milky way, dozens of shooting stars, and tiny satellites. In the city, the night sky is barf sherbet - purple, pink and orange all together. We found a natural clearing with winding anthills and strange beige ants. I got to show R how to find Polaris, the north star. I learned that "tired" is the best possible way of indicating you are over something, as in "that's a tired old scene" said in the faggiest voice available. I really wanted to keep all of my clothes smelling like campfire as long as possible, but I ended up washing them. Now I can't tell if I intentionally burned this bag of microwave popcorn or not.

Also, if you haven't heard of Athens Boys Choir: http://www.athensboyschoir.com/

Harvey Katz is the fucking bomb. #1 dude crush forever. ABC played at Camp Trans, and I got to be in a scavenger hunt with Harvey. Gotta love backwoods bonding with fagalicious mens.



Being back was kind of an out-of-body experience. Everyone at work seemed to be magically using different pronouns. It wasn't strange in a bad way, but after feeling like some undercover tranny spy for so long, I'm sure I'll be getting used to this for a while. Today, my boss had a friend come in for some temp work, and we bonded over Against Me! and the World/Inferno Friendship Society. Being out around guys in the not-just-my-friends "real" world is really strange. Part of me is itching to start more of a physical transition so I don't feel like so much of a weirdo, and part of me hates feeling that way in the first place. With women I can be dudely, with dudes I don't feel dudely enough. At least I don't feel like I have to physically transition to fit in, but it's a strange world of new dynamics and confusing bullshit.

But then again - one of the day's end, random songs on the radio during my first day back? Dude Looks Like A Lady. I couldn't make this shit up if I tried.