Having Her Back by Ann Gallagher

Author:Ann Gallagher [Gallagher, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-05-19T04:00:00+00:00

~*~

My trans support group met the next night. Well, afternoon for them. Night for me. Yay time zones.

They always met in someone’s living room—Chris’s apartment this week—and had me on a laptop on Skype. It wasn’t the same as physically being there, but at least I was there in a way.

One of my good friends, Andi, was having a hard time tonight. She’d been going stealth for almost three years, and this week, just after her seventeenth birthday, a rumor had gotten back to her parents that she was trans. When they confronted her, she’d been caught off guard, panicked, and broke down and told them, and now everything was a mess.

“Dad still wants me to go to a therapist.” She exhaled, rubbing her eyes. She didn’t have on any makeup today. After the way her parents had gone crazy, she was holding off on anything feminine until the dust settled. That alone was heartbreaking—she was a sorceress when it came to makeup, and loved to wear it even though she’d always had to make sure every trace was gone before she went home.

Jordan put a hand on her shoulder. “He’s pushing for one who thinks they can de-trans you, isn’t he?”

Shuddering, Andi nodded. “I…might have to just fake it.” She lowered her hands, and when she lifted her head, the exhaustion in her eyes was unmistakable even from here. “If I convince them it really is just a phase, at least they won’t send me to one of those…people.”

I shuddered. I was pretty sure three other people did too.

Chris hugged Andi gently. “Listen, hon.” They touched Andi’s face. “You might have to go even stealthier for a while, but you’ll always be Andi when you’re here with us, okay?”

Andi nodded, wiping her eyes, and Chris gathered her in another hug. My chest ached just watching them. I really wanted to believe things were going to get better for Andi, but I didn’t see how they would any time soon. Not while she was still stuck living with her parents.

Which made me feel like a tool for being depressed all day about Trevor. So what if he’d never be interested in me? I’d been okay with that when I’d come out as gay. Why should it be any different now? At least he was my friend again, and he really had been a good guy ever since he’d apologized. And I had my family, my other friends, my real name on my ID card with an F next to Sex… What the hell was I complaining about?

The group wound down, and people had all kinds of advice and stuff for Andi. Places she could go if her folks kicked her out. Other support groups she could visit on the sly or online if she couldn’t make it across town to this one. By the time the meeting was over, she was still upset but a little less shaky. Sometimes that was all you could hope for.

After I’d ended my Skype call, I sent Andi an IM.

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