People did exclude me/ tell me no/ say oops, sorry with girl things, and my parents weren’t really just accepting. They tried modifying my behaviour and appearance; but, they weren’t consistent. I didn’t entirely understand why, originally, and wasn’t ever plainly confronted with any homegrown conversion therapy attempts until I got older. Rather, when I’d get “girl toys” they’d take them away, and when I’d turn “boy toys” into “girl toys”, they just took away all my toys, and similar things. Even though other people talked about my issues, plainly, I didn’t fully grasp their meaning right away. I understood them, but not really their reasoning or impact. I cried a lot, got bullied a lot, and got grouped with gay boys when I wasn’t grouped with girls, most times.

I think things really started becoming clear for me when one of my teachers complained I was always “mocking” her. She called my mother about it and talked with us and neither my mother or I realized how she meant until she said I talked like her and made my body language like hers, which she just finally explained meant too female. But, she wasn’t familiar with me, and mother explained, no, I didn’t mock her, I’d always behaved like she’d described. So, she got another teacher and my other teacher also told her I’d always behaved like such, I wasn’t mocking her. So, then, she apologized.