Settling in

It has been a month since the mic-drop and things have been great.

It is true, the move, the new job and settling in is always stressful, but I didn’t realize how stressed out and depressed being at the DoD was. I had already gotten better by stepping out of my egg, but moving down here has been a blessing.

The new city is pretty accepting. We see rainbow flags everywhere. They had an LGBTQIA pride festival (sadly I couldn’t go) and there seems to be a lot of tolerance so far. Don’t get me wrong, there is still a lot of #MAGA stuff here, but I do believe it is a minority.

What I was surprised to find out at my new job is things aren’t as friendly in the LGBTQIA sphere as I had hoped. It isn’t as bad as the DoD but the government I work for had its board shoot down making Gender Identity a protected thing (like sexual orientation). What is weird is that it is a state law for it, so you think they would just take it in stride. However, enough of the council didn’t like it that they torpedoed the entire HR update just so the wording for gender identity didn’t make it.

The other aspect is the people. They are really nice, and nothing bad has occurred. However there are a lot of jokes about men wearing dresses and playing make believe. My supervisor is fairly conservative Christian. She has been nice to me, but she always has this look of confusion and standoffishness when she sees pictures of my husband (I have pre-transition and post-transition pictures). Oh and she is very very confused that in one of the pictures I had coke can red hair. That was also hard for her to understand. She kept asking if it is real.

I am pretty sure I wouldn’t dare come out here. Not that I would be fired or anything, but I am suspecting with the amount of petty things I see with others that I will be the subject of many. Doesn’t mean I am quitting now, and it is still FAR FAR better then the DoD. It does mean I will keep an eye out for other options. 

I am hoping at the very least to work enough to pay off the hubby’s new Kia. I think that is a reasonable goal.

I do have a list of things I want to talk about, my goal is to not let a month go by again without chatting at you a lot more.