sistawendy | a meeting of the minds at the munch

I went to the women's munch at the Wildrose last night. Nothing unusual there, but who I ran into was: a table full of trans women in their late twenties. Trans women besides me are a regular feature at this munch, but they don't show up in a group and they're not especially young.

It's noteworthy for me because that's a trans age group that I don't typically spend much time with. There are the folks closer to my age and the teens at Lambert House, the Mercury, or (ahem) out & about, but trans women around my son's age are not the ones I usually run into. They had much to tell me:

There's a facial feminization surgeon around here, Dr. Liu, who does excellent work. That's something to think about if I'm ever an heiress.
There's been some drink-spiking at Pony lately. Uh, yikes! One or two of the assembled dolls weren't pleased with how it had been handled. That's a damn shame, because I'm one of many queers I know who otherwise love that place.

They seemed so... together. So much more than I was at their age, struggling mightily to be someone I'm not. From talking with them, at least briefly, you'd never guess that we're a community under seige.

And I'd also like to say how impressed I am with the current Washington State Ms. Leather and her partner, a former Ms. Leather, who organize this and many other shindigs. They work hard at pulling all of us non-cis-men into leather activities. Aside from warm fuzzies, there's nothing in it for them, really.