Last week, I shared why loving someone who misgenders you creates the best outcomes. In that post, I shared one Transamorous Network client’s story about what happened when her mother misgendered her.
I wrote the post you’re reading after our followup session the next week. What she shared in that session will astound you. It’s astounding for three reasons:
- It shows how fast my client is improving
- How quickly the Universe shows her opportunities to improve and
- How beneficial what my client learned can be for other transpeople.
First, some background
My client asked in a previous session why her parents kept misgendering her. I told her it’s because she reacts negatively every time it happens. I explain this more in last week’s post.
Then my client described a social event where her mom and step dad both called her by her dead name and used male pronouns. This happened in front of everyone. Of course, my client felt embarrassed. What other people think about my client means a lot to her. So when she’s put “on blast” she doesn’t like it.
I showed her how to create future experiences wherein neither her mom, nor anyone else, misgenders her. She understood the instructions and said she’d follow them.
But at our next session, she said he did not follow my advice. Then she told me what happened. She and her mom talked on the phone. Instead of doing what I suggested, she did exactly the opposite. That sparked a HUGE fight on the phone between my client, her mom and step dad.
My client regrets saying what she said during that call. Her mom regrets what she said. My client and her mom hadn’t talked since.
What happened next
A few days later, My client got an impulse to call her mom, but she didn’t. The next day her mom called her instead. They had a great conversation, as though the fight never happened. In that chat, my client’s mom invited her out shopping, which they both enjoyed.
Then, while at a separate function by herself, my client met a transgender woman. She was “early in her transition”, according to my client. Now, remember, this happened a few days after my client had a big fight with her mom.
An acquaintance introduced my client to this other trans woman. After introductions, they chatted a bit. Then, when talking with someone else nearby, my client, referring to the other trans woman, misgendered her!
The other transgender woman heard my client and corrected her. My client profusely apologized.
“I hate it when people do that and here I am doing it,” She nervously laughed.
My client told me in session how bad she felt. She got how this experience mirrored her own experience with her mother.
“Here I was doing exactly what my mom did to me to another transgender woman!” she admitted.
It got worse – then much better
Moments after, my client misgendered this transgender woman…again. My client felt shame and humiliation. That’s when she understood.
“I had no malice at all towards this person,” She said. “It was me not being aware. I understand now how my mother had no malice either. This experience showed me how easy it is [to misgender someone], and it doesn’t always happen because people are mean. Sometimes it just happens.”
That insight helped my client let her mother off the hook, which is exactly what I suggested she needed to do!
My client also realized her experience happened on purpose. The universe, she said, gave her this experience to get how easy misgendering can happen and to help her forgive her mom.
“Now I won’t be so quick to get so mad when someone does it. The Universe really helped me understand these kinds of situations.”
As a person tells positive stories more often, the Universe is in on the increase. It constantly sends life-lessons so experience shows what we’re learning.
Life: It’s no joke until it is
Some will say my client’s experiences all represent coincidences. But consider her stories at the time. Here she was making her mom really wrong, blaming her, judging her, thinking she’s being unloving, when instead her mother might be misgendering her daughter for totally different reasons.
My client got that, through her own experience misgendering a transgender woman. She stood in her mother’s shoes. And through all that, she found more love for her mom.
There’s a saying. It goes: you can’t make this up. In only a few days my client got how the Universe and her stories work together. Together they make the reality my client experiences. The more she turns her attention towards positive stories, the less life-sessions she’ll experience.
And the more joy and fun she’ll have.
