ABSTRACT
My future seemed a never-ending sea of negotiations, transactions, trading in my hidden individuality for presumed acceptance—until I came out. I’m the first trans person to ever come out at my company, Human Resources told me, and the journey was not without its stumbling blocks. My future was in the hands of someone fumbling to understand they/them pronouns, and asking me for resources regarding trans folx reintroducing themselves in their professional lives. Although I’d penned and published a few essays about policing genderfluid identity and expression, binary privilege, and challenges of being nonbinary, mine was an altogether new situation. Even as I was speaking out for those who couldn’t with my own writing, I still stymied my pride and achievements in fear that other coworkers would discover, and silently ridicule, my identity.
