Saturday 10 December 2016

Coming out - Part 3 (hundreds of people at work!)

I was working as a gymnastic coach at the time all this was going on, because I needed a job when I dropped out of uni, and thankfully my old team mate who now owned the gym said I could work there with her. I was so nervous about telling her because this was going to be the real start of making my transition known to people, and it was going to be a lot of people. 

I worked with hundreds of gymnasts from aged 4 up to teenagers, plus we were going to need to tell all their parents as well. Also adding extra nerves to the whole situation was the fact that I trained at this gym from 18 months old to 17 years, so anyone who'd been around in the last 15 years or so had a fair idea who I was, plus I competed for 10 years and was pretty well known to all the other clubs in Cornwall as well with it being such a small county. So yeah, I was about to go from just a few close friends and family knowing to suddenly hundreds of people of all ages. Pretty terrifying, but I had to get it over with.


I had absolutely no idea how my boss/friend was going to react, I'd known her since I was about 5 and she was 7, we spent most of our childhood training and competing together, and now I was about to say something that was also going to somewhat affect her business. I asked if I could have a word with her some time pretty soon without the other coaches around so we arranged that. I again can't really remember how I said things exactly, I explained that the reason I left uni was because I was going to transition, and that I was now using male pronouns and going by the name Adam. 

I remember her not being very surprised, and just quite matter of fact about it. She was just like, right okay then, yeah cool. She was happy for me. She asked how I wanted to tell the other coaches and gymnasts etc. I said I wasn't sure. We had a chat about it, and decided that we'd have a little meeting with the other coaches, and she'd say it for me. So I think about a week later that's what we did, and it went really well, everyone was very supportive. For gymnasts and parents, we decided to compose a letter, and give it to them after classes. I will insert the letter below, but in brief it just stated who I was, and what was going to be changing. We also said that I'd be happy to answer any questions, and that the parents are free to tell their kids as much or as little about it as they wish.

We discussed how people would be about calling me by my new name, and decided that a good idea would be to use AJ instead of Adam, as it 's gender neutral so would be less of an impact maybe. Especially since I was obviously pre any medical treatment at that time so still looked fairly female, and definitely sounded it. Thankfully my boss being the confident loud type, was great for telling people for me when I was too nervous. Like when we told all the squad gymnasts that I knew really well as a lot of them had started back when I was still training, she just said at the beginning of a session one evening with them all sitting on the crash mats by the trampoline and said right, from now on, * birth name * will be called AJ, and we'll be calling him “he”. An that was about it really, most of them were just like okay whatever, a couple of the older ones were a bit inquisitive, but no one really asked anything. With the letters to the parents, I had no bad reactions at all, which I was really surprised about. I even had a few dads say nice things like “well done, good for you”.

It was a strange experience. It went so much better than I expected it to. People don't give kids enough credit when it comes to telling them things about gender and sexuality. It's still a massively taboo subject, and people say oh no we can't tell the children! They won't understand, it'll upset them, it'll confuse them. But kids are the most open minded, they're better to tell than adults, and they're so accepting. Especially if they're younger and haven't seen or been told anything that would make them think this isn't a normal thing in life. 

For example, another coach's child was also a gymnast that I taught, and I knew her pretty well, she was 4 years old at the time, and the coach basically just said, * birth name * is a boy now, he always felt he was a boy even though he wasn't born as one, but he's turning into a boy now and we call him AJ. And this 4 year old was just like yeah okay. And called me AJ straight away. Kids are so opened minded, I don't see why people have such an issue with telling them things like this. For example I wasn't allowed to see my cousins for about 5 years because my Aunt and Uncle didn't want to tell them. But I'll cover that in another post.


I think this would be a good place to quickly mention why I chose “John” as my middle name. Basically most of the people I knew on trans groups etc said they chose their middle name in honour of their Dad or Granddad, or another male role model. I didn't want to use my Dad or Granddads names, I mean I love them both, but just didn't feel their names fitted me. So my closest male role model growing up was my old gymnastics coach, John. I had known him (and his wife Pat, our other coach) since I was 18 months old, I probably spent more time with them than I did with my family throughout my childhood. I use to train 5 sometimes 6 days a week, I pretty much lived there, so I spent a lot of time with them. He's an amazing man, and was always so caring, he had such a big impact on my life. So with this, along with the fact that it would also work well as a nickname (AJ) I chose John.  

Here is the contents of the letter we sent out to the parents:
"Dear Parent/Guardian,

I am writing to you and all other parents/guardians of gymnasts currently coached by *birth name*.
*Name* has been an assistant coach with the Academy since the beginning of this year, and I have known *Name* as a fellow gymnast for some fifteen years when we were both members of *previous gym club name*.
In recent days *Name* has told me that she will be undergoing medical transition for gender reassignment. Clearly this is a very personal decision that has taken a lot of consideration on her part.
Therefore as from now *Name* has assumed the male gender and the name Adam, to be shortened to AJ. 

AJ has been very open with explaining his decision, and following a staff meeting last friday all of the coaches have expressed their support for AJ in helping him through this process.
I am ofcourse conscious as is AJ as to how his decision may be perceived, and how gymnasts may respond. However in reality the only difference of which gymnasts will be aware us the change of name.

If however a gymnast questions the change of name, the Academy will simply state that there has been this change of name without comment upon the issue of gender. Parents/guardians will however be advised if questions are asked so that they can respond to these with their child as they deem appropriate.

The Academy's intent is to maintain a safe and comfortable child friends environment, in which your child can participate in gymnastics, and there is no reason why the above should affect this. 
If you have any concerns, please contact me and I will arrange to meet with you. Although AJ himself is willing to discuss issues openly with parents/guardians, I would prefer in respect of his privacy that concerns are addressed through me in the first instance.

Yours sincerely,
*coach/boss' name*"
As always, here's me today. I wrote this on my way up to my volunteer day at the Gender Clinic. 09/12/16


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