EDITOR’S NOTE: Sophia Featherwind attended her 30th high school class reunion in Azle on Sept. 21, where she came out as transgender. She wrote about her decision in Part 1 that ran Sept. 13.
I am proud to be from Azle, Texas. I am returning to Salt Lake City, my blood filled with green pride (Green and white are the school colors. The band is known as the Marching Green Pride). I just attended my 30-year high school reunion, the first reunion since my transition, and I found supportive friends everywhere I looked, more friends than I imagined I had.
Until I transitioned, I lived in a rock-hard shell; yet when I arrived as an open book, they were finally able to penetrate to the real me, and I had a great experience.
The hospitality started a week before the reunion. I received a message from this year’s organizer asking whether I wanted to use the photo from my yearbook or one of the photos she deemed great on Facebook. I told her that she could pick something from Facebook. Shortly afterward, I got encouraging letters from a devout Christian friend encouraging me to sit with her. Her faith and most of those present had grown over the years to be accepting of everyone, even if they happened to be gay, straight, bi, lesbian or transgender.
I was slightly anxious as I walked through the door, a bit worried if my makeup was making me look like a clown. In fact, the anxiety had been building from the point I passed my high school until I arrived in the parking lot and had to take a deep breath before I stepped out of the car. Along the way from my mother’s house to the high school, I took the winding back road that I used to walk, and as I looked for the spot of woods where I used to cross-dress, I noticed the entire area was now developed.
There were no prepared nametags with photos waiting for us — just a table with stick-on nametags that we filled out ourselves. As I was sticking the nametag on my left breast, flicking my hair over my shoulder, I was welcomed by a friend I had trouble recognizing at first, who asked about belly dancing and if I could show them some moves when the dancing started. I looked up and said hello to a couple of people I recognized, scanning their faces, waiting for their response.
Sure there were a couple of slips while people tried to wrap their head around my change, but that is to be expected. Many people recognized me and were glad that I had decided to come, but were also relieved to see me happy finally. I had fun with a few people who struggled to remember who I was, and I gently informed them that I changed my name and gender.
“Yeah, I get that, but who were you?” I was asked. I smiled politely, and before I could tell them, Amy to my left provided the requested information.
An especially poignant moment came during the slide show when a picture of Lisa and me was displayed across the screen, and someone to my left yelled, “Yay, Sofia!” This year, we got to see an intermixture of yearbook photos and to see where people are now.
Then the dancing started. I polished off my one drink for the night and made my way to the dance floor. I have been belly dancing so long that I surprised even myself with what came through. Soon, I was giving instructions to several of my classmates who wanted to learn my moves.
As the hour neared for me to drive back to my hotel, I once again started making my rounds, and I made a last trip to the dance floor to say goodbye. But my dance friends begged, pleaded and demanded I stay until the reunion was over, so I stayed two, maybe four more songs. I lost count.
I was surprised that I had no tears, only a smile on my face. In the parking lot, after a long conversation, I looked into the eyes of a friend who has dearly loved me these 30-plus years. I couldn’t help but be moved by the tears in her eyes as she told me I would have been accepted whether I wrote these articles or not.
Sofia Featherwind, author of Freeing Hummingbirds: How I Learned to Embrace Myself, is a veteran, software engineer, aspiring belly dancer and performing poet. She is also an advocate for LGBT rights and trans-awareness, as well as the founder of an online support network for those who have or are transitioning between genders. She can be reached via email at sofia@sofiafeatherwind.com.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition September 27, 2013.
