Why I Quit Practicing Gender Nonconformity

Last week I made the difficult decision to quit practicing gender nonconformity. Those of you who followed my blog in 2021 saw my posts celebrating it and saw how happy I was. Today’s blog highlights the reasons why I decided to abandon it after it brought me so much joy last year. Enjoy.

1. The magic died off after I departed from WIS in the Fall of 2021. Even though Giant Eagle is LGBTQ friendly and I had support from my new coworkers, it wasn’t the same as it was at WIS.

2. I wasn’t as confident about it as I let on. Also, I felt like I was distancing myself from my parents. The rest of my family has been supportive but it’s hard when you’re living at home.

3. I want to go back to church after taking this time to find myself. Some churches will welcome this lifestyle. However, I felt I needed to meet in the middle and just be me. I want you to feel welcome there but I know I need to be willing to make concessions. This was a hard call for me because I loved what I was doing but I knew not everyone was going to be on board.

4. I went overboard. It’s one thing to buy bags and that’s where the line should have been drawn. I’ll keep the blazers and the leopard print cardigan around. It just got too weird when I started buying those floral tops and eventually the dresses. Just like Wendy’s, it got weird (Pittsburgh Dad reference)

As I posted in a previous blog, I gave this a valiant effort and didn’t get a lot back in return besides some praise from my friends on social media, plus some in person compliments. Maybe my reach went further than I thought it would. I’m lucky that I didn’t get a lot of hate for this but I’m sure there’s some out there.

Also, after what happened in Texas last week with the school shooting, I thought to myself, “what if I was caught in the middle of something like this?” I’d be killed for being different and I don’t want that and my family surely doesn’t want that. As much as it’s evolved in 2022, some people aren’t on board with moving away from gender norms and we have to take that into consideration.

And that’s all I have to say about that.