Standing at my office door Monday morning, sipping my first cup of coffee, I greet Mary, direct marketing director for Harvard Business School Press. As she approaches her own office beside mine, I observe, “Nice brooch.” She looks down at the pin on her blouse then stares at me. “No man would notice that,” she frowns. Presenting male at the time, I scowl in turn, scrambling for a riposte. “Well,” I sputter, “I notice details.” Only now, retired and over five years into my transition, do I realize that—unlike the attending physician at my birth—Mary gendered me correctly.
An emerging/aging trans female writer from Salem, Massachusetts, Toni Artuso (she/her/hers) is now transitioning—and trying to accelerate the emerging and slow down the aging. toniartuso.blogspot.com Instagram: @tonialtrina X: @TAltrina