My Story Part 14 – My First, First Event

Every year for the last eight years I went up to a conference in the Boston MA area called “First Event”. I had gone to another conference in the fall that was held up in Provincetown MA and this the first time that I attended the Boston conference. Of course, I had to lie to my family and tell them that I was going to a computer conference. But at least now I had a cell phone and I didn’t have to give the cell phone number of a friend to call. I commented about my experience in my diary,

January 21st
I came down with a cold on Thursday and was out of work Friday. When I went up to the Tiffany Club's "First Event" on Saturday I was still feeling the effects of the cold. I went
up with T and G, we had light snow all the way and the driving was slow. But, we made it all right. At the Banquet, we all had a good time with good food, old friends and some new friends. We had a good turn out for the COS crew with nine members.

For the keynote speaker they had Diana Rivers, she is from California and was a teacher who was fired when she transitioned. Her causes was picked up by the national news media and she became an instant celebrity. That must have been real hard on her, all she wanted was to transition quietly, now she is a national figure that everyone wants her to speak at their events. It takes great courage to do what she is doing.

We left around one o’clock when the snow stopped with about a foot of new snow on the ground. It was a long ride back with me driving, the sun was shining off the wet roads and of course, I left my sunglasses home.

Over the years, one thing that always marked First Event was a snowstorm on Sunday; a year has not gone by that it didn’t snow on the last day of the conference.

The picture was taken at the First Event Banquet in 2001 and you can see that I have come a long ways since then.

The following year, 2002, I went up on Thursday and I wrote in my diary,

January 24th
I had a great time up Tiffany’s Club “First Event”. The only down side was on the way up we had a flat tire on the Mass. Pike. I went up with T and R and we were three old ladies changing the flat and the truck drives passing us by were honking their horns at us. Luckily the weather was good and we were able to safely pull off the road.

When we got to the hotel around five thirty we grabbed a bite to eat and went to the pool party. The “First Event” has a pool party every year and the hotel has a heated pool and spa. I went up to my room and changed into my bathing suit, I have a royal blue maillot bathing suit and it was really neat to swim around the pool. I stayed in for over an hour going between the heated pool and the hot tub.

On Friday I went to the morning seminar “Your Transgender Road map” and in the afternoon I went to “Coming out to Family and Friends”. Diane Ellaborn who is a licensed social worker in the Boston area and has many transgendered clients presented both of the seminars. That night they had a fashion show, after that I went down to the bar and left it around eleven.

Saturday I sat in on the “Your Transgender Team” seminar, which was very interesting. They had various medical and professionals who support the transgender community in the local area. The question that I asked Dr. Meltzer was what can be done for male pattern baldness and his answer didn’t hold much promise. The afternoon seminar I went to was “Driving While Dressed” which cover mainly DUI, there were some interesting topics that were covered, but in
general I wasn’t that interested in it. The evening brought their Banquet in which they hand out
their awards and their guest speaker was Jennifer Levi who is a staff attorney for GLAD and she talked about the gains that we have made through out the year.

On Sunday was the farewell brunch were we all said are good-byes. One of the highlights at the brunch for me is trying to figure out who’s who in male mode. It’s also a little sad for many because of the realization that they will have to return to boy mode again after three days in girl
mode. A lot of hugs and tears as we say our good-byes. One of the things that I like about the conventions is the sense of community that you get. You develop many new friendships and you realize that you are not alone. You see many of the same faces and couple at these events.
Everyone seems warm and friendly, outgoing. After all they are in their chosen gender when they are at these events and you can see it in their faces.

On Monday morning at work everyone asked you, “How was your vacation?” and you have to answer, “Ok, I guest.” When what you really want is stand on your desk and yell, “It was fantastic!” But, you know they would never really understand. Oh, well. There is always our Banquet coming up.

My little ruse was almost found out…

I also learned that R [my brother] was in Burlington, Ma. on Friday and was thinking about stopping by for a drink. Boy, would he have had a surprise. That’s another reason to tell him, but I still feel that I would place an unreasonable burden on him and that it would also be selfish of me.

That was one of the reasons I went to some of the seminars, to learn how to come out to R. It’s no simple matter, some of the ones that came out to siblings were rebuffed and others had no problems with their brothers or sisters. You just don’t know which way it will go.

I did tell him the following month, but that’s another story.

I am going up to the conference again this Saturday with a friend for the day, but now I don’t have to hide it anymore. The conference is at the Boston Peabody Marriot in Peabody, MA and you can find more information about the conference here.