I was wondering if anyone has advice or pointers for meeting up with transgender folx and allies in “meatspace”. I see postings for events all the time, but they’re either for youth (which is great, we need to protect trans kids and promote their growth and well being!), or they’re mixers. I’m happily married, can’t drink alcohol, and was never a “club” type of person. There doesn’t seem to be much else other than support groups, and the one meeting I ever attended showed that I was certainly not the intended audience. In my hobbies, you don’t meet people even though you’re in a sea of them (running and cycling) and my job is fully remote and niche, so that’s not really a mingle opportunity either. I feel like I’m overwhelming my spouse with conversation as soon as they get home from work. They’ve taken to calling it “pumpking spice” every time I do, in reference to the Last Week Tonight bit about pumpkin spice season taking over everything. I guess I’m just looking to find others to relate to and make some acquaintances, or even friends, of people who would actually understand me. In our age range, this feels like it’s a very difficult thing to do.
I’m just to here to let you know that, generally speaking, I relate to your experiences. I live in a very conservative neighborhood. My neighbors all wave Trump flags and follow typical conservative-y patterns. It makes it difficult for my lefty wife and I to feel comfortable in those spaces. We are doing our best to ingratiate ourselves with the community, but I fear there is a strong barrier to fully entering it. Despite that we are trying to join volunteer organizations within our small town. If we are lucky, maybe we can find a couple liberal minded people. I find that volunteering usually means you’ll end up with (at least) someone who is open minded and interested in improving their community. I miss Meetups. It used to be much bigger and I had some success many years ago.
My small town neighborhood is pretty similar, and in a way terrible because it’s quite rural. Not much around me unless I drive a ways. I’m trying to get out of here. We moved because it was quiet, but the neighbors are getting unbearable and I just don’t want to take care of all of this land and house. I’d love to move to a European village near a real city with some good rail. Nothing waould make me happier than biking through a countryside and into a city, like almost anywhere in The Netherlands, or Spain, or France. I’m not just not sure how I’d even BEGIN that process.
I miss Meetups, too. I used to run one in the Philadelphia area for a tech stack I worked with. It really was a good way to meet people based on a common interest instead of a demographic, wasn’t it?