How my brother and sister took the news

My brother, who was 17 at the time, took the news quite well. To him it didn't matter that I wanted to change genders. He still loved me as much as before. As he told me later, "You are still the same person inside pretty much, and the outside doesn't matter. Anybody who says otherwise is ignorant". My brother is wise beyond his years in many ways. I know some so called adults who could learn some things on maturity from him.

I was not too afraid telling my brother, I knew he was mature. I had a pretty good idea that he would take it very well. Of course that thought at the back of the head was always there saying, "What if he doesn't accept you?" but I felt in my heart that he would accept me.

My sister I was a bit more worried about. She was only 13 at the time, and she had her own problems. Unlike my brother, my sister was a little less mature than her age and that worried me. I was afraid that on one hand she might not understand what was going through my mind and what it was I wanted to do. On the other hand I knew she loved me, and on that hand it could go either way. She loved me as a brother, and with her problems I was afraid I might add to them.

As it turned out she seemed to take the news fairly well. She has not talked to me yet about it, and I'm not going to rush her just yet. One thing I have noticed is that she has a hard time looking at me now, and has a hard time calling me Petra.

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