Fantastic thread from Mars on how he juggles both his transition and his family relations. Some good advice in here for all trans people, but young trans guys especially.

Me? I came out to my family completely differently and am still reaping what I sowed. https://twitter.com/_mars_f/status/1308797137283682310

Whereas Mars talk about being compassionate with his mother and sister, understanding what it must be like to seemingly suddenly have a brother/son... I was not! I told my mom I’m a boy and if she didn’t get with the he/him pronouns and my new name, then I’d leave.

I singlehandedly obliterated the mother-daughter relationship. As well as other relationships in my family, too. No, they never had a daughter, there was no sister. Just me. And I felt like I NEEDED them to understand that and to only ever see me as a guy.

Mars mentions how he feels his transition was altogether smoother because of his relationship with his family. I can only imagine, lol... pushing everyone away meant I was largely transitioning, and struggling, alone. I felt I couldn’t talk to my parents anymore...

... precisely because I put them to such an impossible standard. Reinforced by my peers online, mind you. Everyone on Tumblr was ready to agree with me that my parents were abusive and transphobic if they didn’t respect my gender identity.

Granted, my relationship with my parents now is pretty great. Especially with my mom, we are closer now than we’ve ever been. And that took a lot of opening up on my part. I had closed off so much during the beginning of my transition... really until this past year.

There was more going on, for sure. I won’t try and recreate the complexities of my adolescence in this thread though. Just wanted to share the other side of the coin, when you do push away vs when you don’t.