This is such a refreshing thread! Whenever I see an article on Salon, HuffPo or other "progressive" sites, you still get a lot of transphobic talk. I myself had the bottom surgery about 3 years ago, and yeah, if they did that for Isis she would not be able to compete. Stuck in bed the first three days, very gentle walking for the rest of the week. And if there was a slight bulge in her swimsuit now, that surgery causes enough swelling that it looked like I was pregnant in my crotch for a while. And the bleeding!

As far as gender binary, yeah, I'm not genderqueer so I'm not necessarily trying to fuck with the system, but I think I'm not performing my gender any more than most women. I rarely wear makeup except for special occasions. I never got implants, even though hormones haven't done wonders for me, I'm happy with what I have. No plastic surgery to change my face or anything like that. I'm lucky enough I guess that I'm 75% passing or whatever. But the more time goes by, the more comfortable I am with myself, the less I care about passing, because ya know what? All of us have people in the world that don't like us for any number of reasons, so if they don't like me cuz they think I'm a freak, well... Their loss. I think I'm a pretty nice person and a good friend.

I've been lucky, though, in that I had the money to get the surgery and looked androgynous enough that I didn't think I needed any facial surgery. Now, my boss when I was transitioning fired me when I was out for my surgery, but I've found a new job I like a lot more but pays less, but money isn't everything. I know it can be much more difficult than it was for me.

Anyway, I really like this thread, y'all are very cool.