The Real Deal

When we first made the hard choice to leave early, before our VISA expired, it was right after the most recent presidential inauguration. We all knew it was a weird and possibly dangerous time to be returning to the United States but our hand was forced so we tried to find everything positive about making this huge step. As we started to make announcements to friends on both sides of the pond there were lots of questions and concerns voiced by many of them. One of the things we said we would do is to tell it like it is and show what was really happening here and not just the Fox News version.

Didi and I are not the typical couple and neither of us is shy about telling it like it is or representing our uniqueness to the world. We were afraid it would make us targets for the more narrow minded people we might run into, especially in smaller conservative areas. Thankfully we were wrong! So far in our travels from Colorado to Illinois and back x 2, and our travels around the state of Colorado we have been treated kindly and with respect from almost everyone we’ve interacted with.

Didi has not been misgendered, we have had no outright negative comments or attitudes, and we continue to make people laugh by our interactions and our upfront talk between the two of us. We still get funny looks occasionally (but that has happened from the very beginning of our marriage), we still are around grumpy people sometimes (and sometimes we are the grumpy people), and we still run into jerks while driving (but that doesn’t have anything to do with who we are, just some people are asshats behind the wheel). There seems to be an increase in the level of civility to those like us who may not fit the norm, and that has been amazing to see and be around.

We originally thought we would have to arm ourselves in some way to be protected from the evil lurking in the U.S. right now but so far we seem to be able to disarm most people with kindness and good humour. We may run into people who will openly try to discourage or attack us, but I think at this point others might come to our aid. It’s an amazingly positive place to be right now!