It's so easy for a casual greeting in a corridor to leave me in tears that sometimes it becomes easier just to stay indoors. I agreed to stand for Chair because no one else would and it seemed the society would die without intervention. Now it's equally important that I stand down before my own fragility begins to drag everyone else down too. I hope you can understand this and realise how serious a condition transsexuality is to cope with. Transition is such a terrifying proposition that you live a lie in pain and silence for years trying to fool yourself that you're something else.
Transition is terrifying, it's worse than being in the closet.
You have to fight to be who you are when fighting's the last thing to do. Parts of you which are sensitive and painful have to be pulled out into the open and then used to bludgeon the world into accepting you. Worse still you're paranoid and sensitive. The idea of people talking about you behind your back is terrifying. Buying things in shops becomes a nightmare.