Redefining Will

This story contains alcohol, vaping, cigarettes. It stars a dominant trans man who: talks about himself as having been a girl, has not had bottom surgery and uses both male and female terms to describe his body parts, enjoys frontal penetration, still occasionally goes by his birth name, and reflects on memories from his pre-transition life.

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I think I recognize him immediately, and then he turns and I'm sure.

"Oscar, this is the cinema manager William Penn," Kendra introduces us, "Will, this is Oscar Machado." And now even if I didn't recognize his face, there can be no doubt that it's him. He grins and puts a hand out, and for a second I think we're pretending not to know each other. But then it clicks and I remember. The last time Will saw me, I was a 23 year old girl. Of course he doesn't recognise me now, fifteen years and a gender transition later.

If I'd thought about it for a second I might have seen this coming. Kendra's agent-ly idea was to have me end the press tour in Toronto, at the same movie theatre I used to work at when I was a student-- sort of a nod to my history and a "successful alumnae returns" draw for the UofT crowd-- so of course I'm expecting to run into people I haven't seen in years. I even tacked on a couple extra days to the trip before this, to catch up with old friends. But...