Children Can Man-age To Listen

Fast Food, Restaurant | Right | August 6, 2014

(I’m a female-to-male transgender person who is not on hormones yet; despite this, I don’t have much of a problem with pronoun mistakes. The customer I have is a middle-aged woman and her young son is about six or seven.)

Me: “Welcome to [Restaurant]. How are you today?”

Woman: “I’m good.” *to her son* “Tell the lady what you want!”

Son: “Momma, that’s a man.”

Woman: “Shhh! Don’t say that! You’ll make her feel bad.”

Me: “Actually, he’s right. I am a boy.”

Woman: *ignoring me* “I can see why you’re confused, though.” *to me* “You need to start wearing makeup or something. My son is getting confused!”

Me: “Ma’am, your son is correct.”

Woman: *still ignoring what I’m saying* “And would it kill you to grow your hair out? Everyone’s going to think that you’re a lesbian!”

Me: *getting fed up* “Ma’am. I. Am. A. Man.”

Woman: “Why didn’t you say so?”

Son: “He did. You didn’t listen, Mommy.”

Me: “Look, it’s not really a big deal. It happens all the time—”

Woman: “Then grow some facial hair or something! I can’t tell what you are!”

Me: “Um…”

Son: “Mommy, stop being stupid!”

(The son said his order and they checked out. The woman was completely silent after the son’s comment and she booked it out of the store.)

This story is part of the Transgender-themed roundup!