Trying to find my place in this world.
Dear Prudence,
I am a 30-year-old trans man who came out roughly a year and a half ago. I was raised within a strongly female family, went to an all-girls’ high school, and have generally been mostly in communities with women. I do not feel comfortable at all in all-male spaces, including bathrooms, and while I have a few friends who are also trans men, I’ve not really enjoyed being part of groups that are all trans men and transmasculine people. I just prefer mixed-gender spaces.
However, I also really miss women’s spaces. I think partly this is down to the “lad culture” in my country making male spaces (even trans ones) unpleasant, but also I miss feeling like I was part of a community that I just don’t feel with other men yet, not helped by still having fairly feminine interests. I feel like the women’s spaces I am mourning have been taken from me for something I didn’t choose, which I know is an unfair way to think about it, but I don’t know how to move past that. I am on the waiting list to see gender services in my country, but I probably have at least another year to wait, and therapy in our health service is very difficult to access with long waiting times. I do not have any income to see a private therapist.
—Missing Familiar Spaces
Re: Trying to find my place in this world.
From there I'd also consider looking into local LGBTQ groups in your area.
But, instead of concentrating specifically on missing "women only" spaces, why not find groups related to the "feminine interests" (I'm imaging something like our crotchet and knitting groups around here) LW is missing. Also, the local LGBTQ groups should have something that would fill the need for a mixed gender space.