Unity

Chapter Twenty Eight

"Hey, dad, I need to ask you something." Kailey came up to me and sat down in the chair that was beside me. She was thirteen now, and Eren and I were forty. Forty... I turned off my YouTube and made a final good-bye video to all of my viewers. It was time for me to start the next phase in my life, and I knew it wasn't YouTube.

"What is it?" I looked up from my computer, where I was currently writing my first book on, and turned my head towards Kailey.

"I didn't know that you use to be a YouTuber," oh god. Kailey doesn't even know that I'm transgender yet. Now she's likely seen my videos, and there's a lot of content on there that I've never talked to her about...

"Oh, uhm, how did you find that out?"

"I-uh, I was searching for more trans YouTubers..." I gulped back and looked at her in the eyes strongly. "I, uhm, I didn't know you were transgender," well this is awkward.

"I, uhm, yeah, I am. I'm so sorry I didn't tell you, I should have because you are, too, but I figured that if I kept it a secret, it'd be better because I didn't want parents telling me that the only reason you're transgender is because of your influence off of me." Kailey nodded and smiled sweetly at me.

"No, I get it! I think it's cool seeing you so young." she stayed silent for a second. "I still want to ask you some questions, though," she laughed a bit and looked at me, for I laughed lightly, too.

"Of course."

"When did you know you were trans?" I thought back on my childhood. I'd never remembered ever feeling like a girl, actually...

"I was around three when I knew I wasn't supposed to be a girl and four when I started bugging my parents about it." I felt bad for Kailey because she didn't have any grandparents whatsoever. She really only had her aunt, Mikasa. They were very close.

"Wasn't that the same for me?" I nodded and smiled.

"Did you get like... bullied a lot?" I thought back to all of the numerous times I was beaten just because of me being transgender. Oh, good times. Good fucking times.

"Yeah, and that's something I really wanted to start talking to you about. When people turn thirteen, they all turn into assholes. Some more than others, though. I got physically assaulted multiple times because I was transgender, and since I was with Eren publicly, my most common 'nick-name' would be 'tranny-fag'. I don't want to scare you, but you're not going to have the easiest time." I paused and looked at her and gave her the most emotional look I could. "This world isn't built for people like us, and unfortunately, it's not changing very much or very fast at all. It will be a long time before people start accepting us more... you know that there aren't laws to protect us?" she shook her head.

"Really?"

"There are laws that protect gay, lesbian, and bisexual people from discrimination, but not transgender people." Kailey looked at me with wide-eyes. "It's illegal to, for example, not hire a gay person just because they're gay. However, it is legal to simply not hire a transgender person just because they're transgender. Let's just say that I did not have any jobs when I was a teenager because I was transgender. (A/N: this is true in nearly all places. how fucked up is that?)" Kailey stared at me in shock.

"Why is that fair?" I shook my head.

"It's not. But we have to learn to live with that." Kailey looked down at her feet with a saddened look. "It's not easy being a minority, but once we have our lives figured out and established, we can be happy." Kailey looked up at me with wide eyes. "I'm happy. I promise you'll be happy, too." she smiled up at me and thanked me for talking with her. She went back into her room and we all carried on with ourselves from then on.