Allison Washington
Aug 9, 2017 · 1 min read

We’ve been courting long-distance (email, phone) for 10 months; we’ve been together for a couple weeks. I have no desire to keep secrets from him and look forward to getting past this phase. I like what Steve had to say too. Very affirmative.

Yes, my surname is a pseudonym. I keep a hermetic seal between my public and private lives, which is quite a trick. It probably won’t last forever, but so far I’ve been able to keep myself ungooglable from either side.

That is important to me, as I like being ‘woodworked’ (i.e., no one ‘knows’). Even nice people tend to respond differently to trans women vs cis women, and that is not a pleasant feeling. In my daily life I’ve been ‘just a woman’ for nearly three decades, and I like it like that.

Thanks for writing, Emily.

❤ Allison

P.S. Don’t date that guy, that’s some serious red flags on that one…

    Allison Washington

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    Journalist & essayist. Reporting from Cairo.