Decided to say fuck it and try this. I am a pre-op transgender woman in case you care about that. I’m pansexual and only date 21+. I’m built real nice, love to do a lot of outdoorsy stuff, can talk about a lot of interests for hours.
Talking to this man who is very sweet and on our date I felt some (good) tension so came out and told him I have herpes. He said he’ll have to do some research before he can make a final call on if he’s ok with it or not, but that didn’t slow down the date or change his feelings for me in the slightest. We are abstaining until he’s done his own research, but so far he’s still showing lots of interest and said that if we start dating he could see himself not being too worried about it. (The intention is for us to date, if we’re compatible, since neither of us are really into hookups) Although it’s too soon to know how far this will go, it’s been so nice to finally be treated like a human, and to also receive clear communication. In the past people won’t say how they feel about it and just become distant or they immediately drop me like a radioactive hot potato. So even if he ends up not wanting to take the risk, or we just don’t work out for unrelated reasons, I’m just so grateful to finally be treated with compassion and dignity. I’ll post an update in the future but I felt the need to share this so people know the more you try the better it gets. I’ve seen so much fear mongering and “my life is over” posts on here, and I think that needs to change on this sub because in reality, it is hard, but if you don’t get deterred it gets better and better. Also, I hope some people looking to learn more about this can learn not to avoid talking about it. If you just fade away or even worse run away when disclosed to instead of communicating honestly and compassionately with the person disclosing to you, it is very demeaning and no one deserves to be treated like that. You never owe them a date or anything but you should just talk to them like a person that deserves closure.