Definitely the feelings of a person trying to emerge through society's gender mandates, and fearing that everything and everyone they know will reject them for being who they are.
Sadly, Laura's situation is definitely the uncommon reaction - she has been lucky to only lose one significant person, her father (thus her change of last name to her mother's maiden name). Too many of us lose everyone, and not always in a quick manner. So many friends proclaim their acceptance, and come to find that, hey, maybe they're not quite as liberal as they thought, and they have a hard time dealing with that divide in reality. So they slowly cut you loose so they can go back to feeling good about how societally forward they are.
Definitely the feelings of a person trying to emerge through society's gender mandates, and fearing that everything and everyone they know will reject them for being who they are.
Sadly, Laura's situation is definitely the uncommon reaction - she has been lucky to only lose one significant person, her father (thus her change of last name to her mother's maiden name). Too many of us lose everyone, and not always in a quick manner. So many friends proclaim their acceptance, and come to find that, hey, maybe they're not quite as liberal as they thought, and they have a hard time dealing with that divide in reality. So they slowly cut you loose so they can go back to feeling good about how societally forward they are.