Work Text:
The train station was packed. Phoebe stood, waiting patiently for her train to arrive. She had quite a long foot walk from her university to this particular station and the heat of June did not make it easier. To avoid a heatstroke, she grabbed her water bottle from her colorful backpack and took just a few sips since it still had to suffice the way home to her apartment. Just as she put the bottle down, she saw a flash of the incoming train, which prompted her to put it back into her backpack to her books and drawings for her art course. Shortly after, the train arrived and she entered it. It was just as crowded as the station itself since the forecast said it would be a warm, sunny 24th of June so everyone wanted to go out and enjoy the weather at the local park. Phoebe looked around, searching for a seat and was indeed lucky, there was still a free one right next to a window. In the neighboring seats was an older couple, talking to themselves. Just as Phoebe wanted to reach into the pocket of her jeans to get her headphones to listen to some music she sighed. She forgot them on the kitchen counter that morning in favor of getting earlier out of the apartment to get some coffee. She knew she would not have functioned in her classes that day otherwise, but how does one survive a train ride without headphones? And Fletcher wanted to publish a new album, too, which she firmly planned on listening to on her way back home. Guess that had to wait. So, not being able to listen to her beloved music, Phoebe resigned to look out of the window, watching the colors blur from the fast pace of the train. Even though it was of course loud on the train, she noticed that she was able to hear what the older couple said and since she had nothing better to do, she did just that. The couple looked to be around their 70s and Phoebe decided to give them names, just for fun. Apparently, the older woman looked like an Agatha while (presumably) her husband was a Ralph.
“.. and so many people on this train, aren’t there?” Agatha said. “Yes, I guess everyone just really wants to go to the park, huh? Can’t blame them, honestly, it is magnificent weather outside. Did I tell you that Martha called yesterday?” Ralph seemed to be a little bit hesitate to add the question and Phoebe immediately wondered why. Who was this Martha? Well, whoever it was, the name alone let Agatha stiffen up:” Martha as in my distant cousin or Martha as in our daughter Martha?” “Our daughter.” A snort escaped Agatha. “And what did she want? Convince us to speak with our “dearest granddaughter” again? No chance. Not after the stunt she pulled.” “Agatha, I was thinking. Maybe we were wrong to judge so quickly. Is it really so bad if Alexandra is not Alexandra but Alexander? I thought about this for some time now and I have to confess I do not want to lose our grandchild just because they are not feeling comfortable with their gender identity.” Phoebe silently cheered Ralph on. No child should lose their grandparents just because they were born the wrong gender. He spoke some facts right there! “Have you gone crazy?” And this only solidified her decision that she did not like Agatha: “This whole Transgender thing or whatever it is called is stupid. You were born the way you were born and that’s it. We didn’t have such nonsense back in the day, such discussions were unthinkable of. It was god’s intent to give you this gender and you are to be grateful for what you get. I think this generation just does not have any serious problems. Think about it! Back when we were young, just after war, trying to survive. We had to think about how to get enough food to make it to the next day, if you thought about such nonsense like what gender you are, you were dead! You did not even have the energy to even have a fleeting thought about it!” Phoebe could not continue to listen to this, so just before Ralph opened his mouth she interrupted.
“Excuse me? I couldn’t help but listen in to your conversation about this “Transgender thing” as you call it. Do you know that it is people like you that are causing problems to society, not the transgender people? They cannot help to be born in the wrong body. Just imagine being stuck in a form that disgusts you, that you cannot identify with. It would upset you in your daily life, to a point where you don’t even look into a mirror anymore because the face starring back at you is not you. I had a classmate back in freshman year of high school, she was stuck in the body of a boy. And what happened to her is roughly what you are doing to your own grandson.” At the word “grandson” Agatha flinched as if she was burned whereas Ralph just listened to what Phoebe had to say who ignored the flinch and just continued. “But it seems as if your daughter is supportive of your grandson, which can’t be said about my classmate’s parents. She was bullied in school when she came out, none of the boys wanted to be seen with her and neither did the girls since they thought she did it to come close to them in a sexual way and generally thought she was a weirdo and a creep. So, she had no friends in school just bullies and when she came home, she was lectured by her parents about how this wasn’t gods intend, she was disgusting, alongside other things. The only social contacts she had were people who didn’t accept who she was and bullied her. You know what happened next? She killed herself. Do you see the similarities? You used exactly the same arguments as her parents. They realized too late that what they did was wrong and will regret it their whole lives. You still have the chance to make up to how you treated your grandson thus far. The arguments about your youth may be true to some extent, there was no time to really think about things like your gender, but that doesn’t mean they were nonexistent and by bringing up your youth as an argument just shows that you are not living in our time but in a fantasy world in which it is still 1945. Wake up, it’s the 21st century we are living in! Think about how small the time span is you are able to spend time with your grandson, do you really want to throw it away because you can’t accept his gender?” Phoebe could have gone on for longer, but right at that moment the robotic voice of the train announced that they arrived at her stop. She quickly slung her backpack over her shoulder and shouted a “This is my stop, but I hope you think about what I said! Enjoy the day!” to Agatha and Ralph who were watching her with open mouths while she was running to the doors, barely making it through before they closed. While going home she thought about how strange this train ride was and even though she was pretty proud of herself for coming up with such a speech on the spot, she was angry with the opinion of Agatha. Phoebe was quickly to shake this thought though since she did not want to ruin this day. After all, it was Christopher Street Day and she still got plans to go to the festivals in the center of the city, together with her girlfriend.