My wife and I sometimes rent out one part of our house to guests from AirBnB etc. One or two years ago we got a booking from a 'man' from the USA and we accepted it.

We try to make guests feel welcome and since this 'man' was traveling alone I took him out for a beer. I bought a lager for myself and asked him what he wanted. He asked for something I had never heard of. When he got his drink it was a pink beer and when I asked for a taste it was sickly sweet. Without thinking I told him, "What is this? Tastes like something for girls." He told me "Please don't say things like that. I am a woman transitioning to a man." (or something along those lines).

To be honest I had never met a woman who wanted to change into a man and I had not realised that he was not a man. So I quickly apologised and we continued to chat.

I am in my mid 40s and during our conversation s/he referred to me as a 'boomer'. Since English is not my mother tongue I was not sure what age group a 'boomer' refers to. This week I was watching a USA show and I realised that a 'boomer' is someone in his late 50s or 60s. I then remembered that s/he had called me a boomer and I smiled to myself as it dawned on me that s/he was being bitchy with me to 'punish' me for my faux pas.

I then also realised that we men would never make fun of another guy because of his age or how old he looked. But this woman thought that a man in his 40s would take offense for being told that he looked older.

I know that people are saying - what is the point of this anecdote? I just found it very revealing that even though this woman said that she was a trans man - her character was still female.