Sharing a room is not wholly out of my control; I can opt to pay a single supplement at a daily cost of a decent metropolitan hotel room and have a room to myself. That's not particularly appealing when I might get lucky on the roommate front.
The company organizing the retreat does not have any gender-aware options available when one signs up. (They aren't located in a particularly gender-aware area, and may not understand the issues well.) I would suspect that it's uncommon enough for people to come unaccompanied -- I hadn't planned on it -- that it hasn't been an issue.
As for requesting help to find a roommate who is gender-aware enough to be cool with my expression, I'm wary of going that route. The organizing company does not appear to be especially gender-aware (but maybe not gender-oblivious, given that the course I'm going for is being presented by a married gay couple), and many of the attendees are likely gender-normative enough to regard being asked about their gender as an affront. I'm not really interested in outing myself blind to folks who don't have the information they would need to give me much help.
So at least for now, I'm going to be content taking pot luck on the roommate, and working out how far I'm willing to be out based on the situation I find myself in. I may get a chance to share thoughts on this subject, and improve future experiences, with some of the people in the organizing company.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2017-09-13 09:06 am (UTC)The company organizing the retreat does not have any gender-aware options available when one signs up. (They aren't located in a particularly gender-aware area, and may not understand the issues well.) I would suspect that it's uncommon enough for people to come unaccompanied -- I hadn't planned on it -- that it hasn't been an issue.
As for requesting help to find a roommate who is gender-aware enough to be cool with my expression, I'm wary of going that route. The organizing company does not appear to be especially gender-aware (but maybe not gender-oblivious, given that the course I'm going for is being presented by a married gay couple), and many of the attendees are likely gender-normative enough to regard being asked about their gender as an affront. I'm not really interested in outing myself blind to folks who don't have the information they would need to give me much help.
So at least for now, I'm going to be content taking pot luck on the roommate, and working out how far I'm willing to be out based on the situation I find myself in. I may get a chance to share thoughts on this subject, and improve future experiences, with some of the people in the organizing company.