I feel as though Claire’s struggles with being trans have sort of faded into the background. Is it transphobic to say that? I sort of wish there was another trans woman in the comic so they could bounce their thoughts off each other. Or a trans man. I’d like it explored more fully.
I got the impression that before she told Marten, the only people who knew were her immediate family. It seemed to her at that time that her struggle was insurmountable. What will people think? What will they
say? What will they
do? I have no doubt she was absolutely
terrified when she told Marten. It was a leap of faith. But he was also the one person she
knew she could trust more than anyone else outside her family (plus, I think she already had a bit of a crush on him at that point). Once she told Marten, and later Emily, and they were both completely OK with it, her struggle - while no doubt still great - was a little easier. Now that she is in a relationship with Marten, he has gone beyond simply
saying that he's cool with her being trans, to
demonstrating that he loves her just for
her. Her struggle is not over, by any means. There will always be people who will think poorly of her. She's not broadcasting it to the world, but she doesn't need to, either. It's no one's business anyway, unless she chooses to tell them. She has found that her friends - and especially the man who is most important in her life - really don't care.
To them, she's not really a man in denial of his true sex (heard that one
a lot about Caitlyn Jenner). She's not a statistic on some form. She's not some freak to be whispered about as she walks by. For all we know, Marten may rarely think about the fact that she's trans
at all any more. To her friends, she's
just Claire. Full stop. I think her struggle has faded into the background because for the most part, her friends have helped her make a molehill out of a mountain.