I kind of did a version of this. I was such a shut-in before transitioning that I didn’t have much of a social circle anyway. I came out to my parents and then we never spoke again. They moved away recently. I came out to one side of my extended family but then just vanished. I never even bothered coming out to the other extended family. Once I was full time, I got a new job. The friends I did have exited my life one at a time for various reasons in the first year of transitioning.

So I got to start a brand new life in the same metro area. I’m stealth for the most part. My close friends know and that’s about it. I’m glad it worked out this way because I’m really slow to make friends. I don’t think I would have handled making new friends in a new city very well. It was good to have a gradual move to all new people.

It’s also just awkward being around people who knew me before transitioning, even if they’re supportive. It’s very nice having an entire life full of people who only know me as a woman. Although I still do not have as big of a social circle as I had prior to transition 7 years later.

If you move somewhere, I’d recommend doing it to a city where there’s a lot of transplants. I live in a flyover city where most people are still friends with the group they went to high school and college with. They aren’t really trying to make new friends. It would be a lot easier in a destination city, from what I hear. There are even cis transplants who make threads in my city subreddit trying to figure out how to make friends.