That's interestingly different Lesley. At the beginning it started out that premies were also my wider social group -- which was why I became a premie no doubt --but most of that set had dropped out back by 75 or 76 - and then I moved around a fair bit and by the eighties and nineties 'being a premie' was very much an internalized part of my identity with just a few real premie friends that I held onto. I always felt rather peripheral to most of the communities I passed through and - if I am honest - I suppose always really felt more comfortable in the nerdy techy world of my fellow scientists , family and day to day workmates. That's not to say that I wasn't a true believer - I was - and probably I have a loyal nature and couldn't deny what I then believed that I 'knew '- but bridging everything clearly required idiotic levels of compartmentalization. Certainly a blessed relief to finally resolve it all.
I was completely honest when I exed out - and told the premies who I was on a sort of local service mailing list with - that - after 30 odd years - I had realized it was all false and that the expremie site needed to be read. Unsurprisingly -- nobody thanked me. One aggressive reaction. But I didn't lose any real friends -- because my premie friends had exed too. But I know that it is different for others and it must be difficult when people you really know and value start to feel that they must shut you out.
