this is along with name, race and other demographic information

They don't have a gender field, and it really feels like they are just reducing sex and gender down to "you are what you were assigned at birth", and then hiding behind amorphous medical "reasons" as justification ....

If you are thinking about harming yourself — get immediate crisis support. Connect to a crisis counselor 24/7, 365 days a year, from anywhere in the U.S via text, chat, or phone. The Trevor Project is 100% confidential and 100% free.

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/

If you are thinking about harming yourself — get immediate crisis support. Connect to a crisis counselor 24/7, 365 days a year, from anywhere in the U.S via text, chat, or phone. The Trevor Project is 100% confidential and 100% free.

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/

If you are thinking about harming yourself — get immediate crisis support. Connect to a crisis counselor 24/7, 365 days a year, from anywhere in the U.S via text, chat, or phone. The Trevor Project is 100% confidential and 100% free.

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/

I (trans man) have a best friend (cis man). Today, he texted me, saying that he encountered one of his friends (cis man) and the friend's boyfriend (trans man).

While I see the friend's boyfriend as quite androgynous leaning masculine, my best friend thinks he looks rather feminine and "just like a girl".

He still is trying to understand LGBTQ stuff, especially since he has had a transphobic, homophobic upbringing.

Anyway, my best friend called the boyfriend "she", so he replied with "I'm a guy, actually."

This confused my friend, apparently, and he said "How was I supposed to know when he looks so feminine?"

What is some advice I can give my friend? He's trying to understand, like I said, and I fully acknowledge and believe we are ALL guys. Everyone involved in this post. Me, my friend, his friend, and the boyfriend.

Get your elected officials, allies, and/or yourself to read suicide notes... or share stories, if that is too heavy.

Make the stories personal. Speak to those you can.

Be wary of going on news or podcasts. Ideally, don't. But be prepared, if you must.

Malicious people might try to turn it around. Simply be a champion to all.

Please , help spread the words. To activists, and to politicians who are willing to speak. To those who you are uncertain of, but will give a chance to. To other social media sites, both big and small. To anyone who would be willing to act.

I would not be a maintainer, but feel free to make a git repository and polish these articles. If not on GitHub or GitLab, then on codeberg, radicle, or elsewhere. Good luck, and thank you.

I saw Lesbian Space Princess opening night last night and loved it! The theatre was empty besides my group and two lesbians behind us though, so I felt the need to promote it a bit in case people haven't heard of it

It's fun, self-aware, unabashedly queer, and is produced independently by an Aussie company with a bunch of our biggest queer talent! Highly recommend if you need a lighthearted distraction from the world.

Hey all, I'm that relative normie up in Duluth, Minnesota, who took in Keris a year and a half ago, and I need help finding a new and safer place for them to go.

First and foremost, this is not a plea for money, and if anyone has such offers they should go directly to Keris.

Bluntly, my wife is done with us having a houseguest, which is totally understandable, so I don't want to point fingers but make it understood that we aren't fishing for cash.

So on to Keris. They're non-binary, in their 30s, and mostly keep to themselves. I like hanging out with them, as nerds we get along. They're clean, quiet, considerate, and basically just need a safe place with their own room and preferably bathroom. Cat friendly is a massive plus.

I'm looking for ideas and offers of help. They do not have a job and do have some Minnesota state benefits, but not much money saved. I'll answer any other questions in comments or privately.

Personally, I think getting them out of the country is best, and would be able to get them to Canada if that's of any help. But stateside offers of help are also appreciated.

If you are thinking about harming yourself — get immediate crisis support. Connect to a crisis counselor 24/7, 365 days a year, from anywhere in the U.S via text, chat, or phone. The Trevor Project is 100% confidential and 100% free.

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/

Before I begin, I should clarify 1) I firmly stand against the transphobia that has seen a rise since yesterday 2) I don't condone violence like what happened either, and 3) I don't fully know how the papacy structure currently works

When the Bolsheviks killed the Romanovs, the pope at the time instantly canonized the Romanovs and that was the biggest PR blow to the Bolsheviks. Today there's a pope who people show pride in as being from America, specifically Chicago. And he even speaks English. Anything he or even a top cardinal says on the Minneapolis matter is going to have weight when it comes to trans individuals. I guess my question is, if I am to say I fear that the shooter awakened a sleeping giant, how do we, you know, put the giant back to sleep without it misstepping anywhere? This isn't just a worrywort talking, I've seen shit happen and know how things can go downhill fast. There must be some emergency "halt papal discussion of the topic" button somewhere.

If you are thinking about harming yourself — get immediate crisis support. Connect to a crisis counselor 24/7, 365 days a year, from anywhere in the U.S via text, chat, or phone. The Trevor Project is 100% confidential and 100% free.

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/

A new Executive Order is banning transgender health care on Federal Employee plans beginning in 2026.

If you are thinking about harming yourself — get immediate crisis support. Connect to a crisis counselor 24/7, 365 days a year, from anywhere in the U.S via text, chat, or phone. The Trevor Project is 100% confidential and 100% free.

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/

If you are thinking about harming yourself — get immediate crisis support. Connect to a crisis counselor 24/7, 365 days a year, from anywhere in the U.S via text, chat, or phone. The Trevor Project is 100% confidential and 100% free.

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/

The way I understand my feelings and experiences has changed so much pre vs post transition.

I wanted to see what other small misconceptions you all had from pre-transition that you see differently now, or that maybe you wish you had understood before.

There are so many to choose from, but I'll start:

Probably as a coping mechanism I never saw the gendered components to my self-loathing.

For example, I hated my breasts because they were malformed-looking, to me. I would sometimes think, if I were a woman it would be worse (like the same, but larger), but I never once thought having a flat chest would be better. Instead I seemed to need to feel having female breasts would be worse, so I could feel better about my situation.

Or how I always loved how little hair was on my body, but never thought that was abnormal. I never got back hair and only had thin hair on my belly and a small, thin strip on my sternum. I never thought of this in terms of gender, I never thought about how my body ideal was curvy and hairless, or feminine. It bothered me when I was compared to male beauty icons, but I never could quite be honest with myself as to why.

I ignored (or repressed) the gender in everything, but it was still there.

So my misconception was about gender itself, I thought of it as primarily social and malleable, and thus was some great social evil, gender was The Enemy or The Problem.

Now gender is extremely important to me, but before I would say being a man was irrelevant to me, or even obviously unwanted - it was a moral choice, to be a woman was to be a better person in my mind, to abandon a toxic social role in favor of an enlightened one.

Now I think you can't really choose, that we have these implicit gendered feelings that we can't really change, and so being a woman feels good to me because of what I am, and now being a woman is just a precious gift, rather than a moral imperative.

I totally botched this post, I wanted this to be succinct and lost my sense of purpose and have rambled along.

Looking forward to hearing from you all. 💚

If you are thinking about harming yourself — get immediate crisis support. Connect to a crisis counselor 24/7, 365 days a year, from anywhere in the U.S via text, chat, or phone. The Trevor Project is 100% confidential and 100% free.

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/

If you are thinking about harming yourself — get immediate crisis support. Connect to a crisis counselor 24/7, 365 days a year, from anywhere in the U.S via text, chat, or phone. The Trevor Project is 100% confidential and 100% free.

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/

If you are thinking about harming yourself — get immediate crisis support. Connect to a crisis counselor 24/7, 365 days a year, from anywhere in the U.S via text, chat, or phone. The Trevor Project is 100% confidential and 100% free.

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/

If you are thinking about harming yourself — get immediate crisis support. Connect to a crisis counselor 24/7, 365 days a year, from anywhere in the U.S via text, chat, or phone. The Trevor Project is 100% confidential and 100% free.

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/

If a cis person meets a trans person and the trans person introduces themselves with a name that doesn't match what appears to be their gender and they are working (meaning possibly their employer requires them to use birth name or something) what should that cis person do?