I am deeply ashamed of my religious past. I believed and said some truly horrible things. My church and school were my whole world, and it was very conservative and very Catholic.

And so when I was a teenager, I started using those beliefs to justify projecting hatred towards women and queerness. Probably to deflect the bullying that came my way for being very clearly not a “normal boy”, in hindsight.

That’s no excuse though, I should have done better. I’m glad that my views improved dramatically once I went to college and deconverted, but I still really regret that I certainly hurt people.

And I still kinda long for and mourn the childhood and teenage years of the person I wish that I had been but wasn’t.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how I wish my first exposure to the idea of people transitioning wasn’t the episode of Family Guy where Brian learns the woman he just had sex with is trans and gets grossed out.

I did grew up in transphobic homophobic society. I though that being gay and trans is bad, but did not understand why. I did not understand what is actually bad about being lgbtq person. And ever since i was a kid, i though about liking boys and liking girly things, despite being taught about those things being bad. This is probably why it was easy for me to realise that i am myself gay and trans, and that all those transphobia and homophobia is bullshit.

I trust someone who has fallen into darkness and returned to the light a lot more than I trust a paragon who has never known temptation. On its face. There are people who still carry the darkness with them. Trans women who didn't stop being bullies but just chose more acceptable targets. But those of us who have hated and been shown hate is wrong… I think that's a beautiful thing. What happened in your past is between you and your victims, and its up to you to make peace with them. But I'm not here to beat you up over actions you already know were stupid and wrong

I blame youtube. My introduction to trans peoples' existence was an ad for Matt Walsh.

I had not watched or searched anything to bring that channel up my ad feed at the time either.

Was just overall a jackass through highschool. I use adblock on everything now.

The edgelord teenager to bisexual 20 something to transgender 30 something pipeline strikes again

Yeah, I once declared in a room of like 100+ people of a queer advocacy org that there were only 2 genders.

This was before I realized I was trans.

Yes, I'm still kicking myself in the face (figuratively) for this. I hate who I used to be. And I don't think I'll ever forgive myself for the pain I caused that day.

Truth be told, I'm not sure I want to forgive myself. I'm not sure I deserve it.

We all have the capacity to change, dont let anyone judge you by your past ❤️.

My cruelty was only pointed inwards, thankfully. We'll see if i ever reconcile

rafiki: "oh, yes, the past can hurt. but the way i see it, you can either run from it, or... learn from it."

Nah I was always anti-discrimination, even if I didn't knew all the arguments yet.

I'm guilty of that and I'm very very sorry 😔

Well I kicked out a trans woman from a church. And I've done some other stuff. I was able to meet a friend of mine from years ago who's transgender and I tried to "convince him out of it" but he certainly didn't blame me. In fact, he was like that couple years before we met.

It's a relatively common thing and I try not to blame myself for it because I did what I could with what I was given.

Proud to say I was never transphobic or homophobic to anyone except myself. Granted, we all have internalized transphobia due to the way society referred to us or put us down, but I don't think I've ever been unwelcoming to anyone else who is trans or ever put down their identity.

It's hard to not feel it toward yourself but maybe this will get better once I'm further along in my journey into womanhood, idk.

A lot of people are taught to hate themselves. The problem is the people who hold onto that mentality even after growing up.

Took a while to notice that it is her past.

My earliest exposure to trans people was through freak show presentations on late night talk shows and movies depicting trans people.as either the butt of a joke, or outright insane. I grew up accepting of gay and queerness in general, but bought into the stereotype of trans as freak. Until a good friend twenty years ago now called me on that bullshit. I credit that moment for starting me on the road to bejng able to accept myself.

Never hated gay people, i dont understand

It has been years that I keep seeing this drawing and still don't know the origin of it. Like, it's an original one? Part of a series? A comic? A Fan art? Who's the author?

If y’all are going through all the therapy and reparative steps, have it.
However, this exact meme means you haven't, and won't.
It's even more worse now with 参政党 & Alternative for Germany.

Like TheGingerNut said earlier:

its up to you to make peace with them.

Intolerance is groomed. Tolerance is discipline. I pray you choose wiser next time you feel tempted to punch down. Because am a victim of continued:

Trans women who didn’t stop being bullies but just chose more acceptable targets