Whoops, transed my gender:

I'm biologically FireWire

Honestly, just existing is a part of the fight. If people know a queer person personally and see that they're human too just like them then they're a lot less likely to dehumanize them and are more likely to help protect and fight for them. It's easy to dehumanize and be cruel to a group that you've never interacted with. But if it's your neighbor, friend, or colleague then it's no longer just some abstract concept.

I see. I was guessing it meant that there would be a lot more active confrontation and resistance with the feds. That's disheartening.

It's so strange to be a young person who just became an adult to grow into this. I'm going to fight as best I can for a better tomorrow. We absolutely have to be as united as possible as a community in order to weather and fight this.

I have no fucking idea the path that my life is gonna take. Things were looking up and all I wanted was to finish the college of my dreams and enjoy my life. I have absolutely no idea what to do now. I do have citizenship in another country that I can flee to but that means leaving my friends, family, and education behind. What's gonna happen :/

Uhm actually I need a second private jet. It's extremely necessary to my basic needs.

I'm proud of you for making this post Uni. I wish you all the best.

To everybody else, I and many other matrix regulars can vouch for her. She is legit.

My uncle died of pancreatic cancer last summer, and I was pretty close to him. He was like my surrogate father after my real one died when I was ten. I'd been wanting to tell him for a long time and didn't know how he'd react but eventually...I just didn't. I decided that deep down in his heart he knew that I was different and still loved me, even if I never told him and he probably wouldn't understand it fully. He was dying anyway so I figured it wouldn't do much good to tell him since he'd be gone. I'll never know what would have happened had I told him and how he'd react, but my last words to him were "I love you" and I am at peace with that. I still haven't processed his death fully, honestly. Grieving comes when it comes and sometimes it goes away for a while and comes back in full force. It shows up in strange, unrecognizable ways. I used to draw and paint a lot and I just...stopped after his death. I don't know why.

But anyway...I don't have good advice for you. You just have to accept it. Stand by a creek, let the wind blow through your hair. Have the pain in your heart, carry that weight, then get stronger and more able to carry it and let go. There's no easy answers in situations like this. Cancer sucks. I hate cancer. I wish cancer was eradicated from the face of this planet. It's gonna suck. But you'll get through it. It'll be hard. But you'll keep going and eventually it won't be quite as bad. You'll find a way to come to terms with it in your own way and when you're ready.

You had me in the first half, not gonna lie.

That's such a sweet interaction. Us trans people can definitely sniff out our own much better than cis people can. He was so sweet to hand you all those resources. We need more people like him in the world.

I definitely recommend visiting the church. Churches are one of the best ways to find tight knit community who will help you in your time of need in most red states (ESPECIALLY rural areas or small-ish towns). It's also a good place to help other people through church ministries such as clothes closets, soup kitchens, crowdfunding for someone in need, etc. An openly queer church is a MAJOR bonus.

I'm not a Christian at all and likely will never be, but I still go to church because it is a very good hub for community and I live in a rural area. My main thing is singing in the choir and I mostly tune out the sermons, haha. My church isn't like accepting accepting, they don't go out of their way to help queer people specifically or talk about it much at all, but there's not much judgement around it either. I still feel really lucky that I found a church like that, though. Point is you are VERY lucky to have a church like that near you and I heavily encourage you to try it out. Lutherans generally have a good reputation for progressive theology and activism. I'm very excited for you!

I really hope that Nex will get justice and that there will be an independent investigation into this because this is a load of bullshit.

Do they think we're stupid? Even if the cause of death was suicide (which we don't know for sure, because the autopsy is shady AF.) it's a known fact that getting a concussion can make people suicidal. Either way, the girls who attacked him are responsible for his death. Pouring water on someone does not justify killing them.

Most of my pre egg cracking symptoms started at around eleven or twelve, but I was a pretty masculine child in personality.

I greatly exaggerated having voice cracks when I was going through first puberty. It made me feel masculine.

I always spoke in the lowest possible vocal register.

I refused to shave any body hair and never even entertained the idea despite significant outside pressure to.

I rarely showered because I wanted to stink like a teenage boy. I also dreaded any puberty pains or growth that was happening. It felt like body horror.

I had so much trouble understanding pubescent girls in the media, how they were so excited to have their first period or wear their first bra. I thought everyone experienced the absolute dread that came with puberty and they were all just pretending. I was fully expecting to get a huge growth spurt one day and grow to be 6ft tall and look like Jim Morrison. It felt like someone had made a mistake and it would correct itself naturally.

I remember getting on my knees and praying to God (i didn't even believe in god, that's how desperate i felt) not to let my chest to develop at all. I remember one time I read in a news article about moms in indonesia or something would put hot rocks on their daughter's chests to prevent any breasts from growing and it was being touted as a gross human rights violation. I tried to put burning hot rocks on my chest when I was maybe thirteen or fourteen. Didn't work, unfortunately :'(

I always wanted to go shirtless all the time. My mom had to practically wrangle me into a bra. At the same time, my newly developing chest seemed wholly foreign to me. It felt like a completely separate entity that was latched onto my real body.

I never really related to any girls my age when I was growing up. Always felt like an outsider in large groups of girls. Felt like they spoke a language I couldn't understand. Of course, I always had extremely codependent intense "friendships" with one girl at time. Took me a while to realize that was me liking girls.

I watched a lot of anime around that age, and for about a week after finishing one I'd adopt the personality and mannerisms of any male character that I thought was cool. One time I barely talked for a week so I could be just like jotaro from JoJo's bizarre adventure 🤦🏼‍♂️

Despite all of this, it would take me a while to figure out that I'm trans. That was never an option for the longest time.

After consistently passing as a man, I noticed that women that I meet are much more guarded around me than before. I definitely have to make more of an effort to appear "safe" to strangers.

Another thing is that I can get away with previous behaviors more without as much social repercussion. Due to being neurodivergent, I've always been socially unaware of things, never really tried to be polite or say all of the socially acceptable niceties as often as expected. People used to perceive me as "rude" or a "bitch" and now I'm just "blunt" and "get to the point." When I'm not in a talkative mood I used to be "cold" and now I'm just "preoccupied."