Gwen the Trans Balrog

No one told me I was trans. I wish someone had told me when I was young enough for it to have mattered. And the message I got from society certainly wasn't, "You might possibly be trans." It was, "Yes, there are a few trans people and they are freaks and jokes and you can't possibly be trans." I hope that might have improved a little. I think some kids get a more balanced message, like, "There are trans people and that's okay." (That's slightly sarcastic.) Hell, "Trans people are freaks and jokes," is still an improvement over, "There are no trans people." But sweet fuck, statistically speaking, no one is telling kids, "You are trans." No one is even telling them, "You might be trans." That's a made-up fear. But again, the people who made it up know that.

Am I being insulting when I use a standard ❤️ instead of a 💜? Is there a heart code I don't know about?

@properlypurple@tech.lgbt Yeah, mine was trans people on daytime talk shows who were all made out to be freaks. Society doesn't like us. I'm sorry you had to go through that 😞❤️

@PedestrianError@towns.gay Let's be honest, a lot of people who are pushing this want it not to be okay to be anything but a cishet white man. Yes, maybe cishet white women have to exist for them, but they still want those women to be not okay.

@grace@social.lol @naga@toot.cat There are usually so many signs once you know what you look for. Try not to beat yourself up about it though. No one told you what you look for.

@grace@social.lol Yes. Very much this. But I hope you're able to show yourself a little love now ❤️

@TonyaMarie@chaosfem.tw I think it's a holdover from other platforms where text was punished by the algorithm or where, as with Twitter, there wasn't sufficient length to post all the text. Plus it lets people use whatever font they want and colors and so forth. It makes things less accessible and breaks search so it isn't worth doing in my humble, but I think the above is the major reason why people continue to do it. Plus, unfortunately, it seems to do well, even on fedi.

@moriel@chaosfem.tw Me too. That and Ace Ventura. Ugh.

Dancer by day, welder by night.

@glassblowerscat@wandering.shop I'm sorry you had to go through it but glad you're on a better path ❤️

@breadinside@lgbtqia.space Practical advice: Underwear. I'm utterly masc to the world because they can't see my underwear. It's a tiny baby step. My advice is to buy extremely cheap until you feel like it's something you actually want to invest in. Then wear it under your normal underwear, just to see how it feels. Unless you're in a situation where people are regularly seeing you naked, it's pretty low risk. You may find that it doesn't matter to your gender expression what undies you have on, which is totally valid. Don't worry if so. But it's worth a try maybe.

@TonyaMarie@chaosfem.tw On Instagram, at least when I was using it, there was no way to post just text, so people would post images of text to get around that limitation. But based on what I've heard about visibility, posts which include large amounts of text (as a caption to a photo, for instance) are less likely to be seen by people than posts which are just an image with little or no text attached. In other words, if you want to share text on Instagram, the most likely way to get views is to make an image containing that text and share it, rather than attaching that text to an image of something else. It makes a certain brutal sense, given that Instagram was always intended as a way to share images. I'm probably doing a bad job explaining it. Sorry.

@TonyaMarie@chaosfem.tw Oh, on Instagram it's totally because the algorithm punishes text. That's the why. I agree with you completely on the result though.

There's something about bigots claiming we were "born a man/woman" but also that gay people are choosing to be gay that is deeply weird, but I lack the cognition this early in the morning to go into it.

@Saorsa@neondystopia.world How are they going to solicit advice when they don't know they need it? We don't expect children to come to their parents and ask to be taught math. And in this case, it's more like they're being taught that math is bad and wrong by everyone, then expecting them to have the wherewithal to ask people about it who may be the very ones teaching them that math is bad and wrong. Gender doesn't begin at puberty. Full stop. No backsies. Waiting until puberty to teach children about gender is akin to waiting until puberty to teach them about morality or sexuality. By that point, it's usually too late. And again, the age-gating. It's not good. I'm pretty sure this is the end of any useful interaction I can have with you. You seem dead-set on repeating the same incorrect points over and over again and you don't address any of the concerns one might have with them. I fear for your kids and I fear for you.

@Saorsa@neondystopia.world You're a libertarian. How cute. Yes, that's insulting, but you're a libertarian so you must be used to it. Avaunt ye and begone from my sight.