I know for a fact that trans care is satisfactory. I mean, I've been on Estradiol in pill form for five months so far (my HRT started on May 12, 2024, one day after my sister's wedding), but when I took my first shot of Estradiol Valerate intramuscularly two days ago, I was almost as euphoric as seeing the King Crimson supergroup BEAT (consisting of Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Steve Vai, and Danny Carey) at the Beacon Theatre five rows from the Stage wearing a long plaid skirt and a King Crimson T-shirt with their 1980's album covers (which I am currently wearing now!)! In case that wasn't clear, I was over the moon and then some!
Not only do I not regret gender-affirming care at all, but it's made me a far happier person and I wish I did this sooner!
When medical care can be denied to one group, it can be denied for all. Politicians and bigots have no business making health care decisions for anyone other than themselves.
Found out one of my old friends from a vidya game transitioned recently. I'm in a trans friendly guild in the main game I play (FFXIV) so all I said was, "Oh hey cool, congratulations! I like your new name."
I didn't even blink. I'm just happy so many of my old friends are figuring out who they really are.
In the meantime, Mr. Anzu leads a local 20s-30s anime club at the library, and it's earned a rep as a trans friendly hangout, so we've adopted a crew of trans adults and turned into their surrogate parents.
I play Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes. It's a mobile collectible game that drags out the "collection" over many years. I've been playing since near the beginning. (I did not know that at the time, my stepdaughter got me playing with her, and I suspect she knew the game had just come out, but I didn't.) That has enabled me to play some significant role in the community over the last near-decade.
At one point a particular task was the hardest in the game, but the rewards weren't something you could go without indefinitely (the rewards allowed the unlock of a specific character, and that character was not the most powerful, but was a good one and was also required for other specific rewards which you didn't want to go without).
So there was a server on Discord created just for helping people defeat the mission and collect the rewards -- something that was a guild project, so you might need to do it hundreds of times or you might need to do it only 7 times, depending on whether the whole guild was cooperating or if it was just one person. Because you needed to win at least 7 times, and usually many more, and because the mission was only available 1x/month, people felt like they couldn't afford to fail and our help-group became very popular.
The story is already long, but to cut it shorter, my voice is masculine enough that it's somewhat androgynous but leans a little M, so a lot of people thought I was a guy, but my friends on the server stuck up for me and politely stopped the nonsense. Eventually someone who wasn't an idiot realized, "Oh, hey, she might be trans," and my transness became a topic of conversation among thousands of regular players of this game overnight b/c so many people knew me as a result of my key role in this key group.
And what happened was ... a whole, large community got a little better. Most people really liked me b/c they knew I was helpful and many people had relied on me for key victories in the game. They might not know anything about transness, but they knew that I was friendly and supportive and helpful to others, so they were just gonna give that right back.
I think this kind of thing in the gaming world is good -- the thing where you can get a reputation for being a good person and people can think they know you all without ever really knowing anything about your gender. People form a positive attachment without the reality of gender getting in the way. (Most probably assume one gender or another, but the complex reality just doesn't enter into it.)
By the time someone realizes the person they know is trans (or sometimes a cis woman that they just assumed was a guy, because a lot of guys do that in gaming), it's too late. They already respect you. These weird little dynamics in the corners of our lives are providing so many opportunities for positive change. It's nice to hear about it happening in FF14 and the local library as well.
This is a great confirmation but as we all know, trans people are a nice little black box for bigots to project their basest instincts onto, and demonize even for political benefit in some areas. (Or even just as cheap targets to punch to look 'cool.')
I have a sort of ongoing project to organize my house, frequently thwarted by my own collecting tendencies, a messy spouse, and a kid who collects messes. But I know that back there in my mind is the thought that sometime there may be a kid who needs a room in a blue state, and I need to tidy in case they need it. I’m never sure if that is self-aggrandizement or extreme practicality, but the thought is always there: a tidy space means we can be a safe space if needed.
The Right's Gender Scam: How They're Conning America with Fake Outrage
A grotesque theater of bathroom panic and pronoun hysteria, designed to keep you scared, distracted, and obedient—while they ignore the real problems.
https://open.substack.com/pub/patricemersault/p/moral-panic-for-dummies?r=4d7sow&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
I know for a fact that trans care is satisfactory. I mean, I've been on Estradiol in pill form for five months so far (my HRT started on May 12, 2024, one day after my sister's wedding), but when I took my first shot of Estradiol Valerate intramuscularly two days ago, I was almost as euphoric as seeing the King Crimson supergroup BEAT (consisting of Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Steve Vai, and Danny Carey) at the Beacon Theatre five rows from the Stage wearing a long plaid skirt and a King Crimson T-shirt with their 1980's album covers (which I am currently wearing now!)! In case that wasn't clear, I was over the moon and then some!
Not only do I not regret gender-affirming care at all, but it's made me a far happier person and I wish I did this sooner!
When medical care can be denied to one group, it can be denied for all. Politicians and bigots have no business making health care decisions for anyone other than themselves.
Found out one of my old friends from a vidya game transitioned recently. I'm in a trans friendly guild in the main game I play (FFXIV) so all I said was, "Oh hey cool, congratulations! I like your new name."
I didn't even blink. I'm just happy so many of my old friends are figuring out who they really are.
In the meantime, Mr. Anzu leads a local 20s-30s anime club at the library, and it's earned a rep as a trans friendly hangout, so we've adopted a crew of trans adults and turned into their surrogate parents.
Nice work, Anzu!
I play Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes. It's a mobile collectible game that drags out the "collection" over many years. I've been playing since near the beginning. (I did not know that at the time, my stepdaughter got me playing with her, and I suspect she knew the game had just come out, but I didn't.) That has enabled me to play some significant role in the community over the last near-decade.
At one point a particular task was the hardest in the game, but the rewards weren't something you could go without indefinitely (the rewards allowed the unlock of a specific character, and that character was not the most powerful, but was a good one and was also required for other specific rewards which you didn't want to go without).
So there was a server on Discord created just for helping people defeat the mission and collect the rewards -- something that was a guild project, so you might need to do it hundreds of times or you might need to do it only 7 times, depending on whether the whole guild was cooperating or if it was just one person. Because you needed to win at least 7 times, and usually many more, and because the mission was only available 1x/month, people felt like they couldn't afford to fail and our help-group became very popular.
The story is already long, but to cut it shorter, my voice is masculine enough that it's somewhat androgynous but leans a little M, so a lot of people thought I was a guy, but my friends on the server stuck up for me and politely stopped the nonsense. Eventually someone who wasn't an idiot realized, "Oh, hey, she might be trans," and my transness became a topic of conversation among thousands of regular players of this game overnight b/c so many people knew me as a result of my key role in this key group.
And what happened was ... a whole, large community got a little better. Most people really liked me b/c they knew I was helpful and many people had relied on me for key victories in the game. They might not know anything about transness, but they knew that I was friendly and supportive and helpful to others, so they were just gonna give that right back.
I think this kind of thing in the gaming world is good -- the thing where you can get a reputation for being a good person and people can think they know you all without ever really knowing anything about your gender. People form a positive attachment without the reality of gender getting in the way. (Most probably assume one gender or another, but the complex reality just doesn't enter into it.)
By the time someone realizes the person they know is trans (or sometimes a cis woman that they just assumed was a guy, because a lot of guys do that in gaming), it's too late. They already respect you. These weird little dynamics in the corners of our lives are providing so many opportunities for positive change. It's nice to hear about it happening in FF14 and the local library as well.
This is a great confirmation but as we all know, trans people are a nice little black box for bigots to project their basest instincts onto, and demonize even for political benefit in some areas. (Or even just as cheap targets to punch to look 'cool.')
Ta, CD. Trans rights are human rights, even when the humans are minors.
I have a sort of ongoing project to organize my house, frequently thwarted by my own collecting tendencies, a messy spouse, and a kid who collects messes. But I know that back there in my mind is the thought that sometime there may be a kid who needs a room in a blue state, and I need to tidy in case they need it. I’m never sure if that is self-aggrandizement or extreme practicality, but the thought is always there: a tidy space means we can be a safe space if needed.