@Joanne GraceThis is fantastic news. CONGRATULATIONS. It is an extremely huge step. I am so proud of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@LilisYou are a shining example of how it is supposed to go. I'm so proud of you and realize you are a very mature young woman. You've just encouraged me to be more honest with myself and keep moving forward. Hugs

I am so very happy for you, Joanna!!! Congratulations, girl!!! You are rocking it!!!

When I was born, probably like most, I had lovely curly hair; my mother was often greeted with awe, Isn't she lovely?' This upset my mum and promptly put me in blue, as opposed to white. Sometimes when Mum wanted a break, she would pass me over to an aunt or grandparent. My aunty was a foster mum and took in a girl named Susan. On one occasion, Susan decided to do my hair with ribbons and put a smock dress on me. I froze with fear and hid away; needless to say, I was picked up and put on the sofa. Sitting there, I did not know what to do; I did not look up !!! My mother arrived back from shopping and was furious with my aunt and said that I was never to return there again. My cousins would taunt me with pretty girl. I had long hair and was often asked if I was a girl or boy. Talk about fate!!. In ballet school, in double work, I ended up doing lifts. I am not sure why I was picked for the lift; perhaps it was because I was skinny and small, but in ballet girls always outnumbered the boys. My thoughts at the time were, Hopefully he will drop me, and I will smash my head, and that's it.

in the winter months i normally wear a baggy top or sweat shirt, this time around i will be getting a naval ring (that looks like a ring) and perhaps when its warm weather go for a cropped top and Jewelry bar just for accent.

Is this a piece of history, or is it news?  

https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2025/04/21/health-care-could-get-more-expensive-for-transgender-people-under-a-new-trump-rule/     Carolyn Marie

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/federal-appeals-court-pentagons-ban-transgender-service-members/story?id=121042369     Excellent arguments on the part of the plaintiff's attorney.  Nonsensical arguments, without evidence, argued by the admin's attorneys.  Even Trump's appointed justices appear to be skeptical.   Carolyn Marie

*Every drop makes the sea whole.

Ever drop makes the sea whole.

I think we've noticed the same things, perhaps.  At least in terms of media.  I think in recent years, the pendulum has swung in the direction of positivity and awareness regarding trans people.  When I was in high school, basically nobody had ever heard of a trans girl.  Nobody knew one...at least, not that we were aware of.  My husband remembers only one from his teenage years - he and my GF had temporarily broken up, and he ended up kissing the girl before finding out she was trans.  (It was a real shock for him, and I wonder what his highschool self would have thought about being married to an intersex/trans fox-boy )   "Man in a dress" humor was definitely a feature in media until maybe 10 years ago.  And I don't think most people had many thoughts about it.  Kind of like slapstick.  I mean, nobody takes the 3 Stooges seriously.  Trans people, when/where they exist, were looked at as comedy if they were looked at at all.  I can't recall the films, but I remember recently watching a couple of movies from the early 2000s or maybe even the early 2010s that had that sort of humor.  I wouldn't have thought about it back in my teen years or early 20s, but now that I'm tuned into trans issues I was struck by it.  I thought, "Wow.  Don't really see that anymore.  Not sure I'm comfortable with that, either."  It makes me think.  I don't have answers.    Many people, even me at times, think that society has become too thin-skinned overall.  There's trigger warnings on news stories.  Humor seems muted.  People are worried about offending others, getting their reputation trashed on social media, whatever.  It feels excessive, and I'm not surprised that there's a social backlash right now.  Pendulum swinging in the other direction.    In an oblique way, I think it relates to something Ghandi said.  "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."  We were ignored until the 80's or 90's, I guess (I wasn't around for that).  Then we were comedy.  Now they're fighting us.  Not sure if it quite matches up to Ghandi's idea, but its an interesting thought.   Yeah, I know I don't really have any answers in the things I said.   Just some random observations, and more questions.  Like you, I'm interested in the sociology aspect.  Humans...are so odd sometimes.   

Thanks everyone,  it was a big day?  This was on my first day in work as Joanne,  it felt a little stange at first,  but just felt normal by the end of the day. I work as a home delivery driver for a big supermarket chain in the uk, its called ASDA,  it used to be part of the Walmart chain, so I am constantly in contact with the public,  I don’t even think any of the customers knew I'm trans, just by the way they addressed and spoke to me? It felt really good 👍 🥰.we've discussed about the toilet situation in work, and I have agreed to use the disabled toilet if it makes me or anyone uncomfortable using any of the others? If I need the toilet when I'm out and about,  I'm using the ladies? The ladies are cubicle only, so you don't see anyone until you enter and leave the cubicle,  whereas,  the men's have the urinals in public view,  I wouldn't feel comfortable or safe using the men's?  Thanks again everyone,  hugs and kisses 🥰 

@AllieJ I think I’m finally starting to make sense of the clinical explanation behind gender dysphoria.   So basically, transitioning doesn’t cure "gender dysphoria because it’s not a disease", so there is nothing to cure. It just helps alleviate it, right?

None of us are born 'in the wrong body', we simply have a developmental variation which gives us incongruence. The only treatment currently is transition. Dysphoria is our challenge, and if we could eliminate that, we would be happy with our bodies.    Hugs,   Allie

Before I swapped it for the ring, I had a stud in my nose.  Sometimes it would snag on things - like when washing face.  The ring is a ring without any edges and doesn't have that problem.  And I think it's cooler.

Grateful for small pains - For it is a luxury  Finding small triumphs.

Clothes are so overrated. "My piercing will get caught" is just one more good reason for me to never bother wearing a shirt 🤣  I haven't quite convinced my family on that, but they know that unless it's cold or I am going to Sunday service, they're lucky I'm wearing shorts.    As for the piercing itself, I think what catches fabric the most is a jewel setting that has points or protrusions. Smoother seems to be better.

That is not what is going on in this particular case. This case is about allowing parents to opt their children out of specific portions of the curriculum. Individually. This is separate from trying to get the school to remove the material completely for everybody.  Yes, there are things like that going on. But that's not what this case is about. This case is entirely about parental rights.   Just think - imagine a future USA where lgbtq+ people are completely outlawed. Perhaps a theocracy. (Just an example, not something I believe will happen).  If the Supreme Court sets a precedent that parents don't have influence in their children's education and that parents must accept whatever the school has determined must be taught... what happens to liberty at that point?  This is something people seem to forget in the middle of partisan politics. Whatever power you give to the state, it can be used against you. Every legal decision carries with it the possibility of being used by the other side. The only Security is to avoid giving such power to the state at all.   If people are worried about us being erased, I believe the answer is to consistently support family rights and individual liberties. This guarantees freedom for all, regardless of identity or political stance. 

No, but I have thoughts.     I do not think there exists any hierarchy of aspects of transition. And if there were, I cannot see it logically correlating to measures of distress. And if somehow there were a hierarchy designed to correspond to measures of distress, that would gravely err on the side of gatekeeping against trans people who are not "adequately distressed". Another problem with this scheme is that transition is unique to each person. Most trans people do not say, "I only plan to transition to level one, or only this much transition would make me feel better, etc." It is imperative to help trans people determine healthy and reasonable goals on a personal basis which is incredibly nuanced and dynamic. And none of that is necessarily written in stone. Trans mental healthcare should also emphasize developing a feeling of safety, stability, sense of inner resources, and most of all, self-acceptance. Self-perception changes over time. So do goals.    I do think that learning how to determine what modalities of mental health treatment would best help individuals is worth pursuing - for all people, not just the trans population. But long story short, I don't find it reasonable to consider trans healthcare in such a linear fashion. However, within the context of trans mental healthcare, I think a survey of a person's given goals could be made to correlate to suggestions on how to achieve the goals. But this would be best done by posing affirmative survey items, not by measuring distress. For example, say a survey question says, "I often think/wish/envision myself, etc. as ___", or "someday I would like to ___". Goal-oriented, affirmative statements. This could help to assess euphoria - what might bring the person a better sense of integration and joy.      Of course! It's by questioning that we all learn.

Returning to this saga which I originally posted August 6, 2023 (wow!).    Two things.   One, this friend. I heard from her recently. She'd been out of touch. Her perpetual busyness with life stuff was what was preventing me from addressing the original issue (TERFy ranting); I didn't want to add to her stress. Maybe that's just an excuse. At any rate, she'd been mostly out of touch for a long time now. Occasional texts that began, "sorry it's been so long." About a month ago I heard from her. She said she's finally emerging after two years of upheaval. So I was like hey what's going on. She listed some things including her father who had developed Alzheimer's & that she started a new job. I offered sympathy about her dad's situation and well wishes on the job. Then no reply. Again. So, I just didn't feel inclined to add any sort of - "we should totally catch up soon." I feel content with life right now. A precious gift. I would not turn her away if she reached out to me. But I don't feel like extending myself.   Two, what made me think of this thread was a different thing which happened today. If it weren't for the medical issues communities there, I think I would delete my facebook acct immediately. Lol, you can probably tell where this is going. For some context, also in 2023 (April), I confronted a family member about posting transphobic memes on facebook. (I wrote about that in another thread.) It's really interesting to reflect on what a major deal it was to encounter these instances of transphobia two years ago. That is, I feel I am better equipped to deal with such things now - I'd like to think mostly due to personal growth, and frankly, partially due to being confronted with this recent onslaught which rather forces one to deal with it, one way or another. Today, in a moment of idleness, I looked at facebook. A good friend of mine posted a transphobic video. Something meant to be "funny" about "men" in women's sports. I felt really disappointed in him. I drafted a text, didn't send it, then deleted it.    Here's the thing. Just two years ago, instances of transphobia seemed rather shocking to me. Evidently. Now, it has been so normalized and has become acceptable as casual humor, much more so than two years ago when it seemed more caustic and shocking. It's almost like a bend in time back to the 80s and 90s where "men in dress" humor was peppered into entertainment media, except for back then, there was a legitimate widespread ignorance regarding trans people; whereas now, it seems more intentional. Perhaps that's just my perspective. But it was the flavor of the video that made me think that. I'm struggling to figure out how to describe it. More "palatable" in a mainstream kind of way? The sort of thing that anyone prone to finding basic slapstick humor would be amused by. Whereas transphobic memes I'd seen in the past seemed to take more of a definitive position. Yes, I think that's it. The creation of transphobic memes for mass consumption. And memes refers also to transphobic opinions created for mass consumption.   Without getting into too much of a political frenzy - because that is not what I want to focus on; I am more interested in the sociological phenomenon at play - I've been observing lately how masses of people's political viewpoints are like fashion trends. I would provide more examples, but as stated, this is not a thread in the political forum. My point is that is it remarkable how so many can be swayed. "Here, this is what's considered funny or outrageous now. Laugh at it or be outraged by it." Is my friend who posted the video even aware of how hateful it is? I really don't think so. He's a lighthearted guy and not a supporter of the current regime. To him, lives aren't at stake by perpetuating ignorance via social media. He just thinks it's a funny video. I am 99.9% sure that is the case without having asked him about it. In fact, if I brought it up, he might not even remember it as it was just another funny thing he posted.   Is it even worth having a conversation about it? I want to let it go. For my own mental health. But if I feel tension regarding him, I'm gonna have to get it off my chest.