I’m on my phone right now so sorry for the short reply. Will expand when I get the chance (other people please pitch in).

TransLifeline used to offer microgrants until they ran into financial issues, giving them some donations would go a long way.

Both they and The Trevor Project also offer crisis support lines. I’m sure they’re busy right now and you should consider giving them your support as well.

This message was prepared ahead of time, along with one for Kamala Harris. I am sorry that this is the one we had to post. We will be monitoring the community closely over the next few days to redirect anyone in need to appropriate resources.

We centre trans people but cis folks (or folks who aren’t sure!) are always welcome

I still remember the first time I caught a glance of myself in the mirror and read “girl”! It’s a great feeling

I legally changed my name and gender!!!

Isn’t that what “classic” confinement is supposed to solve?

Thank you, I try my best 😅

It was a female-sex only Australian social networking platform that used AI face analysis and then personal review by the founder to determine if you were a woman.

If Sall Grover, the founder, doesn’t have anyone making fun of her, I’m dead

I’m going to take this in good faith and assume you truly are open to being educated here, but I will caution you that this is right on the line of something I would remove (transphobes often use questioning similar to this to troll and harass the trans community).

Grover’s insistence on referring to Tickle as a man reflects an (intentionally) limited and outdated understanding of gender, as well as a clearly spiteful attempt to hurt and disrespect Tickle.

Lets first address the biological aspect. Firstly, “biological sex” (itself a fairly outdated term) is more complicated than simple chromosomes. Yes, most people with XY chromosomes are assigned-male-at-birth and have the corollary primary and secondary sex characteristics to match, but that doesn’t make it universal. For instance, individuals with Swyer Syndrome are born with XY chromosomes but develop female characteristics, including uteri, and can even give birth with IVF.

Furthermore, the medical community has long generally drawn a distinction between sex (your biological characteristics) and gender (a complex psychological and social identity). This awareness has been present in Western medical thought since the 1950s, following research by J Money and others. Gender identity represents more than biological characteristics and is about how people perceive themselves and live their lives. Grover’s ideas also loosely play into the notion of biological essentialism, an outdated idea that a self proclaimed feminist such as herself should be rejecting (Simone de Beauvoir was writing about this in 1949!).

It can be pretty difficult for a cis (not trans) person to understand what it feels like to have a misaligned sex and gender, since yours are largely indistinguishable, so let me give you my personal experience (with the disclaimer that it is not universal, everyone is different). For me, it was a largely unplaced discomfort with my body and hatred of my “masculine” features. I was maxing out about every depression metric, even as a toddler. When I eventually connected the dots and began medically transitioning (taking testosterone blockers and estrogen) this discomfort eased significantly. My body and (occasionally) how society understood me finally matched how I understood myself. It felt like I had been suffocated my entire life and was finally able to breath.

From a practical standpoint, you are almost always using pronouns and titles based on your perception of a person’s gender identity and presentation - it is not reasonable to perform a DNA test on everyone you meet. On a deeper level though, when interacting with others, using pronouns and titles that align with their gender identity is not just a matter of politeness but a recognition of their humanity and autonomy. Misgendering someone invalidates a person’s identity and can contribute to their distress and alienation. To do this intentionally is fundamentally disrespectful, rejects decades of medical progress, and ignores the personal experiences of the target.

Brainworms are abound in transphobes

I’m not saying people didn’t ever call me gay unkindly, but it wasn’t like that. People were more just surprised when I identified as straight, or when I didn’t show much interest in men.

I’m not sure if mine changed, but I gave off such strong queer vibes that everyone has assumed I was bi or gay since I started high school. I could tell that as well, but not in a cohesive way that I could label, so I just kinda settled on bi.

Anyway I realised I was trans and almost completely gay for women (plus I never had a particular genitals preference). So I guess people were right, just in the wrong direction!

Before I transitioned? Eating disorders, disassociating, isolating. Since then, seeing the positive changes to my body, and the control I exercise over it has helped resolve it most days. There are still times I feel intensely dysphoric (whenever I voice train, when a stranger with the best of intentions misgenders me), but in those cases I usually let myself feel it (rather than bottling it up) and it’ll pass.