One of my favorite Aunts vomited the family shame up on that post. She may have been half in the bag considering how difficult it was to parse what she was saying. Once I looked at the tone though, I was like oh, this is the family shame we all grew up with. I know this garbage.

So, I deleted my initial defensive response. And explained to her that my name and my dead name actually have the same meaning. That it's just my name. And that it will legally be my name soon. I also explained that pretending I don't prefer feminine things was literally killing me. That I choose life. And that I hope she prefers a joyful niece to a suicidal nephew.

I feel proud of myself for handling it so well. I don't know that I'll get through to her. But I hopefully educated some people on the sidelines. And proved to myself once again that I'm much more able to deal with life's hurdles when I'm able to be myself.

Texted my baby brother, who has been super supportive. And vented and then we both vented about transphobic people (he's a serious ally, in addition to being a beautiful sibling) And both him and his wife offered support on the Facebook post too.

What my Aunt said hurts and makes me sad. But, I'm choosing to focus on all the support I've been getting. And putting my attention there instead of on the hurt brings me gratitude for the beautiful people in my life who will love and support me through this.