cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5243193

https://gofund.me/a1174ab9

en.prolewiki.org find it

This is like, the weirdest thing ever imo. I feel more girlish when warm and more boyish when cold. The only similar thing I can think of is how some marine animals' eggs change their gender when exposed to different temperatures.

Initially when taking hormones, I called myself non-binary precisely because of this, although I changed my pronouns to she/her afterwards because I thought I "wasn't committing" (no shade to enbies or gender fluid folk, this was purely about my own anxieties). But even after my anxiety has calmed down greatly, I still feel the same phenomena. I think it might be linked to stress (I'm very stressed right now), but the pattern I have noticed over like, 12 weeks now, really stands out to me.

I hope I'm severely misinterpreting something, because I don't want to be dissected by scientists trying to figure out whatever new X-men mutant powers I am developing.

Does anybody have even slightly similar experiences? Am I actually just NB or gender fluid (I think I might be)?

Silly ideas in my silly mind

So I have a coworker who is half Hawaiian and half Native American and we were talking about things they'll call white people over there and he just says "we'll sometimes call them "Māhū", don't look it up cause it's a slur."

And of course I looked it up and I'm just like ??? It's just the Hawaiian third gender? Everything about the term seems cool to me. Like, there's alot of cultural significance behind the word, in the past Māhū were held in very high esteem and had an important role in their culture and it only started getting used in a derogatory way because of western influence. He said it's like calling someone the F slur in Hawaii. So I challenged why he thinks of it as a slur and he got pretty uncomfortable with the conversation. I asked him if it's a slur than what's the "socially acceptable" Hawaiian term for trans folk there and he had no idea. Probably because bad actors have done their best to make the very existence of trans people socially unacceptable.

It's just a case of transphobia mixed with colonization. Westerners have made them uncomfortable with the idea of a nonbinary gender system, and tried to erase the existence of other genders in every culture they come across. It's just the equivalent of being called gay: something only straight cis people or internalized homo/transphobic people would take issue with. I think a step towards decolonizing their culture would be reclaiming the term and refusing to see it as a slur, and after doing some digging it does look like there's efforts to reclaim it as part of their cultural identity.

If there's any Native Hawaiians here who can provide more input and context here it would be appreciated.

Edit: Gonna repost this gender map I included in a Mega post I made ages ago:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?ll=8.016975588774075%2C64.4248907814756&z=2&mid=1zDWxhBN5aOofwpE-FkZWQsiFDlE

https://www.tumblr.com/senshibignaturals/684810886163152896/happy-pride-month-everyone-always-remember-that

Sir Ian McKellen (known as Gandalf) will open a historic production of Twelfth Night, featuring an all-trans and non-binary cast.

The one-night-only rehearsed reading, staged by the theatre group Trans What You Will, will take place at The Space Theatre in London on July 25, 2025, and will be livestreamed globally. All profits will go to the UK-based trans charity Not A Phase.

The production reimagines Shakespeare’s gender-fluid classic through a trans lens, emphasizing themes of mistaken identity, cross-dressing, and shifting gender roles.

Director Phoebe Kemp describes the reading as an act of joy, solidarity, and protest, celebrating trans and non-binary artists at a time when trans representation is under threat.

‘Twelfth Night already toys with gender and performance—it feels like Shakespeare wrote it for us,’ they tell Metro.

The event is scheduled ahead of London Trans+ Pride.

And so, the time came to finally write my tranniversary mega. I had scheduled MONTHS in advance, in anticipation of making a post celebrating a year of being out as a trans person, celebrating the onset of Pride Month (which should be every month but June is also peak egg cracking season ), and going over all of the major things that have happened in the past year. I go to write it a few days before, which says a lot, and… I don’t know what to say. A lot of things ended up happening that make this a different kind of post? I haven’t really been on this bear site in a bit, my mental health took a really horrible turn, I had been burning out for months, and to be honest I’m still recovering. The semester is finally over, and I’m still somewhat volatile, especially in terms of my anxiety. Like, existentially bad. There were also aspects of the site that compounded on issues I was having, and the enjoyment was vanishing, so I decided to take my leave. I did end up staying in tracha by the way, highly recommend joining if you haven’t already. Element has many wonderful tools to help with the anxiety that could come with a chatroom, and I know anxiety quite well 😅. Notifications are easy to disable, or enable if need be, I still get DM notifications. Was also able to turn off my read receipts, which was a huge cause of anxiety for me, it takes a lot less energy to lurk, and now I don’t feel a lingering obligation to say something. I’m getting sidetracked at this point, I don’t want to make the intro longer than the rest of the post, so let’s just get into it.

And that’s where I’ll leave all of you. I’ll interact with the mega this week, but then, I’m gone. I don’t think I’ll delete this account like I said, but I already unmodded from most places and am logging off. Maybe I’ll come back one day. Maybe I won’t. If I did, I’d happily step up and mod both this comm and the disabled comm again. We have plenty here, but I feel genuinely bad about leaving the disabled comm, and well, I hope that in the event I returned you’d all be happy to have me. Honestly if I had a way to isolate the two comms and be in them, I would o7. Not to shill tracha again, but that’s kind of what it is to me. Everyone I talk to on matrix (which is like one person consistently but brain please shush) is from tracha, and it really is a nice space, albeit one with varying degrees of activity but I’m not the one to complain, and so I'm not. Life is tough, energy is low, and I feel exactly the same way. I guess I keep bringing tracha up to drive home the fact that I’m not dropping off the face of the Earth. I’m still here, not cutting myself off and isolating myself, just trying to get a better hold of my anxieties and other mental stuff and my self. The various batteries of life drain fast, but I’ll keep going. I know many feel those drains too, but just keep going and take any time you may need!

Live as yourselves, strive to grow, stay curious, take that extra step for yourselves, and care for not just the other people in your lives, but yourselves as well. We deserve to live, and we deserve to be here, as ourselves, no matter what others might think or say or do.

May you all have a great week, and HAPPY PRIDE MONTH LET’S GO!!!

celebratory measures

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As a reminder, please do not discuss current struggle sessions in the mega. We want this to be a little oasis for all of us and the best way to do that is not to feed into existing conflict on the site.

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SALT LAKE CITY — When Utah Republicans passed a ban on gender-affirming health care for children and teens in 2023, they argued it was needed to protect vulnerable kids from treatments that could cause long-term harm.

Years later, the results of a study commissioned under the same law contradict that claim, and the Republican-led Legislature is facing pressure to reconsider the restrictions.

Utah's Department of Health and Human Services and experts from the state's leading health organizations concluded from a study of thousands of transgender people that gender-affirming care generated "positive mental health and psychosocial functioning outcomes."

Policies that prevent access to hormone therapy for minors cannot be justified based on scientific findings or concerns about potential regret in the future, the report states.

The agency is not taking a position on whether lawmakers should lift the statewide ban on hormone therapy and surgeries for minors. But it reminded lawmakers that they had intended for the prohibition to be temporary until the state could conduct its own research

Utah is among 27 states that have adopted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, who Republican politicians have made a political lightning rod. Federal judges have struck down bans in Arkansas, Florida and Montana as unconstitutional, though a federal appeals court has stayed the Florida ruling. The law in Kansas is not yet being enforced.

Some Utah Republicans said they were open to considering the findings of the study, while others were quick to dismiss it.

In a joint statement, the House sponsor of the 2023 law banning gender-affirming care and the chair of the Legislature's interim health committee said they "intend to keep the moratorium in place."

"Young kids and teenagers should not be making life-altering medical decisions based on weak evidence," said Republican Reps. Katy Hall and Bridger Bolinder. "Simply put, the science isn't there, the risks are real, and the public is with us."

Full Article

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5090088

Hi comrades, Thank you to everyone who’s shown love or support. So far we’ve raised $205, and we’re so deeply grateful. It’s a reminder that we’re not alone.

But we still need $995 to reach our goal. Without it, we can’t secure a small apartment in Juba for myself and a few of my trans sisters while we await resettlement.

We were told by UNHCR to “blend in,” but that’s not something trans women like us can safely do. We’ve already faced violence and discrimination, and we’re scared of what could happen next.

This money covers two month of rent, food, water, hygiene items, and emergency transportation. We are doing all we can to survive...but we need help from our global community too.

If you’re able to support or share, I’ve left the details in the comments again. Every bit brings us closer to safety and peace. Thank you for reading.

In solidarity and love, Onandrah 🏳️‍⚧️💙🙏🏿..

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5081691

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5081688

We’ve just been told we can’t remain in the camp anymore. The host community no longer wants us there, and now over 300 LGBTQ+ refugees from Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, and Ethiopia ...have been moved to Juba while we wait for our resettlement interviews.

UNHCR says they’ve run out of funds and cannot support us. Part of this crisis is due to deep funding cuts to humanitarian programs during the Trump administration cuts that are still impacting vulnerable communities like ours today.

They’ve told us there’s no shelter available, and finding a safe house big enough for all of us could put us at even greater risk. So we’ve been told to "blend in" ...but for openly queer and trans refugees that’s a dangerous and impossible ask.

I’m trying to raise enough to rent a small, safe apartment in Juba for myself and a few of my sisters. A place to breathe, rest, and survive while the process moves forward.

🏠 Our goal is $1,200 to cover:

Rent for 1 month

Basic food and water

Hygiene supplies

Emergency transportation or medicine

If you can give..even $5 or $10 it brings us closer to safety and hope. If not, a share can still save lives.

If anyone feels moved to help or wants to know how to support, you can DM me or check the link in my bio.

We are trans women. We are refugees. We are human. Please help us survive this chapter. 💔

Of course they won't, but it's interesting their own study proves them wrong. I guess they forgot to pay off and/or threaten the right people.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5070660

Will and Hesse are joined by filmmaker Louise Weard as they discuss two controversial 90’s films that bend both genre and gender: Neil Jordan’s The Crying Game(1992) and David Cronenberg’s M. Butterfly (1993).

Comrades, I don’t know how to begin. Things have become incredibly heavy and frightening for me and my trans sisters here in South Sudan.

On May 23rd, the host community in Gorom Camp began pushing hard for our removal. We've faced constant hostility as trans refugees called devils, told we go against their culture but now it’s escalated. When conflict erupted in the area, they warned the UNHCR that they would "take matters into their own hands." That threat has now turned into action.

UNHCR and government officials recently held a general meeting and told us not to return to the camp “before anything worse happens.” Those still hiding in the camp were given only 10 days to leave, and they were clear: transgender people like me would be the first targets We were once attacked at our shelter . No one was held accountable. That was when we fled to Juba, seeking safety. But Juba is unaffordable. We’ve been surviving at a local church, barely getting by and now even thinking of going back to the camp seemed like an option… until this.

I’m tired. I’m scared. I’m doing my best to stay strong for my sisters, but it’s hard. We’re being forced out again with nowhere to go. I’m sharing this because I believe in solidarity. I believe someone out there will care.

Please share our story. Please speak our names. If you can offer support, even just by amplifying our voices, it means everything.

In love and struggle, Ate Onandrah (A proud trans woman and refugee living with HIV, resisting with dignity)

I’m back! It’s been a while since I’ve been on this site because I’ve found myself under some financial trouble and I’ve been stressed BUT I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about something I love dearly: dihedral groups!

Consider the symmetries of a square:

We can see that there are 4 reflections and 3 rotations, as well as the act of doing nothing at all. Together, we have 8 total symmetries, and in fact, these are all of the possible symmetries. What this means is that if we do one of these symmetric moves and then do another one, we will have not changed the square, and therefore doing these two moves is the same as doing just one of the 8 symmetries on its own. For example, doing a 90 degree rotation followed by a 180 degree rotation is the same as doing a 270 degree rotation. Also, doing a 90 degree rotation followed by a reflection across the vertical axis is the same as doing a reflection across a diagonal axis.

So in other words, we can define a function that takes two symmetries of a square as input and which outputs another symmetry. Since standard multiplication is a function taking two numbers and outputting another number, it makes sense to borrow the notation of multiplication for this function. Our symmetry function satisfies a few useful properties:

• Closure: As explained above, for any two symmetries, the function will spit out another symmetry
• Identity: There is a symmetry (namely, the “do nothing” symmetry) such that when it is input into the function with another symmetry, the function will always simply output the other symmetry
• Associativity: For any symmetries a, b, and c, (ab)c = a(bc)
• Inverses: For every symmetry, there is a symmetry that undoes it. For example, rotating a square by 270 degrees undoes rotating it by 90 degrees, and doing a reflection a second time after doing it once undoes the first reflection

These 4 properties are so important that any set of objects with a function defined on it that satisfies all of these properties has a special name: they’re called groups and they’re really freaking awesome. The symmetries of a square as a group is called D~8~, since there are 8 total symmetries. Sometimes you might see it called D~4~, since squares have 4 sides, but I think this convention is a bit silly. In the same way, D~6~ is the symmetries of an equilateral triangle, D~10~ is the symmetries of a regular pentagon, and so forth. In general, D~2n~ is the symmetries of a regular n-gon.

Now, one interesting thing is that groups can contain each other. For example, consider an octagon. Since there are squares hidden within the points of octagons, if we pick a square we can see that all of the symmetries of that square are present in the symmetries of of the octagon, so it is possible to throw out all of the other symmetries. What we would be left with is just the symmetries of a square. What this means is that D~8~ is contained in D~16~. You can play similar games to show that there are lots of groups contained inside the dihedral groups.

The last thing I want to talk about regarding these things are their subgroup lattices. Oftentimes mathematicians want to picture the internal structure of a group. One of the ways they might do this is by writing down all of the subgroups of a group they’re studying onto a piece of paper, and then connecting any two with a line if one of them is a subgroup of the other that doesn’t have a subgroup between them. The resulting picture is called a subgroup lattice, and I’ve left some dihedral group lattices below because I think they’re pretty.

Anyway this has been gushposting with your host, yewler. Maybe next mega I might talk about more specific details that make these things cool.

Now you may commence in the posting

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As a reminder, please do not discuss current struggle sessions in the mega. We want this to be a little oasis for all of us and the best way to do that is not to feed into existing conflict on the site.

Also, be sure to properly give content warnings and put sensitive subjects behind proper spoiler tags. It's for the mental health of not just your comrades, but yourself as well.

Here is a screenshot of where to find the spoiler button.