Stay strong girl! You have every right to exist in your most comfortable form, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Identity is an innate human right, you deserve the freedom of expressing that identity like everyone else!

Especially when so many pedojacket us which in turn causes trans folks to infight.

I'll never forget this poem, it really shaped my perspective on speaking up sooner rather than later. There was another poem that echoed similar sentiments, but I can only remember the line "I will not be an agent of death."

Definitely terrifying and can be surprising, but I think it's easier to demonize unfamiliar groups than to demonize a well-known one. I think demonizing and dehumanizing relies on some degree of the unknown to make all the hysteria and fear plausible. If the group is well known by the general public, it's easier to say "now wait a minute, I happen to know many trans people and they're very kind." It creates a strong base of informed allies to speak up on the group's behalf. It's not impossible to demonize a well-known group, I just believe it's easier when your target has no personal interactions to check against the fear mongering.

Even worse than the demonizing is how they dehumanize trans people. Don't get me wrong, demonizing a group is bad, but dehumanizing is so much worse.

I learned this lesson during a trip to the Holocaust Museum in DC. I walked through one of the train cars and tried to picture fitting as many people in there as the plaque said were crammed in. I couldn't. Then, I realized that I was trying to fit people in the car. Even though these were imaginary people existing solely in my head, I was still treating them like people. I switched to trying to cram that many human shaped objects in the car and realized it was easy to do.

The right is pushing dehumanization of people they don't like. Once you've accepted a group of people as "not human," all sorts of horrible options open up to deal with them.

You're not alone in this, and it's important to remember that many of these laws are gaining support based on falsehoods and misinformation. Additionally, a lot of people haven't had personal experiences with transgender individuals, but when someone close to them, like a coworker, friend, or family member, comes out, it often leads to a change of perspective and understanding. Personally, I intend to maintain red zone for now, while gradually opening up to others. If things still seem discouraging in a couple of years, I may consider leaving for a better environment. Remember, your well-being matters.

And the thing is, there is no "winning a final battle" with fascists like this. Let's say that all their fascist dreams come true. They've eliminated every LGBTQ person from America and made being LGBTQ a capital offense. They're done right?

Of course not. Next, they'll target Muslims, immigrants, BIPOC people, Jews, and too many other minorities to list. Now, say they're successful there. All us minorites are now either dead, imprisoned, or second class citizens with zero voting rights that are tolerated for as long as we're useful to the fascists.

Now are they done? No. Fascists always need an Other. So they'll start to cannibalize. Maybe Christian Group A will declare that everyone in Christian Group B are just pretenders. They've been behind everything all along (since fascists love conspiracies). Now Christian groups will be banned one by one. Or maybe anyone with green eyes or red hair will be declared to be an unfit aberration that must be destroyed.

The only time a fascist would be happy would be if the entire country was populated by clones of himself that are 100% identical in every way and always think alike. Anything short of this and they'll turn every slight difference into a war to be waged.

Yup. I can't do the discourse either. I know that a small percentage could be talked into a more reasonable perspective, but I don't have the energy any more to play guess who with the ones who will benefit from discussions in good faith, and the ones who are just trying to use their hate to whittle me down. The people that hard drank the koolaid can't be reasoned with--they cherry pick their own rulebook. Ya think Jesus as he's depicted would approve of the shit they're doing? What happened to love thy neighbor, or take the log out of thine own eye first, or not throwing stones in glass houses? Hell, what about not wearing mixed fibers, or eating the wrong kinds of foods? The 'only for thee and not for me' attitude is just....ugh