bleep bloop!!!

Purposefully misgendering another trans person to be Edgy and Cool(TM) is actually really awful! And being trans youself does not exempt you from acts of transphobia!

You don't get a special pass to be awful to other transmascs just because you're transmasc, for example. And you ESPECIALLY don't get a pass for being awful to trans identities you aren't a part of, even if it's "as a joke"

the first says in all caps “blue’s clues said lgbtq rights for real y'all,” followed by a screenshot of a youtube video. the subtitles read “and P is full of pride.” a capital P with the more color more pride flag and the trans flag on it, as well as a little heart, is surrounded by 8 more flags: ace, trans, lesbian, bi, nonbinary, genderfluid, intersex, and pan.

u will 100% be a happier, kinder, and prouder member of this community. legit. when i was a young teen, i used to think neopronouns were weird/fake, xenogenders were stupid, that you needed dysphoria to be trans, that trenders existed, etc… but i worked on understanding my peers and realized that i actually relate to them!

it feels so much better being kind! and understanding them could allow you to better understand yourself, because you won’t have these toxic notions that may be causing you to do/think things about yourself you wouldn’t otherwise.

like. it’s okay if you don’t understand, gender is hard! it’s confusing! it’s complex! but it costs you literally nothing to just be kind and respectful. as the adage goes, if you don’t have anything nice to say, say nothing at all. 

you aren’t being productive by being an asshole. you aren’t protecting the lgbtq+ community by being an asshole. you aren’t being an activist by being an asshole. you’re just being an asshole, and likely making people who already struggle with confidence in their gender hate themselves/their gender more.

Too Bad So Sad :,,,,,,,^( /sarcasm

Too Bad So Sad :,,,,,,,^( /sarcasm

You belong at pride. You belong in the community. You belong in LGBTQ+ spaces.

It doesn’t matter what else you identify as, if anything at all. You don’t need to be trans or gay or bi or pan in addition to being asexual or aromantic. You are LGBTQ+ by virtue of being asexual or aromantic (or both!)

I’ve had conversations with more than a few ace teens since the discourse, and there has been such a miserable impact on their experience because of what the discourse caused.

When I was figuring out I was aro/ace, there was an entire community of bright, outspoken, positive folks who were out & proud of their identities to support me through that (very, very difficult) realization. People who talked openly about how cool it was to be aro/ace, how much they loved it and themselves, how great the community was, and who made me feel welcome and optimistic.

Folks now have nothing. They have a stringent group of people who are terrified of their own label, who hide it, bury it, laugh it off as something they’re ashamed of but are burdened with nonetheless, talk about hating themselves for it, or about how hard it’s made their lives. They have these once-thriving community spaces now full of mocking and shaming and hatefulness, and no choice but to feel terrible about themselves, often inclined to deny who they are so they don’t have to accept what has become a miserable lack-of-community to identify with.

It’s hard, learning to accept yourself as ANYTHING that isn’t straight, and the community around that identity is the most important tool you can have to get through it. The community teaches you how to feel about your new identity, whether you should feel pride or shame, optimism or pessimism, whether you should feel warm & welcome or terrified & miserable.