I want you to look at what instance I’m on, use your brain a little bit, and think about why a trans person might not be fawning over the head of the Catholic Church just for opposing AI.

I’m glad the pope is anti-AI and all, but it hardly makes up for everything else the church is responsible for, no?

I think Vaultwarden is the self-hosted version

Distinguish between a question and an “engagement prompt”.

I highly recommend the new audiobook Love at First Prompt by Bridget Todd. She talks to people who have formed relationships with chatbots, as well as experts and researchers, and I think she handles the topic with a lot of empathy and understanding. And I definitely had some misconceptions going into the book that I’m glad I learned weren’t true.

Ultimately, I think we shouldn’t blame end users for finding emotional intimacy in a chatbot that is designed to make users feel validated and emotionally supported. We should be asking why we’re allowing the tech CEOs who run the show to extract data on every aspect our lives and create this kind of emotionally and psychologically damaging technology in the first place.

Because you have to start somewhere, and our utilities are shady as fuck.

It’s something I’m still working on, putting less pressure on myself to pass. I try to remind myself that I do not owe people a certain type of femininity in order to earn being treated well and having my name and pronouns respected. The people who matter will respect me no matter what I sound or look like, and the people that don’t are the ones in the wrong.

Then I can just enjoy the process of developing a feminine look and style, purely because it makes me feel good and like myself, and not because I feel like I owe it to the world.

Easier said than internalized though, and I still struggle a lot, especially when it comes to voice dysphoria 🫤

Thank you Gretch 💜

She’s been a pretty middle of the road Dem as governor, and I haven’t been a fan of how she’s handled data centers, especially the one in Saline. But when the Dems had a trifecta here for two years, they made hay while the sun was shining. The updates to include sexual orientation and gender identity in the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act in 2023 are great, and they made some other changes to state ID and name change requirements to make it easier for trans people. I feel so much better living in Michigan than I did living in Indiana.

People suck. After two years, you owe someone more than a text to end a relationship. I’m so sorry that happened, you didn’t deserve that

Miisha, honey, you are loved and valid and absolutely 100% a woman. And I’ve heard you say so many times that you’re ugly, and you very much are not! There is no such thing as too late to start HRT, and that new psychiatrist sounds awful. I’m glad you’re alive and here, and I hope you stick around ❤️

Not speaking for OP here, but it did make me think about my own experience. For so long, I had the thought of “well, I’d transition if I could, but I’d be such an ugly woman, so what would the point be anyway?”.

It’s super fucked up, but I even felt bad for my younger sister because I was like “oh, darn, she is doomed to be ugly when she grows up, because we have the same parents and look alike.” (Never fear, she’s absolutely adorable!) Even after I accepted I was nonbinary at 26 I was like “well, I’m too old to transition now, so I’ll never take hormones or tell anyone, so it’s no big deal, I’ll just keep it to myself.” And I told myself that I was ambivalent about my gender either way (spoiler: I was not actually ambivalent lol)

It’s amazing the backflips my brain did to try to avoid accepting that I’m a trans woman. Anyway, I’m 30 now and on HRT for 7 months, and I’ve never felt better about myself! Never going back 🥰

Hey look, it’s meeeee

It doesn’t matter how great the conversation is, as soon as I leave my brain starts trying to find what I said that could have come across as weird. And then I hyper fixate on that until the next time I see them, the conversation is normal, and it starts all over again

YUP. Do they think transitioning was the first thing I tried? Or maybe it was the end result of a decade of “untreatable” anxiety and depression, plenty of therapy, self-reflection, being in the queer community, and talking to other trans people?

Turns out the anxiety and depression is pretty treatable after all, thanks E!

Boy do I ever have the podcast for you!

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-cool-people-who-did-cool-96003360/episode/part-one-a-peoples-history-of-239466792/

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-cool-people-who-did-cool-96003360/episode/part-two-a-peoples-history-of-240207387/

Hahah I have a bumper sticker that says this

If you’re gonna do all that, Blue North may as well just annex Alaska for the sake of contiguity.

Lesbians?

Aw thanks :3

Haha thanks! I have such a hard time telling what i actually look like, it’s nice to hear that other people can see it

Awh thanks! 🥰