I wasn't able to fully embrace and claim my trans lesbian self until I was 50 or so, by which point I was so used to living outside of all norms that I never had any interest in having anyone else accept it. I'm out to some people, but it doesn't matter. I don't care about pronouns - he, she, sie, el, er, they, whatever.

My own experience of my self changed when I accepted myself and accepted that the Deity I believe in also accepted me. That matters.

I appreciate the ideas presented here regarding the need for a separate space for trans people to figure things out apart from the mainstream. That would be desirable. I don't know how such a thing could be created or maintained on any scale larger than friends talking over coffee.

I'm also not sure that trans issues are the most pressing, to be honest. The bigger problem, from where I'm standing, looks to be late-stage capitalism and the slow collapse of democracy in the USA. Trans people will not do well in the Mad Max/Handmaid's Tale dystopia that the Right is struggling to bring about. The Left, if they're able, will keep most of us fighting for scraps, hoping to keep what little rights and dignities they allow us, continuing the status quo. I actually can't decide which of those scenarios would be worse.

Leaving the US looks like a better option everyday. If/when I go, I'll go where I can be freer than here.

That got dark. I just don't see trans issues being separable from the rest of it. Context matters.