u/DoctorWhatTheFruck

So out of all the cages I have for my birds, the ones from Montana Cages are the absolute best. Like I am not kidding, they are expensive but the quality is wonderful.

After reading a review about one of their cages saying "good old German quality" I did some digging. Cause the company name does sound quite American.

Turns out, they are indeed a German company. They just use "U.S. style", but the quality is German and the money stays in Europe.

And honestly, these are the best quality cages I've ever had. Especially bird owners know the fear of accidentally harming their birds or buying a to small cage. But here, honestly, the cages are expensive, but you get something out of the price. So learning that they're German is such a relief.

And I've seen such nice set ups in those cages, not just with birds, but also for Guinea-Pigs and bunnies and stuff.

So next time you're buying a new cage. Go check them out.

https://www.montanacages.net/

//This is no advertisement. Just my honest experience. Their website is quite confusing to be honest though, but they can also be found on places like Otto and Am*zon

I'm gonna write this, also in case someone thinks about migrating here. So those people can get an overview or what's to expect.

This is just my experience and I'd say I'm quite lucky to be in the right area and have the right people around me. But I'm also "blood" german, so I'm basically playing on easy mode in certain situations.

Living

Depending on where you live, you can still get hate crimed by people. Most people don't seem to care much and will simply give you the stare if you're for example a non passing trans woman/emo/ something really out of line, trans men don't get the stare as often as trans women. But I have also have heard people have transphobic-ish opinions around me. Trans women of course are more likely to get attacked. The east part of the country is more dangerous than the west. Cities (and the areas around them) are the safest place to be.

Germans are very good at misgendering though. I one time was holding my sisters purse. And some people misgendered me. Like damn. It can really drag you down, cause shit can happen a lot and we have a gendered language. So you will be hit with the full sie/die/ihr and all the female versions of some words (SchülerIN, StudentIN) like they have in languages like spanish.

Getting bullied and stuff during school is also not uncommon.

Even in university you can still get bullied, but it's quite unlikely here. Most of my profs simply didn't give a crap. Three profs know that I changed gender and name, but they just didn't care.

The most hate I actually heard against lgbt, is ironically not from the Germans but from the migrants that the right wing Germans hate. People from the middle east, India and members of the islam. I'd say, these people are quite the reason the right wing is growing this much, since I have the inconvenience of knowing many right wing afd fans, but the ones I know don't give a crap about lgbt as long as we don't make it our personality.

Politics

I think, as of right now, our leading party politicians are horrible. But they also seem to busy with taxing young people and serving the boomers with more rent money, that they have not paid much attention to the lgbt.

Maybe this will change. Cause next elections either the far right afd or a left party will win. And if the far right wins. Good night to all those who haven't had the chance to transition yet. Everything I'll write below, will be made harder than it already is. Impossible probably not, simply cause the law does not allow it, but it will be much much harder.

Transitioning and healthcare

Unless you use the black market, you have to find a therapist who is able to write an "indication" and the F64 diagnosis (do not know the correct full term, but basically that you are trans) that your hormone doctor (Endo, etc) will have to accept. But depending on the therapist, you can be rejected. Both are really hard to find, since there are long waiting times and stuff. Getting T is the easy step in this whole thing.

Now to the real fun part, the old way to change your name and gender marker (I did it this way). You had to pay up to 2k Euro and visit two different therapist. Which had to be assigned by the court. Then you have to do the whole process again. They need to diagnose you. write a indication thing. But depending on your luck, you get asked really shit/inappropriate questions about sex and masturbation. I went the way of claiming asexuality answering those questions, cause hell nah. And then you have to wait for an appointment with a judge who then will decide yes/no and sign the stuff. No you think you are done here? Nope. Gotta change your id, bank, etc by yourself. And they just love to make that difficult.

The new law lets you do it by going to your local thing that handles ID's and stuff. You wait 3 months and off you go with your new gender and id. The new law was finalised a literal week before I had my court appointment... This law caused also a lot of transphobes and uneducated people to complain, cause the poor children something something (literally nonsense). This new way was brought to us when the green party was elected, I miss them.

Operations can be covered by insurance BUT you need a lot of stuff. You need another letter by your therapist. but this time you really need a specific therapist that is allowed to write this kind of letter. So either you're luck and already have that type of therapist, you go and pay the therapy by yourself or you spend months to years on a waiting list. I am currently in group therapy but I still pay out of pocket and I still spend a year+ on the waiting list. Then you also need to be on t for at least 6 months, get a letter from your endo. Visit a gynaecologist. Have a talk with a surgeon who then needs to write you something. And lots of paperwork. And then insurance can still reject you, based on your luck of who gets your paperwork of "pls mr insurance, cover my operation costs". And this process takes months. Long waiting times and all.
Even if you say you'll pay out of pocket, some surgeons still want the letter from the therapist.

Thanks to a non binary person, insurance also is not forced to pay for your operation. Long story short. So yeah, unless you were on record transitioning before september/october 2023 (do not know the right date), you are more likely to get rejected by insurance.