The right-wing government is ruthlessly targeting trans. I think they know their time in power is just about dwindling out, they need to be a mean as possible in the couple years they have left to fuck the world over.
When the left takes power we need to target the MF'n BILLIONAIRES, Bernie their asses. Yacht tax, private island tax, loans on unrealized assets tax. tax them out of existence before we're all slaves.
I've wrote a novel about a trans woman and her wife. I'm currently revising it.
I have a question. The trans woman has three names, her given name, the nickname that everyone called her, and finally the female name she chose for her self.
I know it's common for authors to conceal trans characters' dead names, using something like B----- (Summer Fun) or just random letters.
I didn't want to do that. In fact I don't change her name or pronouns until about 2/3rds through the book. My reason being that is when the MC stops fighting it and realizes that their female persona is actually who they are.
Also I'm writing a fiction story, it just doesn't make sense to redact a name. I think I also get the reasoning why an author would choose to do that though.
So would that turn you off, would you find it offensive? Am I making a mistake?
By the way, the book I've wrote is sort of a response to "Woodworking" I loved that book, it meant so much to me it inspired me to write a novel using my own experience growing up in a rural environment. If anyone wants to beta read, just DM.
I think I did, but maybe I survived by not living? Did you waste them? If you did, how come?
I've been thinking about my 20s lately. Why didn't I put things together, what was I even doing? Having been born at the start of the 1980s it makes it easy to just track decades of my life with decades of time.
I completed the 20s checklist by 22: Married, homeowner, degree, career. All things I knew my family expected of me, then I looked around and said, "Now what?"
When I think back on the decade that I guess is called the noughties here's what I remember. I went to work, I came home. My wife worked night shift, so I made a small meal for myself and sat in front of my computer for hours of pirated Sci-Fi, video games, and endless web browsing.
I neglected my body, by 2009 I weighted 300 pounds.
I neglected my wife and our relationship stagnated.
I was perfectly adequate at my job, but I didn't make real connections or advancement.
I neglected my friends, my high school friends had long since moved on and I was too busy to ever make college friends.
I neglected my feelings about gender, because they were just weird feelings that didn't matter.
I poured energy into male hobbies like RC car racing. I thought they would bring me meaningful connections, but they were only endless runs on a treadmill.
All the while I was living a secret inner life, but keeping it strictly compartmentalized and quarantined from the outside world.
When I think back to that time it feels like I was on a ten year float on a lazy river. I never made choices, I just went round and round a closed loop.
The funny thing was, I hated that secret life. I wanted to stop, I fell into the binge purge cycle. Yet I couldn't seem to stop.
I think that secret inner life kept me sane enough to keep going. It wasn't just wasting me, it was preserving the part of me that the world denied. That equation resulted in zero growth.
What changed?
My thirties were a time of upheaval, personal challenges, survival and some growth.
My 40s, is where I begin to finally wake up, I moved, I became more present in my own life, I made connections with people, and my secret inner life started becoming more like my real life until it became hard to know which was real.
I know I can't answer that.
But I wonder...
if I'd pulled myself out of that loop 20 years ago, where would I be today?
Took my camera, tripod, and a small light panel out to the lake.
The last few lines:
On December 20th 2026 driving home from St. Louis at 1 AM Sarah pulled her Prius off at Oak Grove Cemetery on route 127 and got out. The wind was cold, her dress whipped around and she huddled in her coat. The gravestones spread out in front of her reflecting the star light.
In a few days it would be one year from the emergency room. The night she finally accepted what the universe had been trying to tell her for 39 years.
She looked up at the stars and somehow knew that none of this mattered, they were a tiny speck in an infinite universe. She felt her heart beating in her chest and at the same time knew that this was all that truly mattered.
“Thank you,” she said to no one in particular, but to everything that ever was and ever will be. “Thank you for this.”
She got back in the car and drove home, singing all the way.
Oh God, this feels so good. Now I only have to go back and edit for the next FOREVER!
I want to share two important milestones.
A week ago I came out to my Mom while out riding bikes with her. I'm 47 but it still felt like a big deal. Her response surprised me. She was really upset at first because she thought I was going to tell her I had cancer or something. She laughed, "You're a boy, you've always been a boy." I tried to explain to her, she says she understands it, but I could tell it was like I was speaking a Latin when I was talking about the difference between physical sex, sexual preference, and gender identity. She told me she wasn't worried about it.
I told her about the time her and Dad had came into my house looking for me and I was hiding in the bathroom crossdressed with makeup on. She thought that was hilarious.
It was a camping trip with my family. I was wearing short women's shorts, a headband, and a sports bra under my girls T-shirt. My sister in law, made a joke point blank about my attire, but everyone seemed to shrug it off.
Today I got my first laser treatment. It hurt really bad. The aesthetician was really nice, everyone treated me so great. When it was over and I drove home with a sore face I felt so alone, but my wife got home from work a couple hours later and supported me.
