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This is actually kind of surprising to me! So I definitely had the impression that the biggest transition cohort on the fediverse is the Covid cohort (30%), and that the majority of trans folks here are post-2020 (55%), but there are so many more of us that are pre-2020 (45%) than I realized! Makes me happy knowing we’re all here. 🥰
I know it’s a very limited sample, but this is reminiscent of what I see anecdotally in in-person community too these days.
@shadowfals the key to the egg metaphor…for some of us, we’ve buried our gender feels and problems so deep, or we’ve internalized ignorance and denial from society, so we just assume that there’s no other option but to live as our assigned gender as best we can. Then, something happens or several somethings happen, and we are suddenly unable to deny the truth that we are trans or nonbinary. And like an egg cracking, at that point, the egg can’t be put back together again and there’s really only the choice of whether to live as yourself or live in dysphoria.
That’s how I would explain it more or less. For plenty of people, like yourself, it’s not a useful metaphor and your journey looks different. That’s why I included it among the possible beginnings of a person’s journey, but for some it’s not a meaningful marker
@koalou definitely no signs, total normal cis thing to go to bed each night dreaming of waking up as a different gender 
I say this as someone who did a lot of that in my tween years. And I think actually knowing about trans people, and then actually knowing what transness really is are the big thing here. So many of us had the vague notion of wanting to change gender/sex, and may have even had some idea that there were people called “transsexuals” but had only misinformation or skewed representations to go on. And heck, I learned what transgender really meant in the mid-10s, but didn’t understand non-binary until 2018/2019, and that’s what cracked my egg finally.
@disorderlyf I imagine those must have been some really fucking rough years to know it and not be able to transition 
And I feel you on that. If I had figured it out as a teenager, I don’t think it would have even been an option to transition in the early and mid 00s where I was.
@disorderlyf that’s why I’m trying to focus on those more specific moments, because we almost always go through a process of reconstructing our personal narratives reintegrating or reframing things with our new insight. Because we mostly don’t really “become trans” when we transition, per se, but have been going through dysphoria or disconnects most of our lives. Cause it really is a thing.
Also, yay tor another 2016 - 2019 person! I’m realizing there are a lot more of us around here than I thought and I need to become closer friends with all you wonderful people 
@nev @Melezioh hehe, sorry to make folks feel old. And yeah, I of course enjoy a lot of the folks from then too (Leslie Feinberg, Kate Bornstein, Julia Serano, Susan Stryker, etc), but I was talking mainly about folks like Casey Plett, Torrey Peters, and Laura Jane Grace, who were so pivotal to me. Exactly that Trans Lit cohort you mentioned. That, and key people on a trans twitter and in person like Caitlin Spice, Mags, and others.
There were some really big changes in trans subcultures and communities that I think a lot of people transitioning post-2020 are completely unaware of. Like…no one was around for the discourse of Detransition, Baby and letting the cis know about trans sexuality, or the Baeddels or any of that kind of stuff.
@burnoutqueen go with once you began transitioning then. The idea is to capture what transition cohort people are a part of
@gcvsa from the polls many others have done, 30s - 50s are the majority of us I’m pretty sure, with some folks in their 20s and of course great friends who are also in 60s and above.
But this is kind of regardless, since I’m trying to get a sense of, for example, how many people are part of the COVID cohort and that stretches across all ages.
For clarity, the idea is to capture when you began your current gender journey/endeavors, and what trans cohort you feel the most belonging to. I know a lot of folks don’t fit easily into one or the other, and that’s great too! Just limited options for this poll.
@Millie glad you’re fully coming into yourself now
But also hugs offered because I imagine five years of living with the knowledge and being unable to fully embrace yourself yet must have been hard 🫂
@forestine slow drip of molasses is a great metaphor! That was me 2012 - 2019, until a full on egg cracking and no going back. Like, reading about Laura Jane Grace coming out…it caused something to click in my brain that slowly dripped and pooled. Then my roommate came out, and bit more dripping. And just small things building ever so slowly to finally get through to me
@Melezioh I had actually wanted to do one more option for 2010 - 2015 because I think that’s another distinct cohort (but the poll only allowed me 4 options here). That’s the cohort a lot of my favorite trans writers and artists come from, and it marked a change where trans people started socially hanging out and going out together more, from what I understand. It’s a period I think a lot of newer trans folks don’t understand as being so pivotal to where our community is now.
@alice yeah, just aiming for beginning of the journey here, whichever comes first
@brooke did you just ignore or deny your egg cracking moments before? Or was it something else?
@brooke yeah, I am kind of assuming people can decide what makes the most sense in terms of their “beginning” since we may have several false starts or not be able to live as ourselves for a while even after an initial egg cracking.
Please boost above! And please check above poll if you’re following #transgender #trans #transfem #transmasc #nonbinary #enby #TGD #queer
TRANS PEOPLE
Totally unscientific survey of transition demographics on the fediverse, for transgender, non-binary, and gender diverse people.
What year did you either come out, begin transition, and/or have your egg crack?
@Willow hmm...I was thinking about sharing the story of my name soon. Seems like a good reason to!
But yeah, it's a hell of a thing to get married to a trans woman who is a globally recognized trans activist with several trans friends and activists at your wedding...and still be convinced you are a cishet man unaware of the bomb waiting to go off six months later. Not to mention, I tried to escape dysphoria through 5 continents, 3 or 4 different careers, and some reckless behaviors that only happen when you do not feel any value to your own life.
...there's a reason I describe myself as having been a hard-boiled egg.
I think of the trans folks who organized the orchiectomy barn, with trained nurses and veterinarian doctors involved. How they found a way to make a critical form of care accessible when all other systems restricted it.
How people used to come down here to San Diego and cross over to Tijuana to purchase HRT over the counter and get other forms of gender affirming care at more affordable prices. About what it might take to make this more feasible.
How people have accessed things outside official systems and made them work, even when laws make it harder and harder, and the ways they take care of each other (appreciate that the existing DIY HRT community has been doing some of this important work already, and may be the best positioned to adapt).
So now that a federal court has ruled it’s legal for states to ban or exclude gender affirming care for adults, including HRT, what are we going to do if/when it becomes inaccessible in most of the country? What are we going to do when they take new steps to police and criminalize DIY access?
We don’t need to put all the answers here, since these may become crimes, but these are conversations we need to start having with each other. These are genuine questions, not rhetorical desperation. The best time for organizing was ten years ago, the second best is now.
