October 11 is International Coming Out Day.
If you're reading this, you're already aware that I'm living openly as a transgender woman in a conservative town.
I set a challenge to myself at the beginning of 2025 to be out to more people publicly in my private life. I am out to some of my medical providers and other are possibly never going to be told. It isn't worth adding another level of stress to my existence just to tell people something that won't make a difference in their life. If I see the provider one or two times per year and they aren't made aware of my reality, so be it. If they ask, I probably will spill the beans.
My personal social media page has had a photo of me in a skirt for a number of years. I've never stated that I'm a transgender woman on Fakebook and until recently, I'd never followed any pages that show any kind of connection to the LGBTQ community. I don't know when it happened but something changed in my algorithms. I use two different browsers for my two personae. Google Chrome for the original person and Microsoft Edge for Heather. I'm signed in to both browsers as the respective user and I didn't link the two accounts so some shenanigans must have happened where the Chrome browser was snooping on Heather's Edge browsing history. This spring I started seeing more and more transgender content in my Fakebook feed. Lo and behold I decided that I'm okay with my personal promise to not hide in the shadows and started "liking" and "following" that content.
Yeah, social media is a scourge on society. I curate the things in my feed. If I see trash in my feed I click "not interested" or "block user." Same with the advertisers in that timeline. I also use an adblocker that usually works fairly well. Garbage does appear in my feed and there are times when "breaking news" clogs the feed with tributes to people unworthy of the oxygen they'd consumed during their living days but again "not interested" is called to action. Of course, there are times when any interaction with that content makes the algorithm add more of the objectionable BS to my feed and I'm not so ignorant to believe that clicking "not interested" is truly effective at anything more than giving me a feeling of doing something. It's like the alleged "community standards" applied to social media. When reported, hateful, bigoted, racist, homophobic and offensive content usually comes back with"
"We didn't remove the comment
To keep our review process as fair as possible, we use the same set of Community Standards to review all reports.
We've taken a look and found that this content doesn't go against our Community Standards.
We understand that this might be upsetting so we recommend exploring the options available to control what you see.."
Yup, fascism, hate speech, directed insults, bigotry, personal attacks and homophobic content doesn't go against their "community standards." Years back I shared an article from Australia. It was a fascinating article about indigenous culture. The cover photo was a profile photo of a Native Australian woman wearing just a skirt and body paints. I got flagged with a strike for posting nudity. Community standards.
Yeah, you know where this is heading.
I'll be brief with the rest of my rant...
Don't make the fearless leader angry!
If the punishment for repeating the words uttered by a person is immediate termination but calling for lethal injection of homeless people and people suffering from mental illness brings no repercussions, we've already gone around the bend toward totalitarianism.
I'm not a fan of Colbert but Kimmel's show was entertaining. Comedians have offered their opinion of a president for generations. People shout that they're too political now. BS!
Remember the important words. Don't make the fearless leader angry!
Also remember the words I recently posted in this space:
"Here's my deal...
I'm not hiding. I lived my life, hiding the real me, for much too long. I've been "out" for nearly 3 years and I WILL NOT be returning to the closet.
Stand proud. Shout it out loud. WE ARE NOT GOING AWAY!"
Earlier this year I shared this:
"I think many of us are a bit worried about the future of our civil rights. I have no interest in going back in the closet."
If I let fearless leader and his pals win it will affect the future of any person who views themself as "different" from the textbook definition of whatever thing fearless leader's posse is trying to control. I'm nonconforming and damned proud of this fact!
Have a great week. Be visible. Be aware. Be loud and proud. Be safe!
Thanks for reading this installment.
Heather.
Here's a link the Wikipedia's history of the transgender flag page.
