My gender is not open for debate, negotiation, discussion or outside opinions. If you do not live in this skin, you don’t get to have a say in my gender identity, period, and the ONLY thing your negative opinion can do is alienate me.
If I share with you the name I am considering changing my name to, feel honored that I trusted you with it, and don’t tell me what you think of it, I don’t care if you don’t like it, but if you say something negative I’ll think less of you for it.
My pronouns are they/them. I will start correcting people on this if they don’t correct themselves.
My sister calls me sibling. My kids still call me Mom. I refer to myself as my husband’s spouse. I’m still my niece’s aunt. I do not use woman, girl, she, her, wife or sister much anymore.
I DO understand that it takes time to adapt to change and that no one will be 100% on this stuff immediately, and if you slip I’m not going to be mad, but if you don’t even try, I probably won’t trust you very much.
This is not new. I’ve been struggling with the gender binary since childhood, I simply didn’t have the language to describe myself and my experience until the past few years. I came out as nonbinary about 3 years ago, give or take.
I’m not asking for your opinion. I’m asking for your support. You don’t have to understand in order to treat me with respect.
