Thread by @GhawinRiver

So, it's #TDOV2023. Invisibility is a pretty good shield. Part of why I've not medically transitioned--and won't do so unless I get tenure--is knowing that. And that's honestly the world a lot of us live in, because we have zero trust that you'll have our backs if we are visible.

So, cis allies, if you really care about the principle of what today's about--more than just lipservice or some hashtag you can throw up to assuage your guilt for playing Hogwarts Legacy--maybe work on building a world where visibility doesn't guarantee job insecurity?

Don't you give me that line about Bostock, the right wing are going to overturn that, and you know it. Just like they're going to overturn Griswold, Obergefell, and hell, maybe even Loving v Virginia if you don't get your acts together.

The assault on trans rights and on visible trans people exists as a spearhead for a broader rollback of privacy rights, bodily autonomy rights, and family planning rights. And you know what fucking enrages me, more than anything else?

I'm a coward; I've made peace with that. I'm scared, scared of what people will do to me if I transition and when I lose muscle mass and can't defend myself as well as I can now. But today's trans kids? They're not cowards, because they believed in us. And in you.

They seriously believed that they could just *be trans,* without someone calling them a predator or a monster, and be accepted by their peers and their families, because for the first time in eons, THAT WAS THE CASE, for a few years. They came out on that promise.

A promise we, as a society, betrayed. And then, as if that wasn't enough, we made them fight for their rights and dignity before adults who don't care, allies who are useless, and a news media who cares more about giving their shareholders financial erections than any facts.

As I say, I'm a coward. I deserve whatever misery I get, because I've chosen security over living my life truthfully. Sure, I'm openly nonbinary, but let's be real, I know full well everyone sees me as a man anyway and treats me accordingly.

But those kids? They're not. They don't deserve this, and we've utterly failed them by foisting this upon them.

So cis allies, if you care, stop holding out and stop holding back.

Get serious. Not for me, but for them.