There’s such a deep and dark irony in the trans experience…. Most trans folks want nothing more than to just live out their quiet lives in properly gendered authenticity, a privilege granted every damn cisgender person on the planet. And yet by moving toward that humble goal, we are apparently stripped of that. We can no longer simply ‘be’. We are no longer just ‘people’. Now, we are always and, in many cases, forever, first and foremost, ‘trans people’.

Whether by luck or just extreme curation of my environment, I don’t share your experience of constant harassment, but I do move through the world in grave fear of it. I understand the experience of being clockable without hope of significant remediation. I completely understand the tension created by a need to protect one’s tender heart balanced against keeping one’s heart tender.

I have no solutions. I can only tell you that you are not alone. That you belong here. That I’m glad you are here.