Hi, thanks for writing this piece! As someone fairly involved in tumblr discourse, it’s nice to have a new and refreshing perspective. I am also on the trans spectrum (AFAB and ID as neutrois) and have struggled with an eating disorder for several years. I’m also mostly closeted in regard to my gender but hope to come out more publicly as life goes on.

Anyway, this article was a great reminder that we can’t make assumptions about others’ life experiences based on the way they look. There are closeted LGBTQ+ people all over who have had to hide and are presumed to be straight by the very people who claim to be queer activists. Just because they have the luxury of being out, doesn’t mean we all do.

Another thing that this reminded me of is the pronoun issue. Right now it’s really popular to ask for pronouns directly after a name. But what if I’m with someone who i’m not comfortable being out to? Do I say “she/her”? Do I lie to a person trying to be inclusive out of fear? I think there’s a lot more nuance to true trans acceptance than a lot of people want to talk about, because nuance is hard and most people prefer things easy.

Anyway, thanks for the post and I hope to read more of your writing!