What’s in a (dead) Name?

I didn’t expect my old name to “die”, but my gender dysphoria had other ideas.

CW: Dysphoria, Deadnaming, Misgendering, Violence

I didn’t think that I would feel the way I feel about my old name. I never liked the idea that my previous name would become a “deadname” at any point. After all, I spent 40 years with that name, and for the most part it served me well. I graduated college under that name, got married under that name, wrote music under that name, got two graduate degrees under that name, published…