Thank you! As a witchy agnostic pagan with christotrauma I love your username too. Sorry for the late reply! Taking long breaks from social media is important to me. Btw grats for living rent free in my head for this long :)

Illinois will issue trans refugees a new birth certificate! This is a recent development and the other sanctuary states will hopefully be pressured to step up and do likewise. So call your state politicians :) Make it happen!

https://www.courthousenews.com/new-illinois-law-to-assist-transgender-residents-with-updating-their-birth-certificates/

If you travel by auto when wearing tight clothes be sure to mind the extra clearance needed for your glasses when getting inside! One of my trendy larger frames took a scratch that way soon after getting them. Also don't limit yourself to just two pairs but instead get some cheap ones to change up your appearance. Accessorize :)

Wikipedia states that NGO Monitor's focus is to "End promotion of 'politically and ideologically motivated anti-Israel agendas' by certain NGOs," that they report "on international NGO activity from a pro-Israel perspective," and that a former online communication editor employed with the group was indefinitely banned for biased editing. Personally I'm more inclined to trust a Wikipedia article with 75 sources unless there is substantial evidence to the contrary.

I’m a hyper-logical type, does engineering things for fun

That's totally cool! Many so far have presented philosophical answers based more in application of reason than empirical inquiry when you might perhaps prefer an answer based in biological science.

I suppose my followup to that would be what gives someone a specific sense of gender?

As a binary trans woman my very being in and for myself imparts upon me a capacity for directly revealed self-knowledge regarding my gender, which is to say how I wish to be as a presence and present myself to others within the world.

To say ‘I am a woman’ is taking societies interpretation of woman as being right.

Perish the thought! In general however I might reveal my gender it is as an invitation to others for them to interact with me and understand me as a woman. Try to think of this as less a matter of being right or wrong and more one of how you and another might best both enjoy your interactions together.

What differentiates that from ‘I am a man who likes womanly things’?

Gender does! It is literally that simple.

What separates the ‘tomboy’ woman from a trans-masc?

They would through their understanding of their own genders which grants truth or grants falsehood to statements regarding their gender.

Due to my low tolerance for the cishetmono nonsense engendering their fascination with us trans folk, I've chosen to beat a wide path around any works by and for cishets involving trans characters. However it would be wonderful to have stories in our own voices with complex characters which challenge viewers to rethink their own relationships with the structural injustices binding our society together. Perhaps some appealing psychopathic antagonists, seductively evil side characters, and morally gray protagonists? Something like the delightfully unapologetic queer feminist streaming adaptation of Killing Eve would be great! Definitely go check it out if you haven't seen it yet!

Binary trans woman.

Yes indeed! You might wish to look into the idea of double consciousness, the dual self-perception experienced by subordinated or colonized groups in an oppressive society. Its a sense of attempting to perceive yourself as both who you know yourself to be and as an oppressive other will perceive you. If you want to smash that noise then you need to learn to stop being ashamed of yourself!

Also, you definitely should be taking the self-defense class appropriate to your gender as violence is very often gendered. There's a podcast episode of The Gender Rebels about one trans women's experience taking Krav Maga you might want to give a listen.

Good luck and take care :)

Yeah the boot process is a mess! Debian's noisy GRUB and unsightly boot text is an obvious and unnecessary paint point for a desktop user but very desirable for server installations. You do have some options though!

Carlo Contavalli apparently has a relatively simple work-around discussed at https://rabexc.org/posts/grub-shush. What I've done in the past is rebuilding Ubuntu's source deb package for GRUB against my Debian system. You can grab it at https://packages.ubuntu.com/source/lunar/grub2. Build instructions can be found here https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/117503/how-to-compile-a-debian-package-from-source.

The great thing about Debian, Linux, and FLOSS is that you can even automate downloading Debian's source package when it gets updated, applying the silent patch, applying Ubuntu's compilation options, compiling the deb, and installing the deb! But yeah why can some package maintainer not provide such as an option in the repository! It's really an annoyance for many and almost makes me feel like I'm not the type of user the Debian community desires. Like, "Wait... what? You like pretty stuff? GTFO!" Maybe its even true? Hopefully you will enjoy using Debian! Its most preferable to Ubuntu in many ways these days!

There are occasional forum posts with lab results by transwomen who suspect they may have an unstudied SHBG variation causing a preferential bond to the strong agonist E1 which some claim might generally result in a greater prevalence of the weaker agonist E2 being available to cell estrogen receptors. Some further speculate this claimed SHBG variation to be a possible causal mechanism for the three atypical sexual dimorphisms observed in the brains of transwomen.

Generally such folks say they see better results following a switch from pills to injections and orchiectomy. Please take all of this with a grain of salt. However, it could be good idea to ask your doctor about getting your E1 and E2 levels checked.

Why quit HRT? Those transwomen who came before us made due with far fewer options than we have today. A glass is not perfectly filled to just the right, perfect height or else unenjoyable!

Thank you! According to Wikipedia only 5 countries prohibit mutilation of intersex children. The other 190 countries do not. This affects as many people as have red hair. Being intersex is a normal and natural variation, not a disorder or mutation.

There are a number of nice skeuomorphic tagged themes on pling and other icons and such also are available there. The best option might be to just abandon the trendy GTK scene and embrace good old TDE! TDE has KDE3's Plastik theme which looks great to me! (And there is a new port available for current KDE if anyone is interested.) But the early pre-gummy version of ClearLooks would be my favorite if it existed. Raleigh is pretty nice with those classic zebra stripes! Please do let us all know what you find because there are many of us not so happy with the corporate minimalist aesthetic.

As a woman who is attracted to other women it has never been a problem for me and my friends to get dressed together or hang out together wearing far less than what you are describing. The only reason I can think of for it to be uncomfortable is if someone is viewing someone else with desire. If that is not the reason, what is? If it is the reason stop doing that and you won't be uncomfortable.

Sorry to disappoint, but I don't know of anyone else quite like popg0th to recommend. Maybe Ayesha Erotic? There's Against Me!'s lead singer Laura Jane Grace, which is a fairly well regarded band. Kim Petras you've surely heard about right? She was the first solo out trans woman with a number one hit in the US. Celeste's soundtrack was written by Lena Raine and she also wrote some of Minecraft's as well. Have you found any others which you like?

While I didn't read the politico article, the California Attorney General's press release regarding this lawsuit is informative.

https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-announces-lawsuit-challenging-chino-valley-unified-school

"The lawsuit also asserts this the Board’s plain motivations in adopting the policy were to create and harbor animosity, discrimination, and prejudice towards transgender and gender-nonconforming students, without any compelling reason to do so, as evidenced by statements made during the Board’s hearing. In discussing the policy before its passage, board members made a number of statements describing students who are transgender or gender-nonconforming as suffering from a “mental illness” or “perversion”, or as being a threat to the integrity of the nation and the family. The Board President went so far as to state that transgender and gender nonbinary individuals needed “non-affirming” parental actions so that they could “get better.”"

Its wonderful to hear some good news these days! Thanks!

Oh and you can usually get a good discount if like you do any modeling online or dance in the area!

That'd be the stores which sell personal lubricants, sex toys, and clothes for any local strippers or social media models in your area. Naturally they're a great place to find some out till dawn outfits and dangerous heels. Just don't expect that you and a friend will be allowed into the changing room together!

Target is where I found my first dress. The staff were very friendly and helpful! Later a cis-ter and I went thrifting and found some cute stuff. That store even offered me a job working there :) After a few months I meet another trans woman working in the Target cosmetics and we became friends pretty quick! My city is pretty progressive and even a sanctuary but the state is terribly fascist. Try to be confident when you go and don't stress too much! Anytime I need a confidence boost I'll put on some fabulously femme trans music like popgoth's A-Squad