This touched me more than I can possibly say; thank you so, so much.

No apology necessary whatsoever. I take the moments I’m given to reach out and connect with the world, and then have days—weeks—in withdrawal to recover.

I have seen the letter, and I signed it as soon as I saw it. The signatures have risen by at least 20,000 since I signed; it’s phenomenal. X

That’s what concerns me. That’s what terrifies me. The potential of that.

It’s about making it so uncomfortable for them to live that they either stop being themselves, or stop being entirely.

To be completely blunt, the only people I wouldn’t want in my spaces are those who would seek to hurt me, harm me or disrespect me. Everyone else is welcome.

They may not have experienced everything that cis women have gone through, but they’re still paying one hell of a price in order to move through the world. I’m a woman, and any trans woman is welcome in my spaces.

This definitely isn’t going to take other lives, or make other trans lives unliveable. Absolutely not.

I’m absolutely not feeling the weight of her pain now, carrying it like a monolith across my shoulders daily, because she couldn’t handle being treated as something foul, something horrid, something *wrong*.

I definitely didn’t have to find her dead on the bed after I got home from work, nor sit next to her whilst I waited for the police to arrive. I didn’t have to ask every person who came into our house that night to treat her with respect, because I feared people would be cruel to a dead trans woman.

I’m definitely not haunted by her pain, after seeing her become more and more frightened, fearful, and hopeless as the hate in this country (and world) got louder and louder, and made her feel as if she didn’t deserve a place here.

I definitely don’t have an urn full of ashes on my windowsill, from where the woman I spent my every day trying to protect took her life in January. I’m definitely not grieving the loss of the woman I loved for eight years and fourteen days.

But, hey, it’s not a big deal. It’s not like all of this is making living, breathing humans (who just want to live safely) kill themselves, or live in a permanent state of fear, or choose not to live openly as themselves for fear of being harmed.

Thank you so much for your compassion. X

I think about it all the time, seeing you again. I think about it all the time.

It’s not something I’d change if I were to go back and do it all again, though: you needed me to love you unconditionally, and with absolute focus. If I hadn’t, I don’t know if you’d have been able to be you; if I hadn’t, I’d have lost you so much sooner.

But it must get better, Steph. Not ‘it could’ or ‘it should’. It’s declarative: it MUST.
#letthemlive
#transrights