'passing' is not usually a problem, but then there is the issue of traveling as a queer couple (with my wife and child).

There are sacrifices I'd have to make in order to make this trip possible... Is it worth the hassle and stress?

Aw. Thank you... You're so kind 🌷

Pride is a stranger to me, and a extraordinary thing to experience -- but I think that this feeling I'm struggling to understand is pride. There is a warm wash of relief tinged with... delight?... at being seen and having something that came from within me recognised. But, jeez, it's a lot of feels.

I find it so hard to process praise, compliments and general positivity directed towards me (could be ADHD related, but also a childhood devoid of praise), so the result caused me to explode into tears of excitement, disbelief and utter overwhelm.

The vicious, violent and vitriolic bile spewed about and towards trans folk is one example. I simply don't need to subject myself to it; there are no longer any benefits to sticking around. Mastodon proved to be a queer haven for some time, and I somehow forgot that this is true of Bluesky too

The switch feels like moving to a chosen family, and there is beauty in that. The process of building my own community here starts anew, and it is so gratifying to see the upsurge in users. I'm here for queer, trans, weird, lefty, human, beautiful people and content. 🏳️‍🌈🌷🏳️‍⚧️❤️🤘🏻

There are plenty of people who decry running away from a social platform that is home to views that oppose my own, and more still who berate Bluesky for being an echo charmer of liberals. That misses the point entirely. For so many groups, the other place is actively hostile -- me included

jeez... you have my sympathies on many levels. I'm astonished that you were prescribed anything for autism, but I know from personal expression with zoloft (for depression) that it is a fucking bleak drug. Also big feels for not being 'able' to be a trans child, but here's to a happy adulthood! 🌷