so glad I murdered that guy in my head who was like "you can& #39;t have a weird, bespoke gender identity and you *also* can& #39;t just be a boy, no one will take you seriously, who do you think you are, anyway, you just want to be special"

you don& #39;t need to grow up in some particularly hateful environment or get bullied for being GNC or w/e to repress urself! I didn& #39;t, and I wasn& #39;t (I was a Weird Kid, but not a "tomboy"). pervasive, ambient societal transphobia will get in ur head and grow that guy in ur brain 4 u

I would say my experience as a kid and teen was more about being punished/shunned for doing "femininity" in a way that read as really off/wrong to people (disability factors in here) and for failing to have the social/emotional skills and priorities people expect from girls

actually I spent more of my 20s than I care to admit angsting that I couldn& #39;t be trans because I liked and wore dresses as a child, I was never into sports, I was never into most video games, it doesn& #39;t count if you just really wish you were Ziggy Stardust, etc. etc.

ultimately I think the secret is: you don& #39;t need permission to be trans and you don& #39;t need any justification beyond "I am very unhappy as my assigned gender, and I know I will be happier as a different gender"