I don't wanna cancel Laura Jane Grace

Mel story time:

When I was a teenager I was into punk, Against Me! was a favorite band of mine as all kids. I was super into the scene in general. I always was that kid who despite listening to music 1/?

that was left leaning and supposedly about being inclusive a lot me and my friends said awful slurs and had really poor opinions about the LGBTQA community. We would bully anyone who was gay or laugh at more femme dressing men at shows calling them, fa****s and losers. 2/?

We all did it. We all were really awful in that culture. Most of us didn't know how Intersectional punk was and how rich the PoC, queer, and femme it was. It took a good 5 years of unlearning a lot toxic masculinity and self crit to realize I was one those people who 3/?

Probably kept people on the closet and gatekept people at shows. I bullied people for being true to themselves a lot. I remember mocking non-binary and trans ppl at hardcore shows to my knowledge it was, "dudes in dresses"
I was really awful guys. 4/?

A lot of how I acted was because I was super depressed, repressed, and in the closet. I went after people for being themselves because it honestly feels better to have power over someone.
we were all really shitty and didn't understand. It happens to the best of us, a lot 5/?

Almost every trans person I looked up too when I started transitioning is now for accounts a Truscum or transmed person. Yeah my first 6 months of transition I followed everyone from Miss London, Buck, Natalie Mars, etc. I saw these people who made it. Nobody told me 6/?

Well, nobody told me right away. That's the issue with the trans community. We all come from such dejected places from our own traumas we forget to look how our idols are influencing our community. When we don't have good open support networks, community, information etc 7/?

All we have are these big people who very much control how we are viewed in society by other trans & cis people

Live your truth and kill your idols and just become your own & be kind to those who didn't have that information. If people werent kind to me I probs would be a bigot