Tonight is not going well. My best sister-ally and tiny Jewish godmother has just passed.

RIP Ariel Galant. My heart is broken.

@QueenCityNative

Thank you all for your thoughts.

I've been speaking with her dad, and it appears to have been a sudden stroke.

I fucking hate this year.

The ultimate irony is that Ariel set me up as friends with her dad on FB just last week due to our shared love of Nordic Noir fiction.

That's the only reason how I found out she had passed away.

Ariel and I had just had a wonderful video chat just two nights ago. It made her day. I have to hold onto that, how she was when I last saw her.

She's irreplaceable to so many of us in the trans community.

How do you replace a friendship like this? How do you replace this kind of ally? Why does it always seem like the best of us get taken far too soon? First Sarah Samedi, now Ariel. Why does this year have to be this fucking awful?

And it's not just me that's hurting. Ariel touched so many of us, from just being there to chat, to actually doing things to facilitate progress in the lives of people in the trans community. She waded fearlessly into the online battles against the bastards in the terf crowd.

Ariel loved children. She was a teacher, a tutor, a babysitter. She had a profession she was committed to. She had a family she loved. She was many things to so many people.

Ariel was selfless. Ariel was the best of us.

Ariel was the best friend I had never met in person. We both said we felt like we had known each other forever. We both stood up for what we believed in, and Ariel taught me about never, ever backing down from a challenge.

Ariel taught me about love, too. To love people unconditionally. To accept love that came your way. To reach out just to check on people, even if only to say hi.

Based on the comments in this thread, which I am reading, she passed these lessons widely.

Love one another. You and I are all valid exactly as we are. Accept nothing less.

Never, ever back down. Stand tall for what you believe in. Ariel may have been five-foot-nothing, but she was ten feet tall and bulletproof with her beliefs.

And tell one another you love each other. Ariel always, always ended a conversation with "I love you "

I love you.