I graduated in '89. Queer as a $3 bill always was, but you didn’t say that shit in high school back then.
Just being gay was dangerous enough, can’t imagine how being trans would have gone over.
If you did try to be who you were, you ended up ostracized at best, dead in a ditch at worst. I chose the lunch tray route, but outside of school…
'89 here as well. If people think gay folk have it bad now, friends and neighbors, I can tell stories.
Gay rights jumped 900% in relatively few years. It’s why the conservatives are shitting themselves. Now they’re told they have to, at least, tolerate the people they used to hate. Can’t stomach it.
Graduated 03… Didn’t know trans was a thing. Nobody spoke about it. The concept of “transsexuals” was limited to trans women and them basically only in the concept of riddicule so had no idea trans men could exist…
I had no words for what I was. No community. Just a sense of being isolated from every other person with thoughts that made me sound crazy even to myself. I hosted a bunch of desires I knew would make me end up more alienated and alone than I already was if I even tried to voice them.
Funnily enough I also snapped and tried to beat a bully with a hockeystick. I was a gentle kid who wanted to hurt no one and because I was locked inside myself everybody took a turn treating me like shit because I was quiet. Thankfully my teachers got it. My parents were not even phoned, the teachers just acted like it was any other day of the week. I owe those folks a lot.
I graduated in '89. Queer as a $3 bill always was, but you didn’t say that shit in high school back then. Just being gay was dangerous enough, can’t imagine how being trans would have gone over.
If you did try to be who you were, you ended up ostracized at best, dead in a ditch at worst. I chose the lunch tray route, but outside of school…
'89 here as well. If people think gay folk have it bad now, friends and neighbors, I can tell stories.
Gay rights jumped 900% in relatively few years. It’s why the conservatives are shitting themselves. Now they’re told they have to, at least, tolerate the people they used to hate. Can’t stomach it.
In 1999 my boyfriend wouldn’t hold my hand or show any affection outside the house for fear. Gays now don’t even know what the pride rallies are for
Graduated 03… Didn’t know trans was a thing. Nobody spoke about it. The concept of “transsexuals” was limited to trans women and them basically only in the concept of riddicule so had no idea trans men could exist…
I had no words for what I was. No community. Just a sense of being isolated from every other person with thoughts that made me sound crazy even to myself. I hosted a bunch of desires I knew would make me end up more alienated and alone than I already was if I even tried to voice them.
Funnily enough I also snapped and tried to beat a bully with a hockeystick. I was a gentle kid who wanted to hurt no one and because I was locked inside myself everybody took a turn treating me like shit because I was quiet. Thankfully my teachers got it. My parents were not even phoned, the teachers just acted like it was any other day of the week. I owe those folks a lot.