Road trip update: birds and conservatives
Hi friends,
I'm in Florida on a road trip. It's been a delight to be warmer and see some neat birds and other wildlife. Our local bird sanctuary has been a highlight. They keep shore birds in netted enclosures while they are recovering or if they can't fly. Two funny things: (1) they have a giiiant pelican statue:
and (2): the netted enclosures have gaps in the nets. We saw many crows and night herons going in and out to share the buffet of food provided to the captive birds.
The local night herons and pelicans just hang out at this place. I've never seen so many birds so close up and so calm.
It's odd to work on transgender content while I'm on this trip in Florida. I'm not...exactly...closeted here, but I'm posting videos online about being trans and nonbinary and changing my name and responding to comments and deleting comments, and then in real life I'm ignoring it when people refer to me as a woman. I know the place I'm traveling through has a lot of conservative people who support discriminatory policies. It's sad, scary, and frustrating.
The most common comment I delete off of my Youtube clips is "who cares?" or variations. It's not that offensive, I guess, but if there's ten "who cares" comments it's a bit tedious. The thing is, I wish people wouldn't care so much about trans people using they/them pronouns or changing their names or pretty much doing anything. We're just people, okay?
I just want to live my life as the person I know I am.
Legally changing your name? I have a checklist to help with that based on my experience:
Amplify Respect | Rey Katz (they/them) | Substack
You are welcome here if you're LGBTQ+, an ally, or just curious about a nonbinary writer's experience. I share relatable weekly true stories about what it's like to be trans and nonbinary, hiking, travel, martial arts, and building community! Click to read Amplify Respect, by Rey Katz (they/them), a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.
Are you a Sims fan? Check this out (this blog post was so much fun!):
Amplify Respect | Rey Katz (they/them) | Substack
You are welcome here if you're LGBTQ+, an ally, or just curious about a nonbinary writer's experience. I share relatable weekly true stories about what it's like to be trans and nonbinary, hiking, travel, martial arts, and building community! Click to read Amplify Respect, by Rey Katz (they/them), a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.
Take care,
Rey