This post's been rattling around in my head nonstop since I first read it. I can't stop seeing it in the trans women around me—and in myself. So many of us are only just learning how to be kind to ourselves, how to take up space, how to believe in our own self-worth. We comfort each other because often there is no-one else. We love each other because often there is no-one else.
Even now, I sit here feeling self-conscious about identifying with the OP. Do I really deserve these things? Am I really so deprived? It's impossible to interrogate. But I know the answer when I feel the rising sadness, the burning shame, the overpowering reflexive urge to shrink up and disappear and apologise for ever implying that I might have wants and needs. There is no mistaking that feeling.
Thanks for being patient.
