[confetti]

My gender change forms have been FILED!

It was a horrible place to work in general

At my old job, when I asked about having my email changed to match the name I use, the HR person told me "we can't do that unless you legally change your name" (which I wasn't ready to do at the time).

This is cissexist bullshit in general, but it's especially bullshit because later that day I talked to one of my coworkers, whose email had been changed from his first name (which he never used) to his middle name.

Don't mind me, I'm navel-gazing

I don't know, maybe I'm just a weirdo with confusing gender politics, but I really don't see how it's unfeminist for a woman marrying a man to take on her husband's surname instead of continuing to use her father's - either way she's using a name given to her by a dude.

The real gender-inclusive option, I think, is for the married couple to sit down and come up with a third, totally new surname of their own. On top of the gender dynamics, this option is also friendly toward queer and polyamorous folks.

I think I'll keep this one to myself

Ahahahaha my court date is on my grandma's birthday.

"Happy birthday! I just got legally confirmed as transgender, which is an identity you don't approve of!"

Bring on the microlabels!

I remember back when I was a teenager in [mumblemumble], your options were straight, gay, bi, and maybe if you were in a really progressive space, pan and ace.

I do not miss that time.

Eat the rich!

Apparently, in order to be considered a civilization, a society must have social stratification.

What is this capitalist bullshit?

How weird

I think it very interesting that the UN flat-out said that the way they decided Kosovo's fate was "not applicable" to, oh, Western Sahara, Abkhazia and Southern Ossetia, or Palestine.

Almost like they decided to apply different standards to white people than to anyone else.

How very INTERESTING

I come from an area with a fairly sizable Slavic population (~5%), and one thing I noticed was that Pan-Slavism (a movement highlighting the common ancestry of Slavs and calling for their unification into one country) is almost exclusively promoted by Russians.

Context matters

A very nice Black lady with an "ethnic" name filed my paperwork today, and I learned something new about myself: when a Person of Color brings up my unusual name, we have a nice conversation about race and ethnicity and naming customs; when a white person brings up my name, I get snippy and annoyed.

Odd thought

You know what? I have never in my life been to a real desert! They're just not a thing here or in my home country.

(They were thirty years old at the time)

Have I ever mentioned the time that my oldest sibling screamed at me because I pointed out that red and green aren't complementary colors? Five minutes later they shoved their smartphone in my face, showing a very simple, six-color wheel in which red was across from green while yelling "SEE?!"

My sibling, by the way, has a master's in science, so you'd think they'd be more willing to reanalyze their preconceptions based on new data.

...

I was filling out a state government form and it asked me for my gender, with the following options: male, female, transgender, other.

Someone with good intentions and no ability whatsoever to follow up on them must have made it.