When I was in middle school, I was super quiet. Like, I would go entire lunch periods without saying a single word. I just didn’t realize that I might want to or be able to actually interact with other people. I had a cognitive impairment which stopped me from expressing myself, but I didn’t realize it at the time. I eventually realized in 8th grade that I could not hold an actual one-on-one conversation, and I decided that needed to change.

So I had to start by learning the basic conversation skills and such, and eventually moved to actually making jokes and stuff mid high-school. By the start of college, I could participate socially as a mostly normal person. I just caught up on all the social skills I had to re-develop, like making plans and stuff.

All this seems really simple, but it is hard to catch up when everyone else is already friends with each other. Now, I might be one of the most extroverted people I know, and I almost always talk to people whenever I get a chance. I accomplished my life goal when I was 20, so I am really happy about that and I’ve been riding that high ever since.

Yeah I don’t know any trans people irl so everything I know about them is from 196. I was in no way anti-trans before I started lurking. I would have considered myself the “middle ground” because of my unfamiliarity with it, not because I wasn’t sure if they should or should not have rights. I really think this whole post needs to be rephrased because it would have turned me away back then.

He never said that they were “completely wrong”. Just casting doubt/sharing thoughts. Regardless, freedom of/from religion has only gotten better in the west for the last few hundred years. Please don’t let a few crazies in the US determine your perspective on an entire religion.