Twenty years ago I did a lot of reading on trans topics because I was interested in a relationship with someone who was transitioning. (Definitely dodged a bullet with that!) I was pretty accepting of trans stuff and particularly gender non-conforming presentation for a very long time because I thought I understood trans-related issues thoroughly. Since childhood, I have felt that, deep down, my sex didn't really matter that much to my thoughts, interests and friendships. So I didn't emotionally "get" why someone would want to transition instead of just being GNC, but I was accepting nonetheless.

However, about 5 years ago I had a few conversations with a trans "woman" about trans topics and my thoughts about self-acceptance rather than medical interventions. I realized that some of the things I said to him were not being well-received due to his body language (no actual voiced objections) and not long after that I started researching trans topics again to figure out why. This was near the time of the Women's March after Trump's inaguration and the media reporting on trans complaints about pussy hats being transphobic and demands to "center trans women", which made my eyes roll, but then I got disgusted that they were being taken seriously by the organizers.

Around this point, I searched for "critical of gender" and found r/GC. I was a little dismayed that radical feminists were running the show (due to some previous experience with radical feminist discourse that was off-putting to me). But I quickly found a lot of interesting perspectives and enjoyed reading the peak trans threads. I soon realized that trans activism had changed enormously in the 15 or so years since I last heavily researched the topic and had become very disconnected from reality. Ideas that had been considered controversial even in trans circles in the past like hormones and puberty blockers for <18s were now being pushed into mainstream acceptance without safe guards and therapy was now "gate-keeping".

My real wtf moment was seeing the censorship around Yaniv and how free speech principles were being violated. Of course it has only gotten worse since then. But this is when I became determined to fight back against the nonsense. After r/GC got banned, I realized the full extent of the current dystopia. I have felt so much dismay observing how the left has embraced totalitarianism around this issue and other "wrong-think".

I've been lurking r/GC and Ovarit nearly daily for several years. I have a lot of thoughts and ideas that I want to share with the gender critical community that are much too long for a single post. My main goal in creating this account and posting this story is to get an Ovarit invite, so if anybody can help me out with that, it would be very appreciated. Seeing the courageous Afghan women protesting despite the danger has increased my resolve to speak out and engage with the GC community.