details intentionally vague, and very minor details slightly altered for privacy.

Earlier this week, a relative of mine who was a gay man passed away due to complications from SRS surgery. He became an HSTS MTF shortly after coming out (as a gay man) to his family.

A few years ago when he came out, his deeply homophobic parents reacted horribly, and one of them got a heart attack after he told them. That parent did not survive, and he blamed himself for their death.

Shortly afterwards, he began his gender transition.

I don't know if he was one of those TruTrans HSTS types who had lifelong gender dysphoria, or if this was a case of ROGD/ pressure to "trans the gay away". I think he lived with an unimaginable amount of guilt & internalized homophobia, and decided to live as a "straight" "woman" instead. From the stories I've heard from my family members about him, it sounds more like the latter.

I never got to meet him, because I have more cousins than I can count. So it's not hitting me directly as a member of his family, but moreso as a member of the LGB community. Even though he was more of a stranger than an actual family member to me, the fact that we were closely related by blood hits me way harder than most stories of this nature.

RIP to my cousin 😢