(i ripped this off wikipedia real fast so sorry if it’s lib)
In October 1776, the Public Universal Friend contracted an epidemic disease and was bedridden and near death with a high fever. Their family summoned a doctor from Attleboro, six miles away, and neighbors kept up a death-watch at night. The fever broke after several days. The Friend later reported that [deadname redacted] had died, receiving revelations from God through two archangels who proclaimed there was “Room, Room, Room, in the many Mansions of eternal glory for Thee and for everyone”. The Friend further said that [deadname redacted]'s soul had ascended to heaven and the body had been reanimated with a new spirit charged by God with preaching his word, that of the “Publick Universal Friend”, describing that name in the words of Isaiah 62:2 as “a new name which the mouth of the Lord hath named”.
From that time on, the Friend refused to answer to their deadname, ignoring or chastising those who insisted on using it. When visitors asked if it was the name of the person they were addressing, the Friend simply quoted Luke 23:3 (“thou sayest it”). Identifying as neither male nor female, the Friend asked not to be referred to with gendered pronouns. Followers respected these wishes; they referred only to “the Public Universal Friend” or short forms such as “the Friend” or “P.U.F.”, and many avoided gender-specific pronouns even in private diaries. When someone asked if the Friend was male or female, the preacher replied “I am that I am”, saying the same thing to a man who criticized the Friend’s manner of dress (adding, in the latter case, “there is nothing indecent or improper in my dress or appearance; I am not accountable to mortals”).
editorial note: I think this is a very cool story and I really love hearing it. We’ve been around forever and we’ve been doing variations of this forever. It’s really beautiful
Join our public Matrix server! https://matrix.to/#/#tracha:chapo.chat
As a reminder, be sure to properly give content warnings and put sensitive subjects behind proper spoiler tags. It’s for the mental health of not just your comrades, but yourself as well.
Here is a screenshot of where to find the spoiler button.
Okay.
Do you find that telling eggs to “grow the fuck up” is conducive to building a community where people feel comfortable speaking about their vulnerabilities, or is there potentially a more diplomatic way to encourage discussion around the feelings we are trying to navigate for ourselves.
Like, if “energy” isn’t a thing, is there not a discussion about what things are, what they mean, where they come from? If I’m the only one considering the intentionality of this stuff though, I might need to spend time elsewhere.
I don’t know what I want. Maybe you all know what you want.
The fact that you are even considering that you may be the only person here thinking about those things screams to me that you need to do one of two things, preferably both. One, read some queer theory, Whipping Girl by Julia Sernao is an amazing place to start, it’s required reading for you, do it. Two, get some life experience as the gender you really are. You will learn so so much about yourself, about other people, and about gender by living it for yourself, the sooner you can stop questioning and start living the way that feels whole to you, the better. I know it’s scary, I’ve been there, leaning into the fear and living your new life is the greatest possible thing you can do, so do it. I apologize that I came off as brash, I understand that it isn’t diplomatic or particularly helpful to address your comment like that, but the specific type of brainworks you are posting about really rub me the wrong way.