I spent like 3 years in that subreddit without really believing I was transgender. Around 2021 I shocked myself when I responded to a bigoted comment and automatically wanted to say “we” when describing trans people. I was so immersed in trans culture and felt such an affinity for them that I was already thinking of myself as a transfem before I was ever consciously certain. Simply not knowing I wanted to be a woman held me back for my entire childhood, but because of r/traaa, I could finally graduate from ignorance to denial.

r/egg_irl had a big impact, but if hadn’t spent so much time in r/traaa, then the egg memes would’ve scared me off. If I haven’t spent so much time there, then I might not have cracked and finally gotten to experience actually living for once. If not for that safe space, I might’ve never been able to disarm all the internalized transphobia and gatekeeping that can be all too common in more pickme trans spaces. A big part of why blahaj.zone is so important to me is that it reminds me of that place which no longer exists.

      • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.netEnglish
        5·
        17日前

        I appreciate you voicing this. There are a lot of affectionate jokes that people make about people who post often, but we don’t often talk about the pressure that this involves.

        It’s part of why I make an effort to comment on things. It feels like it’s my attempt to make the people posting feel seen and appreciated, as well as doing a small part to try to help sustain communities until they have more people engaging. It’s odd to feel such a sense of duty over the notion of posting and commenting on online memes, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  • Grail@multiverse.soulism.netEnglish
    17·
    18日前

    I graduated from traa and egg_irl before I left Reddit. I got to a point in My transition where baby trans memes were no longer relevant. But I’ve never felt the same way about Blahaj. I appreciate the more mature and confident vibe. Piefed and Lemmy transes don’t doubt ourselves so much.

  • romanticremedy@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    4·
    17日前

    Although my therapist ultimately helped me crack egg, those subreddits and crossdressing subreddit help me explore during trying out phase.

    “haha I found meme on egg_irl funny” Yes, because u r an egg too dumbass I was in denial for years SMH

    I’m happy this place exists coz I also significantly cut down my time on reddit after that drama

    • TotallynotJessica@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
      37·
      18日前

      The API changes basically killed the third party moderation tools that the mods relied on, and they had no interest in continuing to moderate without them. Whenever I peak back on Reddit, it seems like more bullshit slips through the cracks than before and even the culture of the platform in the better subreddits seems to have regressed compared to the past. On top of that, users being able to hide their profiles causes mods to waste time finding workarounds just to see if someone is a troll or not. It seems like so many users don’t notice it because they’ve gotten used to the crap and every other corpo platform is somehow even worse.

  • LilyVess@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    1·
    15日前

    I don’t usually post anywhere. I was on egg_irl then egg on Lemmy then here, and I just want to thank you and all the people who make all of these possible. These are the few safe places I know where I can come back when everything goes down.

    Thank you all. And specially you suspiciously not Jessica.

  • apotheotic (she/her)@beehaw.orgEnglish
    22·
    18日前

    I clicked here wanting to share how I spent years in r/traaa before I would acknowledge the possibility of me being trans (because obviously being trans is only for real trans people who definitely know they’re trans and the feelings I’m having are different to that and I’m definitely not trans still cis btw) and then see you already wrapped up what I wanted to say with a neat little bow.

    I’m glad we still have our unapolagetically queer, safe and cozy spaces online, despite everything. Thanks blahaj, thanks beehaw, thanks queer admins and mods for all your hard work