sciatrix

Being on the first cup of coffee for the day and pretty much unable to write English in a way that makes much sense, I just gotta say I couldn't agree with this more. As a fellow ace plus a transmasculine person who's still trying to figure out the finer details of their gender identity, the gatekeeping I've seen over at tumblr, twitter and instagram (the latter two I use way less, but have still come across it a lot which is very telling) has definitely caused me to think twice before revealing any details of my queerness in real life. I went to the local LGBT+ group's party for the first time about a year ago, and at the entrance they had different kinds of stickers with flags & labels you could stick to your clothes if you wanted to. You could even make your own if they didn't have your particular one, and of course they didn't have an ace sticker so I made my own. But about 1/3 through the evening I came to the conclusion I was the only ace there, so I got too scared and took it off. Similarly, my friend has been going to the group's meetings but I've been too afraid to, because I'm very much non-passing (and it pains me to care about this) and I'm afraid they'd just laugh me out of there even though my friend has told me they're all nice people.