tae glas [siad/iad]

for myself, if i can recover passwords etc, i delete the account to lower the possibility of that data being used to train ai, and to lower the numbers of registered accounts they have.

i think stakeholders are more likely to see accounts being deleted as worse than an inactive account, because people can always come back to an inactive account.

so many websites are eager to keep users by making it difficult to delete accounts, or by adding a 14 day wait before they’ll delete an account, etc., so that alone makes me think they want even inactive accounts for usage statistics or to steal data from.

if she wants to, but doesn’t feel safe to, then her decision not to start yet is still valid. there’s also no rush, early twenties is so young & she has decades & decades of her life ahead of her, where her circumstances could change dramatically & she might then feel completely safe to start hormones.

safety is often a factor when trans people choose not to medically transition, or to detransition.

it sucks & of course ideally, we’d all live in a place where these decisions can be freely made without having to consider safety, but ultimately it’s each trans person’s decision to make for themselves, because no one can guarantee safety.

if she chooses to socially transition & never to do anything else, that’s perfectly valid. a lot of trans people choose this route, and it’ll be immensely helpful for her to have a supportive friend like you around.

if she chooses to medically transition as well, on her own timeline that she’s comfortable with, it’ll be immensely helpful for her to have a supportive friend like you around.

basically, you’re already doing what you can by being there for her, whatever happens 🫶

that’s a v legit concern, i think any trans people in the u.s. should be looking into stock-piling prescriptions if they can, and/or look into diy hrt.

there are plenty of guides online for diy hrt, like this one: https://slrpnk.net/post/16002807

it sounds intimidating & clandestine & everything, but you can get pharmaceutical-grade hrt from places where they’re more widely available, if where she lives isn’t providing her with enough options.

the first year of hormones often doesn’t involve really dramatic changes (although everyone is different & dosages etc matter too ofc), so she could probably go on hormones while in her hometown & be stealthy for perhaps longer than she’s expecting

when people see you every day, they don’t really notice those gradual changes. for example: my family never seemed to notice me being on testosterone & after i got top surgery, their only reaction was to ask how i “lost weight”. 🤭

if you’re living somewhere like the u.s., i can see why transitioning would be extra worrying these days. she has already socially transitioned, though, so she’s already fighting back against the fascists’ plan to intimidate people into detransitioning or never transitioning at all. fair play to her, i wish her the best & happiest life, whatever she decides to do! 🙌🫶

they’ll spend money on anything except fixing the housing crisis or cost of living crisis, it seems.

which is something that in turn would cut down on “keyboard warriors” as they put it, because when people aren’t priced out of living their lives, they have other things to do!

i really worry about what spaces kids online are going to be pushed into, with all these bans. so many people my age were groomed on internet forums when we were kids; i imagine social media bans are going to push kids into spaces like that, where it’s not technically considered a social media site, and there’ll be little to no adult supervision from anyone who’s not in the inner circle of the forum.

the article feels like whataboutery in itself, imo. gchq’s main thing is mass surveillance of uk citizens. if they didn’t steal & store people’s data, then that stolen data wouldn’t be stored in one convenient central location from which to steal it 🤷

edit: i do get that it’s not great that this has happened, of course. i just don’t think surveillance should be seen as inevitable in the first place.

until they have a problem with bringing in digital IDs, and the amount of data being stored by google/meta/amazon/apple/etc, this just feels like sinophobia & xenophobia. stealing & storing our data’s bad in general, not just when china or russia want to do it 🤷