mastodon 4.8.0-alpha.3+glitch.9f145e9a5"Linda" is newly my name. I've been "Naga" or "Pat" before (leaving this here for now for ease of continuity, and neither of them is exactly male-coded).
I'm a disabled (severe #MECFS), #ActuallyAutistic, queer, white, #TransWoman in my 50s, living in North Carolina in the US.
Queer, in my case -> Something not readily defined or labeled, as opposed to Queer -> fuck you. Having spent most of my life looking to the world like a cis-het man, I don't feel I readily own that.
Phase 1 of my #GenderQuest is complete. I am a woman, contrary to what I believed for 56 years and change.
My sexual orientation is "kinky." I'm gray-ace: I'm sexually pulled toward the person tying me up, largely regardless of gender or anatomy. Outside of kink, I don't really have a sexual orientation at all. My aesthetic appreciations are broad, tilted toward femme people, but not exclusively, and aren't particularly linked to my sexuality.
I'm the owned and collared pet dragon of my wife, Jalan.(genderfluid, she/her). Dragonlet is our (at this writing) nine-year-old nonbinary child (he/they). I also have a son in his early 30s from a previous marriage. Jalan and I are polyamorous. Jalan has a lover, but I don't have energy for another relationship right now.
I use justmytoots: @naga@toot.cat@justmytoots.com .
Profile picture: I'm a trans woman in my late 50s. I am wearing a green, sleeveless dress. I have short reddish-brown hair and am wearing wire-rimmed glasses and gold hoop earrings--small diameter but wide. My lips are deep red. I'm very happy. The lighting is enhanced in the picture, making my hair look as red as I wish it still were!
I just ran across a very cool way for a form to accept your name if it differs from the name on the ID.
Suffolk (Virginia, US) library's application for a digital card asks for:
Name
Name on ID (if it differs)
And a checkbox to use "Name on ID" for communications.
The checkbox defaults to off.
As of 5-May-26, #GenderQuest is a set of threads related to my movement from cis man to demiman to considering being less man and possibly more woman than I'd thought before.
I'm pinning this with links to each of the thread starters, to edit as things progress.
Initial wondering (18-Feb-26): @naga@toot.cat
Grief about GenderQuest and chronic illness (13-Mar-26): @naga@toot.cat
Exploring potential womanhood (4-May-26): @naga@toot.cat
Following up on my #GenderQuest threads (here @naga@toot.cat and here @naga@toot.cat )
Most recently, I shifted my identity label to demimale.
I've been looking at whether I might be less male / possibly more female than I'd been considering.
I do get some kind of euphoria from skirts in a couple specific styles, as well as just a general enjoyment of dressing femme. I also enjoy lip stain and nail polish, but I can't apply those myself (hand tremor).
So I've been brainstorming with Jalan's help what I can experiment with to see if it brings euphoria, with the caveat of being mostly bedbound and not having much spare money.
So I'm thinking of what I can try with low investment of money and physical energy. Before I test bigger-social-investment things like how I respond to pronouns other than he/him.
One is more clothing options. I'd like to try a dress--that would be new. Maybe another skirt or two in the style like I one I love.
Before that, though, I'll probably want to get some level of shaping. I can't wear anything that could interfere with movement, make me overheat, or impede using a plastic urinal.
I also need to allow for having a broad, hairy chest.
So I'm looking at the next purchase being some sponge breast forms and a full-coverage zip-front bra (a behind-the-back clasp is out of the question). I have a few blouses that look fine on a flat chest, but I want to see if having some curves under them feels good.
And I'd want to test that before picking a dress style or two to try, because whether I have chest curves under them might affect selection.
(1/?)
#Prosopagnosia can be a real problem for me in real life. Llike not recognizing Jalan, my now-wife-then-girlfriend even when she sat down across from me in the restaurant we were meeting at -- because she'd flat-ironed her hair.
But also in TV and movies. Something I watched yesterday had a shot of somebody literally taking off a mask and I was wrong about which character it was, sending me down rabbit trails of looking for deception and layers in the wrong character.
This is why I read episode recaps afterward...