I want to announce something personal to you all: I am a Transwoman!
It took a while for me to find out myself and then the last years to find the courage to come out to my friends and family.
I just started hormone therapy (one week before the #efct17), but until my appearance changes I will still live as a man in public.
But you girls and guys are more like friends than strangers so I feel comfortable coming out here.
For technical reasons I wonât change my username, but Iâll change my profile pic, Title and full name to make it as clear as possible.
So please #callmepaula from now on.
Wouldnât some admin be able to change that in the forum database or something to that end, so nothing would change for the account apart from the username? Not an adminâs dream job I guess, but you do so much for this community âŚ
All the best for you, Paula, keep up the courage !
We discussed that option with @Douwe and he even offered to pull an all-nighter changing each reference ( @paulakreuzer, quotes, etc⌠) manually.
I looked and asked on meta.discourse and there is an automatic way, where Iâd create a new account, transfer all postsâ ownerships to the new account and then run some scripts to change all referrals. But itâs quite error-prone and messes e.g. with the forum-stats.
I donât think itâs worth it. Itâs just a username after all. Iâm just happy that once the time has come I can legally change my name easily.
You are also my friend. However, I have to say that the situation itself is strange to me and makes me feel uncomfortable. It will take me more time to get used to it. I hope you can explain it to me we can talk about it in person at some point.
I can understand your strange feeling, especially as you know her for quite some time; but I really donât understand what there is to explain.
Maybe itâs just the wording that is bothering me and you are interested in Paulas story; which is a different thing. (I just hope, I make my point, as English obviously is not my native tongue.)
To me Paula is the same one she ever was and in my opinion wouldnât need any explanation, even if would have known her since childhood. Seriously.
Congrats Paula.
Can imagine the âstruggleâ has been hard for quite sometime, so really great you have taken the step to be who you feel you are.
<3
PLUR
I want to paraphrase the motto of friends of Framasoft (âLa route est longue, mais la voie est libreâ, www.framasoft.org) : the road is long, but you decided that your way was free. Have a good trip, Paula!
@srfk, Paula and Stefan know each other quite well and I donât think Paula will make a problem of it. I understand Stefanâs post, I also donât really know what to think of this. I have only met, and thus only remember, Paul â1.0â. I will probably have peace with it the next time I meet her, but until that I feel a bit confused because she isnât the Paul I thought she was. At least, that is how it feels for me as someone who met Paula a few times.
For now, @Paulakreuzer, I wish you all the best. Like I said to you in the ICE train, I still hope to meet you again next year, and please forgive me if I have in my ignorance said anything that hurts you.
@AlbertJP No, not at all! Iâm not hurt.
I completely understand that itâs confusing, especially for people who have gotten to know me as Paul, though I bet it doesnât compare to the confusion I felt before I discovered my real identity.
Oh and to everybody who has gotten to know me: Just because Iâll change my appearance and name doesnât mean Iâll change. I am an will continue to be the same person Iâve always been. The biggest difference youâll notice will probably be that Iâll feel more comfortable in my skin (if my environment doesnât make me uncomfortable).
And keep up the excellent work you are doing here.
!
