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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 134005
Posted: 10 February 2025 at 2:00am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

…has come out as transgender.
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Joe Smith
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Joined: 29 August 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 6688
Posted: 10 February 2025 at 4:39am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

It’s never too late!
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Paul Kimball
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Joined: 21 September 2006
Location: United States
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Posted: 10 February 2025 at 5:01am | IP Logged | 3 post reply

I was worried you were going to say he passed away, glad
he's okay.
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Matt Hawes
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Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
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Posted: 10 February 2025 at 5:08am | IP Logged | 4 post reply

I thought the same thing, Paul.
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Mike Devlin
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Joined: 16 May 2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 267
Posted: 10 February 2025 at 5:26am | IP Logged | 5 post reply

Same down here, too! Whew.
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Dave Kopperman
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Joined: 27 December 2004
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Posted: 10 February 2025 at 3:02pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

That takes some serious bravery in this exact moment. Good on them.
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Darren Taylor
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Joined: 22 April 2004
Location: Scotland
Posts: 6025
Posted: 10 February 2025 at 3:29pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

I was thinking the same Dave. And Mike, Matt and Paul, I definitely opened the thread worried that maybe there was sad news inside. Glad it was nicer.
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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 10 February 2025 at 4:40pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

Arguably being alive is better than being dead, but I do not envy Tony what lies ahead.
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ron bailey
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Joined: 16 October 2016
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Posts: 1172
Posted: 10 February 2025 at 6:39pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

I have a feeling she's feeling more alive now than ever before. 
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Robert Bradley
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Joined: 20 September 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 4906
Posted: 11 February 2025 at 4:45am | IP Logged | 10 post reply

I am reminded of a situation at work a couple of years before I retired.  I worked at a public library, which is a fairly liberal atmosphere, and I considered most of my coworkers pretty open-minded.

We had a coworker who went on vaction for a couple of weeks.  While he was gone someone from Human Resources came down to make a presentation about working with people who were transitioning. This was how we found out that out 400-lb., bald, male coworker with a neon pink beard would be coming back from vacation in a few days as a female with a different name.

This was all new to me, but I figued I would do my best. I did pretty well, only calling her by her dead name a couple of times and only using "him" as opposed to "her" once or twice.  But she could see that I was making an effort and that her transition didn't really change anything as far as our work relationship (we even talked about thing like how ludicrous she might look in some fashion choices, and whether a wig might improve things - while still choosing to keep the beard). She remained working there, and everyone was pretty accepting of the new status quo, But she left about six months later to take a position at a library closer to her home.

Before she left though she gave me what I consider to be a nice, albeit backhanded, compliment.  She told me "I was pretty cool for a old cis white guy."  Which, while I took it like it was intended, I think it was also a pretty sad commentary about what transgenders expect the reaction by people my age would be.  Being raised Baptist it was certainly out of my comfort zone at the start, but I figured out pretty quickly that nothing had really changed except for her outward appearance.

I also have another former coworker from about 30 years ago that recently went in the other direction and now identifies as male.  Tht wasn't as awkward a situation for me to get accustomed to, mainly because I didn't see him at work every day anymore, but our correspondence has been pretty matter of fact about it.

However, reading some of the reactions to Isabella's transition is rather disheartening, I want to think we should be progressing as a society in regards to these types of choices, and we should respect the decisions they make, but there are still a lot of people who take her choice as a great offense to their values system and choose to react in a lot of petty and vindictive ways.  All this to someone they don't know who has never done anything to them.  But that is the atmosphere our "leadership" in the White House embraces.  Which to me is a huge indication thatthe orange turd is unfit for the office he holds.

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Jose Zulueta
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Joined: 20 March 2022
Location: United States
Posts: 181
Posted: 11 February 2025 at 6:53am | IP Logged | 11 post reply

Best thing I read all day. Thank you for the thoughtful post, Robert; well said. 
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Andrew Davey
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Joined: 27 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 1452
Posted: 11 February 2025 at 3:21pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

I second that. Well said.
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