Hey friends, this isn't exactly a new member introduction, but this subforum seemed to be the right place.
First, the Executive Summary:
Please call me Laura or LauraJ.
Please use female pronouns to refer to me ("she" and "her" and "hers").
Read on for the more verbose explanation (when have I ever been anything less than verbose, after all?):
Some of you have noticed by now that I changed my name on the forum to LauraJ. I'm writing this post to explain a bit of what's going on.
I figured out at the end of February that I'm trans (aka transgender). That knowledge had been brewing for a while, but Feb 28th was the breaking point. If you want to know what all that was like, ping me privately, I don't want to bore the biplane community with a trans awakening story.
But that awakening has caused me to re-evaluate much of my life, and realize that I would be happier being female (this is a simplification, again, ask if you want details), and to go with being female, a more appropriate name: Laura. What it didn't change was my desire to fly planes, or build a Charger, or, as has been obvious from my relocation flight thread, buy and ferry a Charger back to Seattle.
What this means on the forum is I'd appreciate it if you referred to me as Laura, and used female pronouns when talking about me (ie, using "she" and "her" instead of "he" and "him"). It's alright if you forget and slip up, I mean frankly I still forget and slip up sometimes, and I'm living with this full-time. If you do, just acknowledge it and move on, no need for a big production of an apology. I'll correct people sometimes, and when I do, it's not personal. This is very much like the kid you knew as Bobby coming back a young adult and asking to be called Robert now, please. Just like Robert, I can take a bit of ribbing, but try to keep it in check.
One of the big reasons I'm making this change, and writing this post, is because I can guarantee you, I'm not the only trans person here on the forum. Aviation is not a friendly community for anyone who's not a straight white man, and that's not any one person's fault, but it is a truth we need to acknowledge, and ideally address. If I can move the needle that fraction of a percent toward our community being more welcoming, then I have made a good difference I can be proud of. If we want the amazing wealth of knowledge here to persevere, if we want biplanes to be something other than romantic museum pieces and their construction a lost art, we need to welcome anyone who's interested. I want to show other trans and queer folks that it's possible to stand up and be seen and be who we are.
If you want to know more about what I've gone through, and will be going through, I'm open to discuss it. I just don't want to make that the focus of this post (this is, after all, a place to talk about biplanes). If you're a reader like I am, the articles on this site explain what's going on really well (though it's an overview that's meant to cover everyone, so not everything there directly applies to me): That's Gender Dysphoria, FYI
There are a lot of posts here that refer to me by my old name of Ian or IanJ. I'll probably try to change the name on my build threads and such, but I'm not going to ask anyone to search and replace my name everywhere it appears. Likewise, I'm leaving my "Dapper Fry in Smoking Jacket" avatar the same for now, since I figure most of us see the avatar more than we see the name on a post, but I'll eventually change it. I'm not allergic to my old name, it's just... not my name any more.
Thank you for reading through this. I really appreciate the positive feedback I've already gotten privately, that gave me enough encouragement to make the change, and make this post.
First, the Executive Summary:
Please call me Laura or LauraJ.
Please use female pronouns to refer to me ("she" and "her" and "hers").
Read on for the more verbose explanation (when have I ever been anything less than verbose, after all?):
Some of you have noticed by now that I changed my name on the forum to LauraJ. I'm writing this post to explain a bit of what's going on.
I figured out at the end of February that I'm trans (aka transgender). That knowledge had been brewing for a while, but Feb 28th was the breaking point. If you want to know what all that was like, ping me privately, I don't want to bore the biplane community with a trans awakening story.
But that awakening has caused me to re-evaluate much of my life, and realize that I would be happier being female (this is a simplification, again, ask if you want details), and to go with being female, a more appropriate name: Laura. What it didn't change was my desire to fly planes, or build a Charger, or, as has been obvious from my relocation flight thread, buy and ferry a Charger back to Seattle.
What this means on the forum is I'd appreciate it if you referred to me as Laura, and used female pronouns when talking about me (ie, using "she" and "her" instead of "he" and "him"). It's alright if you forget and slip up, I mean frankly I still forget and slip up sometimes, and I'm living with this full-time. If you do, just acknowledge it and move on, no need for a big production of an apology. I'll correct people sometimes, and when I do, it's not personal. This is very much like the kid you knew as Bobby coming back a young adult and asking to be called Robert now, please. Just like Robert, I can take a bit of ribbing, but try to keep it in check.
One of the big reasons I'm making this change, and writing this post, is because I can guarantee you, I'm not the only trans person here on the forum. Aviation is not a friendly community for anyone who's not a straight white man, and that's not any one person's fault, but it is a truth we need to acknowledge, and ideally address. If I can move the needle that fraction of a percent toward our community being more welcoming, then I have made a good difference I can be proud of. If we want the amazing wealth of knowledge here to persevere, if we want biplanes to be something other than romantic museum pieces and their construction a lost art, we need to welcome anyone who's interested. I want to show other trans and queer folks that it's possible to stand up and be seen and be who we are.
If you want to know more about what I've gone through, and will be going through, I'm open to discuss it. I just don't want to make that the focus of this post (this is, after all, a place to talk about biplanes). If you're a reader like I am, the articles on this site explain what's going on really well (though it's an overview that's meant to cover everyone, so not everything there directly applies to me): That's Gender Dysphoria, FYI
There are a lot of posts here that refer to me by my old name of Ian or IanJ. I'll probably try to change the name on my build threads and such, but I'm not going to ask anyone to search and replace my name everywhere it appears. Likewise, I'm leaving my "Dapper Fry in Smoking Jacket" avatar the same for now, since I figure most of us see the avatar more than we see the name on a post, but I'll eventually change it. I'm not allergic to my old name, it's just... not my name any more.
Thank you for reading through this. I really appreciate the positive feedback I've already gotten privately, that gave me enough encouragement to make the change, and make this post.
