Good luck to you! Dixon is sorta out my way! I could drive over and root you on from the sidelines if you need a cheer section.

Let me think on that. I'd love to hear input from everyone on what they'd like to see or what was most helpful from this event so we could focus on those things first. I'm just at the beginning fo my own journey. I don't mind running a discussing on this topic but I'm by no means a subject matter expert. I don't really thing anyone can be since it's all so personal. But I'm absolutely willing to make sure there is a space available for anyone that needs support.

Absolutely it is OK to not label yourself! I think the best way to look at all of this is not that you have to choose an identity from those on a list, but that there is freedom to examine yourself and be what you are, openly and with support and love for being you. Ace/Non-binary/Trans/whatever you want to include here are options more than "man" and "woman" which is all we had before. Don't like the label given to you at birth? Here are lots of other options. I choose to see it as a first step towards a future where we don't have to label ourselves at all. And it starts with breaking out of the Man/Woman dichotomy and allowing expression in whatever form it looks like for each individual.

HELP!!! I am highly unregulated right now with the cancellation news 😭😭 Trying to take deep breaths but instead I"m holding my breath and getting dizzy for it. So sad

The Yellow's are hosting several threads for mental health awareness month if anyone needs to head over for some emotional support

As the week comes to a close I wanted to ask - is there any interest in keeping a gender discussion thread going for casual check ins and support as needed? There are several of us here that clearly connect with this topic and I would hate for anyone to go into next week or next month feeling like they can't reach out anymore because our thread is gone. For anyone looking for more resources or a group to talk with, there is a discord server I can recommend. They're really great people who know a lot, have a lot of helpful resources, and are a safe place for exploration and discovery. https://discord.gg/GxGETJkH And for my US/Canadian friends - There is help, 24/7 if you need to speak to someone. Trump may have shut down our helpline but our friends up north have us covered I am also on discord and you can always reach out to me if you need someone. I am always available and no one should ever struggle alone. Anyone reading this has my permission to DM me day or night.

Thank you so much for loving them and giving them a safe place! I truly hope their parents come around. Some may never get there but some can with time.

I struggle with this too. It's something that I am actively working on. My cousin is trans and has even gone through surgery for her transition, and yet continues to dress, act, talk, etc as she did before her transition. I really struggled with this and talked with some friends about it in a safe place. They challenged me to look at my own expectations of "passing". That trans people don't have to be "passing" to still be who they are. The changes to herself that my cousin has made are what make HER happy and she's living HER life HER way and my struggling to accept her identity because she isn't looking like my definition of a "girl" is my issue to work on.

We see you and love you too Gudrean! I do like your take on intimacy. That is something that I miss having in my life but in my head intimacy and sex were so related I didn't think I could find one without the other. Boy was I wrong! It just took time to find the right community of people for me to start talking and asking questions and find my people 🙂

Oh lord I need some tips!! What feeds my soul is helping others so I tend to always neglect myself in favor of giving as much time and attention to others in need as possible. I frequently will be in one voice chat or another from the time I wake up in the morning until well past when I should have gone to bed. When I do have down time I like to put on headphones, disappear to my bedroom, and play on my steamdeck.

Discussion prompts: 1) What does emotional regulation mean to you personally? Being aware of my emotional state - whether I'm high-strung or feeling low, or struggling with irritation. I'm not very good at control yet, but I do pretty well with being aware of where I am 2) Can you think of a time when you practiced emotional regulation successfully? What helped you in that moment? I use music a lot. I try to find playlists on spotify that give music that fits the mood. Angry music for angry days and ballads for sad days. Upbeat for good and productive days. I find I can allow my emotions some space to just be so I can process them more effectively if I match them with music. 3) Who were your early role models when it came to managing emotions? How did they influence your approach today? Oof, tough question for me! No one, sadly. As a kid I was constantly in trouble for not behaving correctly but without anyone trying to understand me. I am undiagnosed ADHD and on the autism spectrum but was labeled in school as "gifted" so adults expected me to figure it out on my own. Learning emotional awareness and regulation didn't happen for me until adulthood. 1) Have you noticed specific sensory experiences that make it harder or easier to regulate your emotions? Definitely sound. I don't struggle with people eating with their mouth open like some of you, but the TV sound can really get to me. It's like I can FEEL the sound of the tv on my skin and my whole body crawls. Sometimes it's the dogs barking that doesn't work and can disrupt my stability. I have noise cancelling head phones that I basically wear 24-7 even if I"m not listening to music just so they can dull the volume of all sounds around me. 2) What is your “go-to” sensory strategy when you're overwhelmed? I try and step outside of my own head for a minute. I find a discord chat to hop into and let myself focus on what someone else is doing. Make my problems small enough to be pushed aside for just a few minutes while I focus on someone else. And making my problems small for just a second stops them from blowing up and spiraling out of control.

Thank you all for joining! I think the hardest part of this topic is just getting started. Of having a space safe enough to open up. I love you all for exactly who you are and I appreciate your willingness to post and be a positive beacon for anyone out there reading but not yet comfortable posting. We see you too! You're loved and accepted for exactly who you are! @Cross that comment from your friend does help! I definitely don't identify as male, but feel like female doesn't fit either. I feel kinda like a fraud trying to claim either. So NB/They/them has been where I feel most comfortable, especially online. Does anyone have any questions they'd like to ask? The title here is "Everything you wanted to know but were too afraid to ask!"

This sounds a lot like me. It never occurred to me to question the gender assigned at birth until I started to really become an ally for Trans friends going through their transitions. I noticed that these people feel SO STRONGLY about their gender they are willing to go through all the nastiness of coming out to friends/family/society and in some cases going through intense surgical procedures to make their body match their identity. So what does that mean for me? I have no feelings whatsoever about my gender. I do not feel strongly about being female. I've always been more of a tomboy than a girly girl, and I get along better with men than women. I work in a male dominated industry and struggle all the time with misogyny. But is wanting to be more gender neutral to avoid sexism at work really a gender identity change? When I create characters for games or roleplay they are always women. I never want to play male characters. So does that mean I'm still a girl? So for now I've settled on using They/Them while I keep doing my self exploration. Don't give up questioning! It's hard work and it takes time and is so confusing! But don't give up! If you need someone to talk with you can always reach out to me 🙂 This has been hard for me as I discovered that I was Ace. Not so much that I wasn't allowed to fall in love, but more that once I did find someone that I fell in love with, sex became something I felt required to provide to my relationship. I never knew that asexuality was a thing and that there was nothing "wrong" with me because I didn't have much interest in it. I definitely never knew that it was possible to have a romantic relationship without sex. And how does this impact those that are Poly? I know a couple of people in Poly relationships where they are only sexual with one partner, but emotionally more involved with the other. How does romantic/sexual connection balance in this kind of dynamic?

I do think emotional attraction means literal emotional attraction. Romantic attraction gets rolled up with sexual attraction quite frequently because they kinda go together. At least, I have always equated sex and romance as two sides of a coin. I could be wrong though so please correct me if so!

Good morning everyone! Thank you so much for taking the time to visit around Mental Health Awareness month! Hopefully there is something here that speaks to you and either provides you with some help or inspires you to get involved! For my part, I wanted to start a discussion on Gender and Sexual Identity. I do not claim to be an expert on this topic in any way but I feel strongly that everyone should have a safe space to ask questions whether they just want to understand the topic better, or are exploring their own identity questions. This thread is not one that will "teach" you. I don't want to lecture at anyone or lay my definitions and perceptions on people. What this thread is about is ASKING. What are some questions you have that you've been afraid to ask about? What are some things you'd like to learn more about but are unsure where to go to find resources? Nothing is off limits in this thread and if you have a question that you really just don't feel comfortable asking here, PLEASE DM ME!! No one should struggle alone out of fear of their questions or how they come across. So to kick off, here's a helpful graphic explaining the difference between Gender Identity/Expression and Sexual Identity. Please post any comments or questions you have. Starting with the basics to kick us off but I want you guys to feel free to lead discussion into wherever you'd like to go. For myself I have: Gender Identity: Exploring. Currently identify as Female but exploring Non-Binary. I don't feel very strongly attached to my gender in any way and wondered why that is. Gender Expression: Female - have lived my entire life as a female and learning only very recently that I may not actually feel that way. I might be non-binary instead. Still working through this but I still dress and act as female when I go into public. Physically attracted to: None - I am asexual/Ace and fall on the "no" end of the spectrum. Emotionally attracted to: I am Pan here. I can find emotional connection with all people regardless of their gender. I just do not have sexual attraction/feelings.

I'll give it another shot. I went into it expecting to love it for Noah alone and was kinda sad I didn't love it right away. Maybe I just needed more episodes to hook me.

Watching the final season of Handmaid's Tale when not rewatching WoT Also watching Daredevil with the kid, and Mobland on Paramount

Does it get better? I watched the first couple episodes and it hadn't hooked me, which is shocking given that I've loved Noah Wylie since Dr. Carter days on ER and I've watched Grey's Anatomy start to finish about a dozen times. Medical dramas are my thing! This one just didn't do it for me right away.

This hit my radar and I'm not even a big fan of anime. I watched it and loved it! We turned it on just to check it out and binged until there was none left.

Welcome! And I have some good news for you! There is a confirmed cast member for an Finn role. I'm not even sure if it's an Aelfinn or Elfinn. I don't know any more details about it than that, but we will get to see them!

@Delenn I have submitted the form again. Please let me know if it is still not going through

Thank you! I'm exploring a bit. More of a discord user than forum poster but I will try to be active here too!

Hello all! New member here. I've read and understood the rules and agree to abide. I have submitted the form!