https://apnews.com/article/swimming-transgender-rules-lia-thomas-8a626b5e7f7eafe5088b643c4d804c56     Not at all surprised by this.  In the end, allowing this controversy to die down may be of benefit to the trans community in the long run.  She was a lightning rod.   Carolyn Marie

This will eventually have to be decided by the Supreme Court... a court which seems to have avoided most trans-related stuff recently.  This ruling seems to get perilously close to violating the precedent set by Tinker vs. Des Moines in 1969.  Given that the shirt in question does not contain "profanity" as usually considered in American society, but merely a political opinion in common language....can it be said that it violates the "substantial disruption" test according to the Tinker ruling?    Personally, I'm not offended by a shirt that says "There are only two genders" nor do I believe that it causes disruption even in a school environment.  Impolite? Sure.  Substantial?  Hardly.  Yet none of this needs to happen.  Schools can easily avoid this by implementing a basic dress code or even a uniform, rather than singling out individual cases.  Problem solved in a way that is consistent with the law. 

Thank you, Ash and @Mirrabooka! You're too kind.   I have a nail salon around the corner, but my wife and kiddos had a bad experience there once. I think a lot of the issue is I have a bit of perfectionism in me (thanks mom!) and I want them to look nice and clean. This time the lacquer is a bit thin and needed extra coats to provide a fully opaque color, so they took an extra long time to dry--and got dinged or smeared because they hadn't fully set (we're talking probably close to two hours after the last coat), so I kept redoing each that got wrecked.   @Ashley0616, I haven't gone so far as to ask to be called anything different by all of my family yet. So I haven't run into problems with being misnamed. I kind of just persist and try to let the misgendering, "my boy", "nephew", "Mikey", etc. roll off my back. As for volunteering, I'm told my eldest and I may be set for some amount of volunteering for "the main event" Pride weekend at the end of the month, the group I'm registered with isn't doing anything this weekend. So instead I get to go to a D&D night at a local bar and a house party at a friend's of ours. Action packed weekend, here we come!   Oddly we ordered pizza tonight and when I went to pick it up, the cashier asked me how I spelled Maeve. He told me he had two "Maeves" order that night, the other spelled it in Gaelic fashion (Maebh) and he'd mixed up our orders. Two Maeves ordering pizza at the same joint from a little pizza joint in the Twin Cities at the same time!   Another update, I got my termination notice today (finally). Friday is my last day. 10 years there are coming to a close. Now to sell the house, pack up, move the family half-way across the country, and find a new place to live in the next two months! Wahoo!

Sitting here tonight wondering.... I was AFAB, but for some reason its like my husband understands me emotionally way better than my GF does.  So strange. 

Awww.... I feel for you.  I'm similarly useless with mechanical stuff. I just look at it and scratch my head....I'm useless and fluffy.  I'm always amazed how my GF can look under the hood, figure out exactly what's wrong, and drag out a bunch of tools and have a car in pieces within the hour.  I can barely identify what an alternator is, but she'll have it changed in 30 minutes or less.  We all have different talents, I guess.    HVAC is ridiculously expensive.  My husband has learned to do some of it himself, simply because of the cost.  We had a technician out to the house a while back, quoted $2,000 for a simple motor and a circuit board.  My husband ordered the parts on Amazon for $200, and installed in 20 minutes.  Easy enough that even I could have done it with a YouTube video.  Of course we had no central heat for a week while we waited for parts, but the wait was worth it to save money.  He and GF have been learning HVAC stuff since then, and bought a bunch of parts and tools.  It actually looks less hard than car repair, since there's more space between parts.  IDK how they can charge more money than car mechanics....

@Willow  I feel for you.  Sometimes female partners just can't be pleased.  Pick, pick, pick, as you say.  There are days my GF is just determined to have a fight with somebody...anybody...for any random reason.  She'll be nothing but fangs and claws and bitter complaints.  Its rough to live with somebody like that.  But there are also days where it isn't that way, and where they're the person we met years ago who captivated our attention 100%.  Patience....

So do I! But geez, talk about time consuming! @MaeBe, have you given much thought into getting regular professional manicures instead? (not that I've gone down that path myself)

Deep breaths honey, Deep breaths.

Ok venting time.  @KymmieL I know you’ll appreciate this on.   this morning the home health nurse was here.  I took a picture of how my wife’s wound looked to show her like I always do.  Then I asked the nurse about a line of spots no one side she explained them then asked if I had a picture from the beginning.  Which I did. Then I was scrolling through my pictures to see the progression my wife angerly says “enough”. After the nurse left we left to go to the post office, lunch and Costco.  As we are driving away from home she turns to me and says not too nicely that if I wanted to be a woman I needed to spend more effort on how I looked.  At the post office we bought a roll of package tape.  Of course it won’t peel off the roll and the longer it took to get it started the darker her looks became.  We go into Costco.  Right inside the door are tables with women’s shorts and blouses.  I ask her, do you like these shorts?  Yes this color or the other? Can’t make up her mind so I put one of each in the basket.  Next some blouses.  She picks what she wants and the size she wants. I picked up two what I thought were sleeveless for me.  (Turns out they had built in bras which I didn’t discover until I got home.  She tries on one of her tops, doesn’t like it and says to me you want them? No.   later I want to work on me paper.  Oh then I can’t watch tv?  I hate this condo.  I’ll just sit on the porch. Somewhere in all this I want the ac on and a ceiling fan.  Well that makes her made too.  She wants it 80 degrees with no fan. I prefer 76 with the fan.  And the night continues until she has made me quite annoyed with her.   pick, pick, pick.   next I’ll likely hear about the pjs I have on.  Argh!

Or actually, Lauren.  Most enjoyable. 

Excellent video @Ticket For Epic!

Yes, very exciting, experimental, and exploration days ahead.   Thank you so much for your support, Carolyn Marie. 

I must look like a raving lunatic with how much I still enjoy playing Space Invaders!    

Welcome to Trans Pulse, Lillis.  It's nice to meet you.  I think you'll enjoy being here.  This is a very exciting time for you, and I'm sure you will have a lot of questions.  We'll be here to answer them for you.  Best of luck and enjoy the E-Ticket ride you just got on.     HUGS   Carolyn Marie

Thank you so much for the warm welcome, KathyLauren. 

Wonderful HVAC went out yesterday and the temperature rose to 82 from 70. It was cooler outside. Was able to get a technician out and 340 dollars later it's working thank goodness. I'm not useful when it comes to home repairs or even car repairs. I can't even change out the alternator or even something simpler putting on a new belt. My phone quit working since last night. I was finally able to get it working again after 3 hours. The VPN was causing it to not work. I get to see my endocrinologist on the 18 so I'm excited for that. Girlfriend was very sorry that she hasn't been able to spend a lot of time with me. She told me that she was worried that I would leave her. I reassured her that as long as she treats me right I won't leave her. She owns and operates a floral store. I can't wait till she can live with me down here permanently. She said she'll me transition more with surgeries and makeup. Looking forward to being able to have my nails done. I got hit on by a trans woman and she wouldn't stop after I told her I already have a girlfriend so I blocked her and showed the messenger chat to my girlfriend. She was grateful of what I did. 

Sorry about your not so peaceful visit. Family can sure be jerks. I have a final answer if my mom would ever accept me as Ashley. I simply asked if she would put Happy Birthday Ashley. She said she would never call me that. To her I won't anything but Scott to her. She said we could put Happy Birthday or she just wouldn't make it. I hope you are better now. BTW I love your nails! Good luck on the volunteer opportunity. 

Hi, Lilis.    Welcome to Transgender Pulse.  Nice to meet you!   Please feel free to wander around the various forums, join in the discussions and start new threads.  You will find that this is a very supportive community.

Hi everyone, I'm Lilith or Lilis, and I'm thrilled to join this community! I'm a transwomen, but for as long as I can remember, there hasn't been one neat label that's felt quite right for our gender identity.  I say "our" because I share my body with a man, and we have walked a really exciting journey together  for many years. In this one body we both flow and change intermittently depending  on who is present, the changes and the flow could be daily and (or) sometimes weekly, and just recently, the term 'gender fluid' has really resonated with us. It's has been a very challenging journey ever since puberty our body went through some changes, and developed some curvy feminine features those similar to cis-gender girls, and nothing like the other cis-gender boys. I think this was when I was discovered but I was ignore for many years after that. This new body brought a lot of confusion and embarrassment, the boys locker rooms was a nightmare to change clothes without being teased or stare at by other boys, also shirtless activities such as the beach and at the pool were also humiliating when people would stare and say hurtful things. We learned from the medical professionals a little bit of what was happening and they called it gynecomastia, and something about a hormone imbalance. Our father wasn't to happy about the news and wanted to get this fixed asap with surgery or with what ever means were available at the time. But mother convinced him to wait and see if it would go away after puberty. Luckily for me it never went away so we have been together ever since right into adulthood. During this time I would be suppressed, or ignored most of the time and not allowed to exist, but I was a constant reminder every time shirts came off in public and private body inspections. Finally at around the age of 30 years old something changed. When our cis-gender girlfriend at the time was at work and we were both home alone we experimented with her clothes, wigs, makeup, and everything in her wardrobe. I think this was the turning point in the acceptance of me. Finally I was acknowledged and today we're both happy with each other, we live alone and like I said at the beginning of my post we share the same body intermittently depending who is present. Sometimes it's all me the other times it's all him, back and forth we go. We joined this community because exploring the feminine side of us has been both exciting and confusing at times. This forum feels like a welcoming space where we can connect with others who understand the complexities of our gender identity.   Also we just started hrt on this past Monday June 10th, 2024 as discussed with our therapist and medical professionals. We're on low dose estradiol, and low dose  spironolactone in an effort to create a balanced feminine and masculine look for both of us with our body.  Oh, don't worry about him. It's not likely he will join the forum he is into other things. Therefore, when I am present on this forums,  it would  be only me Lilis and I go by the pronouns she/her.    Again, I am happy to be here and thanks for having me.

@DreamWalker I came out to my wife of 20+ years a few weeks ago. We agreed to try couple's counseling and have been working with a therapist for 3 weeks now. I think overall it has been very positive. It's providing a channel of communication that would otherwise be very awkward at the least and is helping us set up some ways to move forward. For example, I'm slowly presenting as Justine more and more around her ... the key word being 'slow'. If there's a day where she feels like she just can't handle it, she can me a text before she comes home from work so I can 'turn down the volume'. She hasn't done that yet, but the option is there and having that 'switch' is comforting to her. I'm very early in my exploration though and the compromises don't currently cause me a great deal of distress. Best wishes to you, I'm sure you'll find a way to move forward that works for you!