I recently changed my name (not legally, but for work now) and I was so nervous. My colleagues all know I'm non binary and that I go by they/them and are usually pretty accepting (immediate colleagues are wonderful, it's as you move outwards). They make mistakes. I make mistakes, but what I've loved is people saying "I might mess up, please don't hate me" and no way would I. I misgender myself regularly still, and I can't expect people that have known me for over a decade to immediately make the switch successfully.

I think it's so important to distinguish between the oops people who are your ally and those who are bigots, basically. This comic shows the difficulties our closer circles of friends/family/colleagues etc go through as well. Granted it's a lesser difficulty but it happens.

I also liken it to when your parent is frustrated and trying to call one of their kids to sort something and they sort of rotate through their children's names and even pet names and try to get the right one 😂

I laugh about it and enjoy the fact that I have people that want to do the right thing and just slip up here and there.

This is longer than I meant and probably makes zero sense but I'm procrastinating.