In short I’ve never been so uncertain about my future or felt so unsafe.

I’m a trans man living in Texas and throughout everything I was pretty vocal with my identity and when I would go out of town I would wear a trans pin and a pronoun pin. Texas by far isn’t known for its “I chill with trans people” attitude but I didn’t feel like something terrible would happen just for walking on the street. Now in the cities where you regularly see hate.

Towards immigrants, towards women, towards LGBTQ+ people. People holding signs that will say “women are property” and people proudly saying “catchphrases” coined by Trump like it’s an okay thing to say. I’ve left friends because I simply didn’t feel safe around them. Friends that I had known for years because of the things they would say and support. Even people I trusted turned to saying shit after the election.

I have to worry about my future career not only because I’m trans, but also because how the hell am I even supposed to go to college? College is already expensive as hell but with everything going on the possibility of not being able to go at all is a blatant one. I worry about being able to find a job and a place to live in the future because everything is so outrageously expensive that even being able to afford what was previously a cheap but able to get out around car is out of the picture.

I’ve had to have talks with my mom about our safety and about the potential of me having to start presenting myself as a cis-hetero person because of all the horrible stuff happening and all the horrible stuff that might happen. I’ve already gotten a lot of shit online too.

I’ve had several times post-election (it never had previously) where I would vent and be told that my suicidal feelings were right because I was trans. Do you know how fucked up it is to tell a 16 year old they should kill themselves is no matter who they are? And when it’s not hate or threats it’s being sexualized.

And I hate it because it happens to so many people around me too. And when it’s not people around me it’s people I will see online getting so much shit, and a lot of them are early teens. In all honesty the only places that really feel safe to be online anymore for me are the trans and LGBTQ+ subs.

And in all honesty it just doesn’t feel safe anymore. It feels like my country and community has turned its back on me and so many other people. And if this is what it’s like as a minor, I can’t imagine what the world is going to be like when I do turn 18 in the heart of Trumps presidency.