So Heather thinks that no one talked about it because it simply hadn’t occurred to anyone rather than being afraid?

Or is Heather saying she preferred it when they suffered in silence?

I was born in the early 90s and there was an AFAB person who very early on insisted they were actually a boy. I do remember thinking it was weird when I was a kid but the more they presented masculine the more it became “That’s just the way they are” and I accepted it.

They were masculine presenting as early as 4th grade if I remember correctly. They were a beacon of light in high school for other queer people who hadn’t figured themselves out yet. And they were super nice and friendly so everyone liked them.

They waited until our first year of college before asking us to refer them with he/him pronouns. It just made sense. I had a better understanding of gender and its spectrum by this point so it I remember thinking “finally.”

Unfortunately he was in a car accident not too long after, and passed away. The world is sincerely lesser from his passing.

Yeah, this is pretty much it. Survival strategies for most schools are to lay low, don’t draw attention to yourself, and definitely don’t give the bullies easy ammunition.

In my small town, a three-letter f word slur was employed regularly by pre-teens who had no understanding of what that word meant. You knew they learned it from their parents, because what fucking kid learns that kind of language in the 80s and 90s without the internet?

Of course people didn’t hear about trans kids. Because if you did, they would have been bullied so much that they’d either leave, or just be a legendary target forever.

I swear, people forget what it’s like to be in school with aloof administrative staff and shitty peers.