junebug2 [she/her, comrade/them]

disengage plus an argument doesn’t count, but i’m sure it would eat at you to not be able to get your last word. i also asked several questions, not just one, but i guess it’s easier to change the subject, right?

your words, for the record: “I find doing transvestigations on unconsenting people bizarre regardless of the motivation

If you don’t see how absolutely out of pocket it is to post-hoc unilaterally decide that a dead person was in “denial” about their gender identity then I just don’t think we can find agreement on this tbh.

I’m not even saying you’re wrong about what Bushnell’s identity was btw.”

the actual, direct phenomenon you claim to be bothered by is some of us calling the dead a woman, because you are so blinded by cisheteronormativity that you think it’s offensive. the fancy words are cute, but talking about the words and actions of a person when they were alive isn’t post hoc, and multiple people presenting different arguments for something actually isn’t unilateral. i have already described why calling this ‘transvestigation’ is inappropriate. i have no doubt whatsoever that you find evidence of transfem lives to be ‘out of pocket’, but you could at least have the decency to own your position.

it’s a good thing she didn’t do that then, the issue you and others seem to have is unexamined transmisogyny. it is legitimately vile that you think ‘transvestigating’, the word for trying to strip a woman of dignity and respect for being trans, is applicable to discussing whether someone is trans. why is it disrespectful to the dead to call them a woman, but not disrespectful to call them a man? are we really doing tokenism about “trans voices” when the tone of the thread is split almost perfectly by pronoun tags?

disengage + a barb doesn’t count, you don’t get to call it quits and then sneak in a last word.

are you talking about the parts of the conclusion that say “on the balance of probabilities, Bushnell most likely used the name Lilly, used she/ her pronouns, did so for the purpose of gender expression, [and] did so up to the point of her death”? i’m joking, of course, you skipped that part and only want to talk about “it is most likely not appropriate to correct people referring to her as Aaron (he/him), and it will not become appropriate unless additional information emerges which is not expected at this time.” if you can believe it, i don’t thoughtlessly take up every sentence i’ve ever read. i personally think there’s enough evidence to correct people, even if Ms. Moreton didn’t think so two years ago. i’ve also heard persistent discussion of the topic on transfem parts of tumblr and discord, but that isn’t really linkable evidence.

“We know all about the online use of other names/pronouns (and so much more you have not discovered), and more importantly, we know why. It is not what anyone thinks,” communicates actually zero information. vague-posting champion. like if the anonymous redditor actually made a claim, it might be worth considering. how can you even say they “appear to have been close to Bushnell”? based on what? the paper i linked also has statements from people that knew Bushnell. for what it’s worth, i’ve been seeing girls talk about knowing Lilly on tumblr and discord since 2024.

there’s dozens of people i knew in high school or who know my family who would say “without a scintilla of doubt, [junebug] was not gay or trans,” and they would be wrong. like who cares?

i don’t disagree with you. i do think it is significant that the event was live-streamed on an account called ‘Lilly Anarkitty’. the paper also describes Bushnell using a masculine name and pronouns on LinkedIn and Facebook, and a feminine name and pronouns on Mastodon, YouTube, Discord, and Twitch. to me, one of those groups is more representative of a person’s actual identity. and as the paper says on page 4, “There is a reason it would matter. Trans decedents are often subject to violence even in death; there is a saying that “they call it a deadname … precisely because the people in your life bury you under it”. Given that reality combined with the fact that trans people face a tremendously elevated likelihood of premature death from all causes, death and the treatment of the dead occupy a little-discussed yet central position in the current consciousness and culture of the transgender community. Our perception was that if Bushnell was transfeminine, then we had a communal obligation to take care of her in death.”

do you have a source? the politico article doesn’t mention that, and neither does the time article and neither does the jacobin article. saying “i am [deadname]” in a prepared statement is a different claim then “i want to be remembered forever by my deadname”.

the self-immolation was live streamed on an account called ‘LillyAnarkitty’, which had been changed from ‘acebush1’ two years before. if you read the paper i linked, you would see that she used he/ him and she/ her pronouns, and that she preferred she/ her in online spaces. this is not a real life space, so i do not feel like “i am denying the name they chose to be remembered by”. this isn’t even getting into speculation about media coverage. A non-service member self-immolated in Atlanta months before, and no one covered it or cared. Do you honestly think a single person would talk about the members of the military being fed up with genocide if they could run the trans angle?

personally, i think there are few things more disrespectful than denying names to the dead. a grave marked wrong is little different from an unmarked one.

Her name was Lilly.