MSN was for your friends and friends of friends, ICQ was gamers and pre-MSN friends, IRC was for pretending you were a 17 year old girl from California.
It's definitely not for everyone, but I've met a small number of disabled people who do exactly this, for similar reasons.
Wouldn't offer it as a suggestion though, kinda feel like people have to come to that decision on their own.
I have not had a number pad on my keyboard for some time :( I remember this arcane magic
You kid, but as an Canadian Anglophone, this is what I do any time I have to send an email to someone with a French name with an accented character.
Yes, I know the special character menu is a thing, but I have shit to do.
"Did you know? This seat is the only one in Ottawa to feature in an Alanis Morissette song.
This plaque is here to remind you."
[God I wish I knew how to Photoshop]
I am reasonably certain I have been to the theatre where she went down on that guy.
This is the most interesting fact about my life.
YYYY/MM/DD hhmm, 24 hour clock gang unite!
(We also support our YYYY.MM.DD and YYYYMMDD compatriots)
So I have some family that lived in a gated community that used to be a resort for Golden Age Hollywood types. Their clubhouse/community building hadn't been updated much since then, and it had one of these.
100% certain that a) group sex happened here, and b) at least one person broke their ankle in this thing. 90% sure there was at least one time both happened at once.
I don't know what it is, but aside from the side effects of nicotine addiction and access problems in these spaces(which, whatever, I get it), transportation hubs (airports, train stations, ferry terminals, etc.) are my favourite places to be.
Don't really understand why I'm jumping into the garbage fire here, but here we go.
Let's assume it's accurate to classify being trans as a mental illness, just for the sake of argument. What if I told you we've tried pure psychological treatment and other medical interventions for trans people before - similar, interestingly enough, to L, G, B, and Q people* - and it is simply ineffective? What if I told you, after many years and unnecessarily dead humans, affirmation of identified gender, hormone treatment and surgical intervention were found to be the most effective means available for resolving the suffering inherent in the condition?
Let's also assume that despite this illness, a trans person is otherwise deemed fit and capable for rational decision making. You'd need evaluation by a psychiatrist to ensure this is true (which generally happens), but if so they have a fundamental right to bodily autonomy. Who are you or I to tell them what they can or cannot do to their bodies? Hell, if you right now wanted to surgically alter your dick to be comically large, if you're otherwise capable of decision-making (and a third party can attest to this), would you accept someone saying you can't, assuming you've accepted the possible risks?
End of the day, trans people are normal people who happen to have a disconnect between self-image and physical presentation based on hormone makeup and bodily form, and suffer quite a bit due to it. Transitioning is a game changer for most, and allows them to participate more effectively in the wider world without that baggage.
All you need to do is use a preferred pronoun, as community acceptance is a big, if low effort, part of the 'cure'. If you get it wrong, 99% of the time you'll be politely corrected. No one is going to crucify you for this.
Now, you can actively choose not to for whatever reason - but all that really does is make you an asshole in the eyes of many. Why? Because you're reinforcing something that causes another human pain, and what for? What does this accomplish for yourself, the trans person you're talking to, and your wider community, exactly?
I'm personally shocked this is such a hot button issue. Let other humans be whatever the hell they want to be, if they are competent to make decisions for themselves and 'changing' reduces their suffering. The world's burning, we have more pressing concerns than what our fellow humans have or don't have in their pants.
*A omitted simply because I don't know if asexual people were subject to anything like treatment for gay, lesbian or queer people at the hands of psychiatry and medicine more broadly historically. I imagine not, but I could be 100% wrong, and am without question uninformed.
Middle ground: Put your Patreon link in your bio and point people to it if they're interested in supporting. Comes off a little less spammy.
Though that said, like others mentioned I don't think anyone would truly take offence to an innocuous link. It's low effort, not-in-community-spirit crap that I think people are trying to avoid. Worth shooting a message to admins directly if you want clarity on this.
True, but you can meet in the middle re: this kind of thing with the ring. Having established that it's going to happen at some point, take a trip to a jewelers 'for fun'. Pay attention to what she goes 'oooh' over - style, stone, cut, etc. Write this information down to search separately.
It's a bit of a stereotype I suppose, but trust that your future wife knows what she's doing on that visit (particularly if y'all don't browse jewelry together frequently - it's kind of an anvil of a hint). This way there's still an element of surprise, but you're not just picking something random in hopes it pleases.