(i ripped this off wikipedia real fast so sorry if it's lib)
In October 1776, the Public Universal Friend contracted an epidemic disease and was bedridden and near death with a high fever. Their family summoned a doctor from Attleboro, six miles away, and neighbors kept up a death-watch at night. The fever broke after several days. The Friend later reported that [deadname redacted] had died, receiving revelations from God through two archangels who proclaimed there was "Room, Room, Room, in the many Mansions of eternal glory for Thee and for everyone". The Friend further said that [deadname redacted]'s soul had ascended to heaven and the body had been reanimated with a new spirit charged by God with preaching his word, that of the "Publick Universal Friend", describing that name in the words of Isaiah 62:2 as "a new name which the mouth of the Lord hath named".
From that time on, the Friend refused to answer to their deadname, ignoring or chastising those who insisted on using it. When visitors asked if it was the name of the person they were addressing, the Friend simply quoted Luke 23:3 ("thou sayest it"). Identifying as neither male nor female, the Friend asked not to be referred to with gendered pronouns. Followers respected these wishes; they referred only to "the Public Universal Friend" or short forms such as "the Friend" or "P.U.F.", and many avoided gender-specific pronouns even in private diaries. When someone asked if the Friend was male or female, the preacher replied "I am that I am", saying the same thing to a man who criticized the Friend's manner of dress (adding, in the latter case, "there is nothing indecent or improper in my dress or appearance; I am not accountable to mortals").
editorial note: I think this is a very cool story and I really love hearing it. We've been around forever and we've been doing variations of this forever. It's really beautiful
As a reminder, be sure to properly give content warnings and put sensitive subjects behind proper spoiler tags. It's for the mental health of not just your comrades, but yourself as well.
Here is a screenshot of where to find the spoiler button.
I've had enough time to think and process, so I'm writing a message to my past therapist to explain why I think she was exploitive of my trauma and acted with her own agenda instead of validating what I was feeling
It's so hard to write a message like this. I feel like everything needs to be airtight and my feelings need to be absolutely irrefutable, with as little emotion as possible.
Tbh I've wondered if this was just self-indulgent and ultimately achieves nothing other than potentially causing her to rescind her surgery letter. I think I'm willing to take that risk.
After the majority of 2023 dealing with (cw: mistreatment from health professional)
Being told not to talk or think about phallo for an unspecified period of time (until she felt I really lived with a vagina)
Using my short term identity/dissociative issues against me (that came from trauma and not being believed by people around me)
Not even writing down past conversations about doubts leading up to surgery
Dangling ending our working together whenever I pushed too much for phallo and started to get frustrated that I wasn't allowed to talk about it
I don't want to spend another day worried about the consequences of not making someone happy. I can get another letter if it comes down to it. My current therapist finally brought that up last week and supported me in my decision, so that's good. I'm not sure what I'm hoping to get out of sending this message other than being heard, though maybe that's all I need.