Today I want to give love to dysphoric salmacians.
The ones who felt/feel like something is missing from them because they don't have both parts.
The ones who spent hours Googling intersex variations as a teen because you wondered if that was why everything felt so wrong.
The ones who can't speak about their desired configuration for fear of being called a freak at best, or a fetishizer at worst.
The ones who get accused of having a "(redacted) fetish gone too far."
The ones who can only feel seen in fanfiction because no one is ready to have conversations about your identity yet.
The ones who get told you are responsible for the increase and trans/queerphobia because you're too "weird".
The ones who get told you don't know what you're talking about, that no one actually wants that body.
The ones who get told you have no right to want this body because those who do are often abused as children, by their parents and doctors alike.
The ones who feel sick sometimes looking at your single genitalia.
The ones who are too ashamed to tell anyone just how miserable your body makes you.
The ones who scrambled for some way, any way, to describe your experience and feelings, only to be met with a deluge of hate in the tags we use.
You matter. Your story matters. Your identity isn't taking anything away from anyone. Only you know what your body is supposed to be, and no one else can say otherwise.
I'm sorry you've been hurting too. It will get better. The way that happens is by continuing to talk about it, who we are and what we've lived, even when people within our own community try to silence us.
Don't be silent. Your story deserves to live outside of you too. Because one day your story might find someone else and give them the courage to join us, too.
Keep strong. Do whatever it takes to reduce the dysphoria. Whether that's HRT microdosing, surgery, no medical interventions at all, or something else entirely. You deserve a body you'll feel happy in, too.
You are just as much a part of the trans community as anyone else. You belong. You matter. WE matter.