How To Write A Note: Please Read!

Thank you for wanting to write a note! Here are the guidelines for what we're looking for. We're hoping to create something very specific with this Reddit community - a space where detransitioners, desisters, and dysphoric and GNC people can go for simple encouragement, a witness to their experience, and a mood boost.

All notes are screened by a moderator before being posted. Please go for anywhere between 20 and 200 words in length.

We welcome notes from other detrans/desisted people, as well as notes from anyone else! You don't have to have a deep personal connection to this topic, just a general awareness and desire to offer encouragement.

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How These Notes Will Be Used (Reddit is just one part of it!)

Having these messages on Reddit is only one part of this project. The text of the notes will be collected and used in upcoming positivity projects for detrans and desisted people. This could be a website, an app, cross-posting notes to social media sites, or creating physical print items. They will only be used for volunteer projects run by detransitioners and desisters, and never for profit.

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There are three ways to submit your note: Choose whatever is most convenient for you!

1. Coming Soon - Click a link and write it in the online form. It doesn't ask for any personal information, and doesn't require you to have a Reddit profile. The notes will be collected by us and posted to Reddit.
2. You can private message me the note and I will screen and post it.
3. You can post directly to the subreddit. It won't show up on the site until it is approved by a moderator.

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Types of messages that are especially appreciated:

1. "We see you" messages: just regular people witnessing to our experiences, and offering positive wishes for our happiness and well-being.
2. Messages acknowledging the issues within today's LGBT culture, gender clinics, and society at large, related to people being inappropriately led to transition, and offering encouragement and hope for a better future. (People have a wide variety of beliefs in this area, and you don't have to adhere to any specific belief about these things to write a note.)
3. Messages of support and encouragement for those of us trying to change things for the better.

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Please keep in mind:

Different people who are detransitioned, desisted, dysphoric, or GNC will have different feelings about this topic. Some people are doing fine and are just happy to be figuring themselves out. Others are going through intense periods of grief due to loss of body parts, health issues caused by hormones or surgeries, or feelings of betrayal related to their treatment within the medical and mental health systems. Depending on your personal relationship to this topic, your note may be more geared toward the "lighter" or "heavier" end of this, and that's completely fine. It's better to write from the heart than to try to make your note appeal to every person.

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Please include the following as a byline with your note: A first name (it can be a fake name), your gender, your age or decade-age (like 30s, 40s, etc), and (optionally) your country and state/region if you feel comfortable. Here's an example: "Susan, woman in my 40s, Colorado, USA".

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Please be thoughtful about how much personal information to include. Remember that anything that goes online exists forever if someone makes a copy or screenshot.

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The rules:

1. No downers. Notes that are primarily negative, pessimistic, or anxiety-inducing. This is going to be subjective on some level, since witnessing grief is important and something that definitely does belong in this project. If you're touching on heavier topics, try to do it in a way that will make people who are grieving feel better after reading it. It can be helpful to think about something difficult you've gone through, and what you would have liked someone to say to you during that time.
2. No soapboxing. Notes that are primarily about your beliefs and opinions instead of being a supportive message for others. Your opinions will be relevant to your message on some level, and your note doesn't have to be completely devoid of opinions. But please keep in mind that the purpose of writing these is to offer encouragement to others, not to provide a platform for your beliefs.
3. No referencing specific people. Even without names or identifying information: for instance, "my niece detransitioned and she is doing great". This is to avoid situations where someone feels uncomfortable because they discovered that part of their story was being shared by someone else in their life without their knowledge.
4. No current events. This includes a new law being passed, a new statement from an LGBT group, etc.