I'm a straight cis dude. I have never felt any gender dysphoria or even thought about trans people at all until I made a couple of friends who happened to be transgender.

I was exposed to a few more trans people through my friends, and a few more on Twitter. Then I moved to Masto and was exposed to many, many more transgender voices.

Not once in my more than 5 decades of this mid existence have I ever seen any trans person talking about how they regretted it, or was having second thoughts. To the contrary, all I have *ever* seen is joy. Folks who are happy that they can be themselves and feel comfortable in their own bodies.

Republicans are trying their damndest to marginalize and erase trans folks, because they're terrified that people like me, who otherwise never gave it a second thought, might be exposed to the joy and realize that trans people are just people. Republicans want to portray anyone who's not cis, straight, and white as some kind of deviant. Don't fucking let them. They're wrong.