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Think about something really important that happened to you this week, and tell us about it.

I had a virtual meeting with members of the LGBT+ community and allies who participate in a hobby that plays a prominent role in my life (I'd rather not say what it is, as it's niche enough that it might identify myself or some folks in the meeting). I was so nervous, I was shaking. The culture of this hobby is relatively conservative, and gendered. I'm a trans man, and I used to do this activity as a woman. After medically and legally transitioning to male, I started doing it again, "stealth" (to my knowledge, others don't know that I'm not a cisgender man). I basically had to pretend I'd been trained in the activity as boy/man rather than as a girl/woman and do a lot of extra training and work all on my own, in secret. This meeting was the very first time I had ever told other people who do this activity that I had this experience. Personally, that was earth-shattering. I learned about non-binary participants who don't really have the option to do it the way that I did, and other trans participants who did the activity through transition and therefore are very publicly doing it as trans people. I felt a lot less alone. Going "stealth" for anything (or especially, for everything) is an extremely lonely experience. I also felt guilty, for not doing this while openly trans, protecting myself, but missing out on the opportunity to pave a path forward for other trans and non-binary people. I don't think this virtual meeting would have happened without the pandemic. There are some really revolutionary changes coming on the horizon.