Queer temperature check: how is everyone doing right now?

As of two weeks ago, my long-distance partner of six years is no longer long-distance!

I moved from the UK to Texas (yes, I know) to be with him after finally getting the fiancé visa approved. I'm still a little giddy at us finally being together; the whole thing still feels surreal.

I'm a mixed bag of emotions too, of course. I was nervous as hell coming here because we're in quite a rural area, and it's Texas. I haven't met anyone directly homophobic yet though, at least not to our faces; his family have been awesome, the people we've been contacting to get wedding stuff booked have been fine with everything, and even his church fellowship were pretty nice and accepting. I'm also an indoorsy/introverted person in general though so haven't been meeting many people outside of that.

I'm happy with finally making the leap, and hopeful about the future. I know the country is taking major steps backwards, and I don't want to downplay that at all, but just from a personal perspective I'm happier being with him even though it means we'll have to deal with that. Six years was a long time to be long distance for (especially with covid stopping visits in the middle).

This year has been kinda a wild ride for me. My wife left me in January and not in a way that paid much consideration to me as a person, so that's been hard as shit, but weirdly it seems to have been one of the best things that's happened to my mental health in a while. I was suicidal back in December of last year, and now I wouldn't even characterize myself as struggling with depression symptoms. Part of it is very much, I think, the fact that going through something like that forced me out of a spiral of stagnation that I was definitely trapped in. Part of it is that reaching out to friends and family in the aftermath really opened my eyes to how much love and support I have. Part of it is sort of a "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" type thing. And part of it is probably that my relationship was a lot worse than I realized it was while I was in it. All told, I'm probably in one of the best places I've been at mental health-wise since well before I got married. I still have my struggles and am definitely traumatized by the experience to at least some extent. But damn if my day-to-day isn't worlds better than it was before.

I recently started a casual thing with a guy I like, and it's the first person I've been with who thinks of me as a guy at all and calls me his boyfriend. We're long distance so there are some big limitations to what we can do together, but I'm still having fun and that's what matters. My last relationship in retrospect had a lot of pressure not to go "too far" in my transition, since my ex-wife identified as a lesbian, and I definitely was unconsciously holding myself back for the sake of others. I probably still am in some ways, but at least now I'm having fun and learning more about myself in tandem. And it feels so nice to be loveable and attractive to someone for the first time in such a long time.

Pretty good I guess. I'm mostly past the really awkward phases of transitioning now. I'm fairly happy with my body now & I'm no longer disgusted by its existence, though some few parts of me still make me dysphoric. I'm fully out to almost everyone I know, of any age group, and everyone has been accepting. I started getting gendered properly by randos recently & I'm currently "rebuilding" my wardrobe.

I was pretty anxious transitioning in the mid-2020s with whatever's going on in other parts of the world, but I was surprised to find that, here, it's all... fine? As in, both where I come from & when I live now, nobody ever gives the slightest of fucks about me being very visibly trans, when both of those areas lean somewhat conservative?

I still need to bother making some new friends physically. But other than that, things are going gucci.

I'm feeling meh about a lot of things. I'm coming off a huge high of going to a wedding at a dream destination (not my wedding, Mr. Tired and I have been married for 4 years now), but I got to be a part of a wedding at my dream destination, and honestly, that's good enough for me. I'm itchy from being bitten to hell by mosquitos, including ON my new tattoo.

I'm also not feeling great about points to all of this, and I am doing my best to do what I can as a straight-passing, white-passing person while also trying to take care of myself and deal with my own chronic illnesses.

i’d say pretty good. two months on estrogen with enough to last me two more years; a blossoming t4t relationship; local queer group for community that we both attend; and a new attitude to taking up some more space as a trans woman after a car crash on saturday. i use the women’s toilets now, life’s too short to not…