At almost a generation older than me, you remember even more than I remember about the "bad old days."

I can assure readers that you are not in any way exaggerating how bad things were, How hard society worked to control queer people, and hurt is if we didn't accept their control.

Part and parcel of a societal war on anyone who's different.

For some reason, this is reminding me of a story Logan Silkwood brought to the P&P editors Slack workgroup last night.

A Black trans woman testified before Congress after the Civil War about a racist massacre in her community, in an effort to strengthen civil rights for her people.

When she testified, nobody knew she was trans. But years later, it was discovered, and she was forced to work herself to death in a chain gang for the crime of presenting is the gender she chose to present as.

I had never heard of her!

Your story and Logan's reminds me that society is working very hard right now to control us and hurt us. Will things get as bad as they were? I don't know.

Here's that story:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/16/us/frances-thompson-transgender-memphis-massacre/index.html