(i ripped this off wikipedia real fast so sorry if it's lib)

In October 1776, the Public Universal Friend contracted an epidemic disease and was bedridden and near death with a high fever. Their family summoned a doctor from Attleboro, six miles away, and neighbors kept up a death-watch at night. The fever broke after several days. The Friend later reported that [deadname redacted] had died, receiving revelations from God through two archangels who proclaimed there was "Room, Room, Room, in the many Mansions of eternal glory for Thee and for everyone". The Friend further said that [deadname redacted]'s soul had ascended to heaven and the body had been reanimated with a new spirit charged by God with preaching his word, that of the "Publick Universal Friend", describing that name in the words of Isaiah 62:2 as "a new name which the mouth of the Lord hath named".

From that time on, the Friend refused to answer to their deadname, ignoring or chastising those who insisted on using it. When visitors asked if it was the name of the person they were addressing, the Friend simply quoted Luke 23:3 ("thou sayest it").  Identifying as neither male nor female, the Friend asked not to be referred to with gendered pronouns. Followers respected these wishes; they referred only to "the Public Universal Friend" or short forms such as "the Friend" or "P.U.F.", and many avoided gender-specific pronouns even in private diaries. When someone asked if the Friend was male or female, the preacher replied "I am that I am", saying the same thing to a man who criticized the Friend's manner of dress (adding, in the latter case, "there is nothing indecent or improper in my dress or appearance; I am not accountable to mortals").

editorial note: I think this is a very cool story and I really love hearing it. We've been around forever and we've been doing variations of this forever. It's really beautiful


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  • ashinadash [she/her]
    ·
    21 hours ago

    Your comment is a large part of what I'm trying to parse I think, yes. Stuff like that is Not Inherrntly Gendered since people of several different genders have (or want ✨) a uterus, for instance, but a hysterectomy is often part of gender affirming care, which like, how can both be the case... smallbrain moment. As near as I can tell, in a post-gender society processes like these will just be disentangled from gender, which rules.

    Also I love a semiofftopic ramble lfg badeline-jokerfied

    What terves be sayin

    The "removing a healthy uterus is self harm" line is such fucking transparent shit. Oh, better not remove anything unless it's unhealthy because YOU BETTER KEEP YOUR BODY NICE AND CISNORMATIVE. ANYTHING ELSE IS DAMAGING OR SELF HARM. That's all they ever do, is uphold cisnormativity, or sometimes heteronormativity, or misogyny or sexism if your terf is particularly spicy! Eye-rolling fuckers.

    Two weeks of recovery sounds fucking awesome, hope anything surgical I elect to undergo is as smooth as that...

    • Are_Euclidding_Me [e/em/eir]
      ·
      19 hours ago

      which like, how can both be the case... smallbrain moment.

      This is how I feel when thinking and discussing so much about being trans! So much of it seems to be downright contradictory and yet these seeming contradictions I know to be entirely true! I'm actually really grateful I'm trans, because I don't think any other of my life experiences have shown me such stark contradictions where both are true. I feel like it's really opened my, I dunno, mental possibility space let's go with I guess. Wacky!

      asshole terf shit

      Isn't it just so transparent? Like, god forbid I get to make a permanent choice about my body that cisnormative society doesn't like, my goodness. I must be harming myself, clearly. I do not have enough eyes to roll quite honestly.

      And yeah, my hysterectomy recovery was straight up miraculous! Top surgery was nowhere near as easy. I just take it to mean I never should have had a uterus and my body was extremely very happy to be rid of it.

      • ashinadash [she/her]
        ·
        19 hours ago

        It can be tough to parse this stuff out, I'm just thankful there are people smarter than my goofy ass out there i-love-not-thinking Being trans does rock though, huge fan, bewildered that the cis never think about this.

        lol losers lol

        Terfs are so funny, "feminism is when we dictate to people what choices they can make about their bodies" would be a genius bit if it wasn't real.

        I never should have had a uterus and my body was extremely very happy to be rid of it.

        bunny-vibe absolute alltimer