I wish depression were an emergency. I wish someone could take one look at how sick I am and go “oh my god, we need to get you to a hospital!” and then when we get there I get rushed into surgery and the surgeons say “it’s a good thing you brought her here when you did, this is a seriously advanced case” and then they put me under and spend the next ten hours pulling metres of long, sticky black strands of gunk out of my body, throwing it immediately into an incinerator so that it can’t infect anyone else. And then they could stitch me back up and I could rest a few days, and when I leave the hospital everyone can see how much better I am and they congratulate me saying “well done, you’ve been so brave, I’m so glad you’re ok. I love you.”
The expectation that you will refer to a trans person by their preferred pronouns and name is not them ‘forcing you to accept them’ it is basic respect. You don’t have to like trans people, you don’t have to ‘believe’ our identities or whatever. You do have an obligation to treat us like people, though. If you had a 40 something cis male coworker named Bill and you repeatedly, pointedly and aggressively called him ‘Shirley’ and exclusively used she/her pronouns to refer to him, that would be a major HR problem. It is not persecution to have to show basic human decency.
"She did not need much, wanted very little. A kind word, sincerity, fresh air, clean water, a garden, kisses, books to read, sheltering arms, a cozy bed, and to love and be loved in return.”
