Nadia is a transgender woman.

She knew since she was 5 years old, maybe earlier,

Until she was 38 years old, she believed “transgender woman” is not a real thing. She still thinks that every day. Internalizing demons is a b*tch.

At 38 years old, a friend took her seriously. Nadia was confused: “how is it possible that you believe me?” The friend said: “because you told me.”

Dave Chappelle is famously super awkward and strange with his transgender jokes, but even his disastrously bad jokes touched Nadia, misquoting this super badly: “if you’re considering surgery to change your p*nis, I will always believe it, because a regular (cisgendered) guy would never do that.”

2024 is a fun election year with an enormous viral bloom of hate against transgender people (we’re trending!), but basically if Nadia could have transitioned before puberty, she would have.

And another friend told her the story of someone who transitioned before puberty: “1. because 2. they 3. told 4. their 5. parents 6. and 7. their 8. parents 9. believed 10. them.”

Those 10 words will always be incredibly touching and moving to Nadia and make her cry.

So, with our 14m+ publishers, how do we know they are really LGBTQ+?

Because they told us.