My uncle is a pastor. So when his kid came out as trans, he and his wife did the ‘good moral Christian’ thing and shamed her and harassed her until she committed suicide.

Then deadnamed her at the funeral, and wrote and published a book about how ‘his betrayal’ and ‘his unfortunate death’ were just tests from God to test their faith.

This is not a rare or unique story; many people all over the world have stories like this. Is it any wonder those who pay attention find religion distasteful? It may be a part of humanity, but many unpleasant things are, and there is nothing ‘edgy’ about rejecting them.

Yes, there are ‘good’ churches in my town that feed and clothe the poor; a far cry from my uncle’s church. But they are part of the same religion, and the fact that religion accepts both, morals be damned, means I have no interest in it.

With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion. -Steven Weinberg

I mean, it’s supposed to be.

Probably still won’t stop future humans from opening the vault, sadly.

No. Gender is largely a social construct based on psychological, cultural, and behavioral mores, although given that there are differences in the brain between Trans and Cis people of the same biological sex, there does appear to be something of a biological component.

Biological sex is tied entirely to the genome, and may or may not match a person’s gender.

Well, the assholes that use ‘female’ like op described think we’re shoes, locks, purses, sandwiches, androids…

Animal would be a step up, really. At least that’s something that’s alive.

No, Musk is an annoying slime ball with a ton of money thanks to mommy and daddy. But thanks to good PR in the past there are a lot of people that worship the ground he walks on, so we need to keep his stupidity visible in the media so that number doesn’t grow.

My trick for gnocchi? Ziplock with the corner cut off.

Well, you shouldn’t close yourself off just because you’re afraid. But don’t force yourself into trying to love either, just because you think you ‘need’ to be in a relationship. That sort of thing rarely goes well.

If you’re having trouble ‘getting back out there’, it’s probably easiest to develop hobbies, and meet people that way. Then you have a better chance of finding someone walking a similar path to you, which at the very least means you get a good friend out of the deal.

For me, ‘attraction’ is simply being physically attracted to them; a fluttering in the chest, so to speak, enjoying the eye candy…

When it changes to ‘love’ though, I found my thoughts to be more on wanting to take care of them, seeing them smile, being happy when they are happy. It goes beyond the superficial and the physical. I suppose the best way I can describe it is it makes my soul sing.

I think the Ancient Greeks, with their words for different kinds of love, were more on point with these sorts of things.

Chemistry is something different again. Lust and Love are all well and good, but you need more than that to make a relationship work. You need mental maturity on the part of both parties, the willingness to move beyond and work through problems, and something of a similar life trajectory in order to make love last.

Or just eat more good healthy food. I know UPS drivers that eat a bit of breakfast, don’t eat lunch, and then do a decent dinner. And of course they get a good workout every day. But they’re still overweight because a lot of the food they do eat is, well, fast food and junk food.

Five ball pythons; two Normals (Monty and Lucky) one Super Mojave (Hisui), one Jigsaw (Amber), one Mystic Spider (Jasper). And two Leopard Geckos (Spot and Rover).

And anyone who tells you reptiles don’t have personality is lying. Jasper is very snobbish and a homebody, Hisui is a coward but tries to be brave, Monty is laid-back and lazy, Amber is adventurous, and Lucky is very gung-ho (and food obsessed, because his previous owners starved him, then dumped him on the side of the road).

Rover is very confident, and Spot is a grumpy old man.