Annabel Lee Journey 🏳️‍⚧️🎲👗

Incredible! Nice job ignoring their advice!

8/8 The moment they were gone, I logged onto Quitmormon.org ,filled out a form, and my entire family formally resigned from the Church. The moment I hit the "Submit" button, I gasped an audible breath of relief as a lifetime of religious guilt and shame fell from my shoulders. And I started to live!

7/ My wife was fuming in the next room and several times tried to cause a distraction to get them to leave. But they refused to leave, even after I asked them several times to! Not until I said a contrite prayer with them, which I finally did just to get rid of them.

6/ The missionaries had some "hard truths" to tell me. For three hours they laid into me, chastising me, and exhorting me to repent of whatever was causing me and my family to have doubts and question the Church. Now, being raised Mormon, I was used to being guilt-tripped. But this was unparalleled!

5/ Rather than granting time alone for spiritual reflection, the Bishop left in a huff. I think he was genuinely surprised at my response and that I didn't heed his counsel! A few days later, he sent a pair of missionaries uninvited to my house to have a talk with me.

4/ I couldn't believe it! This Bishop wanted me to break up my family in favor of the Church. That rocked me. What happened to "families are forever?" I wondered. So I told the Bishop, "You know what? I think we both need some time away from the Church to think about things." Also unacceptable!

3/ Rather than grant or address any of these reasonable proposals, the Bishop met with -just me!- and suggested that rather than risk becoming an inactive member of the Church, become contaminated with her doubts, or live in a mixed-faith marriage, I should cut her loose instead to remain faithful.

2/ My wife had questions and she wanted a little freedom to attend a different Ward to see if we vibed better there, maybe check out an entirely different church for the sake of comparison, read some texts like the CES Letter and get some answers to her own doubts. No way! said the church.

"Families forever" is one of the main selling points and the foccus of a lot of Mormon doctrine. So when my Bishop told me it would be better to divorce my questioning wife rather than remain in what might become a mixed faith marriage, I was like, "Whoa there, hold up! That can't be right!"

11/11 When I got my Patriarchal Blessing at age 16, I was convinced the Patriarch would discern I was supposed to be a woman and declare me such in my blessing. It didn't happen and that man's obvious fallibility was the first important chink in the religious armor I'd been forced into wearing.

10) I loved Choose Your Own Adventures Books but gravitated towards the ones where the reader is depicted as a girl. Those were my favorites because they felt right and natural to me...

9/ In Junior High art class, we had an assignment to draw a self-portrait. I drew mine with long hair, feminine features, and dangly earrings because that's how I subconsciously saw myself and thought how I should be...

8/ Sometimes I did dream I was a girl and those were the best dreams. I woke up with a smile on my face before feeling an incredible sadness that it had just been a dream. And I'd feel heavy religious guilt for having the dream in the first place and knowing I'd try to have another like it soon...

7/ I preferred praying along before bed so that I could include my most fervent prayer that I would wake up in a different body. I fell asleep hoping I would dream dreams in which I was a girl because I thought that was the nearest I'd ever be able to achieve...

6/ In the Mormon Church, at age 12, the kids are segregated by sex from a co-ed Primary class into Young Men's and Young Women's. I was heartbroken that my name was on the roll for the Young Men's class. There wasn't a Sunday that went by that I didn't long to be in the other one instead...

5/ Between grades 5-6, most of the boys my age in my class coincidentally moved away. I wished the last two would have moved away too, leaving just us girls. Those girls who always closer friends friends than any of the boys had been because I naturally felt more comfortable in their presence...

4/ When she asked me if I wanted a Luke Skywalker or Han Solo action figure for my birthday, I answered Princess Leia because that's the closest to a doll I thought I could get away with asking for...

3/ I was 3 yrs old when my mom took me to the toy store one Saturday afternoon. She led me to the boys aisle and when she turned her back for a moment, I went to the pink aisle instead because innately I thought those were the toys I should have been looking at...

2/ I didn't know it at the time, but absolutely I was a trans kid too. I just didn't have the language and context to express myself. Despite the religious indoctrination and cultural contamination of my upbringing, I still knew I was different and knew deep in my soul who I was meant to be...

I grew up a Mormon in the Bible Belt in the 80's & 90's. I had exactly zero chance of enjoying a trans childhood. It's something I've had to come to terms with and grant myself grace about. But it would have been nice and it would have made a difference. And that's why I fight for trans kids too...

For real. It feels like National leadership is intentionally not going to spell it out either way. It's going to be a guessing game. Well, since I'm not going to comply either way, I'm going to proceed under the assumption that nothing is actually changing and see if I get challenged.

A much appreciated promise!

My monthly Age of Steam game was the epic Korea map! I managed the victory by building mostly in the North, which was cheaper but had fewer cubes on the board to work with. But my fewest shares was the difference again!

Played one of my all-time favorites with my wife yesterday - History of the World! It was a close one, but my average score was a little better than hers!

Yay! I love it! Rhiannons unite!

“Journey” - Because life is a trip, full of adventure, the unexpected, and surprise. The ride never ends and I am one of its passengers.

“Annabel Lee” - my favorite poem. I wanted to be reminded of something beautiful every time my name was spoken or I saw it in print.
“Rhiannon” - Welsh goddess-queen inspiration for one of my favorite songs. And Stevie Nicks is one of my heroines and one my fashion role-models.

On the Underground: London / Berlin Develop the subway and attract passenger traffic in London and Berlin.

Played On the Underground: London / Berlin on 2026-03-03. I love this series of games! This most recent play makes me think that we need some new maps! boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/28...

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Queen Scissor

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Titsandassaurus