Anonymous Said: umm hi im . im just kinda here to rant because ive held it in for a few months and i just . think maybe sharing it could help move past the embarrassment . input is fine , i feel like a jerk if i ramble and others feel obliged not to say anything ynkwo
so i was . apart of the community in like . early 2022 and left around mid 2023 probably (apparently some headmates still engaged with the community until 2024 but i dont remember this) and i never deleted anything from that era , my account is still existant , and until a few months ago , my carrds were still . available / not deleted
i think my worst nightmare happened , and i . Like. i was on twitter and i saw this viral post from an account making fun of bad rentrys and carrds , on my timeline. my heart fucking Dropped. i knew it was one of our old carrds, i couldnt remember writing anything on it but the background was so fucking familiar . i Knew it was ours.
hundreds of likes. tons of comments, a horrific amount of qrts. i knew nobody /knew/ it was me, but i felt like i had just walked into school naked. my skin felt raw. i felt like. like a lamb who just got skinned. a mutual of mine qrted the post, saying how disgusting the carrd was. how racist it was . how . Everything. it was
i figured out the log in into that carrd account, sure enough, it was in fact our carrd. i deleted everything. all my old rentrys and carrds related to my old account are gone. but . i went to delete the account ,and i saw someone in my dms, asking to be friends . and idk. i never actually had friends in the community, and . seeing someone asking to be friends just kinda. put me to a halt. i know realistically that i'd never rejoin the community because of one person , but i know us in 2022 only wanted friends in the community. i havent deleted my old account yet
2022 was the hardest year in a while for my mental health , and i joined the radqueer community because of that feeling of . community. like they'd accept me even at my worst , cuz i never felt that way anywhere else before. i confused my headmates identities for transid identities, and i never made a single friend in the radqueer community. i felt so alone in a community where "we're the only ones who will accept you for who you are" was [basically] the motto .
i wish i could defend myself against the carrd on that post. scream that itwasnt my fault , but it fucking was . i went back to the post of my old carrd just now and i genuinely cant even look at the carrd for more then half a second . and i hope thats . Proof . that im . not that same person anymore? but i just dont know how many people outside of recovered radqueers that would ever think of it the same way . im afraid that if i told someone i am a recovered radqueer, they'd only think i'm still that same person
i think there would be so many more recovered radqueers if . people outside the community weren't so violent. i think its why i still feel the way i do like i said in the previous paragraph . the amount of death threats i got , and i've seen others get while in the community; it made me feel unsafe. i think i would've left sooner and more comfortably if someone came to me in genuine concern , but i know it could be hard for some people to be able to feel concern for someone in that type of community
i mean , for the most part . my opinions have changed on radqueer topics. 'for the most part' sounds awful but i dont know what else to say about it . like you guys do on this aaccount ; finding alternatives for transid terms , and i think thats a beautiful idea that i fully support and recommend ,
i don't even know what to consider myself . for that stuff i said before, i feel uncomfortable calling myself an anti radqueer , because i know when i was in the thick of the community , as soon as i'd see that term , i felt nervous . it's a term that still makes me feel on edge. but im not inherently pro radqueer either . but saying im . radqueer neutral . feels like, a betrayal to either party?
to this day , this is actually the first time i've . self identified myself as a recovering radqueer . like, here in the ask box . i didn't want to send an anonymous ask here for a long time because the idea of there being no /actual/ anonymity via the anon button still makes me queasy , and so whoever is reading this ask with my actual account name attatched is the only person who knows this . hi admins .! thank u for all that you do<3
uuhm i think i shall go now , i am So so sorry for the long message..!!! i think i had a lot more to get out of my system then i realized . oi am So sorry
Thanks so much for reaching out and sharing your story. And I'm sorry about not having an actual anon button, I've just seen a lot of radqueers send absolutely vile anon hate.
Your experience sounds really awful. I can relate to loneliness, so I definitely understand how painful it must've been. I think the RQC has a major problem You're allowed to feel grief and shame and still be a different person now. The fact that you deleted those old posts, and that it physically hurt to see them, shows how much you’ve grown.
It makes perfect sense to feel conflicted about labels like “anti-radqueer” or “neutral,” honestly. You get to move at your own pace. Labels are just tools, not boxes you have to stay in! If it's something you currently only dip your toes in/occasionally call yourself, there's nothing wrong with that. And yeah, unfortunately the anti RQ community does have an issue with being really agressive right now. I get why, it's mostly a community made up of angry traumatized people, but I think that in all that anger, people forget that there are plenty of innocent people who turned to the RQC because they were lonely and wanted a sense of belonging. It's not easy, but I hope you can try to tune out those particularly aggressive people.
That being said, I'm proud of you for calling yourself a recovering radqueer for the first time, because it sounds like it's going to be a step towards you moving forward without carrying the weight of your past forever. Please take care of yourself, okay? You deserve to heal and move forward without carrying the weight of your past.
I hope life is better for you nowadays! If you need any help finding places online where you can make friends, please feel free to ask. -Mod Ally
don't worry about venting or rambling! it's what we're here for :D - mod charlie