Hello Fanders.
I heard there was a fander meetup going on. I've got too much anxiety and dysphoria to post a selfie, so I'll introduce myself and retell a sanders sides related story instead. Hi, I go by Roman. I use he/him or they/them pronouns and I write things and make gifs sometimes. I really find this online community to be pretty cool and here's the story behind my name. So, I'm transgender and/or non binary at any given time(genderflux. It's weird, I know). I came out irl in March. A lot of things happened in March, actually. I came out as trans, I started really getting into the Thomas Sanders fandom, I was looking for a new middle name, and the originality video came out. All of these things are related. So, oh my gods I hate to think about this, my given middle name is Rose. I've always hated it. Even before I knew I was trans I hated it and wanted to be rid of it. However, I wanted to keep my initials so during March I was on the hunt for a neutral or masculine name that started with R. I narrowed it down to several choices. By the way, if you remember my sides, I had invented them by then but they didn't all have names. Only my imagination and inner critic had names. Robin and Rowan were names I was considering for myself that I ended up giving to my positivity and logic. But why I gave each of them their names is a whole other story. So anyways, I started out with about five names I kinda liked and had narrowed it down to two when the originality video came out. Obviously, one of those two was Roman. So, when I heard Prince say "Roman. That is my proper name," I visibly jumped back in my chair. I felt pretty spooked. However, that video felt like a sign. Whether it was or not, I have no idea, but after spending another week or more thinking on it I chose Roman for my new middle name and I love it. Every time somebody on here calls me my name I feel a teeny tiny surge of positive energy in my heart. Here I never get misgendered. I get called a name I like. People I know irl still haven't adjusted to my pronouns or new names, and it's tough. I'm misgendered at almost every interaction and I'm not even out to everyone I know yet. But then I come to the Sanders Sides fandom, and you call me Roman, and everything feels just a little more bearable.
