Jean-Luc Picard

When you tell me your name/pronouns, that's what I'll call you. If you previously used a different name/pronoun, that's in the past. If your name/pronouns change in the future, I'll adjust immediately. I'd be quite annoyed to be called Ensign Picard. Respect is easy when we care.

Your trauma is valid even if someone else had it worse. Someone else's suffering doesn't lessen yours. What it can do, however, is offer a meeting place for mutual understanding and support that can lead to great friendship.

You will ultimately be happier and healthier when you learn to walk away from pointless, never-ending arguments. Learn to accept not having a meaningless last word. Learn to accept that some people may not know your side of the story. Save your energy for better battles.

When someone attacks you for strongly defending your inclusive, socially just values it means they're angry that you're not letting them get away with exclusion, hatred, and bigotry. Wear that as a badge of pride and stand all the firmer still.

Oppressed and vulnerable people owe neither comfort nor absolution to the privileged and dominant.

If you take no risks, you will miss out. If you take every risk, you will lose frequently. Adulthood is learning which risks are worth it and how best to mitigate them.

Your anger at adults who harmed you in your childhood is legitimate. You cannot heal while you're still stuck suppressing that anger in the vain hope that they will properly apologise when they see how "good" you're behaving now.

Rebel against capitalistic oppression in your era by liking yourself for who you are in spite of all the commercial interests telling you otherwise.

Anyone who disrespects your entirely reasonable boundaries serves as proof as to why you need those boundaries.

Self-defence - both physical and verbal - is bravery you can practice ahead of time.

It's not your duty to grow a thicker skin so you can endure more abuse. It's not your duty to forgive or redeem abusers. Your duty is to establish and defend your own boundaries on your own terms.

Do not stoop to explain yourself to mudslingers. They won't listen and you'll get their filth all over you.

Don't forget to show yourself the same compassion you readily show to others.

Do not squander your resources trying to soothe people who are angry that you won't let them mistreat you anymore.

I'm always proud of your strength and resilience even when you feel like nothing is working. You're doing an amazing job and I celebrate your efforts. Good job! 🖤💙😷🥄

Insisting that everyone be positive all the time isn't just toxic, it's a way to avoid solving problems by pretending they don't exist. That doesn't help anyone. You're allowed to be angry at the injustices of the world. In fact, you should be.

Thank you for daydreaming and fantasising about spaceships amidst a future of human peace and harmony. Never let anyone tell you to stop imagining a better tomorrow. I exist because of your hopes and dreams.

Allow your inner child to come out and ask all the questions the adults in your life deemed too tedious to answer. Why does something happen? How does it work? How can it be improved?

Never allow anyone to claim that you are unkind simply because you decry injustice. Activism against injustice is a kindness towards victims both past and present, and hopefully reduces future ones.

It is tragic how often the kindest people defend themselves the least and the worst people are the most adept at doing so. We need to flip this. Be a good person with a solid shield system in place.

Congratulations on everything you manage to get done today, even if it seems like it's not enough. It's enough. You are enough. 🖤💙😷🥄

You are not required to keep awful people close in your personal life, even though the worst ones are very good at making you think they're indispensable.

The onus is on the privileged to prove through actions that they care about the vulnerable, not on the vulnerable to accept the word of the privileged on faith.

Using your privileged voice towards social justice while also amplifying less privileged voices above your own is how to build a legacy of change.

When you are accustomed to being kept down, being confident and assertive feels terrible because you are stepping over that which kept you down. I am here to tell you that it's all right for you to take those steps.

Transphobia is horseshit. (Apologies to actual horses.)

I'm always proud of you and glad that you're here.

You don't know everything. None of us do. There's no shame in not knowing something, only in pretending you do when you don't. Be more honest about when you don't know in order to increase your learning opportunities.

If you openly state your boundaries and someone says they don't wish to be friends with you because of any part of that, congratulations, your boundaries have become an excellent filter towards better friendships.

Accept that social groups shift over time. Friends drift apart in distance, values, and needs. New friendships form instead. Learn to see this as a natural and welcome ebb and flow instead of clinging to drifted relationships until they are crushed and break apart unpleasantly.

You are not obligated to attend every battle to which you are invited.

Striving for greatness and accepting yourself as you are in any given moment are not mutually exclusive endeavours.

Be wary of those who insist on "debate" or "discussion" when someone's civil rights are on the table. There's no debate to be had; trans women are women, trans men are men, anyone with a uterus gets to decide what grows in it or not, and the state has no place in the bedrooms of consenting adults.

Be the kind of person you'd want to be friends with.

I am always immensely proud of you when you put your social justice values above your own convenience. Well done. Keep it up. The world needs you.

It is your duty to be a good, kind, compassionate person within your community and the wider world. It is not your duty to single-handedly fix every problem nor every problematic person. Be part of wonderful things but do not weigh yourself down with burdens that are not yours.

If you had to be independent as a child due to any unpleasant circumstances, you are correct to be proud of what you accomplished all on your own while simultaneously understanding you should not have been left all on your own.

Unchecked cruelty can spread like wildfire, but the good news is so can unfettered kindness.

Shields exist for a good reason. If someone detects you putting up your shields and takes offense instead of worrying that they've frightened you, chances are you were right to put up those shields.

Forgive your past self for ignorant mistakes as you improve your current self on your path to being an even better self in the future.

You don't always tell people you value that you value them because it can be difficult to find the right way to say it. That works the other way too: you are valued by people who haven't ever told you. Never imagine you are not valued simply because it hasn't been said.

If you’re avoiding activism because you’re afraid people in your life won’t like you anymore when you speak out for social justice, I have some terrible news about the people in your life.

If something in your life breaks because you've become better at protecting yourself, that broken thing didn't belong in your life in the first place.

It is a particularly unfair irony that when we persevere through our weakest moments, we are actually at our strongest, and yet all we feel is our weakness. We need others around us to remind us how strong we really are and that our weaknesses are not failings.

I don't put up with random people hurling nonsense at me and neither should you. Enforce your entirely valid boundaries at will. You are worth protecting.

Do not allow bigots to twist words of social justice empowerment against you or other vulnerable people. You are allowed to rebuke such attempts with all of your might and then walk away with determined, unabashed Pride.

When you come up with a clever retort to a terrible person too late, share it with a friend. This will help you save it in your mind should another situation to use it arise. Over time you'll accumulate a mighty store of scathing takedowns against those who require it.

You'll receive more assistance if you ask for it and are sometimes rejected than you will if you never ask at all.

You are enough. It is perfectly acceptable to be yourself just the way you are.

Always ensure you are being a good friend to others, but likewise ensure they are being good friends to you. You are allowed to walk away from social relationships that do not serve you well, and you absolutely should leave relationships that harm you.

Anybody of any age can come safely get gender affirming care in my sickbay. That's how it should be for all of you too. 🖤💙😷🥄🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️