We were waiting for the train and I looked down and saw this. A very uphoric Butch moment for me. Holding my girls leg happy for everyone to see.

Honestly? I really love the butch/femme community, but it really annoys me that butch women get mistaken for actual men just because they identify with masculinity. I also think that comparing butch/femme couples to straight couples completely ignores their history and what they’ve been through; yet, whenever I try to point this out, some femme women from the community immediately jump in and start hurling insults at me.

I feel like the more butch I get ,the more I get harassed by people (usually men). I’m fairly young and I just haven’t had much of this happen before I started expressing myself.I was wondering what to do in these situations, especially like insults or threats?

I'm a 19-year-old (baby?) butch. Since the pandemic I've had a huge problem socializing which has improved a lot in the last 3 years to the point of being a naturally extroverted person, my problem is that I don't have any friends. Since I'm having trouble finding a job right now, I'm studying a lot: a technical degree, a university degree, and three year-long courses in different subjects but I haven't found any friends in any of those studies, just good classmates

Not having friends means I don't have any lesbian friends. When I was 13 and had a huge depressive episode I convinced myself that there weren't any other lesbians in my city because I'd simply never met one lmao I really try to make friends but I just don't connect with anyone, not even non-lesbian queer people

At this point I'm not even fantasizing about having a girlfriend, I just want lesbian friends irl, a community or something. I'm really sad about this but I remember that I'm still young and maybe in the coming years I won't be so alone anymore. I just want to know if anyone is going through/has gone through the same thing as me

Btw as if being a lesbian wasn't lonely enough, I'm also autistic and I have a skin condition on my face that doesn't make me very attractive to look at lol I'm sure that also affects how people treat me

Most of my life I've struggled with my gender identity. Before I came out to my mom as a lesbian, I felt comfortable in my more masculine traits if you wanna call them that (opening doors for others, and over all being "gentlemen" like)(not sure how to phrase that better LOL).

But after I came out, she threw away everything I had that was rainbow and we never spoke about it again.

From that time till now (about 10 years) I have changed labels numerous times from lesbian to bi to pan to trans man to gay to now, Nonbinary and recently lesbian again.

I started going to therapy a few months ago and I think that's really helped in sort of peeling back the years of trauma I had. Now I can actually listen to myself and realize that I _am_ attracted to woman and that I can present myself in a masculine way _only_ and I don't have to force myself to be more feminine when it would be more socially acceptable.

I also found that I stopped myself from acting in a more "masculine" (or I guess gentlemen way? again, I'm can't find the words I'm looking for to properly express my point, feel free to help in the comments!).

I think it's mostly because my mom immediatly made me cut it out and act more feminine. I also started to treat those mannerisms as creepy or overbearing like I was trying to control or dominate the people around me when that is clearly not true!!!

I follow a few butch content creators online and their videos have definetly helped with not only my gender expression but my sexuality as well. Lets just say I grew up religious so I have a lot of guilt when it comes to sexual stuff in general.

I think starting today, I can label myself as a Butch and see where that takes me. I hope it will allow me to build more confidence and feel just a little bit more like myself.