To whom it may concern.

I was a fetus.

I am transgender.

I am giving up male entitlement and privilege to be happy.

I am the most vulnerable to religious bigots.

I form opinions based on a diversity of views, and not just the ones you call fake.

I support science and evidence-based research.

Studettes all over the world are watching and waiting for your downfall in 2020.

There is no escape.

For the past 5 years, I have been playing Ingress. Think of Ingress as a sci-fi version of Pokemon GO. To play the game you travel. I spend most of my time traveling locally or going downtown to Fremont St. or even to the local park. From time to time Niantic Labs sets aside a city for a big Ingress battle called anomalies. I like to go to anomalies often. Every anomaly I go to from my first in my backyard of Vegas to my most recent in just a short hop away in San Fransico is an opportunity to kick ass, take names, explore new places, and make new friends.

Something bothered me during most of my first anomalies. I was hiding my true self. I wasn’t being genuine. At best I was just another Ingress agent playing. I was hiding trying to fit in and it hurt me. The reason I was hiding was in my experience with other video games that communities won’t accept you for being “inexperienced” making “mistakes or just not being one of them. Those experiences had tainted my first few years of playing Ingress. Anomalies are addicting. I kept going back for more. After making many observations, I noticed a few things. Ingress has a more accepting and forgiving community. People of all skill levels are welcomed, most mistakes are forgiven and Ingress is played by a bunch of misfits. It was sometime before I realized that I just could be myself and nobody would make a big bigoted hoopla about who I was. The only thing frowned upon is being a jackass that cries and tries to ruin other peoples lives just because.

Agent to agent, I told the community about who I was and how I felt. In fact, the first Ingress I told was thestudette herself. My honesty with her is the reason I get to post to this very website, but I digress. With each experience of coming out to the various agents that I have befriended over the years, I gain more confidence. Every anomaly I am surrounded by the best teammates that I could ask for and the “enemy”, all of whom just want me to be happy.  Everyone has told me that I am welcome to be me. I have felt love and support wherever I go and whoever I turn to that is far greater than I have ever felt in my local community. I can tell by the smiles and hugs that go my way how proud the Ingress community is proud of me. I have no reason to hide. I have people I can turn to. I can just be myself in public. Ask any Ingress agent that knows me before and after I came out, and they can attest to the amount of confidence and happiness that I gained and they would concur that the Ingress community is probably the best group of friends that they have made too. So come join us in the world of Ingress and hopefully you’ll get to experience the loving community that I know.