Columbo in... "Crack a Smile" (Patreon)

Well, a LOT of folks sent this one my way, and of course I loved it and wanted to do it. One thing was, this subject of sorta identifying signs of being trans, I wasn't sure if it was really my place to touch in any way. I knew of the memes referenced here, how infamous these items are for this, and of course, the person who wrote the tweets is trans, but I struggled a bit with "is it right for *me* to touch on this at all". But on the other hand, I recognize I've kinda become "The Internet's Shitpost Columbo", and I know how nice and affirming it is for trans folks when I do trans positivity stuff like this, and most of the people asking me to do it were themselves trans. I love to do content like that, although I also always maintain that the material needs to be entertaining enough as well, that I don't do videos JUST to "put out a message", they're supposed to be fun shitposts, but if a video idea I like ALSO puts out a message, then I won't be afraid to broadcast it. That's always been how I tried to approach the channel.

(For clarity, I do mean only messages I at least somewhat agree with, I wouldn't knowingly put out some weird right wing stuff just because I thought the video could be funny. Basically I won't hide my beliefs but preaching them isn't really a goal of mine either.)

It's always been a tricky balance, you don't want to overreach on subjects that aren't really yours to speak on at all (I have not lived the trans experience), but I think you also don't want to ONLY do content which speaks to your own experiences or you end up leaving out all kinds of fun stuff and cool folks who would love to see some material that resonates with them.

So I asked some trans pals, as respectfully as I could and let them know they didn't even have to answer (because I also really don't want to burden the trans people around me with being arbiters and educators), if they thought this one was a little too far for me to do. They all told me the same thing, that I should go for it, the poster herself is trans, I Have a Mic and I Must Columbo, and that if I was even thinking about it enough to ask them, that I was probably fine. I am very grateful for their assistance on the subject.

I swear, I told myself these little blurbs would start to be shorter after I opened the Patreon to be fully Public. You never need to read them, they are never important. I write them because I figure, well, if folks are kind enough to support me this much, the least I can do is explain a bit of my thought process. But I really AM gonna try to be shorter about these. Maybe just tell a little joke and not even explain the process, at this point, with over 700 of these, I think my """""process""""" is pretty well understood. Anyway, sorry, and also, thanks.

https://twitter.com/Ranting_Trans/status/1550249790864125952