• 11 Posts
  • 192 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: August 15th, 2023

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  • The exit plan from WhatsApp is quite simple. Start by installing Signal and setting it up – it takes only a couple of minutes. Then, resume any WhatsApp conversations on Signal if that person is already a Signal user. If they are not, then switch to regular text messaging and gently suggest to that person to switch over to Signal.

    Sadly for me, this doesn’t really work for some relatives as

    • They live abroad and the cost of sending text messages abroad is not insignificant
    • Some are so tech un-savvy that even installing a new app by themselves is too much.

    All I can do for those relatives is to leave WhatsApp installed but take away basically every permission I can, including running in the background.










  • I’d give it a go, if I were you. Maybe keep tabs on what they’re up to and if your son is visiting friends, for example, and it aligns with one of those events you can go while he’s out.

    You know best about your son and what support he does or doesn’t need. But the 17 year olds I know would probably not notice if their parents went out, and if he needs you for things like cooking, might be worth you teaching him how to do it, given he may be leaving the nest soon!

    Give it a thought and see how you get on. 🙂



  • I’m going to mention this because noone else has so far, but you may have already considered this.

    Have you tried to go to any local LGBTQ events? Not sure if you live in a very remote location or not but where I’m from every medium-size city or above will have regular meetups to socialise or meet new people. Sometimes there are concerts and cabaret.

    I’m a boring cis straight person, so I don’t really take part in these communities directly, but I have friends and family that do.

    I expect you’ll find other people in these groups are far more likely to welcome you for who you are than the wider, heteronormative community.

    I know some trans people who have managed to find partners there too.

    Another place to find like-minded people is at protests and rallies, though depending on the state you live in I wouldn’t blame you for feeling unsafe going to one. I’ve started going to some of them myself in the UK recently to show my support, as they tend to welcome allies i.e. people who aren’t necessarily LGBTQ themselves but support their rights.