This is about ashley.
Didn't know her personally, but she had a profound impact on me, and that's why I remember her.
She's been the first direct online encounter with someone who was rather open about being trans, right around the time Trump would win his first presidential election. Indeed, this was on IRC, in a public channel, very far before I was able to figure out I'm not "a guy" myself. We kind of chatted using direct IRC queries, because she noticed I was not taking part in the chat on the side of the folks that were harassing her or speaking ill of minorities, which was apparently notable enough to pick out someone to chat with.
She ended up being instrumental in turning around my still rather messed up political beliefs at the time. I am not sure how, but she was rather skilled in having the kind of debate everyone's telling you to avoid with right-wingers, or even with "centrists", which I very much considered myself to be at the time.
She ended up inviting me to a private channel with some other folks, and this ended up getting me deeper into the BitTorrent protocol, Linux, lossless audio, and then some. It ended up being a cozy group chat, where folks would share a few things currently going on in their lives, with ashley having been the glue for this social group.
Now, you see, ashley lived in the United States of America™.
She occasionally mentioned not having access to HRT, especially due to a lack of money.
While I was asleep, she kept the chat posted about her first consideration to end her life, mainly due to the above. By others, she was talked into trying to seek help for her suicidality. She did try to seek out that help, but, at the place she went to, was turned away, apparently for a lack of funds. And so, she travelled back to the bridge she was at before, and I awakened to see her final messages in the chat, on March 8, 2019.
With her passing, the chat immediately stopped being active.
Her obituary site, set up by her parents, mentioned her by deadname and misgendered her, only some of the reasons she also mentioned during her final waking day, and her technical knowledge, made it into the obituary.
This obituary site's link, which has been taken down a while ago, made it into a forum related to the public IRC chat, with her username attached. Folks wished her to be resting in peace, misgendering her (not maliciously) at the same time, because that's what the obituary does.
Weirdly, one of the most hateful folks in the IRC channel was one of the few who, for the first time ever, on that forum post, used the correct name and pronouns when referring to her.
#TDoR #TransDayOfRemembrance #TransDayOfRememberence #TransDayOfRememberance
Bret Mogilefsky
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Navi 
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LaraK
DukOp.dk
Broadwaybabyto
Buck Moon
Sir Rochard 'Dock' Bunson
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