Alright. I saw the post. Here’s what actually happened.
Yes, I used an AI image that was based on someone else’s photo. I swapped in my face and changed most of the image, but yeah, the base was still someone else's, and that wasn't okay. I took it down. I reached out to the original person and apologized. No excuses there. I fucked up.
That said, I’m not larping. I’m not pretending to be trans. I am a trans man. I started T DIY at 17, got a prescription at 19, and I’ve been transitioning ever since. The same year I got prescribed, I got disowned by my parents. Like fully cut off. No contact, no support, no access to anything from my past. So I don’t have childhood photos, barely have anything pre-T, and the few that might’ve existed are long gone.
I also avoided cameras for most of my twenties. I thought I looked awful. Legit couldn’t stand to see my own face. So I didn’t document the process. No day-one selfies, no year-five comparisons. Just a decade of blurry memory and dysphoria. At some point, that started to get to me. And yeah, I made a really bad call. I used AI to try and fill in the blanks. I wanted to see something that looked like me before. Something that connected the dots.
Was it the right way to handle that? Obviously not. It was selfish and I didn’t think about the person whose image I was using. I’ve already said I’m sorry, and I mean it. But it wasn’t some grand scheme. It wasn’t about pretending to be something I’m not. It was just a sad and kind of fucked up way of coping.
Look. If you still think I’m cringe or untrustworthy or whatever, that’s fair. I’m not here to play victim. But I’m not a fake. I’m just someone who made a dumb decision while trying to feel like a whole person.
That’s the story. No edits, no embellishments. Believe what you want.
Sincerely,
FTMalding
