Saying What Needs To Be Said... Yet Again. 

How can we not love the voice that says one true and interesting thing after another?

new rule: from now on those who dont like your voice will be forced to only hear you speak as a theramin

The first that came out of my mouth when i learn that one of my friend was trans, was 'he must has been so unhappy'. I realized that he had to let go of familly, wife, children, friends and more. I hope she is happy now.

Spot on - no one would choose, it isn't a choice

Telling people, “I don’t quite like the sound of your voice.” is one of the most F-ed up things one could say. Stay strong 💪🏻

No hatred and fear from me. Just a recognition that everyone needs the right and opportunity to follow their own path. Keep preaching, some folks will hear.

Thank you for explaining this. I am a "evil" straight white guy who has (to my knowledge) never been exposed to this. I am not phobic of any sort, I treat everyone with respect and have never judged. Don't take it the wrong way but I truly don't care about anyone's gender, sex or orientation. Call me ignorant, but that is not the criteria I use to judge how I interact with another person. Just never had anyone explain it to me in such detail. I do enjoy your channel, I have been watching for years. I did not know, or care, that you are trans. I am a technician and admire your abilities and skills and it's obvious you have a world of knowledge and you enjoy sharing with all of us. Keep it up and I do feel for you and your struggle.

Your voice is perfect, it’s like having coffee with a friend, don’t need to be anything other than yourself, it’s honest and refreshing beautiful lady.

I've had a trans colleague who changed gender later in life and i couldn't believe how colleagues i respected responded to that. I didn't expect of them to mock her or even talk about it - yes it was an interesting event but it was only her business. Even though she was one of the best experts in her field the way other male and female colleague spoke behind her back made me feel very uncofortable. And it affected her carreer as well i think. I can't even imagine what you are /have been going through. She taught me most of the hardware functional safety stuff i know and she was a real expert. Unfortunately she passed away couple years ago :/

You walk a tough line, producing content for an audience that traditionally is dominated by guys with, arguably, below average emotional intelligence, on a platform where people literally harass others for their own amusement. What you do here makes a huge difference, by broadening people's perspectives in ways that they might never otherwise have the opportunity to learn and grow. Your channel is appreciated and is making the world a better place, as people continue to discover your fantastic content.

Two of my friends back in 1977 were trans (one F, one M) and left behind their sadness as they become themselves. The UK felt like a much more tolerant place in the 70s and 80s. They have both lived good lives despite the appalling political and media onslaught in this unkind and bigoted century.

Thank you for your courage and willingness to say what you did - this indeed does need to be said and understood by more people.

Your voice is soothing and relaxing. I have worked with engineers for almost four decades and yours is fresh air with a sense of humor to go with it. Ignore the naysayers and focus on your technical excellence which is why we are all here.

100% agree with you Fran.

Thank you for speaking about this. It needed to be said

Thank you Fran for sharing this. I believe it is valuable and helpful. Bless you.

You're a role model to me - something clicked when I first discovered you in late 2000s. Only that I saw myself as androgynous back then, even considered some cosmetic or non-surgical medical procedures but didn't feel I'd be qualified for the latter as the discourse was way more of that "true trans" gatekeeping thing and I saw no way for me to transition. Fast forward thirteen years or so and I'm two years on estrogen now. Oh my, it was one of the better decisions I made in my 36 year long life. Oh, and got to state the obvious: ANY disrespectful (transphobic etc.) comments WILL be deleted. Different opinion is okay - bashing, shaming, insults etc. are NOT.

I am a 64 year old transwoman. I started my transition only 6 years ago. I could not agree more with what you say. My experiences were quite similar. I couldn't imagine coming out as a trans person in the 60s/70s/80s. Like you say, there was no such thing and no place to find information about it. Now I am living as the person I always felt to be and I am absolutely happy... finally! It has been a long way. Never ever would anyone chose to go down that path just because it's 'trendy' and fun. It is definitely not fun!! But once you get there there's no better place to be! Thank you Fran. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for speaking up Fran, for speaking the truth of millions of us who have smaller platforms to speak from. That BM guy is small, smug, shriveled and filled with fear and spite. He chooses to attack what he knows nothing about.

Maybe I'm the one who changed, but I stopped liking Bill Maher about 6-7 years ago. He just seems smug & out of touch to me these days.

i just got tired of the b#$$sh#& as i got older!

Agree 100%, I have a friend who is Trans, knew they were different from a young age. We spoken often, it is not a trend, it is a very difficult road to travel. By the way he transitioned to female while a firefighter for a major urban fire department and went through the transition while still on the department. Today she is happy and looks great. You may know her, Lana Moore. She taught me much about the risks and pain of being trans, she is a role model to me. ❤

Fran has opened my eyes to the trans community over the course of a few videos, and I’m forever grateful for that. Nothing is more satisfying than coming back with a new and more informed perspective on the world. Her courage as well as her intelligence demands respect. Thank you Fran.

Growing up with those gender feels but being unable to talk about them or research about them in a Catholic family it was access to the internet that enabled me to do my own research and truly understand my feelings and identity. Online communities even offered me knowledge and skills to hide myself and mask up until I could escape the dependencies of a bigoted family & community. Sadly my hiding didn't end until the end of my 20s and now I wish I had the programs and resources today as we had even 10-15 years ago.

Older, wiser, gorgeouser.

Speak the truth, sister. My egg cracked at 39, after decades of dancing around the point. When the thought of spending the rest of my life as a man was finally scarier than the thought of potentially alienating everyone I know, possibly torpedoing my career. The what-ifs are still here but the cost of living with them is less than the price of living in denial. You don’t choose trans life, trans life chooses you. Stay strong and remain Fran. We love you.

Yes indeed being transgender isn’t easy.

The fact that in 2022 people are still asking if it's nature or nurture.

I know you hate making videos about this topic but I so enjoy it because you're such an established person and you help normalize transness. I came out as trans last year and I've learned that simply existing, being myself, and not hiding who I am helps so many other people around me. I had no idea.

It’s important to live your truth. It’s never easy being yourself.

So many people are confused with the gender and sexuality but then I was too in early years of my transition. You explained that so well its not very often people get it right Thank you

I really want to read your autobiography. I think it would be fascinating.

Fran is a friend. Period.

Fran. You are wonderful inside and out. We love you for who you are.

Your Daria(esque) sardonic wit makes total sense to me given what you've had to endure on your life's journey through this tortuous realm. Thanks for sharing..

Are there ppl in the world whose lives are so sad and empty that they need to criticise others in order to feel adequate? They are the sick ones! More power to you Fran! Phil, UK

100% spot on with everything you said!

Well said!

I feel very lucky - even blessed - to be come out as trans in the mid 1980s and still retain my family and most of my friends. It wasn't easy, it wasn't cheap, but my life now is soooo much better. You rock Fran! I wish my voice was as nice as yours!

I was talking with a trans man yesterday, as luck would have it! He was very open and helpful to me in understanding the part about "how and when you know when your body doesn't match the person you feel you are inside". His experience was that he knew by the time he was 4 or 5 - and being a kid and not knowing about all the "rules" around him, he crossed those traditional lines (like not wanting to wear skirts, not wanting to have long hair, just wanting to look like and play with the other boys ... as a boy) and realized that everyone around him was coaching him back across to where they thought he belonged, figuring his feelings were "a phase" or figuring he was "a tomboy" ... but that it began to get harder and meaner and more socially devastating as he got in and out of middle school and high school. He had to leave his family and his small hometown in Nebraska to get the space and distance he needed to make his change and it took fifteen years for him to make the journey to a place where he felt he was himself. It kinda blew my mind. It was good to hear about.

I transitioned at 18. If I had the option, I would have started HRT at 16 when I came out, but my parents weren't very supportive at first. This was shortly after Leela Alcorn was in the news and shortly before Kaitlyn Jenner came out. I'm lucky to have had supportive friends and family who gave me the strength to ask for what I needed, as well as coming out in a time in history when acceptance was higher than it has been before. Even now, though, there is a lot of pressure on trans people to go stealth if they're able to, and people who aren't still face discrimination on account of who they are. If I had the choice, I would absolutely have chosen to live my life as a cis person, but before I transitioned, I wanted to crawl out of my skin constantly, I was so uncomfortable. I consider my identity part of what makes me the person that I am now, but I dealt with and still deal with a lot of shame regarding my identity and my place in the world. That line you said about not going into debt for college because you go into debt just for being a person cracked me up, because I'm just now able to go back to school at 25 to study electrical engineering. Thank you for everything you do, Fran. You're one of my biggest inspirations!

I had no idea you were trans honestly. Thank you for speaking out and giving more perspective to this white male. Its important to help others that need to hear they can be who they are and have the confidence to do so.

Fran I want to personally say I appreciate you coming on here to say this. I personally relate to this on so many levels, and it is absolutely true about the cost. OMG the monetary cost of just trying to be me is absolutely nuts. I didn’t find out until last December. Age 33… it’s been really difficult, but so worth it. I spent most of my life seeing a body in the mirror that wasn’t me. It’s true too. I lost everything, but I don’t regret it.

On point as usual.

Glad you are here and safe!

Even if it was choice; it is about liberty.

Just relaxing, never annoying

Thank you for this, Fran. Grateful for everything you've given us!

Thanks for a powerful honest message that people need to hear. Happy Pride month,

I'm trans too. Living our truth. I think we are doing this and so many still try to apply their lives rules to us. Solidarity

I remember when my friend told me she was going to transition. I told her, "Now you make sense! I've always though you had a female personality...a female soul!" She gave me a big hug, and said "Thank you for understanding."

No truer words !

Thank you for sharing this! As a cisgendered straight male my life is nothing but easy in comparison. Though I may not understand what being trans is like (not will I ever likely because I'm not trans), I try to learn as much as I can. Regardless of whether someone understands it, agrees with it or not, nobody has any business judging anybody else for their orientations, identity, or lifestyles. Period! I just don't understand the hate, bigotry, and control certain people feel the need to put on others. Sadly, it seems to be getting more 'okay' to be a bigot these days :(

I'm a cis male who grew up sheltered in a Christian environment. Speaking in binary terms, it was a rude awakening to learn so many of the booleans I was taught were actually double-precision floating point values. Many people I know who are in those circles either still don't see this, or are in willful denial of it. Nothing is going to get better for anyone non-binary until that message can get across to the rest. I'd be glad to be proven wrong, though.

Solidarity

Everybody whinges about something, it's human nature.

Info in the 1970s US was very hard to get unless you had friendly connections.

Best Bogart impression: "Say it again, Fran."

Love you Fran. I'm sorry about our culture.

Imagine what the world would have gained if the UK had been able to accept Turing's sexuality. Imagine the reduction of suffering in the world if we could accept who we are and each other.

I'll trade voices with you.

Fran, you're a queen, Thank you for speaking up, Your existence is a gift to humanity!

If someone would have told me at 8 years old that being anything other than a monogamous straight person was a possibility, my life would have been quite different and for the better. 100% not talking about these things doesn't make people "not gay", "not trans", etc. It just keeps people closeted longer and with more baggage and damage. Thanks for laying it all out. Love you and your channel!

Thanks for the help to understand better my daughter.

Ignore those bastards Fran, your doing a great job. :-)

Well said Fran!

Thank you very much, Sensei! I'm listening, I'm keeping my mind open, and I'm holding myself obligated to contribute to making a better world for each other. p.s. as a vocalist and musician I truly appreciate the quality of your voice. It is, in my opinion, very excellent. 🎵 🎶 👌

Right on!!!!! What the hell is the matter with humanity?!?!?? Why can't they leave well enough alone? Would they rather you change the name of your show to Trans lab?!?!? I am so sickened by all this... Keep on Rockin'!!!!!

A persons sexuality is no concern to me. You are a lovely lady with more knowledge of electronics than me

Thank you for making this video Fran

"I get very bored of pretense. . . and at my age, the more pretense people have, the more irritated I become." Well said, Fran, and so true. As you point out, that also seems to vary with respect to age (exponential function?). My experience has been that as I get older, life periodically dumps some additional (and often unanticipated) thing in my path that can't be ignored, while at the same time just the fact that it's dropped in unannounced adds a tad more irritation. I don't know if everyone encounters this - I see it in my own life as well as with people around me. And of course, for one stupid reason or other some things can't be ignored, or even put to one side until it's more convenient. Rarely are they "boom - done - go on with life." Sometimes patience is the sole option, even if that shifts up the "irritation" by a couple of notches. Sometimes, it's as Gene Krantz described part of the Apollo's Mission Rules, "If you don't know what to do, don't do anything. Which is harder than it sounds." We all need the space, and the right, to try and "maintain an even strain" in our lives and our surroundings. So, thank you. I enjoy following your tech and electronics and Apollo work. ("FranTech Space Lab. Yay!). When I hear your voice, my only thought is, "Hey, It's Fran! What neat stuff am I about to learn!" Be well, and take good care.

Thanks!

Whining about the sound of women’s voices is misogynist BS as old as misogyny. Add a generous helping of transmisogyny on top of that and suddenly the same boors get to pretend that they’re being “helpful”. People just need to mind their own business. ❤️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

2:50 - 3:35 That hit home. Having been with someone who went through this transition (and ended up marrying me :) ), I know that no one in their right mind would choose this path on a whim, it's something you wouldn't wish on your worst enemies. This cannot be emphasized enough.

Love you, Fran! 🏳‍⚧🏳‍🌈

8:40 That's the gay panic defense, and it's still being used to this day. In the same day you streamed this: "Ex-Virginia Tech football player Isimemen Etute was acquitted of mistaken-gender-identity murder of Tinder date" -- New York Post

Thank you!

All the best from Spain!

Let’s do some science, again!!! 👍👍👍

Thank you.

I would LOVE to see you on Bill Maher. Let's campagne for that. 🥳👏🏼

It's absolutely shameful that people would hurt and even murder someone who is trans, simply because they're different, but then humanity is a notoriously violent primate. Even just a few years ago a coworker of mine stated that if he met a woman in a bar or somewhere and she was coming on to him, or he was attracted to her started having an interest in her, and then he found out she was trans, he would then kill her. I doubt he actually would, but it's disgusting such a sentiment would even be uttered. When I was a kid in the 80s and 90s I had zero knowledge of transsexuality/transgender people. In the absence of the internet or any similar widespread information, plus the mentality of society at the time and the religious schools I was made to go to, all that was known at the time was transvestites and crossdressers. (Regardless of whether the word "transvestite" is offensive these days, that was the common term back then.) The were regarded very negatively and it was always exclusively men; the concept of a woman wearing "men's clothes" was nothing more than a tomboy in the collective knowledge. There was no awareness whatsoever of the fact of people being born whose brain had developed in one direction for gender self-identity while the body developed in the opposite direction. We as a society have come very far in our knowledge and understanding but still have a very long way to go in terms of getting that knowledge and understanding out to people who refuse to learn and challenge their perceptions.

❤

Dear Abby once said " people can only hurt you if you allow them". Just walk away from those who can't/won't appreciate you.

There used to be laws against inter-racial marriages but they happened anyway, even if ostracism or even death threats were the result. The same with inter-faith marriages which many times resulted in being dis-owned by one's own family. Again, many people did it. Fifty years after cigarettes were proven to have enormous health risks, I still see people lighting up, even medical students. Why do people climb mountains? Why do they drink at the risk of destroying their kidneys or risking accidents? None of these behaviors are innate; no one is born with the urge to parachute out of airplanes... Yet there many, many, many individuals who indulge in such behavior. Such is the human race.

The most honest, open discussion of your struggles I have ever watched. I am a hetero Male, but deeply appreciate your living insights.

I was 10 when I saw Christine Jorgensen in a newscast returning to the states, I knew that it was possible - sort of. No way for a kid to jump on an airplane and go someplace. And nowhere to find information when you dare not trust anyone, an aspie issue.

i find your voice soothing because you speak passionately about things you care about, which i am drawn to-it's the best quality a person can have

I have had the privilege of knowing two trans people, one man and one woman. The woman had to deal with having a very large and tall frame and a very masculine face. I admired her courage on a very difficult journey. The man I knew from the time he was a very young lady and watched the transition with great admiration. He, unfortunately, has a very small and short frame and a very feminine face. As you said, they gave up everything to commit to this change and their courage is remarkable. While I've never seen you in person, you have a very believable face and voice. I was shocked when I learned that you were trans. I'm sure that your struggle is just as hard, but I have equal admiration for your courage. ❤

as a person particularly interested in voices, i don't feel much about your speaking voice. i do really love your voice on franlab outro song, its super simple but for some reason i have always loved it, one of the best youtube themes of anyone probably.

I don't care, I find you wonderfully interesting and informative.

Wonderfully said. You are doing a great job of raising awareness.

I am tired of pretence too. I'm British and in my fifties, and I have absolutely no time for people believing things that can't be demonstrated. If they do that and carry on with their own little lives, cool. But when they start pushing it on others, then no way. It annoys me that America is desperately trying to rush backwards as fast as possible. I could't imagine being trans in that environment.

You are GREAT!!!!!

It's only happy, well-adjusted people with healthy relationships who go out of their way to complain about you (or any stranger), right?

I don't why anyone would have a problem with you. You're such a decent soul. I wish you had your own TV programme.

I personally find Fran’s voice to be super relaxing. Quite often I will load up a playlist of Fran videos to help me relax and fall asleep. Not only is it calming, I also get to learn new things

Your voice is easy on the ear. I'm 72 and the first time I heard about trans people was in a collection of linked short stories called "Steps" by Jerzy Kosinski wherein they were depicted as sad and lonely. Back then trans and homosexual were synonymous. With so many people longing for some mythic golden past(Leave It To Bever when it was really Last Exit To Brooklyn) I fear we are on the precipice of a repeat of what happened in Weimar.

You make a lot of points that resonate so much. It's sad that our lives as trans people are so contentious and politicized at the moment.

Another thing to compare the "rising trans" percentages? The same thing happened when it became socially acceptable to be LEFT HANDED. For generations, only 1 or 2% of people were left handed. Then over the span of 40 years, it doubled every 5 years until it finally balanced out at about 18%. We know now it's about wiring in the brain, which is genetic and/or formed via neonatal conditions. It wasn't "popular" to become left handed, and kids weren't doing to to be "cool" or "edgy". The same has happened with gay and lesbian people over the past couple decades. Why would we expect the trans community to be any different? Be proud that you had the fortitude to be in that early 2% and live your life. All LBGT people should be, as we're only just now coming to the point where it's *almost* socially acceptable to belong to those classes. And where it presents less of an impediment to being able to live a normal life without fear or prejudice or physical attack (usually).