Alt+H: End of Year 1

Something very special happened this week: Alt+H turned one! As of the 27th of September we've been running this project for a whole year, and I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about what we've done with it so far, and where we're going in the future.

What have we achieved? Quite a lot, I think!

Some would argue that our biggest achievement is the Alt+H Discord server, which as of right now has over 150 members and has become a community that I'm genuinely proud to be a part of. We've got several times that many followers across all our various social media platforms, mostly alterhumans, but we've attracted the interest of plenty regular human folks and even some academics over the year.

We've forged relationships with even more alterhuman-adjacent communities, enriching our perspectives with those of postfurry and transhumanist groups, and we've produced plenty of thought-provoking articles and encouraged you, the community, to do the same.

Even the team itself has grown, from two friends fumbling about on tumblr to six passionate folks from all across the globe dedicating hours to keeping our various services running.

But the thing that means the most to me, personally, is every individual who's ever told me that Alt+H has given them the confidence to take their own alterhumanity seriously. This is something that's clarified our purpose a lot over time. Alt+H has taught me, the team, and so many other people that alterhumanity is worth seriously talking about, and that we have to be the ones to start that conversation.

That's why, in the upcoming year, Alt+H is becoming a registered charity.

We've come to believe that there needs to be a genuine effort to raise awareness and acceptance of alterhuman identities. I'm talking about awareness campaigns, academic research, media outreach, and educational resources. This is necessary because even within our own communities we're being told that such fundamental identity experiences shouldn't really affect our lives. But alterhumanity is a legitimate identity phenomenon with a unique set of issues that deserve to be addressed.

Practically speaking, we have a lot of ideas on how to go about this. One of our big goals is the creation of a dedicated Alt+H forum as a space where alterhuman folks can talk seriously about their experiences. We intend to conduct research on things like dysphoria and marginalization that actually stands up to scientific scrutiny, and work on creating educational packages for therapists, spiritual leaders, teachers and parents on creating alterhuman-friendly spaces.

Development is already underway on a new site.

Being a charity is the best way for us to realize these goals. Namely, because it allows us to recieve donations. Unfortunately our passion alone isn't going to pay for website hosting or leaflet printing! But this way, money given to the cause belongs to the cause, and not any one person behind it. Information on how you can contribute will come along later in the planning stage when we have an expenses list.

Speaking of which, how long is this all going to take? Becoming a charity doesn't happen overnight, and there's a lot of legal documentation to be done, but I can say pretty confidently that we should be officially incorporated by around January next year.

We couldn't have done any of this without your support, and I hope we continue to have that support into this exciting new phase of the project.

From all of us at Alt+H, thank you.