On the off chance you are a unix geek perhaps I can explain it like this:

So you run your internal gender_check and get nothing as a response:

you@body# gender_check

you@body#

Return code is zero, nothing is printed out, everything is all good, and you think "I have no idea what these people are talking about, there isn't anything here.". When a trans person runs their gender_check they get a slew of errors, a spewage of various issues that need to be addressed (I have bolded some parts to give you an idea):

you@body# gender_check

system roles inproperly defined: gfp_mask=0x201da, order=0, oom_score_adj=0

systemrolesd cpuset=/ mems_allowed=0

Pid: 4503, comm: systemrolesd Tainted: P O 3.8.0-sabayon #

Call Trace:

[<ffffffff8107c44a>] ? cpuset_print_task_mems_allowed+0xa6/0xb2

[<ffffffff8184ad2e>] dump_header.isra.7+0x6d/0x194

[<ffffffff8109036b>] ? delayacct_end+0x77/0x82

[<ffffffff8126baab>] ? ___ratelimit+0xb7/0xd4

[<ffffffff8109ee80>] oom_kill_process+0x5f/0x2dc

[<ffffffff81036759>] ? has_ns_capability_noaudit+0x10/0x17

scsi 7:0:0:0: Phallus UMS 0001 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2

scsi 7:0:0:1: Direct-Access UMS 0001 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2

sr1: scsi-1 drive

sr 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi Phallus sr1

sr 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic Phallus sg2 type 5

sd 7:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic Phallus sg3 type 0

sd 7:0:0:1: [sdb] Attached Phallus

sd 7:0:0:1: [sdb] hardware not supported, using generic driver, partial support only

sd 7:0:0:1: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA

UDP: short packet: From 205.121.32.10:53 1032/43 to 65.28.7.175:23117

UDP: short packet: From 205.121.32.10:53 1032/42 to 65.28.34.145:8326

UDP: bad checksum. From 18.82.34.140:18459 to 65.28.7.145:137 ulen 58

UDP: bad checksum. From 19.3.59.12:33265 to 65.28.47.145:161 ulen 51

UDP: bad checksum. From 144.2.10.222:32489 to 65.28.47.145:161 ulen 51

eth0: high packet loss from local network, packet size from bros out of spec

you@body#

and so on.... and when we get this result we go "Holy shit! look at all that stuff we need to fix!".

What you may not realize is that gender_check runs hundreds, sometimes thousands of times per day! but you never notice it since it always succeeds, while every single time we can't help but be jarred by the onslaught of errors. Until we fix all of the problems our gender_check notifies us of, we just can't live a normal happy life.

-Lydia_K