Beth, I am so sorry you've faced nasty comments on Medium! It makes me so angry on your behalf. I'm glad you've taken the step of blocking people when you needed to.

I had one Medium story go relatively viral, and the comments were horrendous. I stopped reading them. (It was about privilege in the pandemic, so you can imagine what the white male trolls had to say, especially.) Not long after that, I was browsing some comments to an opinion piece I read on WaPo and was flabbergasted at some of the things people wrote, calling the author a lying sack of (you know what) and such. I guess at that point I realized that - unfortunately - this is part of writing online in the 21st century. I do not have a thick skin, so I will not read comments. I'm sorry your trolls may have made you hesitant to read comments on your stories, when so many of the comments are likely positive and supportive. I'm glad you're here, and I'm glad you're writing about personal topics. I'll keep doing so, as well. We're surely making some people feel less alone, and the rest of them don't matter. ❤