I went through something very similar about 4 years ago where I finally (at the ripe old age of 28) had found a career in was excited about. It was automated, much the same as yours. I was crushed. I found other jobs where my skills could transfer. I don’t love those jobs as much, and I’m still often sad I don’t get to do what I loved anymore. It sucks. It wasn’t the end of my professional life by any means. It was the beginning of a new one.

People often go through many career changes in their life. Last I remember hearing about it, it was like 4 per lifetime on average but that was like 20 years ago so I’m sure that statistic has changed by now. It will suck. It is not the end of the line. You will find other things to fulfill you in similar ways.

This will sound silly but whenever I go through these directional changes, I always fall back on a couple of OG redditors that got me through back in the day (poem_for_your_sprog and motivating_giraffe).

Penny’s collection is still up and full of other wonderful art that has gotten me through difficult times: https://motivatinggiraffe.com/gallery/

Technically still a man in a dress… Just not one of the cool ones.

With regards to third gender, India was more progressive than Britain until Britain colonized them.

Hijras are officially recognised as a third gender throughout countries in the Indian subcontinent,[10][11][12] being considered neither completely male nor female. Hijras’ identity originates in ancient Hinduism and evolved during the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526) and Mughal Empire (1526–1707).

Beginning in the 1850s, colonial authorities deployed various strategies to end hijra practices, which they saw as “a breach of public decency” and incapable of “moral transformation,” as part of their influence on colonial-era sexuality in India.[47] Although hijras were already criminalised by Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, in 1861, authorities of the North-Western Provinces (NWP) sought to enact a ‘special law’ against hijras.[48] By 1870, no high-ranking British officials argued against the implementation of special legislation to address the ‘hijra problem’, thus solidifying an anti-hijra campaign all across the Indian subcontinent.

Hijra wiki

Colonialism is a plague.