Category: Trans

wildflowers silhouetted in sunlight in a field

The freedom to be left alone

We should have the choice, but we don’t always have it. In the past, when prompted to think about whether I’m ‘out’ or ‘queer,’ I’ve thought about the transgressive sense and about the meaning of visibility.

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three women walk hand-in-hand down a path by a meadow

When labels don’t feel right

She had two moms, and she didn’t like the word ‘straight’. If we have a stake in a shared outcome, we might avoid declaring how we’re different and separate from others, especially to imply our superiority.

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two silhouettes shaking hands by the water's edge

‘Cis’ or ‘biological’?

They’re both adjectives, but we have preferences. No, ‘cis’ doesn’t imply that trans people are better. ‘Cis’ implies that trans people are equal. People who object to this equalization are transphobes.

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holding hands

You’re not my type

Trans man explains dating preferences to cis man. For gender and sexuality, self-ID is the tiebreaker. If the question is, How do I know if I’m a gay man?, the answer is never going to be, Ask Blake Smith.

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$500 bill frayed at the edges

When technofeudalism manifests as transphobia

Life is both experiential and commodified, but they don’t want us to have our gender in any dimension. Technofeudalist Elon Musk admits he’s driven by his own transphobia. Anti-trans people are trying to shut us down, and trans people are trying to survive.

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sail, viewed from the deck of a ship, gazing up the mast

Pirate secrets you can’t have at sea

They worried their mates might steal a watch, not that their mates might be trans. Many people today act as if trans people were secret pirates. But even pirate captains didn’t care if other pirates were secretly trans men.

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