Category: Trans

closeup of a coin that says Alfr. Nobel embossed with his image

Can a man take a woman’s gold medal?

After years insisting it’s a cardinal sin, he did it. Transness is real; it just isn’t made of metal. The prize can’t be transferred. If you don’t have transness, that’s fine. You inhabit yourself.

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Screenshot of a photo embedded on a webpage. The photo caption in small print says Sylvia Rivera at Age 18 in New York City, 1969 laying back and posing on the edge of a water fountain. At a young age Sylvia began fighting for gay and transgender rights while also helping homeless young drag queens, like herself, gay youth, and trans people. She was a co-founder of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) with Marsha P. Johnson. Photo by Kay Tobin / New York Public Library

Sylvia began fighting for gay and rights

No, it’s not a typo. It’s 🏳️‍⚧️ erasure. Sylvia Rivera began fighting for gay and transgender rights. Hold the flickering candle of that sentence. We know what the Stonewall National Monument said.

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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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