Category: Trans

Book cover: Histories of the Transgender Child

Trans kids are found in history, too

Histories of the Transgender Child by Jules Gill-Peterson. Adults should acknowledge that ‘trans childhood is a happy and desired form .’ It’s not a new phenomenon. It’s ‘richly, beautifully historical.’

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18th-century illustration: pirate Mary Reed stabs an enemy with a sword

Did lady pirates button their shirts?

Yes. Art you may have seen to the contrary wasn’t realistic. Just because you’ve seen a naked image of a trans person doesn’t mean trans people walk around naked. Pirates too were motivated to button their shirts.

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Two indistinct bodies, one more feminine and one more masculine, floating underwater, holding hands

Is it about time, bodies, or both?

‘Trans Talmud’ by Max K. Strassfeld. Is this a question about time —what we think we know about the past and future? Or is it about bodies —how we sexually classify them? Or both?

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Book cover: The Men with the Pink Triangle by Heinz Heger, showing a pink triangle behind barbed wire

When the Nazis criminalized gay men

A story of persecution in ‘The Men with the Pink Triangle’ by Heinz Heger. The Nazis viewed gay people as weakening the gender binary. Gay men could be punished for “lewdness,” including simply hugging each other: prison or death.

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brick wall painted with abstract graffiti in bright '90s colors, mostly bright pink with a little blue and yellow. there appears to be a triangle at the bottom.

Why are you trans?

Will they be mad that they were given a reason? If so, why did they ask? Trans people didn’t invent gender stereotypes. Collectively, we don’t reinforce them any more than anyone else. We navigate societies that stereotype us.

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He-Man and She-Ra cartoon characters, arms outstretched, smiling. more complete version of the image than the one that was shown before, as it shows more of their bodies, down to their thighs.

Have you heard their pronoun names?

Skeletor can never beat He-Man or She-Ra. If anyone’s genuinely startled that He-Man is he/him, boy howdy, let me double-startle ye and introduce ye to his sister, She-Ra. Not so important, really.

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video still of NPR Morning Edition interview. Rahm Emanuel has gray hair and is wearing a collared white shirt and pink tie. He's speaking into a microphone, his eyes wide, his hands on his hips.

Rahm Emanuel: ‘Acceptance,’ not ‘advocacy’

He’s describing a culture of self-acceptance. However you choose to treat trans people, proudly accept yourself! You’re doing great! His discourse infantilizes and rejects us. There’s no plan let us co-lead, especially on issues that matter to us. He wants to let MAGA have their way.

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