Category: Trans
He says your academic evidence is ‘laundered’
If you believe oppression is real, Peter Boghossian doesn’t think your academic work is real. Conservatives ask for their feelings to be validated and for “Western Civilization” to be saved through intellectual debate. Can we meta-debate that?
Being transgender is homophobic? That’s trope, not truth
Breakdown of ‘A Heretic’s Manifesto’ (2023) by Brendan O’Neill. They publish screeds without speaking to a single one of us, which goes beyond paternalism and shows an intent to control us in ways that are harmful to us.
15 common features of anti-trans troll comments
They really pack ’em in. They didn’t read my article and don’t care about my perspective. They act as though I’m the one who didn’t do the required reading.
30 terrible ways to express ‘skepticism’ of transgender people
I will tell you how I generated this list. It’s not random. For people who have been bothered by these arguments, who want to see them unpacked, and who will gladly avoid repeating or amplifying them in the future.
Skeptical of trans people above all
They could have been skeptical of science denialism and supernaturalism instead. Some theories, beliefs, and agendas are false, and their falseness merits skepticism. But trans people are real. We shouldn’t be the object of skepticism.
What to expect from the ‘Adult Human Female’ documentary
Yes, of course it’s anti-trans! Adult Human Female did not interview a trans person. What’s in the hour-and-a half documentary, in chronological order. I have opinions. I make remarks.
New dogs, now, in my own poems
Rereading ‘Mars and Her Children’ by Marge Piercy. Marge Piercy’s poems in ‘Mars and Her Children’, I decided early on, are what I want to sound like when I wrote a poem. I’ve found my voice.
Darned if I can tell you how magic works
But this award-winning novel can: Summer Fun by Jeanne Thornton. How do we create our realities? How are you magic? If you haven’t yet read trans literature, I am giving you sage advice: Trans people’s books are magic.
Making an effort toward equal parenting
Written by a gay man, ‘The Equal Parent’ is about gender-inclusive parenting attitudes. Both men are active parents. The nursery has both of their phone numbers, and ‘if they cannot get hold of the dad they called first, they try the other one.’
My two favorite tweets from year-end 2021
The grace of shared joy and success. Seeing your own place change in the rankings often implies there is a rising star in your network. Their success doesn’t step on yours. Share their joy.
A gay self-discovery: Body, desire, but no ‘essence of me’
‘The Flower From a Poisoned Seed’ by Jonathan C. David. The more we want something, the harder we pursue it, and it feels like the reason we’re here. But if we ever reached it, what would be the point of life?
The ‘undecidability’ of life
Freedom and despair in Will Eaves’ ‘Murmur’, about Alan Turing. The novelist directs our moral scrutiny not at the innocent man but at the state that victimizes him. The state destroys him, politically and existentially.