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.
The system always leaves someone out

It doesn’t mean the person is strange. Any time we make a system of classification, someone won’t fit. This exclusion might say more about our need to classify people than about them.
Baldness isn’t just physical

It’s also performative. Labels describe how we live. Even when they describe reality, they’re about perceptions and performances. How we live interprets who we are.
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.
People have been mad about ‘cisgender’ since at least 2007

If someone wants a world where no one is marked as cis, they must simultaneously fight for a world where no one is marked as trans.
‘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.
Biologicals first!

OK, said the pack of hungry tigers. A slogan like ‘Biological first!’ might not work out so well for them. If we’re tied up by hungry cartoon tigers, our best bet is to untie each other.
‘Labels are for cans,’ yet you do see ‘trans’

The ‘soup can logic’ of using ‘trans’ but not ‘cis’. When people aren’t comfortable observing that some people are cis, often their discomfort rests in a belief that trans people aren’t people but soup cans.