The Queertastic Trans-Butch

1.5M ratings

277k ratings

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna

transisbeautiful

vice.com

Queer Culture in the Age of Transgender Disruption - VICE

transisbeautiful

“But the election of Donald Trump has forcibly brought queer culture to a crossroads. Moving forward, those of us who have the privilege and stomach may allow themselves to further assimilate into a dominant culture that is increasingly unfriendly toward other queer people, many of whom are trans, people or color, or both. But they must also ask themselves if by doing so they sacrifice what I see as the heart of what it means to be queer: the sense that one’s fundamental desires are not what the world expects or wants. My hope is that this soul searching will result in the rebirth of a queer culture with rebellion, fortitude, and uncompromised liberation that will test the boundaries of sexuality, freedom, and creativity. ” 💖💙

transisbeautiful

vice.com

Queer Culture in the Age of Transgender Disruption - VICE

transisbeautiful

mygenderisprettyboy

reflections on living while trans*

exsouthernbelle

trans liberation is not about “gender self-determination” which some people have (sloppily) defined as “psychological identity trumping bodily identity” or, more colloquially, as internal gender feelz being recognized “over” assigned sex at birth. trans liberation is about collective liberation.

but before i go on, i want to make a critical intervention into the external v. internal logic. this internal/external binary is a) false, b) limited, and c) rooted in western/judeo christian thought.

trans* people don’t have trans* insides and then cisgender outsides. trans people are trans with the entirety of their being. trans* people express different aspects of their gender in different ways for different reasons. (ahem, this is long way of saying there is no singular trans identity or experience.) everything we know comes from embodied experience. trans people know they’re trans through their entire experience in this world.

but back to the point. trans folks’ magical, dreamy insides are not battling their bodies. trans people confront other people’s assumptions about gender, sex, expression, agency, and what and how bodies move through the world. my entire self (body, soul, spirt, mind, etc.) have never been competing, and i surely didn’t decide which part trumped which.

here’s the kicker: that’s because there’s no winner and no loser. i am trans, and i exist.

per the dsm, gender dysphoria requires “a marked difference between the individual’s expressed/experienced gender and the gender others would assign [them].” (i hate medicalizing ANY of this, but it’s important to realize that the diagnosis issue is that other people refuse to properly refer and witness and acknowledge trans / gender non-conforming folks, not the trans / gnc folks’ sense of themselves. yup, the dsm did some important work on shifting that burden to the foolery of transphobia and cisgender folks.)

the issue with trans identity is not that trans people’s “internal understanding” somehow “overcomes” their “external bodies” but that trans lives and trans truths do not fully comport with most people’s assumptions and rules about what our lives mean, what our bodies do, and the choices we make.

my trans reality creates a conundrum for many, many people, but not for me. people refuse to acknowledge my agency in the face of their assumptions about “biologically determined sex” and rigid gender binaries. but what’s beautiful is that as a community, we can (and must) acknowledge the collective power, beauty, brilliance, creativity, and resiliency of trans* folks, because those are our truths.

moving through the world as trans* has taught me so many incredible things, but perhaps the lessons i value most are complementary: collective liberation & lovingkindness (for myself and all living beings). together and individually, trans people bring more beauty and love into this world, even in the face of extreme hate, fear, and malice. trans people make the world a brighter, more open place. as jen richards said, “trans people are not lies in the face of facts; we’re facts that widen the truth.” more importantly, trans folks are part of a larger movement to free all people, to abolish settler colonialism/white supremacy /ableism /anti-blackness /police brutality /state violence /interpersonal violence /exploitation /prison industrial complex /and environmental&food injustice. trans liberation is part of all of our collective liberation.

i am not confused. i am not sick. my insides have not “won,” i am not choosing to be trans or choosing to transition.

i am choosing to be honest. i choose to honor my truths. i am becoming whole. i am healing. i am joyous. i am grateful. i am excellent. i am worthy. i am trans.

exsouthernbelle

still relevant.

mygenderisprettyboy

I am healing

micdotcom

black-ish made television history last night

Last night, black-ish brought us into the middle of the tough conversations black families have been forced to have more and more recently. It did so with the utmost thought and humor, all the while giving nuanced, important depth to the issues of police brutality — including the characterization of police.