#tdov 2023

[woolblossom-archive]

Happy Trans Day of Visibility 💕

[morporkian-cryptid]

This year, for the first time in my life I'm going to attend a TDOV event while identifying as non-binary and being comfortable in that identity ^^

It's been a long, long road, and there's still much of it to walk. It still feels strange to me to say explicitly that I am non-binary, I am very shyly counting myself when talking about the trans community. But here I am! I am not a woman and I haven't been for a long time. My gender is complicated, blurry, and I still don't have a clear word for it, but I no longer feel like I need one. For a long time I felt like I lived in the margins of gender; not woman enough to be cis, but not other enough to be trans. But there's no such thing as "not trans enough"; I have my place in this community. Thank you all for being here, being so welcoming and patient, and giving me the time I needed to grow into myself. I'm not quite done figuring myself out and I suspect I never will be, and that's not only alright, it's reassuring and exciting!

Happy Trans Day of Visibility!

[gingergari]

happy tdov! got another spidersona for ya! :]

'parker' is in between names right now but that doesn't stop him from being the spiderman of his dimension!

their dimension is fairly desaturated so the appearance of our favorite red and blue hero is a disturbance in more ways than one

gwen stacy becomes his 'guy in the chair' after she figures out that he's spiderman :]

[queervampir]

happy tdov to those who celebrate/commemorate! 🏳️‍⚧️ have some trans linocuts from 2024 and 2023 :>

[shapeshiftersvt]

The Cryptid Collection

NO, THIS IS NOT AN APRIL FOOL'S JOKE! THE TIMING JUST WORKED OUT THAT WAY BECAUSE OUR ANNIVERSARY IS TDOV, WHICH WAS MARCH 31ST THIS YEAR. (￣y▽,￣)╭

In case you missed, it, yesterday, we officially launched The Cryptid Collection!

Since it was the weekend and a major holiday, we decided to put off talking much about it outside of our website. But now it's Monday, so it's time to talk cryptids (even though we everyone is distracted by boops).

The Cryptid Collection is a collaborative design project created by co-owners Eli and Krista (hi, it's us, we're the main contributors to this Tumblr) exclusively for Shapeshifters. The collection has four main components: binders and sports bras made with fabrics of our own design, the fabrics which you can purchase for your own projects through Spoonflower, the vintage style travel posters, and the couture fashion looks which you can see in person at fashion shows across New England this year which will be listed on our Events Page as we confirm them.

While the collection was inspired by cryptids in general, we decided to spotlight six in particular: Mothman, Champ, the Jackalope, the Squonk, the Jersey Devil, and the Fresno Nightcrawler.

We'll talk more about them and why we chose those cryptids in particular later in the week. Today, we want to talk about the who, what, where, when, why, and how of The Cryptid Collection and cryptids in general.

You may be asking: Why a fashion collection?

It was originally Eli's idea. It had been something they'd been fantasizing about for a few years now, almost as long as Shapeshifters has been in business. The realization that it was something we could potentially really do didn't come until Fall of 2023, though, when we started talking about how to celebrate our 10th anniversary. We wanted to do something special, something that we'd never done before, and Eli decided it was time for both of us to finally admit that, after ten years of making and designing clothing and and graphic art, we might actually be qualified to call ourselves and present ourselves as Designers.

"It’s wild. I decided this year that I was going to commit to being the person I’ve fantasized about becoming. Terrifying." —Eli

So, a themed fashion collection.

But while it was their first and only answer when Krista asked what they wanted the theme to be, Eli didn't come up with the cryptid idea entirely on their own. Anyone who's been following Krista's artblr, @3ofpents, has probably seen the vintage travel posters she's been designing since Summer of 2023. Originally inspired by a book of color palettes from print media through the 20th century, the posters started out as a personal challenge to get Krista drawing more often.

The very first poster she designed was for the New Jersey Pine Barrens and the Jersey Devil, inspired by the state she grew up in. But the one that Eli cites as the one that really got them thinking was for our home state: Burlington, VT's own Champ.

"The tagline for that one was You’ll never swim alone. The friendly, ominous, terrible, wonderful mystery embedded in those four words is a vibe I think about a lot." —Eli

Krista's choice of cryptids as a subject for her posters, and the well of inspiration she drew from in designing her parts of this collection, stemmed from her childhood in New Jersey. While the Jersey Devil isn't as popular and well-known as some other regional cryptids like Mothman and the Loch Ness Monster, it is a huge part of New Jersey culture. Every kid in the state grows up learning some version of the Jersey Devil's origin story; and the local indie, alt, underground, punk cultures slap Jersey Devil imagery on their posters, logos, and products the way some states use their state shapes.

"In New Jersey, the story of the Jersey Devil holds a similar kind of legendary local pride as the story of George Washington crossing the Delaware River on Christmas Eve to take the British soldiers camping on the other side by surprise." —Krista

Eli's inspiration is coming in a separate post; cryptids can't be anything but queer, as far as they're concerned.

In the coming days we've got much more to say about various individual cryptids! Stay tuned.

[minecraft-sex-videos]

happy tdov! have a fucking timeline

July 2023 -> February 2025

[shiinsei]

this is a combination post for tdov + selfies of 2023 + heyyy i was in japan guys 🤯 (any pronouns 🍡)

[ikoarts]

March 2023 Art (Part 2)

vvv dates + info under the cut vvv

1, 2 - 21-22/03/2023 : again like 2nd was 22nd by a margin bc i was drawing past midnight again lol, wanted to draw Toni in a Danny Elfman fit hehe, also a sick ass doodle of her with her guitar which is probs inaccurate (i do not play guitar. or anything. :D) but i like it shut up

3 - 22/03/2023 : more of Toni in the fit. lord forgive if i say something unwise

4-8 - 23/03/2023 : HORSES GALORSES!!!!!! i enjoy this au where toni n ru are just real horses doing horse things, ive mentioned Ru is a marwari, Toni is an italian trotter hehe

9-11 - 28/03/2023 : randomness x ,, erm heres some roupaz for the soul, think i just finished rewatching sonic x at this point, so was thinking of them <3 a noisette eye fink i drew for @creaturedrawz, shes silly i like how i drew her, also pizza tower toni. towering her pizzas and peppi her nos

12-14 - 28-29/03/2023 : another batch where i was drawing into the wee hours, Toni in a comfy outfit, and some more lil hers, i very much enjoy drawing teen toni, like ik i would have been friends with her, 2nd of her there i imagined her a little older where shes pretty much sure shes a gril so is trying to present more feminine, shes also obnoxious x

15, 16 - 31/03/2023 : ru riding a lil pony, idk why, she just is, let her do her thing x ,, also a TDOV doodle of my trans ocs (toni, ginger, copper) doin peanuts dances bc i thought it was cute

[dwarf-vader-of-middle-earth]

Another TDOV another year has passed with me making it out alive

Y'all I literally cannot believe, by Odin's beard, that I made it through to see another TDOV. I have gone through my own personal Ragnarok, losing everything and everyone several times over, and fighting tooth and nail to gain it all back.

This year, I have reached 6 years on testosterone (gel form the entire way). That's an achievement for me. Maybe not a milestone, but it's a grand achievement nonetheless. I'm strong enough that I fought to live and see this day. I didn't give up, I never gave in to temptation, and I forced myself through sheer brutal fighting against all ideations, to keep living.

Life has NEVER been harder for me than it is now. I'm unemployed, my mother is recovering from multiple surgeries and nearly dying twice (once on Christmas, the other New Year's Day). Seeing her return to the hospital every other week for what I'm told is just hours, that turns to a day, which becomes many days, then weeks at a time, is very hard. I know she's in pain. And there's nothing I can do to help but be there for her.

My father has never been shittier to me than he is now, and it's gotten to the point I have methods to work around his constant blocking of outside contact, and I'm looking to get a burner phone so that when he inevitably cuts it all away without warning on a total whim, I can still reach out for help and to friends who I trust. It's gotten to the point I've made my computer entirely undiscoverable, encrypt all connections through multiple means, back all accounts through 2FA, change my connection addresses several times daily, and use a private browser, and somehow my father STILL restricts what I can search by telling the internet host service to flag it and message him remotely that I was searching suspicious subjects on the network. I hide all my social media from my father, from the family, from anyone who has contact with my father, so that they cannot tell him what I do. And I ask all my friends to contact me through social media and other apps that aren't texting or calling, so that my father cannot track what I send or say, then use it against me. He has done this in the past, though it's been a very long time since it happened.

I published my second book in around August of 2023. I'm 24 years old with 2 books published already. That's HUGE!!!! I am genuinely super proud of myself and what I've achieved. :) I have also done so much art in the past year it's insane. I keep amazing myself, and that's great. Always find room to be surprised in a positive way.

Overall, shit has been harder for me now than it's ever been before. But I am prevailing. I am strong. I will continue to fight, to be me, and to live my life for me as myself.

Happy Trans Day of Visibility. :)

[amestellar]

⚙️VOCAL REEL 2023⚙️

Hopping on the bandwagon! Last year wasn't a very big year of solos for me because I was staff in a lot of things but things I did sing in came out really cool!

👇full covers linked below 👇

⚙️Simple Folds cover: https://youtu.be/338DG_dLMhs

🏳️‍⚧️TDOV 2023: https://youtu.be/6Neb2neuvA4

👼Two-Faced Angel Cover: https://youtu.be/vUb52_mO-PI

🍓Raspberry Monster 10th anniversary chorus: https://youtu.be/x4OIf4bcKHI

👨‍👧FT4 To Family cover with Mun: https://youtu.be/4h8A-VgIkvU

[mo0l]

on tdov back in 2023 some rich tranny in van just sent me $200 after i said i was poor and wanted money so now every year i beg for money on lex... tdov tradition,,, i will pay it all back when im rich i will send random trannies $200 every tdov i prommy

[doppelnatur]

My speech for TDOV 2023 shortened to the part about Hetzeldorfer:

This year's trans* day of visibility’s theme is "We have Always been here". It is something that we, as trans* inter* and non-binary people, have to emphasize over and over again because our history has often either been destroyed, as in the example of the book burnings, or not even recognized as trans* history in the first place.

We are made invisible and then accused of being an entirely new trend. This narrative is used over and over again to attack the rights of trans* children and youths in particular. But even though it has always been difficult to live openly as trans, there have always been people like us. That's why today I want to talk about the lives of two people who exemplify the lives of many everywhere.

The first person is Katharina Hezteldorfer from Nürnberg, whose story we unfortunately only know because of his execution in 1477 in Speyer. We do not have anything written by him on the records, so we don't know how he would have viewed and labeld himself, and even if we did, it wouldn't be the same terms we use today. We do know from court documents, however, that some women always saw him as a man, even after he was outed in court.

He came to Speyer with a nobleman's daughter, whom he refered to as his sister, but who was most likely a partner. He himself also probably belonged to an upper class and presented himself as a man throughout his time in Speyer, and was accepted as such in his social circles until he felt safe to talk to acquaintances about the nature of the relationship with his "sister".

In the late Middle Ages in Speyer there was significant fear mongering about people who dressed in the clothing of the opposite sex and laws were first passed against women dressing as men, then men dressing as women. Laws and fears that would hardly have existed had persons like Hetzeldorfer been rare, individual cases. Katharina Hetzeldorfer's conviction stands in the context of these fears of crossing gender boundaries.

For us today, however, his death also stands for the survival of many other butch, trans, and non-binary persons at the time, as their punishment was indeed a rare one; court documents are just, unfortunately, one of the rare sources about the lives of trans* and queer persons in the 15th century.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/31477757_Female_Sodomy_The_Trial_of_Katherina_Hetzeldorfer_1477 Helmut Puff „The Trial of Katharina Hetzeldorfer“ Im verlinkten Dokument kann sowohl die Analyse und Kontextuelle Betrachtung Puffs gelesen werden, als auch die Original Gerichtsdokumente auf alt Hochdeutsch und in englischer Übersetzung.

it's me and my two sources on medieval strap-ons against the world

[nothingunrealistic]

@asiakatedillon My name is Asia Kate Dillon My pronouns are they/them I started testosterone on March 31st, 2023 One year ago Testosterone saved my life I’m documenting where I’m at on my gender journey to celebrate myself My trans and nonbinary body is divine I honor my body as it is now, and as it will be as I continue to become more and more myself I’m so grateful to the team who made this project with me The journey continues Concept: AKD Directed by @emiliaghamirzai (she/they) Shot by @fatchix.inc Photography @carolinekingphotography (she/they) MUA @beautyinabottle_mua (she/her) Making this project with this team was a dream come true. It was an extraordinary day brimming with gender euphoria, community, love and laughter. I can't wait to show you what else we put together... full extended cut coming Wednesday! #TDOV #TransDayOfVisibility #Testosterone #GenderAffirmingCare #Nonbinary #Trans

[gayestcowboy]

happy trans day of visibility! here are all 7 of my trans demons (so far!)

support trans creatives! support trans people of all varieties every day. celebrate trans joy.

inprnt

store

[cancersurvivinggingerjew]

An important reminder for this Trans Day of Visibility: If you cannot be out and visible right now for any reason, whether for safety due to the increasingly dangerous legislation being passed or for other reasons, please remember that you are still here, you are still real, and you still matter.

[lavender-femme]

mercury stardust and jory are currently doing a tiktok livestream for 30 hours to raise $1,000,000 for trans healthcare if you can go watch and/or donate!

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRcJSSwg/

They’re currently at $765,000 and if they hit $1,000,000 by 10pm CT (1.5 hours from now) they will raise the goal to $2,000,000. Anything above the $1,000,000 will go specifically towards gender affirming surgeries.

LINK TO DONATE RIGHT HERE

They help so many in the trans community, 36% of the people they help are disabled!!

I sent in $25 earlier this month and $25 today.

Even if you can’t donate, go watch the lives and give it views and interaction!

just in the time it took me to type this up they have raised like $15,000

This is a huge form of mutual aid

this is HUGE for trans liberation and for trans joy!

go watch, go donate, go support