sherlock-holmes-is-aroace

[sherlock-holmes-is-aroace]

Since y'all are enjoying the "trans men/mascs never contributed anything to the community" trend a bit too much, here's some resources for you to actually research upon whenever you're done contributing to transmasc erasure in 2025 and making an absolute fool of yourself. This is by no means complete, so feel free to add whatever you feel is fit.

For the record: trans men and transmascs contribute to the community by just being alive. They don't have to prove their worth in order to receive the same level of support and visibility as other trans people. That said, here is a list of transmascs/trans men that actively contributed and still do contribute to trans history, queer history and human history.

1. Lou Sullivan (1951-1991)

American author and activist. He was the first transgender man to publicly identify as gay, and is largely responsible for the modern understanding of sexual orientation and gender identity as distinct, unrelated concepts. He founded FTM International, the oldest organization for trans men in the U.S. Here you can download his book "We Both Laughed In Pleasure", a collection of his diaries that discusses his childhood, transition, his push for heterosexuality to be removed from the medical transition criteria and his final days living with HIV.

2. Reed Erickson (1917-1992)

Founder of the Erickson Educational Foundation (EEF), a nonprofit organization funded and controlled entirely by him, which had the goal to "provide assistance and support in areas where human potential was limited by adverse physical, mental or social conditions, or where the scope of research was too new, controversial or imaginative to receive traditionally oriented support". He contributed millions of dollars to LGBTQ+ movements, and the EEF also worked as an information/counseling resource for transgender people.

3. James Barry (1795-1865)

Irish military surgeon, he performed the first recorded caesarean section by an European in which both the mother and child survived the surgery (previously only performed when the mother was already dead or considered beyond help). His body was desecrated and he was outed post-mortem, ignoring his death wish to not be inspected ("in the event of his death, strict precautions should be adopted to prevent any examination of his person - and the body should be buried in the bed sheets without further inspection").

4. Jamison Green (1948-)

American transgender rights activist, educator and author. He began openly living as a trans man in the late 1980s and is considered one of the few openly transgender men of that time, and took over writing in the FTM Newsletter after Lou Sullivan's death. Here you can find his autobiographical book "Becoming A Visible Man", described as the first great memoir by a trans man by the NYT. In 2009, he was the first transgender person to receive the Distinguished Service Award from the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists.

5. Chase Strangio (1982-)

American lawyer and transgender rights activist. He's the deputy director for transgender justice, and staff attorney wirh the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He is the first known transgender person to make oral arguments before the Supreme Court of the United States.

6. Chris Mosier (1980-):

American advocate for transgender rights and competitive triathlete. He is the founder of transathlete.com , a resource for students, athletes, coaches and administrators to find information about trans inclusion in athletics. He is the first known out trans athlete to join a U.S. national team different from his sex at birth.

7. Kylar Broadus (1963-)

American attorney, entrepreneur and trans rights activist. He founded the Trans People of Color Coalition, and became the first trans person to testify in front of the U.S. Senate when he spoke in support of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. He was a professor of business law and workplace discrimination at Lincoln University, a historically black college. In 2019 he received the Trailblazer Award from the LGBT Bar Association of L.A.

Honorary transgender activist that heavily contributed to both the transmasc and the transgender community in general:

Leslie Feinberg(1949-2014)

American activist and author who identified as an anti-racist white, working-class, secular Jewish, transgender, lesbian, female, revolutionary communist. Zie used zie/hir and she/her pronouns. Zie wrote the novel Stone Butch Blues (zie posted it for free on hir own website, and you can and should read it), which won the Stonewall Book Award. This book is frequently taught at colleges and universities and is widely considered a groundbreaking work about gender. Zie actively worked to promote the shift the language from “transsexual” and “transvestite” to the contemporary term “transgender.” "There are other words used to express the wide range of "gender outlaws": transvestites, stone butches, androgynes, diesel dykes or berdache - a European colonialist term. We didn't choose these words. They don't fit us. It's hard to fight an oppression without a name connoting pride, a language that honors us...Transgendered people are demanding the right to choose our own self-definitions. The language used in this pamphlet may quickly become outdated as the gender community coalesces and organizes - a wonderful problem."

Hir last words were: “Remember me as a revolutionary communist."

Other transmascs/trans men who contributed to human history without directly contributing to queer issues (but nevertheless very relevant to queer history):

Alan L. Hart (1890-1962) : American physician, radiologist, tuberculosis researcher, writer and novelist. He pioneered the use of X-Ray photography in TB detection. Circa 1917 he became one of the first trans men in the U.S. to undergo a hysterectomy.

Michael Dillon (1915-1962): British doctor, author, and Buddhist monk. First known transgender man to undergo a phallophlasty between 1945-1949.

Billy Tipton (1914-1989): American jazz musician, bandleader and talent broker. His life inspired the 1998 novel "Trumpet" and a 2020 documentary film, "No Ordinary Man". He was only outed post-mortem.

Albert Cashier (1843-1915): Irish-born American soldier who served the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Harry Allen(1882-1922): American trans man who got arrested a shitload of times and beat cops up. Four of the women he dated committed suicide after finding out he was trans. He was jailed for two months as the press released at least 5 articles investigating whether he'd wear feminine undergarments- which he did not, even at the threat of solitary confinement.

Transmasc/trans men who are active musicians:

Mal Blum (1988): American indie rock/americana singer/songwriter.

Searows (2000): American indie folk/bedroom pop singer/songwriter.

Ice Seguerra(1983): Filipino pop singer/songwriter.

ElyOtto(2004): Canadian hyperpop and pop musician.

Sam Bettens(1972): Belgian country/rock/pop singer/songwriter, founder of the band K's Choice.

Lucas Silveira(1973): Canadian folk/rock vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter. Formed the band The Cliks. Silveira is credited as the first openly transgender man to have signed with a major record label.

Quantum Tangle: Canadian inuit throat singing/blues/folk rock musical group.

Cavetown(1998): British indie rock/pop singer/songwriter.

Laith Ashley(1989): Pop singer-songwriter, activist and entertainer of Dominican descent.

[sherlock-holmes-is-aroace]

Non passing trans men don't benefit from misogyny whatsoever, besides possibly on the internet. If they are seen as a woman in someone's eyes, especially legally, they do not benefit from it. If you are not seen as a man by society, regardless of if you are or not, you do not benefit from misogyny.

It's that fuckin simple.

[sherlock-holmes-is-aroace]

✨Helpful tips for cis allies getting involved in intra-community trans discourse✨

Don’t

Do not do it

Stay in your lane

Shut the fuck up

I don’t care what your trans friend said

I don’t care which direction your trans friend who said you can is transitioning in

Ask yourself: given that this does not affect you and the people it does affect are doing just fine talking about it without you, what do you have to contribute?

Be wary of other cis people who try to get involved; a lot of cis people do this because they want to see which trans people they can be transphobic towards and still count as allies

If you suspect your cis friend is getting involved in order to see which trans people they can be transphobic towards and still call themselves a cis ally, the most trans supportive thing you could possibly do is shut that shit down immediately

There are enough problems facing trans people in the world right now, including where you live, that you have so many options for more productive and helpful things you could do to support trans people. This is not one of them.

Hope this helps ☺️

[sherlock-holmes-is-aroace]

Aroace culture is a blend of aro and ace culture at the same time.

[sherlock-holmes-is-aroace]

Hello! I'm an indie author and for this pride month I created an itchio sale bundle with other authors with fiction books focused on aromantic representation. I have a post scheduled to post here mid-day on June 1st and I was wondering if you'd like to help by reblogging it and help aro stories find aro readers!

Hello!

Sure thing, send us the link when you post it and we’ll gladly share it.

— Caro

[sherlock-holmes-is-aroace]

Next time, gush about a pet or favourite houseplant or something instead. You don't have a partner and you're not allowed to talk about it, so talk about something just as important to you.

"My rose was in such a bad state when it arrived and now it flowers from April through to September and looks amazing! I really worked hard and it shows."

Alternatively, find better friends. If you're forced to listen to then drone on about something they know – and don't care – that you can't relate to, whilst shutting you down, do they really want you around?

If they're the best you've got, well... I'd recommend my first bit of advice. Refuse to be shut up and shut down. They're allowed to talk about their "better halves" and you're allowed to talk about all the hobbies your lack of interest in that stuff gives you time for.

So I got my first "yea you've said you're aroace before, you've said it a million times" comment..

And I low-key got hurt? My friend currently has said yes to her suitor and I am so happy for her, I really am.

My friends and I were laughing together when I had said "well I'm aroace, so I don't know what romance is like"

Then someone cuts in with that comment?

It felt..odd? Literally everyone before me is gushing about their romantic relationships (which I have no problem with) but I can't say "oh you don't have to ask me, I don't exactly know what that's like"?

I don't know. I felt really off earlier

[sherlock-holmes-is-aroace]

I'm a white aroace and I would rather not mess up the results by clicking that final option.

[sherlock-holmes-is-aroace]

Trans women are women. The UK Supreme Court made that clear today.

[sherlock-holmes-is-aroace]

Every so often you see some aroallo* on here saying that the aro and ace communities should be separate and I just. Have you never actually talked to an asexual? Have you never had a single conversation with one about your aspec identities?

Like, obviously there's the fact that so many people are aroace and so the two communities would still have a lot of overlap no matter what, but even if you're talking about people who are just asexual, we both say and feel the same exact things, just about romance instead of sex. Honestly sometimes it feels like I have more in common with alloaces than aroaces because we both have the same central frustration of "why the hell has society decided that these two things have to go together? Why is only wanting one such a hard concept?" They understand the struggle of how hard it is to find people who are willing to do one thing with you but don't expect you to do the other.

Like, I have had a conversation before with someone who was like "I know this is going to sound super weird, especially from someone who is ace" and I got to say "oh my god, no, not only is that not weird, I've done the exact same thing before but with romance." That's so cool! It's great that we can do that!

Whether you're aro, ace, another aspec identity (because let's not forget about atertiaries), or some combination of those, we all share the same frustration of "why is all media so obsessed with this one thing?" We all can't easily explain our identities to other people. We literally feel the exact same ways, just about different things. The aspec experience is the same across all identities, it's just in different fonts.

Saying we should be separate is like saying that lesbians and gay people shouldn't be in the same community, because lesbians know nothing about attraction to men and gay people know nothing about attraction to women. People have said that too, and I hope you all know how ridiculous that is. It's ignoring the common ground of being attracted to the same gender instead of the one you're supposed to be attracted to, and it's also ignoring how much defining those identities as not liking men/women is going to alienate the bi/pan/etc people who also share most of the same experiences.

Anyway. Hi aces. You are very cool. If anyone doesn't want you sitting with me, I'll make them leave instead.

*(Full disclosure that I'm sure there are aces who say this too, I just don't see it because I don't follow ace tags)

[sherlock-holmes-is-aroace]

I feel like people struggle to understand that my life as an aorace person is not centered around an absence of relationships. There is no romance shaped void that I am trying to live with, or live around, or which my life's purpose is to fill somehow.

I go to university and I go to work and I volunteer in my community and in the in-between moments I drink tea with my friends and I plant tomatoes on my balcony and there is no need for anything else. There is no room for anything else anyway.

When I am asked how I deal with 'the hole in my life' or what I do with 'all my free time', I know these questions are not about me at all. They are a reflection of the person asking.

[sherlock-holmes-is-aroace]

It just makes me so frustrated when people go “not all aroace people are romance- and sex-repulsed! Therefore it is WRONG to say THIS aroace character is romance- and sex-repulsed even though that is how it is consistently and clearly written!” (“Therefore it is wrong to say any aroace is sex- or romance-repulsed! Don’t you know aros and aces can still have sex and romance?”)

it doesn’t come across as respect for sex-favorable aces and romance-favorable aros, it comes across as a fundamental inability to believe that anybody could actually not want sex or romance.

[sherlock-holmes-is-aroace]

You can actually see her TERF values in Harry Potter and you don't have to squint.

How many married women are not housewives, exactly?

Even the Weasley Family, who are not "conventional" magical people and are looked down on, have a working father and SAH mother – who raises the kids, tells bedtime stories and does the housework.

I don't even have to scratch the surface.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was less racist and more of a feminist (especially if you take the era and its norms into account) than she is.

Fuck JKR

So, now she is also openly acephobic, and I am taking any bets of when she will openly be biphobic. Because radfems tend to be biphobic all the time.

And just a friendly reminder: Obviously she is generally queerphobic. She also does hate the gays and lesbians, because as she very clearly demonstrated all the time, the only viable thing in her mind for someone to do is to marry and then make a lot of kids. And ideally women will be SAHMs.

Just a reminder, that the TERF-cult is at its core a fascist cult, that claims to want to protect "women", while propagating tons of things that will inevitably harm a lot of women.

[sherlock-holmes-is-aroace]

Thank you!

Sigh. The response to "asexuals are actually just childish and scared of sex" isn't "well actually you're wrong because we write the filthiest smut in existence" or "what about asexuals who know all about kink" or "I'm asexual and I love making sex jokes", NO, that's not the fucking point. I don't care. The point is that regardless of how an individual feels about sex they deserve to be respected and treated as an adult, even if the thought of sex grosses them out. I am asexual, reading smut makes me cringe (feel cringe as in the original sense of the word) and looking at anything nsfw makes me mildly uncomfortable at best, and I only like sex jokes to a certain extent. This doesn't make me a fucking child because sex is not what makes someone an adult in the first place.

[sherlock-holmes-is-aroace]

Calling ALL LGBTQ+ Creatives

I am writing a business plan for a company that I intend to create to benefit the LGBTQ+ Community, particularly those of us who are creative - especially writers and illustrators.

If you would like to help me to help you, please take part in this market research survey (it is very brief) or spread the word around.

At the moment, I cannot go into too much detail about my intentions, except I want to only employ LGBTQ+ workers, train LGBTQ+ people and give a large percentage of profit made to LGBTQ+ charities and causes.

[sherlock-holmes-is-aroace]

If you give me a page number between 5 and 90, I will answer with a line from the Independent Magician.

[sherlock-holmes-is-aroace]

15 please, friend.

If you give me a page number between 5 and 90, I will answer with a line from the Independent Magician.

[sherlock-holmes-is-aroace]

i was thinking about that post comparing Jessica Rabbit as an asexual to Barbie and an asexual and then i thought of the Neil Gaiman post (was it a post?) about Crowley and Aziraphale being asexual and then this happened.

anyways. thoughts?