#emotional support transgender lesbians

[kaleidoskuls]

it has come to my notice that there's a transphobic bill, specifically against "crossdressers", that has been brought to the house of assembly or something in Nigeria by this dude Umar Musa.

fuck you Umar Musa, you worthless piece of shit.

this is so saddening to be honest. there's already the law against same sex marriage in Nigerian, and people have been arrested for being LGBTQ+. people have been bullied, harassed, threatened, killed.

why is this fucking happening. I'm so fucking sad.

this will affect the lives of not only queer and trans people but also cishets who just enjoy dressing in a way that doesn't fit the gender norms.

it is just. a fucking stupid bill.

seriously 💀💀💀💀💀

this is so fucking sad I am crying

[itisthefunpolice]

Gender and Where We Are Now

Gender was a term made to describe the way patriarchy associates certain things with each of the sexes and uses this to ensure men remain dominant and women remain submissive. Things associated with men are "masculine" and considered superior by virtue of men being considered the superior sex. Things associated with woman are "feminine" and considered inferior by virtue of women being considered the inferior sex. Alternatively, things that facilitate domination are assigned to men and things that facilitate submission are assigned to women. This hierarchy is systemic and enforced on us even before we are born. In a modern context, one might call these "sex stereotypes" or "gender roles", but those terms are largely redundant. For example, in a modern context, one might say sex stereotypes dictate that women are naturally caring or that gender roles dictate that women should be mothers, but all of this falls under the original concept of gender.

Gender was later adopted as a euphemism for biological sex because sex is also the word for sexual intercourse, which was/is considered taboo and indecent, so both gender and sex began to be used interchangeably.

This lead to the replacement of the word transsexual with the word transgender.

In the United States of America (I cannot speak for the rest of the world), the gay rights movement gained traction and became a part of the wider political and cultural zeitgeist. As gay rights gained more attention and support, more organizations invested in it through different means, such as capitalizing on it by creating media discussing or featuring gays, lesbians, and/or bisexuals. Due to the surge in public attention, as is often the case, a social movement developed. This social movement centered around the broad concept of gay rights, but since the gay rights movement was exclusively for those who had same sex attraction, membership was inherently limited to homosexuals and bisexuals, with everyone else either having to claim they were questioning their sexuality or a heterosexual ally. This created a rift. The gay rights movement was political, its function was to eliminate discrimination based on same sex attraction, but this growing social movement had a different function, one that could not be sustained if membership was not something one could choose or was inherently limited. So, various sexual labels became popular, signaling that one was both unique and a part of a broader community, one with exclusive and limited membership, but that was not so much so that it was isolated or irrelevant.

These types of social movements and communities are popular with tweens, teens, and young adults because of the conflicting desire to be special but to also be accepted. These demographics also tend to be those that desire a sense of identity but do not yet have the experience to have forged a strong sense of self. People in these demographics also tend to be both highly emotional and largely dismissed, leading to a desire to give themselves legitimacy. None of these things are unhealthy (with the exception of age based discrimination) in and of themselves, but they can develop into social contagions. Additionally, this was not a unique phenomenon, as the rise of mental health awareness followed a similar trajectory, and phenomenon such as these have a long history.

Thus there was a rise in people, mostly the youth, claiming different oppressed identities, specifically sexualities, and developing new sexual labels and communities via borrowing the political legitimacy of the gay rights movement. This then lead to a similar rise in attention to transsexuality, as most historical transexuals were homosexual or bisexual. However, just as before, the social movement was incompatible with this narrow view of transsexuality and thus it was widened via transgenderism. Transgenderism could claim that gender was separate from the concept of sex and this took many forms, from dissociative identity disorder to sexed brains to innate masculine or feminine souls, and so on.

This resulted in the concept of gender identity, that gender was not an oppressive hierarchy or a euphemism for sex, but rather an intrinsic part of a person. Gender identity needed to remain nebulous so that it could serve the functions of the social movement, but that also made it difficult to defend, thus requiring the legitimacy of other political movements to protect and support it.

I'm not going to continue going through a breakdown of how we got to the trans rights movement as it exists today, but I would like to point out some conclusions that can be drawn from the history and present of the trans rights movement:

The trans rights movement requires patriarchy, as gender is a core part of the movement, specifically bio-essentialism, which states that masculinity is biologically inherent to men and femininity is biologically inherent to women. This makes the movement inherently sexist.

The trans rights movement requires homophobia, as homosexuality and bisexuality are biological sex based and inherent, a fact which undermines the concept of gender identity and therefore must be disavowed in order for the trans rights movement to have legitimacy.

The trans rights movement requires parasitism, as the movement does not have a legitimate basis and therefore interrogation dismantles it, unless one accepts that they are sexist and homophobic and so on, and thus it must feed off of and center itself in legitimate political movements.

The trans rights movement requires postmodernism, as the movement does not have a counter to material reality and therefore must claim that material reality does not exist and obfuscate its weak foundation by remaining nebulous and undefinable, constantly moving goalposts and changing terms and so on.

The trans rights movement requires extreme individualism, as realizing that women and men are complex individuals not bound by gender, which varies based on time and place, whom trans individuals are not inherently different from would undermine the movement. One may even create or purchase goods in order to differentiate themselves from the general populace as to not be confused with them.

The trans rights movement requires capitalism, as the concept of transition as a treatment is only viable if one has a consumerist relationship with the human body, viewing it as a product made up of separate objects that can be altered to suit the customer's preference. Alternatively, one may objectify other humans so much they think they can purchase aspects of humanity, such as biological sex, via things like clothing, hair styles, voice training, etc.

The trans rights movement requires medical exploitation, as the reasonable response to distress regarding one's sex would be to investigate the source of the distress and seek to mitigate or resolve it in the least invasive way possible as to put the patient at the least amount of risk rather than affirming a patient's self loathing and insisting the only way it can be treated is to endure a lifetime of medical experimentation via medication and alteration which cannot be undone.

The trans rights movement requires abuse of power, as anyone able to investigate the movement and its beliefs might discredit it so those not in lock step must be punished and demonized, especially if they show opposition, in order to control the narrative around the movement and ensure no one can undermine it or those within it.

So, to summarize, the trans rights movement is a sexist and homophobic movement that uses and abuses existing power structures, like capitalism and the medical system, to further exploit the oppressed, via things like parasitism, because it is postmodernist and hyper individualist, unconcerned with challenging regressive ideas and instead enshrining them because it serves them to do so.

[nerdygaymormon]

LDS LGBTQ+ anniversaries for 2024

50 years ago

March 27, 1974 - BYU President Dallin H. Oaks delivered a speech on campus in which he spoke in favor of keeping criminal punishment for "deviate sexual behavior" such as private, consensual, same-sex sexual activity.

July 1974 - the Ensign magazine prints an answer from Dr. Lindsay Curits, a medical doctor, to the question "Why does the Church oppose homosexuality? Why is it wrong?" Dr. Curtis states that homosexuals have "chosen this way of life" but "can be helped" and that "homosexuals and lesbians seldom are happy people" and their relationships are "unnatural", full of "emotional problems" and "promiscuity", and lacking in "fidelity, trust, or loyalty". Additionally, they try to recruit "others into their practice…in their tender, impressionable years".

July 10, 1974 - President Spencer W. Kimball addressed the BYU student body and said that sex reassignment surgeries were a travesty

October 4, 1974 - President Spencer W. Kimball spoke at General Conference and stated that masturbation leads to homosexuality.

25 Years ago

May 11, 1999 - A letter was sent which was to be read in all LDS sacrament meetings in California which directed members to "do all you can by donating your means and time" to ensure that Proposition 22 (known as the Knight Initiative) passed, which would limit marriage in California to only being a man and a woman, denying same-sex couples legal recognition.

September 1999 - The Ensign magazine publishes an article which says that homosexuality is caused by things such as "temperament, personality traits, sexual abuse, familial factors, and treatment by one’s peers". It goes on to say that individuals can learn to diminish those feelings and become heterosexuals.

October 2, 1999 - In General Conference, President Hinckley says that "so-called same-sex marriage … is not a matter of civil rights; it is a matter of morality. … There is no justification to redefine what marriage is."

October 3, 1999 - 150 members of Affirmation protest outside of Temple Square in opposition to the church's involvement in the California ballot initiative that would reinforce marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman

November 14-17, 1999 - The World Congress of Families (WCF was formed in 1997 to promote Christian values internationally by opposing divorce, birth control, same-sex marriage, pornography, and abortion, while supporting marriage between a man & a woman) met in Geneva, Switzerland where the Director of BYU's World Family Policy Center, Kathryn Balmforth, delivered an address where she said gay rights activists are part of an anti-family movement which is hijacking the idea of human rights in order to gain new rights for homosexuals, and would use legal force to curtail freedoms for most of humanity

15 Years ago

November 10, 2009 - Church PR director Michael Otterson gave a statement at a Salt Lake City Council hearing in support of a proposed city anti-discrimination ordinance which would protect LGBT individuals.

10 Years ago

January 10, 2014 - A letter from the First Presidency was read in all LDS congregations in the United States. The letter urged members to review the Family Proclamation and called for "kindness and civility" towards supporters of same-sex marriage. It also stated that everyone is welcome in LDS chapels as long as they "respect our standards of conduct while there".

March 25, 2014 - Tyler Glenn, lead singer of the band Neon Trees, comes out as a gay Mormon in Rolling Stone magazine.

5 Years ago

February 26, 2014 - Former BYU mascot Charlie Bird comes out as gay in the Deseret News.

April 4, 2019 - Elder Oaks announces that the November 2015 Policy of Exclusion is rescinded and “immoral conduct in heterosexual or homosexual relationships will be treated in the same way.” Children of parents who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender may now be blessed as infants and baptized in the LDS Church without First Presidency approval.

April 29, 2019 - BYU valedictorian Matt Easton speaks at a BYU commencement ceremony. He states “I stand before my family, friends and graduating class today to say that I am proud to be a gay son of God.“ He receives rousing applause.

July 3, 2019 - BYU track athlete Emma Gee comes out as bisexual, becoming the first openly-queer athlete at BYU

September 13, 2019 - Jessyca Fullmer posts a video explaining that she’s dating a woman and has never been happier. She apologizes to people who may feel disappointed and explains that she asked the Church to remove her video from the mormonandgay website

September 10, 2019 - Becky Mackintosh, the mom who is featured in the mormonandgay video as supporting her gay son, releases a book titled “Love Boldly: Embracing Your LGBTQ Loved Ones and Your Faith”

————————————————————-

The change inside the LDS Church has been gradual, but these few snippets from the past decades show change is happening and accelerating

[punkboyjack]

The shit lie of SRS in Iran

So it's a something stuck in my brain ( and my life ) that I think people need to know about it is the thing about LGBTQ+ people in Iran especially T because I'm trans and it's little too much complicated in iran

Bing trans in Iran has some benefits in look but it's a lie

We are known as mentally ill people

We have the same problems as any other LGBTQ+ person in the world but with a higher rate

Most of the time, they give strong psychedelic drugs and hormones to trans children ( or just LGBT childrens )

And I was so paranoid about it that I wouldn't take any of the psychiatrists' pills when I was depressed (my parents don't know that I just got better somehow and no one doubt about it)

The Iranian government also monitors online transgender communities, often subjecting them to censorship, and police routinely arrest trans people

Unfortunately most Iranian parents like boys so trans woman's are badly treated almost 92% of trans women in Iran faced verbal or emotional violence and over 70% had faced physical violence

And the rate of murder and attempted suicide among trans people in Iran is high (mostly trans women).

and that really sad bcz one of the trans woman's that a used to know have Ben send to who knows where for the military training by her dad because ( HE was not man enough)

1_pre surgery is hell : we go on a all girl / all boy schools and I think it's like Catholic schools over there

And people don't respect us we mostly have problem finding friends we don't have the From the social point of view, it is almost impossible to identify ourselves as transgender because the government has strictly separated men and women. I didn't really know what my problem was until I was 13 years old

Worst and most important part is telling our parents that we are trans and they should support us because all the work of the license is done with the consent of the family ( I'm so lucky about my parents by the way so good for me but holy fuck who made that rule in the first place)

2_ the surgery is chipper here (it's a lie ) -> we spent Soo much money and time ( and mental health) on permission to do surgery and people who do this surgeries are not even have expertise in this work And they have long-term side effects that are not good at all

first submitted to a long and invasive process

including virginity tests ( idk whyyy)

formal parental approval ( I told you)

, psychological ( it's just the worst part you can't imagine how terrible this psychologists are ),

inspection by the Family Court ( like a god damn criminal )

If we don do the SRS we are basically nothing to them and Thay don't give a fuck about us unless we did something wrong or something and then we are basically dead as hell

Like let's say you are a heterosexual trans men who don't want to do a surgery and you have girlfriend who loves you and respect's you

Will no you don't you are just a lesbian to them and will if they found out what's between your legs you and your gf are going to be executed I'm not joking

3_After surgery, is hard as hell : discrimination, from the law, the state, and from the people around us

Given the lowest quality of hormone therapy, we usually do not have reliable sources for it . Surgery under the hands of non-specialists causes dangerous side effects, and if we are imprisoned, we will no longer get hormones

And not so fun fact : Most of the gay people in Iran are recognized as transgender and they have to tell us about the process because otherwise they will be executed. For the government, changing their gender of poor gay people shows a better face than killing them

And yeah rest of your gay life you are just unfortunate person stuck in a person of your own body

Bruh I read it all over and I'm not even close to the realty it's too much

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

When I was in college, I wasn't the quote unquote perfect activist. I am definitely not immune to making mistakes, especially in the heat of emotional moments. But...let's talk about my experiences for a moment.

-During my first semester of college I joined my university's local PRIDE club. I suggest that we do some sort of clothing drive, and have a place where anyone can give or take clothing. The intent of this was obvious and person: I came from family who either did not really understand my transness or actively disapproved of it and didn't have an income. I could not be the only one. We should be helpful in this way, to our trans brothers and sisters.

Sometime later, someone suggests changing the clothing drive into a clothing sale to fund their Drag Ball. PRIDE under that semester's leadership never does a clothing drive. My vision would not be completed until a couple of semesters later, working with my university's LGBT Center, and working loosely with PRIDE's new management.

-The one thing I failed to notice coming into PRIDE was that I couldn't find other trans women. That didn't bother me, and I was fairly popular early on. This was until someone else came out as a transgender woman. Initially I was happy to have another trans woman as a friend, but I very quickly began to notice the social effect. They were shorter, smaller, and more femme. Their social transition progressed much faster than mine, because they weren't poor. They regularly got many clothes from their friends in PRIDE, even as discussions occurred about a clothing drive. I got nothing. I was being outfemmed.

-I noticed the uplifting of drag performers and drag stars by many of my cis and nonbinary peers in the group. I often asked myself why this happened. For some of these people, drag was almost a lifestyle. The performance of hyper-femininity by someone who was AMAB in the context of a drag show was met with cheers, applause, fandom. Meanwhile, my displays of my own femininity were met with nothing. Those same people never complimented me.

-The president of PRIDE gave a presentation on the history of drag. They mentioned Ru Paul, but handwaved away their trans-misogynistic comments, saying they were unimportant.

-A considerable amount of time later, our LGBT Center did a wide survey of queer people on campus. Some responses by cis lesbians bemoaned a lack of lesbian support groups, and more importantly, that they didn't feel like they ever saw anyone that looked like them at the center. I object to this finding, because I myself am a lesbian, I am what they are looking for and am always at the center. I bring up the possibility that the comment may be transphobic. I am shot down. I was denying other people's feelings. I was a trans woman, not a lesbian.

-A dear friend of mine suggests doing a PRIDE event about learning how to do make-up. This is something I was in great support of, because I did not like the extent trans women were expected in a very short span of time to grasp all the complexities of the role of woman in today's society, when cis women get so much longer. What will not be included is tutorials of using make-up to cover facial hair follicles. They did not want to focus on tutorials about passing. I protest, in part because the darkness of my follicles is something I'm very self-conscious of, and that passing in itself is something that a lot of trans woman want. The make-up event never happens.

-A trans woman is talking about her transition experience. She is notably well off and has gotten a variety of surgeries. She explains this is ultimately the path that all trans women need to take, unless they end up looking like "fishy boys". This notably impacts my friend in a severe way.

-A series of hate crimes strikes campus rapidly. Someone spray-paints the "N" word on one of the school buildings, while conversion therapy pamphlets are deliberately left in classrooms teaching about LGBT subjects. Campus police do not care to investigate. PRIDE and BSU being to work collaboratively on a protest. The atmosphere is very good, there are a variety of different but very good conversations, and both groups work well on various tasks that were planned. The protest does not focus on what happened to LGBT students. Members of the LGBT Center and of PRIDE did not speak. We, who had been working hand and hand, were reduced to a footnote and a one-liner in a chant.

-While asking for more information about the investigation into both of these incidents, myself, the Title 9 administrator, and one of my coworkers, a black queer woman, are invited to a meeting with the VP of Student Affairs and the detective on the case. None of us were made aware of the presence of the chief of police nor of a third officer whose purpose was unknown. These investigations would never result in anything.

-In the issue of the school newspaper that reported on the hate crimes, included as well along side of it was a story about how conservatives felt like they were being silenced on campus.

-When I first went to college, I went to Housing to discuss the possibility of gender neutral housing, which they have on their website. I am told there is none, but they can make an accommodation by giving myself my own dorm room on the men's floor. I had been unable to transition before this point because of living with religious conservative family members. I am told that if I want to have a room on the women's floor, where I would have a more private showering area that was not a public shower with other men, that I would need the gender on my birth certificate changed.

Both of these were lies.

-I have a discussion with my mother about her continuing to deadname me, noting that I did not want to end up confusing my niece once she became old enough to remember my name. This does not change.

This is just, the experiences that I can recall while writing this post. It is not an exhaustive list. Discussing school administrations chronic underfunding of the LGBT Center and the resulting drama that caused over years would be an entirely new post. There's possibly even more stuff that I've simply just fucking forgotten over the years. It wasn't all bad. I met some truly incredible people and did some truly incredible things.

But there was bad. Some of it was general, but a lot of it was trans misogynistic, even if I don't think it was always intentional. A lot of these experiences changed me into the jaded bitch I am today on a lot of issues.

[madam-melon-meow]

VRISKA SERKET IS A BISEXUAL WOMAN.

This is Homestuck canon. She is a transgender woman. This is Pesterquest canon. If you can respect the one you can respect the other.

I understand some are attached to lesbian headcanons. But if yourr bedrock is to insist she experiences comp-het. A THING THAT DOES NOT EXIST IN ALTERNIA. A THING THAT IS NOT SUPPORTED BY CANON. THEN YOU ARE BEING BIPHOBIC. PLEASE DO NOT SPEND PRIDE MONTH ERASING CANON BISEXUALITY. IT IS UNDER REPRESENTED AND MUCH MALIGNED FROM BOTH OUTSIDE AND INSIDE THE QUEER COMMUNITY. BISEXUALITY IS QUEER ENOUGH. BISEXUALITY IS BEAUTIFUL. CHARACTERS LIKE KARKAT. VRISKA. TEREZI. DAVE. ROXY. ERIDAN. GAMZEE. THESE HAVE ALL EXPRESSED BISEXUALITY. IT IS CRUELTY OF THE HIGHEST ORDER TO BE BADGERED BY COMP HET THEORIES ABOUT CANONICAL BISEXUAL CHARACTERS. IF YOU DISAGREE WITH THIS MESSAGE I AM SORRY BUT I REFUSE TO SIMPER AND KOWTOW REGARDING MY SEXUALITY. BISEXUALITY SHOULD NOT BE ERASED. IF YOUR DAVE HEADCANON RESTS ON OVERCOMING INTERNALIZED HOMOPHOBIA THEN BISEXUALITY DOES NOT PREVENT THAT. SIMPLY RELABEL IT INTERNALIZED BIPHOBIA. BUT COMP HET WAS COINED BY ADRIENNE RICH-

~~~~~~~

A (transphobe, if you cant figure this out from the rad fem rhetoric) proponent of the belief that all women can be lesbians regardless of sexual orientation by identifying as a “woman-identified woman”, aka thst the woman’s focuses are on the needs and emotions of other women. This belief is A core component of the lesbian separatist movement began in the 1970s, which should be pinging alarm bells. This is the organization that believes women’s bisexuality , MY sexuality, is inherently anti-feminist because of the implied desire for penetration, sexual dominance, and submission. This woman stated that women due to their socialization could not ever freely “choose” to enter a hetero relationship, that coercion was ever-present. Her words imply bisexual women (and others socialized as girls while growing up) have inherent lack of agency, erasing the freedom and truth of our love for what can be perceived as straight relationships. Ti Grace Atkinson said “ feminism is a theory, lesbianism is a practice.” Lesbian separatists take this to mean Feminism is the theory and lesbianism is the practice, reflecting an assumption that lesbianism is the purest and most desirable manifestation of feminism, and that bisexuality thus is sullied and impure. Compulsory heterosexuality was coined by a TERF for the inherent purpose of invalidating bisexual and transgender women, as both run up against the terf ideology that all men are bad, that all relations with amabs are bad, that amabs are rapists in disguise and abusers on the prowl and to sleep with a man or anyone that could have been a man taints you. Bisexuality has always been transinclusionary. Those who exclude the one tend to exclude the other. terf theory should not be your bedrock of queer or feminist theory. What hurts one letter hurts us all.

S. Young’s “ Breaking silence about the B word“ has a fantastic paragraph about coming out as a lesbian and learning from other lesbians that my sexuality was considered a copout, that bisexuals were treasonous and would run back to men and leave the lesbians behind, that only lesbians had an anti-patriarchal sexuality, that we were buying into sexism by being bisexual. while gay men do not seem to view bisexuals as sleeping with the enemy as strongly as lesbians view us, there is still the presumption that a bisexual man is just trying to hold onto heterosexual privilege.  these views are not absent from fandom spaces.

Bisexuality is treated as a transitional category, as experimenting, as promiscuity, as being a liar and a cheat. To reduce every bisexual character you come across, to force them to “pick a side”, to comment on ship art of characters like John and Vriska as “generic boring and straight”, to similarly comment on art of characters like Vriska and Terezi as “lesbian favs”, to insist it is homophobic or lesbphobic when people push back against this categorization- this is cruel. This is biphobic. This is bisexual erasure. Andrew Hussie, no matter what you think of him, was very clear. They wrote a story in which an entire species is bisexual “by default”- where Kanaya is the only troll in a set of 12 to have a mono sexuality (albeit, while still displaying biromantic tendencies, at least in the ashen quadrant). Whatever issues you have with Vriska and Eridan viewing relationships with eachother and others (Terezi, Tavros, Kanaya) (Feferi) via the lense of their ancestors, that does not erase their bisexuality. (Vriska) canonically dated killed-by-Terezi!John , and followed it up with an albeit unhealthy relationship with Meenah. Vriska had a celebrity crush on nic cage, implied she was attracted to Karkat, and had a relationship with Terezi. Eridan flirted indiscriminatorily with most of his friends of both genders. Gamzee’s infamous flirtations with Tavros and relationship with Terezi exists. So does Roxy’s pursuit of Dirk and her insistence that Jane is hot. Dave pursued relationships with Terezi and Karkat, Davesprite dated Jade. Karkat caught feelings for Jade, John, Dave, Terezi. I could go on but i will not- there are many bisexual characters in homestuck, after all.

Many people view bisexuality as not committing, as not picking between “us” and “them”, as having “passing privileges” by finding an opposite gender partner. We are experiencing a time of great unrest. Do not return to the days of isolating aspects of the community, of infighting that weakens us. You see what rhetoric is being used against the transgender community, against anyone who dares to do drag, to break the binary boxes. Bisexuality breaks boxes too, by daring to love our own gender and other genders. By being unapologetically attracted regardless of sex. Fandom biphobia is nothing so serious as real world oppression, sure. You could say it is just another pin prick. But each pin prick makes me bleed. And I only have so much blood to give.

I see many musicians irl reduced to straight women or gay men when they have repeatedly expressed bisexuality. This is cruel. This is biphobic. This is not the move from inside the community i want to see. For young queer kids online, those experiences will shape them as much as bisexuals being kicked out of the gay organizations does those who are old enough to join one. Homestuck helped me understand I was allowed to be bisexual- i thought bisexuality didn’t really exist, especially not for women, when i was 13. If my first experience with homestuck had been being told vriska is a lesbian and is only compulsive about perusing boys, i would have never understood what i was feeling, because my crushes on boys as a kid, my relationship with men as an adult, those were not and are not a sign of being coerced by society. These feelings do not deminish or delegitimization my attraction to women. To say such a thing is to take away my agency, to reduce me to either an experimental straight girl or a lesbian who is “just confused”- the latter of which is rhetoric transmen and asexuals have aimed at them. This is a biphobic world you have been raised in. All i ask is that you do not impose the rheotric of a biphobic transphobic “feminist” on characters and people like me. This a shitty rant, but i needed to say it.

[jesses-life-updates]

people tend to think trans people are special snowflakes who get pampered by society so here's being trans from the perspective of a transgender 14-year-old who has no adult support in his life. please boost this message to transphobes, it might not change their minds but it could at least make them consider the real children they're hurting.

• when I came out at 13 I was yelled at by my parents until I cried

• according to transphobes it's somehow my fault that I was born with a female body

• people at school ask me what my pronouns are as an insult and call me slurs and nobody does anything about it, not even teachers care

• I came out to these people I thought I could trust and their response was to push me out of their circle of friends and harass me, constantly calling me a lesbian even though I'm not even a girl

• life seems to have lost its colour and I can't remember the last time I felt actual strong emotions

• actual grown ass adults complain about trans people on the internet just for clout and argue with each other about whether or not we deserve rights, as if that isn't the most dehumanising shit

• I've been told that my feelings don't matter by a teacher at my school because "people in countries at war have it worse"

• the prime minister of my country was on national television spreading hate speech about my people and everyone is acting like he's a saint for it, completely ignoring the other bad things he's done for this country because "he hates trans people and that's good"

• I have to stand idly by while trans people my age are committing suicide and I am so scared I will end up adding to that statistic

• there's bad apples in every group of people and just because I'm trans I have to be grouped in with every bigoted/hateful trans person when I'm just trying to keep myself alive and I'm not bothering anyone

• I am too scared to bring up my queer identity around anyone because I don't want them to think I'm shoving it in their face, it might as well be a secret even though I've been out for over a year

• i sometimes forget that I'm not physically a boy but then it hits me again when I see how much taller/deep voiced my male peers are

• I had to resocialise myself as male and change so many things about my behaviour that it's constantly at the forefront of my mind

• my chest constantly feels tight, I can't breathe deeply, my breathing is shaky and I get random rib pains every few hours

• I'm told that my gender is a "protected characteristic" but adults are doing a piss poor job at protecting me, I feel like I'm in danger because of being queer

• people at school harassed me so much for being trans that I practically forced myself back into the closet by telling them I don't care what they refer to me as (I most definitely do care)

• my identity is so normal to me but it's not normal for anyone else, I'll be talking about a girl crush I have thinking what I'm saying is normal but someone chimes in with "oh are you a lesbian?" and it brings me back to the harsh reality that being queer isn't normal

• I used to feel so much pride as a queer kid but now I just hate everything about being queer and I wish so badly that I could be just like everyone else

• more and more laws are being put in place against my people and one day I might not even be able to get gender affirming treatment

• the chemical imbalance in my brain is considered a political stance rather than just a rare condition a group of people have that shouldn't be a big deal

• I, a 14 year old boy, am more mature about gender than ACTUAL GROWN ADULTS who go on PUBLIC TELEVISION TO COMPLAIN ABOUT ME WHEN I AM JUST TRYING TO EXIST IN PEACE

• I keep being hit with the realisation that I still need to wait four years just for the chance of merely beginning to transition, which will cost me thousands of pounds and probably take more than ten years to fully transition, whereas my peers are just handed it at birth

• trans people are seen by society as "annoying" and "shoving it down people's throats" and "looking for an excuse to be special" for some fucking reason

• I have to juggle all this shit with trying hard in school and balancing life, all while my brain is not even fully developed yet. my cognitive and emotional processing skills aren't even close to being developed but i have to deal with suicidal thoughts, media pushing the idea that I'm mentally ill, internalised transphobia, constant harassment, transphobia from almost every single person in my life, feeling like a fucking freak for a chemical imbalance in my brain, and yet I STILL have to deal with normal teenage things like feeling ugly or struggling in school, and further yet I CANT TALK TO A SINGLE ADULT ABOUT MY SITUATION BECAUSE NOBODY BELIEVES ME OR SUPPORTS ME

• the cherry on top: there is absolutely nothing I can do about my situation until I turn 18, my only option is to suck it up and deal with it until either get actual help or end up killing myself

if you're an adult who thinks trans people are groomers/snowflakes/annoying/criminal, think about how your actions are impacting youth who are just trying to stay alive. you are not protecting children by making us wait longer for treatment or shielding us from supportive outlets. grow the fuck up. you're an adult, act like it. find something else to do with your life than attack an astronomically small minority of people.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

WOKE politicians 'support gay CONVERSION therapy' as confused kids 'fast-tracked to STERILISATION'

Andrew Doyle: On Friday there was a heated debate in the House of Commons about conversion therapy. Emotions ran high and few were more impassioned than the conservative MP Alicia Kearns who berated Alba MP Neil Hanvey for appealing on behalf of the LGB community.

So, here's how that exchange went.

Hanvey: People in the LGB community are often referred to as bigots and transphobes and other slurs just because we have concerns about legislation such of this. And we want to make sure that young LGB people are protected. And trans people. Does she agree with me that that must apply, that rule must apply, to all sides of any debate and not just one side that she favors.

Kearns: ... absolutely right, but there was one digit missing from his LGB: LGBT. We do not divide the LGBT community in this place. You can say that you have concerns about we doing. But by removing the T, you are suggesting that transgender people do not exist. You are suggesting they are lesser than other LGB people. And I will not stand for that, because it was trans people who stood with gay people at Stonewall. It was trans people who fought alongside for LGBT rights. So, when you say LGBT, when you remove the T, you suggest that they are lesser.

Doyle: Now it's clear to me that Alicia Kearns is well intentioned and sincere, and I mean no disrespect when I say that this is a subject about which she clearly knows very little. And that is dangerous, because if she gets her way on this issue, it will set back gay rights by decades.

So, let's address some of the key misconceptions. So, firstly, Kearns claimed that Hanvey was suggesting that transgender people don't exist, and at no point did he make such a claim. Sexual orientation and the belief in gender identity are totally unrelated concepts. Kearns seems to be suggesting that gay people have no right to campaign for their interests unless they simultaneously campaign for trans people. But why? Groups such as Mermaids campaign solely for trans rights. Are they therefore homophobic? Perhaps Alicia Kerns would like to berate them in Parliament. I look forward to seeing that.

Kearns went on to say that it was trans people who stood with the gays at Stonewall. Trans people fought together for LGB rights. Did they? I mean there were some trans people involved in the struggle for gay rights, certainly. But not all that many. The activists who changed history for the better were predominantly lesbians and gay men. At the Stonewall Inn, it was mostly gay men with some lesbians and drag queens who were involved in the riots. And it was likely a lesbian, Stormé DeLarverie, who sparked the whole thing. After the police raided the bar, she was being forcibly arrested and is said to have shouted to the crowd, aren't you going to do something?

Now, some trans activists have since attempted to rewrite history, claiming that a transwoman called Marsha P. Johnson threw the first brick at the Stonewall Inn. The trouble is, Marsha P. Johnson wasn't trans. He was a drag queen. And he wasn't even there when the rioting started.

Now, if Alicia Kearns wants to know about the actual history of Stonewall, not the revisionist fabrications of activists, she could read "Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution," by David Carter. Or, she could talk to someone who was actually there, such as the gay rights veteran Fred Sargeant.

Now let's talk about the confusion that's at the heart of this parliamentary debate. What exactly is conversion therapy? A YouGov poll last year revealed that 65% of voters believe that gay conversion therapy ought to be banned, and 62% feel the same about "trans conversion therapy." And this would suggest that most voters do not recognize the difference between the two, and nor do many politicians. Now this photograph was taken in Westminster Hall. A cross-party collective of dozens of MPs with a placard that reads, "I support a trans inclusive ban." The image was posted on Twitter by Laboir MP from Nottingham East, Nadia Whittome.

In truth, and without realizing it, the these politicians are supporting a new form of gay conversion therapy, something that most of us thought would be consigned to the history books by this point. When we hear that phrase, "conversion therapy," most of our minds leap to a variety of horrific practices. So, in America, Christian fundamentalists have established programs to address the "problem" of homosexuality, there are camps where young people can "pray the gay away." Which I suppose is at least a step forward from brain surgery, castration and the kind of electric shock treatment favoured by scientific practitioners in the 20th century, or the corrective rape of lesbians to "cure" them of homosexual tendencies that still goes on in some countries.

Such practices are of course already illegal in the UK. So, why the need for a conversion therapy ban? Well, what's happening is there is a conflation of sexual orientation and gender identity and this is why so many are confused. In her book, "Time to Think," Hannah Barnes revealed that between 80 to 90% of adolescents who were referred to the Tavistock pediatric gender clinic were same-sex attracted. We've known for a long time there's a strong correlation between gender nonconformity in youth and being gay in adult life. Members at the Tavistock itself joked that, "soon there would be no gay people left." Whistleblowers revealed that homophobia was endemic. In other words, children who are likely to grow up gay are being "fixed" by medical practitioners to better conform with stereotypical heterosexual paradigms.

Barnes's research shows that the Tavistock clinic -- and this is a quote -- "ignored evidence that 97.5% of children seeking sex changes had autism, depression or other problems that might have explained their unhappiness." They are only 2% of the country's children that suffer from an autistic spectrum disorder, so why is it that 35% of referrals to the Tavistock fit into that category?

in almost all instances, children who are prescribed puberty blockers go on to cross- sex hormones, which in some cases leads to irreversible surgery. We're dealing here, overwhelmingly, with gay and autistic children fast-tracked onto a pathway to sterilization. This is what MPs such as Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Alicia Kearns and Keir Starmer are supporting. Whether they realize it or not.

Now, thankfully, more and more people are waking up to the scale of this problem. So, recently the equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch wrote to the Commons Women and Equality Select Committee about her discussions with former clinicians at the Tavistock. And the conclusion? So-called gender affirmative care amounts to what she described as, "conversion therapy for gay kids." And crucially, she cited a survey of detransitioners -- these are people who have been pressurized into transitioning and they later regret it -- in which 23% of respondents put their determination to transition down to experiences of homophobia.

Badenoch quoted a gender clinic in Germany. They said, "it must be understood that early hormone therapy may interfere with the patient's development as a homosexual. This may not be in the interests of patients who, as a result of hormone therapy, can no longer have the decisive experiences that enable them to establish a homosexual identity."

It is profoundly disturbing that Starmer's Labour party is now officially supporting gay conversion therapy in the form of a ban on "trans-inclusive conversion therapy," and that he's gaining cross-party support. Now, a charitable interpretation is that Starmer, Kearns, Russell-Moyle, Whittome, all the other MPs who are supporting this, simply do not understand that they are advancing dangerously anti-gay proposals. They are supporting the new Section 28. And all the while, they think they're doing the precise opposite.

If any of these politicians would like to come on to this show and discuss these issues, I would be delighted to have them. Consider it an open invitation. In the meantime, I'd like to remind Parliament that homosexuality was removed from the World Health Organization's list of psychiatric disorders back in 1993. Being gay is not a medical condition that requires treatment. Unfortunately, activists have been remarkably successful in confusing the issues through semantic ambiguities and the redefinition of terms. And so, although it sounds desperately counterintuitive, the truth is that in order to oppose gay conversion therapy, one must be opposed to a ban on "trans conversion therapy."

[hellomynameisbisexual]

"For bisexuals specifically, media representation has a long history of portraying us negatively," said Dr. Nora Madison, a media professor at Chestnut Hill College, told CBS News. "The most common stereotype is that bisexuals cannot be fully satisfied with only one partner because half of their desires must then obviously be denied. This is problematic on so many levels, but it begins with the definition of bisexuals as being attracted to both men and women, but with assumptions that bisexuals are only attracted to men and women, and are always equally attracted to men and women at the same time."

"Both of these assumptions are incorrect. The far more accepted definition is one made popular by Robyn Ochs, a prominent bisexual educator and author, who said that bisexuality is the potential to be attracted – romantically and/or sexually – to people of more than one gender, not necessarily at the same time, not necessarily in the same way, and not necessarily to the same degree."

Bisexual individuals make up almost 50% of people who identify as part of the LGBT community, according to research from the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. Nearly 3.5% of adults in the U.S. identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, which translates to approximately 9 million LGBTQ+ Americans. However, accurate media portrayal of bisexuality has long dragged behind data.

Gay, lesbian, or bisexual characters make up almost 8% of television characters, according to GLAAD's "Where We Are On TV" report from 2019. However, representation for bisexual people becomes far less likely in the breakdown. Not only do bisexual characters make up less than 26% of all LGBTQ+ characters, but there has been a steady decrease in representation since 2016. According to the Annenberg Report from USC, there were eight bisexual characters in the top 1,200 films of 2018 and only three in the top films of 2019, far less than what appears on television screens.

"Alongside these persistent connotations with excess and perversity, another factor challenging bisexual representation is that, unless a character explicitly identifies as bisexual, we tend to assume someone is straight or gay based on their current partner, something real life bisexuals also contend with," said Maria San Filippo, an associate professor and author of The B Word. "Television offers bisexuality more potential for representational legibility in this regard, I find, because its serial form allows for more expansive, ongoing narratives."

A year fraught with tropes that characterized bisexual people as flighty, unwilling to choose, in a phase, or worse, killed for the plot of the straight protagonist, 2016 marked a turning point in LGBTQ+ characters. It wasn't just enough to have them, consumers wanted them to be accurate. In the past four years, series like "Sex Education," "The Politician," "Stumptown," "Greys Anatomy," "Brooklyn 99" have all been praised for their accurate portrayal of bisexual characters, films like "Call Me By Your Name," "Colette," "Atomic Blonde," and "Booksmart" have featured explicitly bisexual characters.

For bisexual individuals unsure of their sexuality, experts say the representation they see on screen could make the world of difference. Bisexual people are more likely to have depression, anxiety, or other mental illnesses, according to a study from the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. Another Human Rights Campaign health brief found that bisexual people were more likely to commit substance abuse, have less emotional support and hide their sexual identity. The reason? One researcher points to minority stress theory, a model that says multiple public stressors and societal expectations can manifest negative reactions in minorities.

"I think (more accurate representation) is a big improvement because it's part of a larger move in more recent television which tolerates non-binary identities," said Katherine Sender, a professor with Cornell University's Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program. "I see it as part of that bigger idea. In the past, being trans or being bisexual was extremely problematic within those binary categories. One of the things that's happened, particularly in the rise of original programming on streaming services, like Netflix and Amazon, is there's a much greater tolerance or acceptance of people being on spectrums and not having to fit into one or another end of a binary."

Streaming programs have produced more bisexual characters than ever, but cable programs are still the most likely to show the most bisexual characters, according to the GLAAD report. The inconsistency can most likely be attributed to the more common nature of bisexuality on screen. Shows on original streaming services are more likely to portray more than one LGBTQ+ character, while cable shows, which portraying more LGBTQ+ characters overall, are more likely to feature one character per show, the report said. In all, representation, just like bisexuality, is a fluid spectrum. The decision to feature bisexuality, accurately or not, comes down to a myriad of factors, including writers, actors, show-runners, and industry heads. And while television might not intrinsically cover real life, experts say positive representation does have positive impacts.

"Diverse representation is important for everyone," said Madison. "The more people are exposed to a variety of sexualities, especially in positive or affirming contexts, the more opportunities individuals have to figure their own identities out as well as broaden their viewpoints about others. Media content producers are products of the society they grow up in, and historically many were white, straight males. I don't think positive bisexual representation was a priority until more individuals started asking, demanding, and celebrating it."

[iwant-fuitgummi]

Sumeru Headcanons pt. 1!

(part 2 here!)

Cyno

he/they

26

Transgender Man, Gay

Engaged to Tighnari

Family: Collei (Adopted Daughter), Lisa Minci (FF Sister), Candace (Sister)

Best Friend: Tighnari

He has bad sensory issues. This is why he doesn't wear shoes. It's also why he doesn't wear a lot of clothes, honestly. He hates the way that fabric feels. He feels trapped. So, he wears the bare minimum that is "socially acceptable."

Autistic. Special interest in, you guessed it, TCG. They also love studying old unsolved cases that the Akademiya has on file, and then trying to solve them.

I feel like he'd love FNAF if he were real.

They constantly call Collei "Collei Flower." They started doing it at Windblume and haven't stopped since then.

Speaking of Collei, she's one of the few people that he lets borrow his TCG cards. He taught her how to play, built her a deck, he even gave her some of his duplicates so she'd have a better chance at winning. He also watches over every time she plays. It's like a dad at his son's football game.

Hates the rainforest. They always get eaten up by mosquitos :(

He uses Tighnari's tail and ears as fidgets sometimes. They'll just be sitting on the couch reading or something and Cyno will just start messing with his ears or combing his fingers through his tail.

Okay so they did them dirty in game. Cyno is buff.

Tighnari

he/they/kit/kits/stem/stemself

26

Nonbinary, Asexual, Biromantic

Engaged to Cyno

Family: Collei (Adopted Daughter)

Best Friend: Cyno

Tighnari's in game color palette hurts me so I darkened everything a bit.

He's definitely autistic, but we already knew that. His special interests are botany and mycology.

They also have an auditory processing disorder. Their ears let them hear a lot, so it's hard for them to focus on one thing at a time. They're also very sensitive to sound; Alhaitham lent them some of his noise cancelling headphones [adjusted by Kaveh to fit Tighnari's head (and style) of course] to help.

Kit has a huge lighting scar on kits back. Kit's also scared of storms, but kit tries to pretend that kits not. Cyno can tell something's up, though.

Speaking of being scared of storms, Tighnari is scared of electro in general. Stem gets very nervous when stem sees Cyno's vision activate, but stem pretends stem doesn't.

He's a vegan. He absolutely hates the meat industry and how it treats animals. He grows all of his food by himself in Ghandarva Ville. Collei's asked him if he'd like her to become vegan, too, but he always says "You're still growing, you need all the nutrients you can get," and tells her about all the supplements he needs to take.

They love lizards.

Collei

she/they/he

15

Genderfluid, Asexual, Greyromantic, Gynosexual

Family: Cyno (Adoptive Dad), Tighnari (Adoptive Parent), Candace (Adoptive Aunt), Amber Hasenkamp (FF Sister), Kaeya Alberich (FF Brother), Wanderer (FF Brother)

Best Friend: Kirara

She has a lot of pet lizards! A leopard gecko named Fatin, a panther chameleon named Ziad, a bearded dragon named Kirvi, a frilled dragon named Nayja, a blue tailed skink named Ghaith, and a rosy boa named Anisa. They're all random lizards that Tighnari gave her to help her feel more comfy being alone. She likes them because "they have scales like me!"

In addition to all of these lizards, they also have a service dog. His name is Jabir, and he's an amstaff terrier. He warns her when her Eleazar is about to flare up and gets help.

After Eleazar disappeared, Jabir became Collei's emotional support dog.

Collei has scale-shaped scars on his body from having Eleazar for so long. He also often uses elbow crutches and a wheelchair, since Eleazar had him in bed so often that he's struck with bouts of weakness.

She has cataracts in her right eye.

Candace

she/her

28

Cisgender Woman, Lesbian

Dating Dehya

Family: Cyno (Brother), Collei (Adoptive Niece), All of Aaru Village

Best Friend: Layla

Huge family woman. Loves Aaru Village more than herself.

She runs a soup kitchen in the desert for passing travelers who can't afford food. Plus, there isn't a lot of food and water in the desert, so it's helpful for pretty much everyone.

She's Cyno's older sister. She taught him how to use a polearm when they were younger. She's super proud of him now! Supportive sister :D

She doesn't really like makeup or jewelry, but Dehya does. She lets Dehya give her fun little accessories and lets her do her makeup.

Candace is buff. I don't care. She's built.

She hates the cold with a passion.

She does pottery as a hobby! Her vision helps her keep the clay wet when it needs to be, and it gives her something to do with her hands when she's not busy. She can't focus when she's not doing something physical (she just like me fr)

She gifts small pottery to Collei! She used to make them as hard for her to hold her medication, but Collei doesn't really need it anymore so she just gives her cute ones. She made a clay vase shaped like Baron Bunny once.

Very light sleeper. She's always on alert to protect Aaru Village. She also has Insomnia.

Alhaitham

he/it/xe

25

Nonbinary Man, Gay, Aroace Spectrum

Unofficially Dating Kaveh

Family: Nahida (FF Daughter)

Best Friend: Kaveh

EVERYONE SHUT UP. DESHRET REINCARNATED. LOOK AT HIS EYES HOW IS IT A COINCIDENCE. HIS EYES LOOK EXACTLY LIKE THE SYMBOL THAT REPRESENTS DESHRET. ahem. anyways.

Autism™

He's not the best at social cues. If he does notice them, he just... doesn't care.

I have two different routes here:

1. It's very sensitive to sound and uses its headphones to block them out (this one's pretty much canon)

2. It's deaf and the headphones act as hearing aids. In this scenario, Kaveh learned sign so that he could talk to it when it doesn't have its headphones on.

In both scenarios, Alhaitham knows sign.

Xe wears braces on xyr arms to help with arthritis. Xe writes constantly, so xyr arms are under a lot of stress 24/7.

He LOVES grammar and language. Can and will go on rants to Kaveh about interjections and participles and prepositions. He loves editing essays. He loves fixing them. So. Much.

Sorry that was me projecting. Anyways.

That gem in its chest glows to determine how drained its social battery is. If the gem isn't glowing, it does NOT wanna be there.

Xe has pica and dermatillomania. Kaveh makes xem little toys to pick at so xe doesn't pick at xyr skin. Kaveh also constantly bandages xyr hands so xe doesn't pick at xyr fingernails and hangnails.

He has a pet fish in his office at the Akademiya. It's a tiger barb named Cod-veh. Cyno named it because Alhaitham couldn't think of a name. Kaveh doesn't know that's its name. Don't tell him.

It has tons of succulents. It's a literal god at caring for them. It's actually bizarre.

Wanderer -- Kunimitsu/Beleth

he/they/ae/eni/eniself/rem/rems/remself

~22 (physically), 500+

Genderqueer, Aromantic, Pansexual

Family: Raiden Ei (Mother), Yae Miko (Mother), Raiden Makoto (Aunt), Raiden Shogun (Sister), Xiao (FF Cousin), Nahida (FF Sister), Collei (FF Sister)

Best Friend: Nilou

I named my wanderer Kunimitsu. It has the opposite meaning of Kunikuzushi, and I can still call him Kuni :3

And I gave him a Goetian name, too. Beleth. I chose Beleth because he looks like a cat and plays music (according to Wikipedia idk). This way it ties into Scarameow and his signature weapon.

Best friends with Nilou!! She's teaching them how to dance (secretly ofc). Nahida convinced them to do it, said it would be like physical therapy. Kuni didn't like her at first, but has since grown attached to her and gets sad when they have to miss classes.

Since aer ball-jointed, ae often have aer joints lock up. When this happens, ae uses aer vision to move around. It's not easy, but ae manage. This is why Nahida told aer that Nilou's dance classes would be physical therapy, to stop aer joints from locking up. If Kuni was a human, it'd be arthritis. Ae wears braces on aer arms.

Kuni has a crack in enis face from where eni fell from the Shouki no Kami.

I uncovered rems beauty mark. Honestly just because I think it's pretty. But for an actual reason rem would stop hiding it is...honestly, since Ei doesn't remember rem. Plus, Nahida helped rem become more confident in remself and rems own skin.

He sees Collei as a little sister. He remembers seeing her around Dottore's lab when she was a kid, so seeing her in Sumeru made him weirdly happy. He'd die for her fr.

They visit Xiao occasionally and spar. Kuni found out that he was Morax's kid and was like !!! He like me fr !!!

Feeds the stray cats around Sumeru city. It's gotten to the point that they see him and all come running hoping for snacks and affection.

Nilou

she/her

22

Transgender Girl, Demiromantic, Bisexual

Family: the Zubayr Theater Group

Best Friend: Wanderer

She has a pet bunny named Parisa and two bird named Abtin and Afrin. Parisa is a French lop that she got during a trip to Fontaine, and Abtin and Afrin are rose-ringed parakeets.

Literally one of the most fearless people in Teyvat. Don't test her, she's not afraid of you.

Social butterfly, everyone loves her! Dehya often acts as her bodyguard during shows.

She's getting over anorexia. Her friends have helped her overcome it, and she's now healthier than she's ever been.

She's great with kids! She runs a class where she teaches them (and Wanderer) to dance!

She's such an animal person, literally a Disney princess. She loves animals and animals love her. She always carries snacks around to feed them, too.

Layla

she/they/xe/ey/star/starself

21

Nonbinary, Aromantic, Lesbian

In a QPR with Faruzan

Family: Dori (Sister)

Best Friend: Candace

Narcolepsy, anxiety, ADHD, Tourettes.

Her vision helps her stay safe during narcoleptic sleep attacks. If she's busy and just conks out, her vision will catch her with her shield.

They often have their vision active to keep themself cold and awake.

Xyr anxiety is really bad, but gets worse when it's exam season. Xe doesn't know how to calm down :(

Ey gets distracted very easily. Dori doesn't help, considering she's always showing em her newest wares.

Also Dori and Layla are siblings to me.

Star LOVES astrology SO SO MUCH. Star can't help but infodump when someone brings it up.

She really admires Faruzan and loves spending time with her, so they decided to get in a QPR (queer platonic relationship). They're both super happy!

Faruzan

she/they/ey/thy

23

Demigirl, Aroace

In a QPR with Layla

Family: None :(

Best Friend: Kaveh

I honestly love Faruzan as a character idk what to say

She's pretty and she's silly.

They have a pet mini Tent Tortoise. Its name is Niaz and they got it because "It remembers the same world that I do."

Autism. Special interest in mechanics.

Ey've had a hard time adjusting to modern life, but that's okay! Layla and Kaveh are there to help em!

Not much else to say, I love her.

Nahida

Any Pronouns

~9, 500+

Family: Greater Lord Rukkhadevata (Mother), Wanderer (FF Brother), Alhaitham (FF Father), Raiden Ei (FF Sister)

Best Friend: Paimon

Paimon and Nahida are besties idc

Albino Nahida real

She has the personality, mannerisms, and habits of a nine year old, but the intelligence and wisdom of a god.

I really like Nahida's character so there's not much for me to say

[crossdreamers]

Them reports from the UK:

//A group of MPs — the abbreviation for members of Parliament — from the Labour and Conservative parties used their debate time on February 2 to mark the beginning of LGBTQ+ History Month in the U.K., and express support for trans people specifically. Dame Angela Eagle, the second out lesbian MP in U.K. history, decried what she called “the disgraceful targeting and problematizing of transgender people” which she said would inevitably lead to the erosion of all women’s rights.

But the most emotional words of the day came from Nadia Whittome, part of the Labour Party’s Socialist Campaign Group and a self-described queer woman. In her remarks, Whittome compared the current wave of anti-trans sentiment to the infamous Section 28, which from 1988 to 2003 forbade any mention of LGBTQ+ identities or history in U.K. schools.//

According to Gay Times Elliot Colburn, the Conservative MP for Carshalton and Wallington, pointed to opinion polls that show that a majority if British people support trans people:

“There does seem to be a hysteria around trans issues at the moment and often discussions around trans issues have become so blown out of all proportion and so lacking in, actually, any fact that I think we’ve actually lost sight here of what people are attempting to do,” he said.

“LGBT History Month is important for us not just to reflect on the past, but also to send a message to the LGBT community more widely that they are heard and they are valid and their existence is valid.”

[coochiequeens]

Dear TQ+ whatever your pronouns are - You do NOT have to be included in everything. You do NOT have to be centered in everything. You already have organizations just for you. 

Trans activists are furious after a UK-based charity announced it had been granted funding to create a new helpline for lesbian, gay and bisexual young people.

On June 10, LGB Alliance announced on their social media pages that they had been awarded funding from the National Lottery Community Fund in an effort to establish a helpline to support lesbian, gay and bisexual young people. The Alliance was founded in 2019 in opposition to Stonewall’s stance on gender identity issues, specifically that of medically transitioning children, which the Alliance argues is a form of gay “conversion therapy.” 

According to the organization, the recently-announced helpline effort aims to support persons aged 13-25, as well as their family and friends, by facilitating up to 60,000 calls per year. 

In their announcement on Twitter, LGB Alliance state that the phone lines will be operated by a fully-trained staff of professionals.

LGB Alliance went on to state that there is currently no “dedicated national service of this type for LGB young people” and that they helpline will help fill a gap in existing provisions.

Speaking with Reduxx, Kate Barker, the Managing Director of LGB Alliance, said that the charity was “thrilled” to receive the funding. 

“This grant was the culmination of months of work by a brilliant team of volunteers who were truly delighted by the news. We believe young lesbian, gay and bisexual people deserve to know that being same-sex attracted is natural,” Barker said.

“[LGB young people] should be able to speak to someone who accepts them just as they are – their bodies and who they are attracted to. We say, unequivocally, you’re amazing and being same-sex attracted is valid, positive and to be celebrated.”

While women’s rights advocates and LGB people expressed excitement at the news, trans activists immediately slammed the decision as ‘transphobic’ and ‘exclusionary’ as the focus would not be on transgender-identified people.

“This is harmful. LGB is nothing without the T. @LottoGoodCauses do us a good cause and support trans lives just as much as others.” User @domvlogs user said in response to the funding announcement.

“There is something deeply sinister about groups that aim to protect marginalized social groups but pointedly NOT trans people. Especially children. That is so despicable,” wrote another. 

One Twitter user even went so far as to state that the helpline was “going to kill kids,” with the tweet receiving over 24,000 ‘likes’ at the time of this writing.

Multiple helpline services currently exist in the UK which support LGB, transgender, and “queer” people. One such example is Switchboard, which has been in operation since 1975. Specific helpline services exclusively for trans people are also available, such as Mindline Trans which “is an emotional and mental health support helpline for anyone identifying as transgender, non-binary, genderfluid.”

Despite similar services existing that specifically support those with issues relating to gender identity, trans activists have begun pushing back against the National Lottery Community Funds decision to grand LGB Alliance funding, and have launched a campaign urging people to file complaints in an effort to get the grant pulled. 

One activist, Kieran James, posted a copy of his complaint on social media. The message read: “I beg you to reconsider this decision, taking into account the profound distress, anxiety and fear of the LGBTQ+ community that such a blatantly exclusionary project could be allowed to exist.” 

Rob McDowall, chair of Welfare Scotland, also stated that he would be “raising concerns” with the National Lottery Community Fund over this decision. 

Reacting to the backlash, Kate Barker says, “whilst the response from LGB people was overwhelmingly positive, we were disappointed by others who appear to be vehemently anti-choice.”

Barker points out that there are many existing specialized support services for people with specific gender identifications, but none exclusively for same-sex attracted youth. 

“The view that lesbian, gay and bisexual young people should be denied the same opportunity to be helped smacks of homophobia.”

Barker’s sentiment was shared by many, some of whom took to the National lottery Community Fund’s Twitter replies to thank them for supporting the initiative. 

“It’s 2022 and homophobes are giving LGB Alliance a hard time. They deserve the money to do what they do to help support [same sex attracted] people. Thank you for the support”, one user wrote.

See rest of article

And this is a link to trans/ non-binary/ whatever organizations in the UK

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

In Hanover Township in New Jersey, the Board of Education passed a policy Tuesday requiring school staff to notify parents of their children’s sexual orientation, classifying it along with substance and alcohol use, firearms, and “unlawful activity” as a threat to students’ well-being.

New Jersey’s Attorney General is suing.

The kindergarten through eighth-grade district serves about 1,300 students in Whippany and Cedar Knolls in Morris County.

“Enacting a policy that has teachers policing their schools to out LGBTQ+ students is a disconcerting return to tactics used to criminalize sexual orientation and gender identity,” Jeanne LoCicero, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, told NJ.com. “It targets students based on their LGBTQ+ status and cannot stand.”

“We will always stand up for the LGBTQ+ community here in New Jersey and look forward to presenting our arguments in court in this matter,” AG Matthew J. Platkin said in a statement. He joined Sundeep Iyer, Director of the Division on Civil Rights, to file an emergency motion in Superior Court to enjoin the new policy.

“We are extremely proud of the contributions LGBTQ+ students make to our classrooms and our communities,” Platkin added, “and we remain committed to protecting them from discrimination in our schools.”

Platkin’s complaint argues the board’s policy violates the state’s Law Against Discrimination because it requires parental notification for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer students but not for their peers.

The Attorney General’s office quotes from the new policy requiring all school staff to “immediately, fully and accurately inform a student’s parent(s) whenever such staff member is made aware of, directly or indirectly, any facts or circumstances that may have a material impact on the student’s physical and/or mental health, safety and/or social/emotional well-being,” including a student’s “sexuality,” “sexual orientation,” “transitioning,” and “gender identity or expression.”

In a statement, the Hanover Township board claimed the requirement doesn’t target students based on a protected status. Under the Law Against Discrimination, sexual orientation and gender identity or expression are protected statuses.

The Attorney General’s complaint also argues that the policy would put students’ safety and mental health put at risk, and that it goes against guidance from the New Jersey Department of Education, which protects students’ confidentiality and privacy.

“The purpose of this policy is to involve the parents in the lives of their children,” the board’s attorney, Matthew Giacobbe, told the Daily Record. “They’re participating and not having people other than themselves make judgment calls on their child.”

The board’s statement added: “The Hanover Township Board of Education believes that parents need to be fully informed of all material issues that could impact their children so that they – as parents – can provide the proper care and support for their children.”

[cyberdragoninfinity]

Sherry and Carly?

YESSS let's go women!!!

SHERRY:

First impression: "oh wow everyones' 5D's wife Sherry is like FRENCH French huh, omg."

Impression now: SHERRRYYY I LOVE YOU UNWELL WOMAN. god like. 5D's is chronically pretty bad about its girls but I do love that Sherry just got to have a complete Unhinged Woman Moment and get herself all entangled in the Iliaster bullshit. She got to go sicko mode. She's a fuckin badass and I love that her Duel Runner looks like a horse. Big love for ygo girl who just can beat the shit out of people.

Favorite moment: Her Ark Cradle duel is just so fucking cooooool aahhh...the aesthetic of it all, the desert/rose garden illusion fuckery. The Big Skeleton Door. Sherry McFreaking Loses It (and then gets better.) love it so much.

Idea for a story: have thought a lot about a roseknight story where Sherry works as a knight at a Renfaire that Akiza visits..... rotating them in my mind.

Unpopular opinion: she's cool and i like her :^) also i think her dynamic with akiza is fun. idk if that's unpopular or not though dfgfd

Favorite relationship: Her relationship with Elsworth/Mizoguchi is genuinely so so sweet....he loves her and cares about her SO fucking much ;___; Also her dynamic with Z-one I do like a lot...another person Z-one was happy to support when things were in his favor, and then turn cold on when they decided to go against him. ooouguhhh.

Favorite headcanon: absolute complete and total horse girl. transgender lesbian. hates soda and does kind of feel like the type of person who judges you if you do like soda. said with love.

CARLY:

First impression: "oh this is SUCH a good yugioh character design." adored her glasses from the moment I saw her.

Impression now: THE FAILGIRL OF ALL TIME THAT YUGIOH DESPERATELY DESERVED everything that's been said about how big a bummer it is that she got shafted in the second half has been said, but it is true and it does suck. Love her though.She's just nice and kind of cringe and I think we should LET HER!!! also her Dark Signer form fucking shredsssss she also got to have a bit of an Unhinged Woman Moment. And thank god.

Favorite moment: I rly need to rewatch the first half of 5D's to remember more, but I do love when she and Jack go to the amusement park and he is just being a mopey cunt the whole time.

Idea for a story: I wanna see a fic where Carly has to go to the DMV to renew her silence and just has a no good horrible bad day about it. "im so mad. im going to go home and touch my husband's tits so i won't be so mad" type day.

Unpopular opinion: They really Did Not Know what to do with her in s2 of 5Ds but it doesnt like. make break the entire back half for me. but also second half of 5ds makes me insane for other reasons. Also I like her dub voice more than her sub voice but idk if thats unpopular or not??

Favorite relationship: sorry 2 be basic but her and Jack's dynamic is so so fun and sweet to me i wish we got more of it in the second half 😭 cringefail bisexual 4 cringefail bisexual realness

Favorite headcanon: i think she paints her nails :3 And also she just feels like a very "uses 300 emoticons per text" type person. Nothing can express her emotion better than a ヘ( ^o^)ノcan sometimes.

[funky-sea-cryptid]

Ooo for the ask game; 1, 6, 14, and 18 for Finral for the character ask game please Tam 🥰?

HII LYRA!! yes i can absolutely do best girl finral :3 did you know i have him leveled up to 37 in the mobile game? his and vanessa's joint attack is super banging!!!

1) Why do you like or dislike this character?

i love finral because like. i don't think i've ever seen a character who was so inherently kind and nonviolent. like yes, he's a bit of a coward, but when he gets out there, he tries so hard but he cannot learn an attack spell, because he is KIND. he is kind to everyone, even people who don't deserve it (HI LANGRIS). he's supportive of other people, and sweet, and genuinely i looked at him and went "oh my god, he's so. kind. to everyone. i love him."

6) What's something you have in common with this character?

i have a lot of trouble standing up for myself, and finral does too. it's a huge problem for me, because i have the spine of a chocolate eclair lol. i tend to let a lot of people walk over me, but im trying to be better about standing up for myself!!!!

also, he is transgender and autistic and a lesbian and i am transgender and autistic and a lesbian!

this OBVIOUSLY means we are the same person /j

14) Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character!

my darling wife says this sort of fashion is morigyaru (cottagecore gyaru) lolita. i just think finral likes skirts like his outfit in canon is very shaped in a way.

18) How about a relationship they have in canon with another character that you admire?

oh i LOVE his relationship with vanessa (obviously, im THE lesbian finessa bitch) i think they're super cute as support team, gossipy besties, alcohol aunties, and they just are sooo funny.

but i also just love finral with every one of the black bulls it's obvious he loves them as people :3

(i think the anime gave me like a heart attack by having vanessa there when langris holepunched finral and her yelling "run away!" like STOPPPPPP NOOOOO MY HEART PLEASE NO NO!!!!!!!!! SHE WENT TO THE INFIRMARY WITH HIM AND WAS YELLING AT HIM TO LIVE. LIKE. THE EMOTIONAL DAMAGE I HAD)

[therubymuse]

Biologically Angry

Preface

Recently, a trans woman by the name of Dylan has been the focus of intense outrage from conservatives who live on the stuff, but today, I want to use one of her actions as a jumping off point to talk about who owns the writ on womanhood. Before she was (in)famous for Bud Light and Nike sponsorships, Dylan was taking heat from trans-exclusionary reactionary fascists for another reason: because she carries tampons in her purse. 

I have recently been having some complicated feelings on the limitations of my body, as a trans woman, and owing to either autism, borderline personality disorder, or a mix of the two, I feel a need to share the loss and mourning I’m experiencing with those in my circles. This has, in turn, brought up more complicated feelings.

It may or may not be a surprise for you to learn that trans women have periods. I never know who’s going to read this stuff so this may feel a little Trans 101, but owing to feminizing hormones, a lot of the experiences cis women have with menstruation, like the cramping, the moods, and the cravings, are all things people on feminizing hormones also experience. 

The technical reason for this is hormonal levels dictate fertility cycle windows. Put estrogen and progesterone into a body, and it’s going to react the same way cis bodies that produce those hormones naturally react. As to cramping, it’s not actually the uterus doing the squeeze, but the smooth muscle lining around the intestines, which means that despite not having a uterus, I still get cramps that have knocked me to the floor at times. The only thing we don’t experience is the bleeding, cause of the aforementioned lack of uterus. 

All of this absolutely outrages our some folks, of course. They claim we’re erasing and robbing meaning from the feminine experience. They claim that people like Dylan “masquerade” as women and that her carrying tampons is just another shake of salt in their wounds. It doesn’t occur to them that the reason Dylan does this, the reason I do it, and the reason lots of women, trans or cis, do this is so we can help other women when they’re stuck. I don’t know a single cis woman who hasn’t at one time or another been caught short with her period. Why wouldn’t you want a friendly sister in the next stall over to pass you a pad or a tampon to help get you by? Why should it matter if that sister is trans or cisgender? 

Apparently these things matter a great deal to a vocal few, because according to some recent study work, most cisgender lesbians, for instance, are fully supportive of transgender lesbians. But you wouldn’t know that to sit on Twitter and watch the stream of hatred and calls for outright genocide of people like me. Which is why most of the online world ought to be taken with a grain of salt. 

However, my complicated feelings tie back to Dylan’s actions and experiences in a few other ways. And it’s my intention to air them here for your perusal, because I’m nothing if not a vulnerable trove of queer trauma hastily plastered to the wall for your education.

We are so often told that what is in the physical realm, is not what makes us women, and I agree with that statement. But it doesn’t change the emotional and physical longings I’ve felt and the loss and mourning I’ve experienced. I don’t expect anyone to believe me, but I do wish people would stop telling me what I should and shouldn’t feel, or that I’m better off for the loss. Cause I’m not. 

I: Bleeding

People will often tell you, with varying degrees of veracity, that an experience cannot ever be truly understood unless it is felt. It is this concept that is used to bludgeon transgender people back into our assigned gender and roles. I can’t know that I’m a woman, because I don’t know what a woman  feels like, or some variation on the concept. 

Except there are many ways that I can.

When I grew up in the 90s, there was no awareness or support for transgender kids. Most of my friends were girls, and they told me often the reason I was their friend, instead of most other boys at school, was because I wasn’t like those boys. One of them invited me over to a sleepover once, but their parents forbade boys from sleepovers. I asked my mother if I could join the Girl Guides, but the Guides didn’t know about trans kids at that time, so the answer was no. As I got older, my shy and feminine demeanour made me a target for bullying. I was often called a chicken and a f*gg*t for not engaging with boys. And so by senior high, I had learned to hide who I was really well, and continued to wear that mask into my 30s. 

My high school had a gay/lesbian support group, which I attended once, thinking I might be actually be gay. But I didn’t find I had much in common with gay boys, either. There was no support or wisdom for trans individuals. At home, my parents were not homophobes or particularly religious, but trans people weren’t talked about there either, and films with any gender incongruences such as The Birdcage or To Wong Foo were considered adult viewing, so I didn’t get to see them until much later in my life. Not that those films are paragon examples of trans experiences, but it would have been something. 

Despite all this, when I discovered what trans people were, and that they’d been here all along, I couldn’t explode from the closet fast enough. I knew with every fibre of my being that this is what I was missing. It didn’t matter that I’d never been a girl, I had been so painfully awkward and uncomfortable most of my life, that an answer so simple, that I was a girl, made perfect sense. 

We do trans people a disservice when we gatekeep these experiences. I was trapped inside the body, gender expectations, and social stature of manhood that felt completely alien to me, but there was nothing else, until I learned about being trans. 

I have a body that doesn’t have a uterus, and as such, I don’t bleed on my periods, but I have extended the thought to other folks who do experience this that I wish I could take that from them. And mostly, the response to this suggestion is incredulousness, bordering on anger. The thinking goes, that because I can’t know how this feels, I shouldn’t want it. And wanting it anyway feels disrespectful or demeaning to some. 

And to say I struggle with those emotions would be an understatement. It’s pretty much standard operating procedure at this point to deny a trans woman’s validity based on what she cannot do, but this doesn’t fit with feminism as I know it. There are women who are born without uteruses, or who are infertile, or who otherwise can’t have kids. The fact that they mourn that loss isn’t seen as an afront to womanhood. But it is when a trans woman does it. I don’t want to be angry at my sisters, but sometimes I am, because even allies struggle to understand why this hurts so much. 

The feminism I grew up with, that I saw in school amongst friends, told me that womanhood was not a club whose cost of admission was the strict adherence to patriarchal ideals. You didn’t need to bleed to be a woman, or have kids, or devote yourself to housekeeping and partnership at the cost of your artistry or personal development. The freedom to choose, not just in terms of bodily autonomy, but in all aspects of our identities, was paramount. And it feels like this notion has all but turned on it’s head in an attempt to keep trans women out of the club. The fact that I don’t bleed, that I can’t have kids, that I don’t want to devote myself to housework and partnership, are all points used against me, to prove I’m not a real woman. And yet, my desire to share things with other women is also somehow demeaning and shameful. 

That shrill charge of inauthenticity rings in my ears every time you tell me I  don’t actually know what we want. And it only makes the pain of loss more potent.

II: Childbirth

When I was quite young, I had some sort of Cabbage Patch Kids-adjacent doll. I carried it around the house, calling it my daughter. I think this alarmed my parents, as I was 7 years old at a time and this wasn’t something typical 7 year old boys did. Like most things I did as a child, I suppressed it when it became unacceptable, only to have it pop up in later life. 

I didn’t really give much thought to parenthood in my adult life until transition, admittedly. I was speaking with a friend about their kids, and afterwards, I had a very messy breakdown over the loss of that experience. In several ways, the world considers me unfit for motherhood. Biological essentialists say I’m perverting womanhood to have a child and teach them that I am their mother. My mental health and my financial dependence on the state means that I’m not fit to adopt a child, nor do I have the space to do so. And of course, my body will not create a life in the way I suddenly wanted to experience. 

The pain of realizing all that was very much akin to the pain of someone dying. It was like being made aware of a life I didn’t know I wanted, and then having it taken from me, all in the same realization. I have had to spend a lot of time coming to terms with it. And when I have opened up and spoken about it, I’m either mocked, or I’m told I should be grateful to be free of the trouble. 

When cis women who are able to have kids decide to have them anyway despite warnings of how difficult the experience will be, they’re applauded and supported and given space to experience those feelings. When I express that I want the same, I’m insane. And I’m honestly just so tired of having to justify it. 

I have found ways to be a mother to myself, in the absence of my actual mother. A huge drive in the desire to be someone’s mother figure is to be a better mom than my mom was. I carried my mother’s trauma all my life, and wasn’t allowed to hold boundaries or space for myself. Borderline and dissociative identity disorder are both challenges that carry beginnings in the treatment I experienced. Now that she’s gone, I’ve worked to be my own mother, to the figures in my head who have needed it. My 7 year old self, my lovely Coral, I have loved her even though she causes a lot of distress and pain. 

And so, I don’t need to be a mother as much as I once did, but the pain of loss is still there. The experiences I won’t have and the mourning I’ve done weighs so much. And I haven’t felt like I’ve been able to share that without someone trying to offer me alternatives, or talk me out of it entirely, as if I just don’t know how bad it could be. 

My mother was in labour with me for 17 hours. She had opted for natural childbirth early on in the process and by the time she felt enough pain to want to back out, they couldn’t give her the drugs. So she struggled. They offered to put her on a helicopter to a bigger hospital to maybe assist, and I’m pretty sure the swearing and throwing of things was interpreted as no, cause there I was, born in Tofino in the middle of a storm. She told me the story once, and then told me, in a rare moment of emotional clarity, that I was worth every second of her pain and every opportunity she gave up, just to have me. 

And I still cry, thinking about that, because it’s not like she didn’t know what was coming. But she thought it was worth it anyway. That I was worth it anyway. And that’s how I feel about the children I won’t ever bear. 

They’d have been worth it. 

III: Coping

Once upon a time, I hated myself for my appearance. I hated my thin, frail body, my tall forehead, my facial hair. I was deeply ashamed of my figure and would hide myself in oversized clothing and shirts/shorts when I went swimming. I hated how I was aging, looking more and more like my father, and looking old beyond my years due to the stress and strain of my life and it’s many masks. 

Today, I have the opposite relationship with my body, partly because I could transition, and partly by accepting the parts that aren’t perfect. There are parts of me I adore, like my curves, my thick and recovered head of hair, my eyes. And then there are parts I’ve accepted through radical self-love, such as my voice, my eyes (but in a different way), and my nose (something I rarely admit to having hated in the past). Overall, I’m in a really healthy place. 

However, some things haven’t been as easily let go, such as my longing to be somebody’s mom. I’m working on it, and Coral certainly helps me a lot, because helping her heal trauma from our shared childhood means she is having less meltdown responses to emotional stimuli. I feel proud of her, and the work I’ve done with her. But my invisible head child is pretty hard to explain to strangers, and it’s unfair to ask her to fill all of the emotional cavities I find in myself. That would make me more like my mother than I ever want to be. 

I don’t hate my body for what she is unable to do, but I feel a hole in my chest when I think of what she might have done. There are so many ways that I can be a mother figure, and some of those roads I’m already on in various ways. One of my challenges with borderline is how intense all emotions feel. When I think about not having a child, it hurts just as bad as losing a loved one. I can’t explain why. I think it’s similar to what happens when a cis woman loses a child in pregnancy, although I’m certain that saying so will cause more ire. I can imagine who they would be, how I would have been their friend and parent, what our family would have been like. Sometimes I see them in dreams. And then I wake up, and mourn again. And people tell me what I’m experiencing is insulting to them. 

If the world doesn’t go completely to hell, it’s entirely possible that within my lifetime, trans women will be able to have children via uterine transplants. This has already been done successfully but it’s still quite experimental. If it does go to hell, probably not, and either way, it won’t happen soon enough for me to take part in it. 

It’s going to take a long time to work through these emotions, learn how to cope with them, and direct some of them towards becoming a motherly figure in the ways I can be. But I doubt the ache I feel will ever go away. And I’m tired of pretending that it will, or not talking about it, to save the feelings of others. Motherly longing is part of a lot of trans women’s experiences, and coping requires recognition.

I need to make space to process and feel those things, but we need to make space as a society for trans women to feel these things without persecution, abuse, and belittling. Our womanhood, and our motherhood, matters just as much.

Photo of French Beach, BC, taken by me.