#i cast TRANSSEXUAL POST

[bardnuts]

i love being a man w a vagina i fucking love it

[em-harlsnow]

Weekly tag Wednesday - The google search edition!

Thanks so much for tagging me @spookygingerr and @burninface

name: Em

where in the world is carmen sandiego? (or you): I have no idea what this means I cant lie

ok, so this week we are going to snoop into your google search. type in each phrase and tell us what the first suggestion is that google gives you!

What is the best way to… sleep???

Where can I… watch salt burn

How old is… Joe Biden (im not even American)

How long does it take… to get pregnant (I do not want kids no thanks)

How many… weeks in a year (52)

Who set the record for… the highest jump?

When did... covid start?

What does it feel like to… get shot (probably not good)

Can you… run it (im not sure what im running)

When you… know you know (you know?)

Why do… cats purr (because it's adorable)

Is there a way… to save karlarch (I have no clue what this is)

How old do you have to be… to rent a car (23 apparently)

Where do the… Florida panthers play (again, not American)

What is the best time to… post on instagram (im gonna get famous guys)

And to finish us off… What comes up when you type in Shameless? shameless cast (fair enough it's a beautiful cast)

I'm tagging

@transsexual-dandelions @sam-loves-seb @atthedugouts @m4ndysk4nkovich @sgtmickeyslaughter @bawlbrayker @mickeym4ndy

[evildilf2]

@12-38 embarrassed to say the list of good ftm representation in films I’ve seen is pretty small, and I’ve only read one book with an ftm character if my memory serves me right.

Documentaries I’ve seen: You Don’t Know Dick: Courageous Hearts of Transsexual Men, Southern Comfort

I also started Shinjuku Boys earlier tonight, but I haven’t finished it yet. I’ve heard really good things about it though.

For short films I thought Bros Before was pretty good, though it’s cast is mostly comprised of middle class white people in their 20s. As for feature length films nothing that’s explicit representation is coming to mind, but the film Biosphere has a male character who’s body develops the capacity for pregnancy post apocalypse (& it discusses sexuality & gender identity & all that).

Also I know there’s a character in Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls that’s a trans man… from what I’ve heard it’s not *good* representation by any means, but it’s camp and potentially iconic.

[washipink]

Rain by Jocelyn Samara D Year 1: 2010-2011

erSo I recently found out that 1 year ago, a comic that was INCREDIBLY important to me as a trans middle schooler who went to catholic school had wrapped up. This year, I’ve decided I’m going to read through and review Rain by Jocelyn Samara, 1 year of the comic’s run at a time. First up: Year 1, which covers Chapter 1 (The New Girl) through Chapter 6 (Fallen Angel). I’ll be summarizing the story and characters for those unfamiliar, so feel free to follow along.

There’s a LONG-ASS post under that read more. If you have any experience with the comic or enjoy the post, please talk about it with me. It’ll be a good time.

Year 1 Summary

The star of the show is Rain, a transgender 17 year old girl who moved in with her Aunt Fara after her mother’s death. It starts on the first day of her senior year of high school, the first time she’s ever tried to pass as female in front of... anyone???

Based on some of the language used in the character bios, I should be very clear that this comic is from 2010 and written by a trans woman who is most likely older than most of my followers. There may be language used that you personally don’t agree with. I’m not a fan of being called transsexual myself, but there’s nothing wrong with saying it.

Anyway, the basic gist is that Rain passes EXCELLENTLY and attracts a lot of attention from her male classmates, much to her dismay.

But the men aren’t the only people with their eyes on Rain. Lesbian classmate, Maria and her fake boyfriend, Gavin make a bet of 5 United States Dollars out of who can talk to Rain first.

Here’s the rub: During Role, Gavin seems to recognize Rain’s last name. It’s the same as his childhood best friend, Ryan. Gavin and Maria then banter a little bit, jokingly saying “what if that IS Ryan? could ya believe that?”

Little do they know...

One thing about Rain is that its cast of characters is by no means infallible. Even characters that I came to love, like Maria, are kind of insensitive. Just about no one in this cast has ever MET a trans person in their lives prior to Rain. It’s very true to life in that way. You meet a lot of people that are ignorant or accidentally insensitive. And sometimes, they learn to stick up for you.

The realistic portrayal of how trans teens can be treated by other teens is one of my FAVORITE things about Rain.

Anyway, Gavin brings up Ryan Falherty to Rain, which causes her to panic and run away.

And Crash Directly into the fifth member of our main cast, RUDY!!!!

A rather gossipy gay boy that sees up Rain’s skirt and thinks she’s just a REALLY brave gay dude. He tells Gavin and Maria pretty much right away and Gavin does not take it well. The majority of Year 1 is spent on Gavin and Rain repairing their strained friendship after years apart from one another. That begins here, with Gavin confronting Rain about her identity.

Gavin’s super upset about the whole deal, but Maria and Rudy are some of Rain’s biggest shooters going forward. Even if they can ask a LOT of invasive questions.

If I’m being completely honest, there’s no MAJOR developments in Chapter 2. Fara gets a call from Rain’s older Sister about how their older Brother hasn’t talked to either of them in forever. This lays a few seeds for later events, but it is PRETTY unimportant for a while. There’s some really good emotional dialogue in it though.

In Chapter 3, Rudy’s meddling directly causes Rain and Gavin to reconcile. They have a discussion about how the reason she never told him was just that she was scared to lose her only friend.

MEANWHILE, in an attempt to make some actual friends, Fara reaches out to her neighbors and meets Ky(lie) and Heather Coven, a Gender Ambiguous Teen who goes to a different high school and her less approving older sister.

Kylie, also known as Ky, swaps gender presentations incredibly frequently, not really showing any bias for one or the other. So do not expect me to be consistent with their pronouns. Their gender is kinda messy. Almost like he’s some kind of... real person with a real life gender. Crazy.

Anyway, Fara invites them over and she and Heather get drunk, which means she can’t pick up Rain from the mall. Rain needs a place to sleep that night and Gavin invites her to stay with him.

This begins Chapter 4, in which Gavin and Rain realize that things may be different from when they were kids... but there’s a lot that hasn’t changed. Gavin remarks about how much more feminine Rain is than when she was a kid and how that’s WEIRD for him... but they end up playing a game from their childhood pretty much all night. It reminds them of all the good times and ignites within them the hope that they can have MORE good times going forward.

As an adult with friends I’ve had on-and-off relationships to, this speaks to me way more powerfully than ever before. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The next day, during her hangover, Fara sees Rain’s older brother on an ad for a dating website with his new fiance.

And on the way back to her apartment, Rain meets Ky for the first time. Neither one of them is aware that the other one has ANY kind of Gender going on and they won’t be for quite some time.

The chapter ends with Aunt Fara telling Rain about what happened with Aiken.

Chapter 5 is a simple one, Popular prep girl, Emily is giving out invitations to a Halloween party for her “perfect senior year”

Everyone but Rudy gets one, which causes Maria to give Emily a talking to. She assures Maria that he wasn’t intentionally excluded and it definitely wasn’t because he’s the only openly gay student in the whole school.

Oh, also a dude beats Rudy up for that exact reason, earning Maria’s fury later on. Rain invites Ky to come with the rest of them to the party.

Like I said, pretty simple chapter.

The last chapter of year 1 is Chapter 6: Fallen Angel.

Everyone is showing off their Halloween costumes before they leave for the party. Rudy’s reads as a bit insensitive to rain, as he goes as.... a high school girl.

We’ve all heard this one, right? young queer person that wants to toy with their gender expression uses a Halloween costume as an excuse? It can hit different watching your friend do this when you’re a stealth trans person and especially when you’re one as self-conscious as Rain.

When they reach the address for the party, they find out that Emily... has an older Boyfriend. Like, a WAY older boyfriend. Who lets all these literal teenaged children drink at a party in HIS HOUSE.

also he’s dressed as the devil in case you needed any more signals he was BAD NEWS.

This sounds like a good time for an aside: Fara is on a date with someone she met online. He works at a manga translator and offers to get Rain a meeting with her favorite mangaka.

Meanwhile, at the party, Chase seems to recognize Rain from somewhere. What could this mean?

Anyway, remember how I mentioned the underage drinking? Yeah, Rudy is HELLA drunk. And the results are not pretty.

The whole school sees this and is... BAFFLED. Because of course, Rudy is gay. how could he kiss a girl? Did he do it because he was dressed as a girl? Was it the alcohol? was RAIN Gay? Who knows?

The chapter ends on Rain riding home in tears.

Thus ends the first year of Rain.

Art

Ok, let’s talk about the elephant in the room. This art is... not too impressive. Every character looks like they jumped out of a How to Draw Manga book and Rain’s design is VERY 2010. Backgrounds are infrequent and many panels feature just 2 characters next to each other against a flat color.

But I think that’s okay. While the visual design of Rain is not immaculate, it’s certainly passable. Samara had a story to tell and she didn’t let her art hold her back. She just took pen to paper and let it go. As the comic goes along, you can tell she’s trying different things and experimenting with drawing a variety of poses. That said, the art style never really changes at all during the comic’s run.

Pure Unfiltered Story Opinions

Rain was one of the first real queer stories I’d gotten a chance to read. At the ripe, young age of 12, every word of it was unreal to me. A girl like me made REAL friends in spite of it all and got to be who she was. And now, reading it again, it really holds up.

Rain has a depiction of queer friendships that’s very true to a lot of peoples’ lived experience. Not everyone GETS each other, but they try. Sometimes, they ask a stupid-ass question. Sometimes, you get into fights. 

Also, sometimes people in your high school get prayed upon by creepy weirdos in their late 20s who think they can get easy tail from CHILDREN. (Trust, people. This gets addressed. This is NOT a fucking glorification and if anyone in the notes says it is, they’re blocked.)

I look forward to seeing where the comic goes from here and I hope you’re ready to take that journey with me.

[natalieironside]

Introducing the Writer Tag Game

Ty @iloveyou-writers for making this and to @thewriteflame for tagging me <3

Rules: fill in the blanks with as much or little detail as you would like and tag some writer friends to play too. (blank version)

Hello, there. My name is award-winning speculative fiction author Natalie H. Ironside and I won a writing contest in high school one time that I'm gonna milk harder than Pabst milks their one blue ribbon. I'm a writer of the dark sci-fi and dark fantasy genre(s) and I love to write about sad gay ppl in horrible situations. Also, hope. The hope is very important, and my stories can get pretty dark but they always have happy endings.

I cover a broad enough range that I think I can just reject the dichotomy of SFW/NSFW (everything is adequately tagged and described so the rest is in God's hands). I write about some pretty dark themes and a lot of my work deals with the aftermath of stuff like sexual violence and child abuse, so just be aware of that, as well as the "entrails, lovingly described" throughout. Tropes you will never find in my writing include any salacious depictions of sexual violence (the word "aftermath" in the above is an important one) or...Well, I'm not sure how to put this. Most of my protags are racial, religious, sexual, or some other sort of minority, and obviously there's some darkness in the world et cetera, but there's a certain way of framing bigotry in fiction as though it's cinematic action violence which I find uniquely distasteful and I will not be doing any of that. I'm not sure if I'm explaining this in a way that makes any sense at all but I promise to never try to be the Kojima of sexism.

In my humble opinion, my best work I've posted is The Scruggsdale Organizer #4: Local Woman About Tired of All This Mess because I think it's very funny. Maybe I'm just being precious, but comedy is really really hard and I very rarely even bother trying at it but I'm pretty proud of The Scruggsdale Organizer and this installment in particular. For y'all who don't know, which I'm sure is a lot of y'all since I haven't posted about it in forever, The Scruggsdale Organizer is an epistolary horror-comedy serial about a little town in rural Mississippi where strange supernatural things happen, but instead of blog posts or letters the story is being told through articles in a weekly anarchist zine. Yeah, I guess I've written some "novels" and some "short stories" and some "poetry" or whatever, but I look at Scruggsdale Organizer #4 as a time I set out to do a specific thing and just really nailed it; it's the literary equivalent of parking the car in the spot just right.

My all-time favorite character I've made is Freydis Gothi Thorkilsdottir, daughter of Thorkil Gothi Swordbreaker, Matron of War Witches, Matron of War Matrons, High Field Marshal, Eater of Cities, Mother of Abominations, and Chief Royal Consort. She's a recurring protagonist in my Nameless Queen dark fantasy universe and I am love her very much. Freydis is an enormous ginger transsexual, a sword-and-board fighter who can cast wicked spells, and a rough-and-tumble freebooting adventurer type who suddenly found herself part of the royal court and fast-tracked into becoming a monstrous demigod. It's super weird for her and she's dealing with a whole "to become a god is to lose everything that made life worth living" situation but she's also having a rip-roaring good time while she does it.

Something I'd love for you to know about my writing that isn't listed in this game is, well, I feel like we got kinda dark in the middle there, so I wanted to end back where we began and talk about hope. What really does it for me when it comes to the dark stuff is recovery; I like telling stories about recovery. My characters sometimes have very very bad days, but tomorrow can always be better than yesterday and there's always a reason to keep trying.

Thank you for reading and now I challenge the following people to fill this out: I seem to have misplaced my list of people who said they liked participating in tag games so I'm leaving this one open. I tag each and every one of you.

[fmet]

I would argue that chainsaw man is an inherently queer piece of media. Even considering the main characters rampant heterosexuality and Fujimoto’s clear love for his female cast (lol), any lgbt person reading csm is sure to notice how reminiscent, even nostalgic, of transsexuality, homosexuality and other unconventional forms of attraction Fujimoto built chainsaw man’s world to be. Not meaning that their is a lack of homo/transphobia in the csm universe or in Fujimoto’s ideological views (quite the opposite actually). But Fujimoto has continually proven to enjoy and put effort into writing lgbt storylines. In Fire Punch there is a trans male MC and two gay male side characters. One of his short stories follows a guy who wakes up suddenly as a girl, and ends with the character deciding to maintain a male identity.

In chainsaw man there are even more instances of “queerness” influencing the world building, which includes the featuring of lgbt characters. The most obvious example is Quanxi and her 4 weed smoking girlfriends (and I do acknowledge that she is partly a result of lesbian fetishism on Fujimoto’s part. It would be ignorant to pretend that she isn’t—but I also don’t think that negates her mentioning here). The mechanics of fiends and devilmen, which deal largely with recreating and reutilizing the body in a way and for what it wasn’t originally intended, is something that really speaks to be as a trans person. Denji being “reborn” after contracting with Pochita, and being sewn into a new person with different bodily experiences, feelings, etc, can be correlated to surgery and body modification, including gender-affirming surgery.

There’s Angel devil and Aki’s deal paralleling Aki’s relationship with Himeno, there’s Beam’s deal, etc etc. I remember reading somewhere that Fujimoto’s read BL. I’m sure there’s more I’m forgetting and that fact alone makes me really happy. Even with real world homophobia and transphobia making itself present in Fujimoto’s stories chainsaw man’s still manages to feature Lgbt characters and themes so casually, as if understanding that negative attitudes towards something does not make that something go away. Idk even with my love for media that centers lgbt issues I also have so much gratitude for media like Chainsaw man where lgbt people can just be there, and it’s not a grab for representation, and the creator isn’t trying to make a ethical point by including them. It’s as much of a theme of chainsaw man as it’s criticism of dehumanizing labor.

That post that was talking about Fujimoto referencing from actual autists and gay people for his stories was so true. What I’m saying is is that Yoshida is fujobait and gay until proven otherwise frrrr fr

[columbiastapshoes]

so if a modern version of frank-n-furter, janet, columbia, and magenta from the rocky horror picture show formed a riot grrrl/rock/sometimes other genres girl(ish) band would that be crazy or what?

AU TIME YIPPEEEEE!! made this one with irl friend @hatsunerandal a while back and i’ve been meaning to post about it i just keep forgetting LMAO so yeah!! band au!!

this band is called the transsexual pussycats because. yeah.

we have everyone on vocals, janet on drums and guitar, frank also on drums and guitar (they switch which one does which (that was a lot of rhyming)), columbia on bass, and magenta also on guitar and keyboards :D

“don’t be cringe about it” NEVER. COLUMBIA IS SCENE NOW RAAAAHH 🦅🦅🦅🦅

janet’s style is just. lana del ray vinyl. and magentas goth and franks punk yaaay!!!

irl friend and i have put together a total of. 4 albums i think? and i am almost done with the fifth one! our process is just. find already existing songs, plop them in a playlist, and then write paragraphs about who sings what and who wrote what and what they wrote the songs about etc etc! quite a fun process if i do say so myself :3

albums 1, 3, and 4 were done by me, album 2 was done by irl friend!! their names are “mcpussy meal” (we almost named the band mcpussy but after i said “old mcpussy had a farm eieio” we changed our minds), “lord of the lesbian jellyfish”, “one girl, 69420 women”, “honestly,” and the fifth one which im not quite done with is “rose blood”!! we’re slaying with the names as u can see! the songs mostly stick to a rock/riot grrrl sound, but they can also do some more pop/hyperpop or electronic songs, and i felt REALLY silly and added a folk song to rose blood :3

now. u might be asking. where is the rest of the cast? what part do they play in this au? well!! for one thing columbia and eddie broke up (she’s with magenta now i love lesbians) and she has written at least one song about him per album 🫶 but other than that he’s out of the picture, along with pretty much everyone else…

EXCEPT FOR BRADLEY MAJORS.

i told my friend about brad in this au and they just said “brad def has groupie energy that 1000% works” and i think about that a lot LMAO he’s not actually a groupie he’s just their biggest fan ever even though he doesn’t even listen to their style of music. he attends every concert, has all the merch, is basically just so embarrassing about it i love him dearly. he’s also in a qpr with janet and dating frank yahoo!! i fucking LOVE the brad/janet dynamic in this au because all of her concert outfits are so slutty and so pink and after the shows and after hugging her aggressively he’s like “you’re wearing so little are you cold :( wear my jacket i don’t want you getting sick” and in one of the songs she is quite literally screaming her lungs out and im just imagining him watching that at a rehearsal and being like “Yay!! :-D” he’s the silliest ever actually

it’s also a canon event that the band got interviewed by that one guy with the hat who goes WHO ARE YOU i hope u know who im talking about if u don’t im so sorry that was so vague

ok those are the basics!! if ppl see this and enjoy it feel free to ask me questions about it i love talking about my silly guys so very much and thank u so much for reading this far 😭😭

[variousqueerthings]

no actually what I would like to ask alan alda and/or mike farrell about (or loretta swit or jamie farr, if they’d have any opinions on it, but I haven’t yet delved quite so deeply into how they interact with the show post-making) is the references to transsexuality/transvestitism, as something that was made about 50 years ago writing it as in the public knowledge in some form or other/to one extent or another 70 years ago

(and here is where we take an interlude to mention that glen or glenda was made in 1953, so right around the same time as this show is set)

I’m curious about how commonly occurring it was that they had sidney offer it as an out to klinger in s2 (albeit with consequences, because it would be on his record), I’m curious about radar of all characters from the middle of nowhere understanding its existence, although with the small-town attitude that comes with it, and I’m especially curious about inga offering klinger gender affirming surgery 

jokes of course, but none of them age badly when looking at them head-on either (perhaps the part that ages slightly worse is how klinger reacts when assumed trans, but even that makes sense for the time it’s set in, regardless of how one reads klinger’s gender)

and I don’t think necessarily that these musings can be turned into an easily answerable question + the person to really talk to would presumably be walter dishell (whose rundown videos on youtube I still need to watch), but what I’m wondering broadly about is a bit how the characters-as-medical-professionals would have been aware, a bit how the non-medical-characters would have been aware, a bit how the writers and cast would have been aware, and a bit of how the audience would have been aware -- these reference don’t exist in a vacuum after all

one of the things one is constantly facing is this absurd notion that “people” (as a vague whole) have never been aware of transness until the 21st century, or even that transness didn’t exist properly until the 21st century, and while there is plenty to show that this is simply incorrect -- texts, academia, personal anecdotes, oral histories, movies, popular music, art, etcetc. -- especially coming from inside the community, it’s interesting (and heartening) to see it mentioned several times in one of the most popular shows ever made in America, also considering the time period the show is set in 

maybe “question” is incorrect. would like to have a conversation about it, whether or not there was any real intentionality in it (and tbh if there wasn’t -- as I suspect there may not have been, beyond the simple fact that it existed -- I don’t consider that a negative, because that’s simply another fascinating inclusion of note that was done simply Because. that is still a rarity in film and tv made by and for cis people, especially film and tv with the reach that MASH had) 

I think teasing out these bits and pieces about marginalised people would be an interesting conversation to have with the people who were involved in the making of it (especially alan, as he wrote and directed inga), to gain another little puzzle piece about how trans people have existed throughout time

also, youknow. getting all of the above to say trans rights would be neat

[pittrarebooks]

Trust in Trans Becomings

This post is written by Vasudha (they/them), a Brackenridge Fellow in the David C. Frederick Honors College and a fourth year undergraduate student majoring in Natural Sciences and Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies.

My time with the transgender underground press in the Hillman Archives & Special Collections lead me to think about how trans pasts and trans presents are intertwined, especially with trans people being heavily scrutinized in our current political climate. Bans against gender-inclusive books, drag shows (1), and gender affirming healthcare (2) are being proposed and even passed at state-wide levels in an attempt to eradicate “gender ideology”, at the cost of the trans community’s safety and well-being. In looking through issues of TV-TS Tapestry, which was later renamed Transgender Tapestry, I found one trans political narrative from the past that is still present today, although in different language.

Detransitioning stories have been used often as conservative talking points for why gender affirming care should be limited, framing it as causing irrevocable harm to those who supposedly hopped on the “trans train” without a second thought, and ultimately regretted their decision (3). In a 1988 issue of Tapestry, the term “pseudo-transsexual” was used to describe people who were convinced they were trans, but were instead “very confused” and “emotionally disabled”, in the words of Sister Mary Elizabeth.

(Above) Excerpt from "Sy Rogers and the 700 Club: A Response" by Sr. Mary Elizabeth, n/SSE, The TV-TS Tapestry, Issue 52, pg 46-47, 1988. University of Pittsburgh Library System, Archives & Special Collections.

As a devout Christian nun, the words of Sister Mary may seem like they come from a place of compassion and concern, seeing as she places blame on the religious community for condemning gender-diverse people, turning them away from God (see third paragraph of the above excerpt). But as a White trans woman, Sister Mary’s words only serve to cast doubt on the self-knowledge of trans people of color and other marginalized trans people, whose trans identity is more likely to be written off as false or self-convinced (4). This doubt quickly becomes reason to turn them away from receiving care, giving providers the power to choose who is “really” trans, and who isn’t.

(Above) Image of Sr. Mary Elizabeth with Christine Jorgensen at the International Foundation for Gender Education 'Coming Together' Convention in 1988 from "Sy Rogers and the 700 Club: A Response" by Sr. Mary Elizabeth, n/SSE, The TV-TS Tapestry, Issue 52, pg 46-47, 1988. University of Pittsburgh Library System, Archives & Special Collections.

Today, narratives of detransitioning are covertly doing the same by feigning concern for those who were supposedly coerced into receiving gender affirming care by the “transgender ideology” spread by trans people and enabled by medical caregivers. Politicized detransitioning organizations encourage those who detransition to sue their physicians, effectively scaring well-meaning providers off from treating patients who they deem “emotionally unfit” to transition, and pushing medical practitioners to question the self-knowledge of their patients.

In addition, restricting doubt from trans experiences has related implications. In Transgender Tapestry’s Summer 2005 “Ask Ari” column, a trans woman admits to feeling doubtful about medically transitioning. Ari responds to reassure her that although medical professionals make it difficult to voice these feelings, it is completely normal for trans people to have fears surrounding the process of transitioning.

(Above) "Ask Ari" Column from Transgender Tapestry, Issue 108, pages 18-19, Summer 2005, University of Pittsburgh Library System, Archives & Special Collections.

I resonated with this column as someone who has felt illegitimate for experiencing trans doubt myself, and I realized that we’ve been conditioned to feel that way through medical practices. Throughout the history of trans medical care, diagnostic criteria have included experiencing mental distress in the form of gender dysphoria (formerly known as gender identity disorder) to be eligible for care. Until last year, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) required a psychologist recommendation and diagnosis for patients to be able to receive care. Although this has been removed from their standards of care, a majority of clinics still use this criteria, which in many cases doesn’t allow for trans doubt to be explored without disqualifying patients from care.

Many trans people do have doubts and fears about medically transitioning, and it’s important that these feelings can be spoken about freely so that patients can be honest about their trans experiences and trust providers with their care. If a patient is forced to exaggerate their need for care in order to be trusted and qualified to receive it, there is no space for real conversations about a patient’s needs and what they hope to achieve through gender affirming care, which is what may lead to experiences of detransitioning (in the way that conservatives view it) in the first place.

Looking into snippets of trans history provided me with a better sense of trans experiences in today’s world, by being able to see similarities at the core of trans issues throughout time. Trans archival materials serve an important purpose of reminding us that trans people have always been here, and have been fighting the same anti-trans sentiments for centuries, although they may seem different today. They give us the strength to keep fighting.

Footnotes & Works Cited

Garnand, Ileana. "How drag bans fit into larger attacks on transgender rights." The Center for Public Integrity, April 14, 2023.

HRC Foundation. "Map: Attacks on Gender Affirming Care by State." Human Rights Coalition, Accessed August 8, 2023.

For a better understanding of more common reasons for detransitioning, see this NIH article: Turban, Jack L., et. al., "Factors Leading to "Detransition" Among Transgender and Gender Diverse People in the United States: A Mixed-Methods Analysis." LGBT Health, May/June 2023; 8(4): 273-280. DOI: 10.1089/lgbt.2020.0437. Accessed August 8, 2023.

For a detailed archive-based history on racialized medical gatekeeping of gender affirming care, read Chapter 5 of Jules Gill-Peterson’s Histories of the Transgender Child, titled “Transgendered Boyhood, Race, and Puberty in the 1970s”.

[queermediamonday]

Happy Queer Media Monday!

Today: The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

One of the best things ever, this movie is literal perfection.

(Dr. Frank-N-Furter in his iconic drag outfit from the song Sweet Transvestite in the front, with Brad and Janet in their traditional 50s clothes in the back.)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a musical comedy movie based on the theater production by the same name. A tribute to classic science fiction and horror movies, it tells the story of Brad and Janet, a stereotypical 1950s US-American couple, who get caught up in a Frankenstein-like science experiment, leading their traditional world to clash with a very sexually liberated one.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the longest-running theatrical release in film history. While the first reactions to the movie were negative, it gained cult status when people started to interact with it during screenings, first by yelling comments, that then evolved into a whole script of lines to say at certain points. People started to dress up like the characters, and a shadow cast acted out the movie alongside the real actors. This subculture of Rocky Horror late night screenings still exists today. 

Both the movie and its fanbase are very queer. The story is, above all, about sexual liberation, and it features same-sex sexual relations as well as characters in drag who loudly self-identify as “transsexuals”. Also worth noting is the age and body diversity of the background dancers. As to the fanbase, Rocky Horror screenings opened up a new space for people to be openly queer and experiment with gender expression.

All in all, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is an absolute classic both for fans of science fiction, musical theatre, and queer people in general, and everyone should have seen it at least once.

Queer Media Monday is an action I started to talk about some important and/or interesting parts of our queer heritage, that people, especially young people who are only just beginning to discover the wealth of stories out there, should be aware of. Please feel free to join in on the fun and make your own posts about things you personally find important!

[shepfax]

so after a bit more research, I've become more comfortable considering myself part of the intersex community. it brings me such joy that there are so many terms for me--transgender, transsexual, transmasculine, FtM, genderqueer, non-binary, androgyne, and now intersex.

it felt odd at first, chiefly because of all these misconceptions I harbored about the nature of intersex conditions and the finer details of the sex spectrum. I never doubted the fact that sex, like gender, is not an immutable binary, but I didn't understand the extent to which my own body resided between those imaginary lines. for example, as far as I know, I didn't have genital ambiguity at birth, and I've always been under the impression that that ambiguity or atypical presentation at birth is the definition of being intersex, so obviously someone like me couldn't be intersex. thankfully I know better now, that there are tons of ways intersex traits can manifest, many of which only begin to present at puberty such as mine. at this point I don't know if I have any chromosomal differences, but I do know my body is measurably different than the norm beyond just my hormones. the late onset of this awareness also means I need to be extra forceful in my activism for bodily autonomy, seeing as intersex genital mutilation is not only practiced, but encouraged, in far too many places. the intersex community has made strides for everyone in the realm of medical and social bodily autonomy only to be cast aside as a rounding error or tokenized as a gotcha against bioessentialism.

this matters to me doubly so because at this point in my life I've medically transitioned away from my sex assigned at birth and, due to my queer path to self-determination, chose to legally change my sex marker to X, not M. I am not male or female in body, but rather a cocktail of the two, so it seemed right to have my legal status reflect that. (and yes I still use the term FtM for myself just because honestly, for all intents and purposes, it suits me. it describes the medical practices I undertook to transition and attaches me to a rich, historic community of my fellow FtMs, trans men, tboys, etc. feels comfy, feels like a vintage sweater.) even before I knew I was working with a specifically intersex condition, I joked a lot that my condition gave me a head-start on masculinization. my changes on T happened pretty damn fast and were far more akin to those of cis dyadic men in my family than those of many dyadic trans men in my life. because of this difference in baseline, I really can't wait to connect with other intersex trans and nonbinary people. if one with intersex traits such as myself undergoes medical transition, there's a baseline of hormonal and sexual nonconformity to our bodies that automatically produces a "transition timeline" which differs from those of a dyadic trans person's timeline at just about every step of the way.

about 8 years ago, at my first meeting with an endocrinologist to do baseline blood work before prescribing testosterone, in starting a physical exam he gave me a once-over and said "have you been tested for PCOS?" because apparently it was obvious to everyone but me that I had hyperandrogenism. blood work confirmed it, and I smiled as I started my transition with naturally elevated testosterone for an AFAB individual. my "starting point" looked like some people's 2 months or 6 months or 2 years on testosterone.

it's just that I've been living without that sense of community through not just my whole life but my whole transition. I love and thrive within the trans community, but that difference in baseline always added a gap in understanding, particularly surrounding what shape one should exist in as they are pre- or post-transition and the nature of "passing". so it feels odd to step into it now even though it's always been part of me... basically I'm still feeling weird. nervous weird, but also buzzing-with-excitement weird at the chance to finally find community with people both like and unlike myself.

tl;dr hello intersex community. sorry I'm late, no one told me I was invited I just thought I was a freak. I really like LGBTQ+ nonfiction so if any of you have book recommendations about intersex community history or issues I would be so very happy to hear them

[perplexingluciddreams]

Okay, tagging system is in my pinned post now! And now I need to post those pictures from when I get my legs casted for orthotics…

I forgot and then I put it off because there is a lot of pictures and writing image descriptions is hard for so many similar pictures.

AND I want to post pictures of unfinished mending project, from aaaages ago...

AND I want to get around to editing together all my words for a post I plan about having nonverbal autism and being transsexual…

AND I still want to write about the character Jake Pratt from Young Americans (played by Kate Moennig, of course)...

It might all take a while!!

[hazeisblue]

Weekly Tag Wednesday: Google Search Edition

Hiii, I was tagged by @thepupperino Thank you so much! <3 I had a lot of fun

name: any variation of hazeisblue (haze, blue, idk) lol or whatever honestly

where in the world is carmen sandiego? (or you) I had to google carmen sandiego lol. I'm in Lima, Peru 🇵🇪

ok, so this week we are going to snoop into your google search. type in each phrase and tell us what the first suggestion is that google gives you!

what is the best way to…learn English (By having unrestricted and unsupervised access to internet at a young age like I did. But tbh I'm still learning and I'm hoping to get my C2 certification soon!)

where can i… watch oppenheimer (I only saw a bootleg version for 15 mins and I got bored, I have a very short attention spam)

how old is…she en español (Cuál es su edad/Cuál es la edad de ella lol)

how long does it take…to get to the moon (about three days)

how many…how much (i bet a lot of my google searches are just going to be grammar related i'm sorry)

who set the record for…the highest jump (how come we all get the same one here?)

when did…einstein publish his theory of relativity (1905 according to Google)

what does it feel like to…be in love (wouldn't know but I bet it feels like whatever my cat feels when he lounges in the warmest spot of the living room under the sun)

can you…play roller derby with inline skates (so I go through these hyperfixations sometimes...)

when you…know you know (the spanish version of this is a meme in Tiktok lol)

why do…n't you get a job (i'm taking this one personally)

is there a way…to save karlach (i have never played a videogame in my life)

how old do you have to be…enter a casino (i think 18 here)

where do the…clichés go (apparently this is a manhwa and i might check it out)

what is the best time to…post on instagram (i wouldn't know, i only use reddit/tumblr)

and to finish us off… what comes up when you type in shameless? cast (I don't think I've ever googled the Shameless cast lol I just found out about gallavich and got deep into the fandom)

Tags under the cut :)

@fearlesbian @transsexual-dandelions @mikhailogallagherhoe @pookiebearmick @treeffles @onthepyre @southsidestory @kandyzee if you feel like it 🌻

[atthedugouts]

Weekly tag Wednesday - The google search edition!

Thanks so much for tagging me @em-harlsnow and @burninface

name: Sarah

where in the world is carmen sandiego? (or you): Listen here gumshoes, I'm in San Diego

Also for those who don't know Carmen Sandiego was geography based computer game and TV show that goes back to the 80s. I think most people remember it from the theme song. I had the 1999 computer game and loved it!

ok, so this week we are going to snoop into your google search. type in each phrase and tell us what the first suggestion is that google gives you!

What is the best way to… lose weight (rude)

Where can I… get a free TB test (not a question I have)

How old is… Dick Van Dyke (98!)

How long does it take… to get a passport (I should find mine)

How many… children does the doctor have (I googled this when watching the latest episode of Doctor Who)

Who set the record for… the highest jump?

When did... they start calling it America? (I googled this when watching Franklin)

What does it feel like to… get shot

Can you… eat head on shrimp (I actually googled this because I saw it on a menu)

When you… wish upon a star lyrics

Why do… dogs eat grass

Is there a way… to save karlarch (I guess this is from a game)

How old do you have to be… to gamble

Where do the… children play (creepy?)

What is the best time to… post on instagram (I haven't posted there in years. I just go there to get sent old memes from my friends in DMs)

And to finish us off… What comes up when you type in Shameless? shameless cast (then click on google images right?)

Tagging: @transsexual-dandelions @mickeym4ndy @iansw0rld @iangallagherisadeadman @tv-obssessions

[kahmeokiblog]

Why are nonbinaries always the biggest transmisogynists? You do not have the experiences of a transsexual and you are a straight theyfab worming your way into a community full of actual homosexuals and transsexuals.

I guess the twanmisogyny is recognizing basics realities such as mtfs are still members of the male sex caste even post transition, have-been male socialized (and still are male-socialized), experieced/retain a set of privileges associated to their sex and are just as inclided to sexual offense as cismales (in fact they seem to be worse than them on this area)

I am not straight but even if i was I would still retain the legitimacy as a feminist afab person to criticize 'the community/movement' for its male supremacist dynamics/ideas and misogyny since the current transgenderism negatively affects my sex caste (especially sexual and gender minority afabs, like lesbians, trans men etc) and prevents the realization of the female liberation project.

[trekkie-lkm-archive]

Info:

Rocky Horror Picture Show crossover/meld.

However you can see fit to do it. Maybe the Enterprise goes to the planet Transsexual? Maybe they wind up on an Earth-like planet where Dr. Frank-N-Furter has set up shop and interrupt the proceedings when Brad and Janet are there? Maybe Brad and Janet become some sort of interplanetary diplomats after the events of RHPS? Maybe the crew has to transport Dr. Frank-N-Furter, intergalactic outlaw, into custody?

Or it could go another way entirely. Maybe Spock and Kirk act as Brad and Janet, respectively (though probably without the preceding proposal, heh) and Bones comes in as Dr. Scott. Maybe it's the entire cast thrown into the various RHPS roles — Kirk as Rocky, perhaps? Uhura as Columbia? Pike as Dr. Scott? Sulu and Chekov as Brad and Janet? Bones as a disgruntled Frank-N-Furter, with Scotty and Gaila as really messed up versions of Riff Raff and Magenta?

Or maybe Kirk gets the bright idea to do a RHPS night on the Enterprise.

The possibilities are endless! …ish!

I admit that I would be particularly grateful for two specific outcomes to this: Spock, at some point, in fishnets and high heels, and some slash pairing.

(thread)

Fill: 1/1

Author: Ello_Kitty

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