Ace Barrie

I'm a writer, focusing on research essays and fiction short stories. I'm using this blog as an archive for myself and share it with the world ❤️

[ace-barrie]

Officially starting to read/annotate my sources. I have finished the vetting process and am now on to the real research 🫡🫡

[ace-barrie]

It is so hard trying to examine every source objectively when I am stuck sifting through news articles just proudly stating facts I know to be false. Facts I have already heard and disproven for myself. Facts that are inherently harmful to the minority they are speaking about, in this case, transgender children. I am trying so hard to objectively read every source, then go back and disprove it. Trying so hard to hear every opinion and claim, so no one can come back and accuse me of cherry picking. I am trying to hard to prevent my research from becoming an echo chamber, but seeing the way people talk about the trans (and queer) community, how they talk about me, hurts.

[ace-barrie]

Back at it again

[ace-barrie]

I love learning about authors personal lives through the research they've done. Like when two authors, who coauthor on a number of articles or studies, suddenly have the same last name. It just reminds me of the human lives and the passion behind the research.

[ace-barrie]

Biases and Promises

I've been thinking on my last post (linked below). In the very beginning of my research, I promised to do my best to research this topic, the Validity of Trans Individuals, without biases. When I said this, I meant biases for and against the existence of trans people. Excluding someone's work because I don't agree with their actions or opinions, feels like a biases to me, especially because I have access to that surgeon's work for free, meaning me reading it will not benefit him at all (as well as me ignoring it won't disadvantage him either). I'm not sure if I will include it, but I will at least read it with the same credit I give all of my other sources, just with keeping in mind the authors' biases as well.

Tumblr is a place to express yourself, discover yourself, and bond over the stuff you love. It's where your interests connect you with your

[ace-barrie]

The world is so depressing. I was continuing my research, hoping to find another story of an institution backing trans people up, but instead I found a plastic surgeon who took pictures of his trans patients' genitalia, then posted it on social media with mocking captions. What the fuck is wrong with people?

Disgraced Surgeon Who Mocked Trans Patients Says He Has Undergone His Own Transformation

Three years after the Instagram scandal, Dr. Christopher Salgado says he treats transgender patients with renewed sensitivity.

[ace-barrie]

As I was going through my research, specifically right now I'm verifying sources and looking for any possible biases, I found this story. It just made me feel good that Brown University has the trans community's back when it comes to misleading research.

An assistant professor, Lisa Littman, at Brown University had published a paper suggesting "gender dysphoria, or a conflict between one's gender identity and sex assigned at birth, occurring around the time of puberty - as opposed to early childhood - could be due to peer pressure or online influences." [NBC, "Brown criticized for removing article on transgender study"]

Brown responded to this by by removing the article because they felt it was an unfair representation of the trans experience. As the study only included responses from the trans child's parents, individuals who could be unsupportive or disbelieving of their child's identity and experience.

Brown then published the revised study after changing the title to "Parent reports of adolescents and young adults perceived to show signs of a rapid onset of gender dysphoria," and included "a correction / notice of republication and a separate formal comment from researcher Angelo Brandelli Costa, associate professor of social psychology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil." [Brown University, Updated: Brown statements on gender dysphoria study]

It's just a breathe of fresh air, in a world of news articles promoting twisted viewpoints and stories in an attempt to earn money, to find a well reconignzed institution who strives to be accurate in the studies they produce, regardless of what backlash they could receive for doing so.

Here's a short introduction to my current project, The Validity of Trans Individuals.

Tumblr is a place to express yourself, discover yourself, and bond over the stuff you love. It's where your interests connect you with your

[sourdough-seal]

hyperfixation please stay with me long enough to complete the project. hyperfixation do not fade. hyperfixation finish what you started for the love of god

[ace-barrie]

Current Project: The Validity of Trans Individuals

Here is a link to a brief introduction to my journey around reevaluating my beliefs and opinions.

Tumblr is a place to express yourself, discover yourself, and bond over the stuff you love. It's where your interests connect you with your

While reflecting on my last post, I realized I still hold quite a lot of guilt over queerness. I was raised in a Christian home, and the message around queer people was that it was wrong. From a very early age, I felt intense anxiety and guilt about anything related to queerness.

I would feel nauseous for days for so much as reading the word "gay." My vision would get fuzzy if I was so much as involved, even if I wasn't speaking, in a conversation centered around queer people.

I pushed a lot of this guilt down and worked through some of it over the course of several years, but every now and then it rears its ugly head after researching or discussing queerness.

I believe this has a lot to do as to why I had a hard time defending my ideas centered around queer identities. I knew what I believed in my heart and I know where my morals lie, but this underlying guilt of doing something "wrong" was always there. I of course avoided this feeling, both consciously and subconsciously, and this would lead me to unintentionally avoid the very information I would need to "justify" my beliefs.

Even while writing this post my stomach hurts, but I don't want feel this way. I hope that by confronting this feeling and forcing myself to write down my thoughts and guilt, I will work through it, instead of avoiding it.

[ace-barrie]

Current Project: The Validity of Trans Individuals

I was recently told my core values in life, or really any opinion or stance that I have, were built in an echo chamber and have zero solid basis. And honestly? That pissed me off, a lot. The person who told me this isn't alone in that sentiment. While I haven't been directly or personally told such a thing in the past, it is a sentiment shared by many.

I live in the US, and our political climate right now is uncertain, and both sides of the political scale are attacking the other and anyone who disagrees with them. I hold more Democratic beliefs than Republican, and because of this, far right Conservatives believe anything I say is based on opinions and fantasy ideals.

All of that to say, I am not perfect. I can be a hypocrite if I don't watch myself. I most definitely find myself falling for propaganda. I can get swept up in an idea, forgetting to fact check. No one is immune to radical ideas, it is up to the individual to constantly reexamine their beliefs, and ensure the facts you are spreading have been put through the wringer and have come out intact.

While this person's words might have offended me, it is my job as an individual to make sure they aren't true. I do not trust this person to make an accurate statement, as they said it from a glass house, but I need to make sure it is inaccurate, for my own sanity.

To ensure this, I am reevaluating every one of my controversial opinions one by one, attempting to find studies and irrefutable proof when possible to back up my claim. In doing so, I am writing all of my findings down, for two reasons- one, so the next time someone questions my beliefs, I have proof I have thought these through clearly and carefully and am confident in my decision; and two, I can share these findings to hopefully show those who are looking to educate themselves the evidence needed to do so.

Coming into this project I would like to state any biases I may have. I am a member of the LGBTQ+ community and am gender diverse. I am going into this project with the opinion that trans people are valid and gender affirmative care is a valid form of healthcare. I will do my best to pull opinions from both sides of the debate and look at it from an unbiased and analytical perspective, but I am human.

As I go through this project, please, share your opinions, questions, and experiences and I will do my best to either answer or share them directly or incorporate them into my research.

Thank you so much for being with me through this journey, and I hope you get something out of this as well.