Ace Stories

Hi, I'm here for all of the aces to share their experiences about being ace. Good or bad, I want to help us all find catharsis and community through our shared identity.

[slightlyunofficial]

Transphobes block me

[intersexfairy]

A huge fraction of people who are intersex are completely unaware that they are. So, in preparation for Pride Month:

Here are tons of signs that you're intersex:

You naturally have a large clitoris (numbers are complicated) or small phallus (<2.7 inches erect or <1.5 inches flaccid)

You have parts that look like an intermediate between a clitoris and a phallus (clitorophallus)

You do not have a clitorophallus at all (ie, no clitoris, no phallus; nothing)

Your urethra is lower or higher than usual (for phalluses: should be centered on top of the glans -- for vulvas: should have several millimeters of space between the clitoris, urethra, and vagina)

Your urethra is not externally visible

You have a penis or phallus with an opening between the base of phallus and anus.

You have a vulva without a vaginal opening, or have a small, easily irritated or nonelastic opening

You have a vulva with partially or completely fused labia (begins from the bottom of the vulva or from the clitoris - may have a webbed appearance rather than flush skin)

You have a penis with very small or undescended testes

You went through androgenizing puberty and have prominent breast tissue

You went through estrogeninizing puberty and have little to no breast tissue.

You went through both androgenizing and estrogenizing puberty

You never hit puberty, had very little development during puberty, or had a late onset puberty.

You have had imaging tests that show "missing," differently shaped, mixed, or otherwise unexpected internal genitalia.

You have had unexplained medical issues regarding sex traits or genitalia since childhood or adolescence.

You have any of the above signs and are struggling with fertility

Other family members display similar traits (note: this is *not* necessary as not all intersex variations are inherited)

You have had DNA testing and the karyotype came back with an unexpected result (ex: XX instead of XY, or an error message)

You have had high or low levels of sex hormones since puberty (it's okay if all you have are signs that they were high or low in childhood)

You have widespread body hair or any amount of facial hair alongside an estrogenizing puberty

You are experiencing androgenic alopecia and have close-to-female anatomy.

You are unable to grow body/facial hair and have close-to-male anatomy.

You have a very androgynous face, or your face passes as a different gender from your body (this one is Subjective and not indicative on its own)

You have unexplained scarring in the genitalia area. If this one is you, please get in touch with InterAct Advocates, Genital Autonomy, or online Intersex communities before you dig for info.

This is an extremely sensitive topic and may be traumatizing (CIMI / IGM). You also want to make sure what you've found are scars, instead of natural tissue - intersex bodies may develop extra tissue in some places (ex: vulvar hypospadias and hooding of the urethra)

Alright. That's all I got for now. If you're starting to question things now, it may feel scary at first, but you don't have to do it alone. The intersex community online has so many amazing resources and wonderful helpful people in it.

For some primers, check out InterAct Advocates! Happy almost Pride! I'm excited to celebrate with you with us <3

[lucifer-usurping-sun-of-dawn]

given all the rising transphobia and shit, we should remember that white trannies are still relatively safe and will be able to endure more escalation more easily, we're not at the top of any shit list even if we near if, trans women of color however are very vulnerable, and we need to remember they're our sisters, not our shields

[lady-viccy]

First time I opened the notes on this the latest reblog was "stooooo this is causing infigthing!"

Second time was "also men!"

Fucking stop.

Stop being so fucking fragile and just support black transfems. Can you do that? For even 5 fucking minutes?

[creacher-feetcher]

Black Trans Travel Fund

- Tabytha Gonzalez, Recipient

Here's a pretty good organization that does this type of work!

The Black Trans Travel Fund is a Black trans-led collective rooted in self-advocacy and mutual aid for Black trans women globally, our mission is to provide travel support, connect communities internationally, and establish paths towards ​opportunities, safety, and success.

[elizeisdead]

It’s not infighting to say “we should protect the most vulnerable members of our community.” Get a grip.

[mono-red-menace]

the two genders are yes or no

[mono-red-menace]

and im STILL nonbinary!

[mono-red-menace]

so call me maybe

[red-r0ver]

via @bagginshield

[aireina]

donate to black trans groups

the following organizations accept donations via Venmo, PayPal or Cashapp:

Homeless Black Trans Women Fund: supports Black Trans women that live in Atlanta and are sex workers and/or homeless

Trans Justice Funding Project: supports grassroots trans justice groups run by and for trans people, focusing on organizing around racism, economic injustice, transmisogyny, ableism, immigration, and incarceration

Trans(forming): membership-based organization led by trans men, intersex, gender non-conforming people of color, to provide resources and all around transitional support

Black Trans Men Inc.: the first national nonprofit social advocacy organization with a specific focus on empowering Black Transgender men by addressing multi-layered issues of injustice faced at the intersections of racial, sexual orientation, and gender identities

Kween Culture: provides programming towards social and cultural empowerment of transgender women of color

Heaux History Project: a documentary series and archival project exploring Black and Brown erotic labor history and the fight for sex workers’ rights

Tournament Haus Fund: mutual aid fund for protesters and trans/non binary BIPOC in the ballroom scene in Portland/Tacoma/Seattle

Black Excellence Collective Transport for Black NYC LGBTQ+ Protesters: raising funds to provide safe transport for Black LGBTQ+ protesters (NYC)

F2L Relief Fund: provides commissary support (and legal representation & financial assistance) for incarcerated LGBTQ+ and Two-Spirit POC in NY state

Trans Sistas of Color Project Detroit: uplifts, impacts and influences the lives and welfare of transgender women of color in Detroit

Black Trans Protesters Emergency Fund organized by Black Trans Femme in the Arts Collective: supports Black trans protesters with resources like bail and medical care

Black Trans Travel Fund: a mutual aid project developed to provide Black transgender women with the financial resources to self-determine safer alternatives to travel, so they feel less likely to experience verbal harassment or physical harm

Reproductive Justice Access Collective (ReJAC): a New Orleans network that aims to share information, resources, ideas, and human power to create and implement projects in the community that operate within the reproductive justice framework

the following organizations can be donated to individually or all-together via this split donation form that will split your donation amount to equal parts:

Okra Project/Tony McDade and Nina Pop Mental Health Fund: provides Black Trans people with quality mental health & therapy and addresses food security in Black trans communities

For The Gworls: provides assistance to Black trans folks with travel to and from medical facilities, and co-pay assistance for prescriptions and (virtual) office visits ⁣

Third Wave Fund: an activist fund led by and for women of color, intersex, queer, and trans people under 35 years of age to resource the political power, well-being, and self determination of communities of color and low-income communities; rapid response grantmaking, multi-year unrestricted grants, and the Sex Worker Giving Circle

Unique Womens Coalition (Los Angeles, CA): supportive organization for and by transgender people of color, committed to fostering the next generation of black trans leadership through mentorship, scholarship, and community care engagement work

Black Trans Women Inc.: a national nonprofit organization committed to providing the trans-feminine community with programs and resources 

SisTers/Brothers PGH (Pittsburgh, PA): A transgender drop-in space, resource provider and shelter transitioning program

Love Me Unlimited for Life: helps transgender community members reach their goals and fulfill their potential through advocacy and outreach activities

My Sistah’s House Memphis (Memphis, TN): designed to bring about social change within the Trans Community in Memphis by providing a safe meeting space and living spaces for those who are most vulnerable in the LGBTQ+ community

Black LGBTQIA Migrant Project: builds and centers the power of Black LGBTQIA+ migrants through community-building, political education, direct services, and organizing across borders; provides cash assistance to Black LGBTQ+ migrants and first generation people dealing with the impact of COVID-19

Taja’s Coalition at St. James Infirmary (San Francisco/Bay Area): navigating housing, medical services, legal services, and the workplace, as well as regularly training agencies

Marsha P. Johnson Institute: helps employ black trans people, build more strategic campaigns, launch winning initiatives, and interrupt the people who are standing in the way of more being possible in the world for black Trans people

Black & Pink Bail Fund: national prison abolitionist organization dedicated to dismantling the criminal punishment system and the harms caused to LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV/AIDS who are affected by the system 

Black Visions Collective (MN): healing and transformative justice principles and develops Minnesota’s emerging Black leadership, creating the conditions for long term success and transformation

Middle Tennessee Black and Indigenous Support Fund (Middle, TN): a community fund for Black and Indigenous queer and trans folks to foster wealth redistribution in its larger community, direct the funds to Black and Indigenous community members, and build the leadership of Black and Indigenous community members

SNaPCo (Atlanta, GA): a Black, trans-led collaborative to restore an Atlanta where every person has the opportunity to grow and thrive without facing unfair barriers, especially from the criminal legal system

Brave Space Alliance (Chicago, IL): created to fill a gap in the organizing of and services to trans and gender-nonconforming people on the South and West Sides of Chicago

House of GG: a nonprofit, founded trans activist Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, that is raising money to build a permanent home for Transgender people  and be part of a growing network of Southern trans people who are working for social justice

TGI Justice Project: a group of transgender, gender variant and intersex people inside and outside of prisons, jails and detention centers challenging and ending human rights abuses committed against TGI people in California prisons, jails, detention centers

Trans Women of Color Collective: creates revolutionary change by uplifting the narratives, leadership, and lived experience of trans people of color

Youth Breakout (New Orleans, LA): seeks to end the criminalization LGBTQ youth to build a safer and more just New Orleans, organizing with youth ages 13-25 who are directly impacted by the criminal justice system

Translash: a trans-led project uses the power of individual stories to help save trans lives, shifting the cultural understanding of what it means to be transgender, especially during a time of social backlash, to foster inclusion and decrease anti-trans hostility

TRANScending Barriers:  empowers the transgender and gender non-conforming community in Georgia through community organizing with leadership building, advocacy, and direct services

My Sistah’s House: a trans-led nonprofit providing first hand experience and field research to create a one-stop shop for finding doctors, social groups and safe spaces for the trans community, providing emergency shelter, access to sexual health services, and social services

TAKE Birmingham: focuses on discrimination in the workplace, housing advocacy, support for sex workers, providing trans-friendly services, and working to alleviate the many other barriers that TWOC face

Dem Bois: provides charitable economical aid for female to male, FTM, trans-masculine identified person(s) of color ages 21 years old and older for them to obtain chest reconstruction surgery, and or genital reassignment surgery

G.L.I.T.S: approaches the health and rights crises faced by transgender sex workers

Emergency Release Fund (NYC): aims to ensure that no trans person at risk in New York City jails remains in detention before trial; pays cash bails

HEARD: Helping Educate to Advance the Rights of Deaf Communities: supports deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind, deafdisabled, and disabled people at every stage of the criminal legal system process, up to and including during and after incarceration

Black Trans Advocacy Coalition COVID-19 Community Response Grant: works daily to end discrimination and inequities faced in health, employment, housing and education to improve the lived experience of transgender people

Princess Janae Place: provides referrals to housing for chronically homeless LGBTQ adults in the New York Tri-state area, with direct emphasis on Trans/GNC people of color

The Transgender District: aims to stabilize and economically empower the transgender community through ownership of homes, businesses, historic and cultural sites, and safe community spaces

Assata’s Daughters (Chicago, IL): Black woman-led; organizes young Black people in Chicago by providing them with political education, leadership development, mentorship, and revolutionary services

Collective Action for Safe Spaces: A grassroots organization that uses comprehensive, community-based solutions through an intersectional lens to eliminate public gendered harassment and assault in the DC area.

The Knights and Orchids Society (TKO) work for justice and equality through group economics, education, leadership development, and organizing cultural work throughout rural areas in Alabama

The Outlaw Project (Phoenix, AZ): prioritizes the leadership of people of color, transgender women, gender non-binary and migrants for sex worker rights

WeCare TN (Memphis, TN): Supports trans women of color 

Community Ele'te (Richmond, VA): provides safe sex awareness and education, linkage to resources, emergency housing assistance

TAJA’s Coalition (San Francisco, CA): ending violence against Black Trans women and Trans women of color 

Black Trans Task Force: intersectional, multi-generational project of community building, research, and political action addressing the crisis of violence against Black Trans people in the Seattle-Tacoma area

The Transgender District: stabilize and economically empower the transgender community through ownership of homes, businesses, historic and cultural sites, and safe community spaces

Black Trans Media (Brooklyn, NY): #blacktranseverything storytellers, organizers, poets, healers, filmmakers, facilitators that confront racism and transphobia

Garden of Peace, Inc. (Pittsburgh, PA): for black trans & queer youth, elevates and empowers the narratives and lived experiences of black youth and their caretakers, guides revolutionary spaces of healing and truth through art, education, and mentorship

House of Pentacles (Durham, NC): Film Training Program and Production House designed to launch Black trans youth into the film industry and tell stories woven at the intersection of being Black and Trans

Minnesota Transgender Health Coalition (Minneapolis, MN): committed to improving health care access and the quality of health care received by trans and gender non-conforming people through education, resources, and advocacy

RARE Productions (Minneapolis, MN): arts and entertainment media production company for LGBTQ people of color that promotes, produces, and co-creates opportunities and events utilizing innovative artistic methods and strategies

Baltimore Safe Haven (Baltimore, MD): providing opportunities for a higher quality of life for transgender people in Baltimore

Transgender Emergency Fund of Massachusetts: recently helped organize a Trans Resistance Vigil and March through Boston, in place of the Boston Pride Parade that was cancelled due to COVID-19

Semillas: in Puerto Rico, the trans, gender non-conforming and queer communities are facing many obstacles to survival

Street Youth Rise Up: change the way Chicago sees and treats its homeless and street based youth who do what they have to do to survive

[userfish]

this pride month we’re all going to be radically pro transgender. or else.

[userfish]

hey so this means radically pro ALL transgender. don’t put limitations on this. all trans people are radically accepted here.

[petewentz-]

It's fun being queer and weird and unconventional until you remember you live in a society

[aro-ace-culture-is]

Aroace culture is punk. Seeing how society views relationships (as exploitable and a hierarchy) can make it easier to be aware of other weird/harmful aspects of mainstream culture.

I don't want romance or sex so I worry less about being physically attractive so I'm less susceptible to peer pressure and capitalistic marketing beauty campaigns. Which means I'm critical of things like the Ozempic craze and "clean girl aesthetic" and current (conservative style) fashion trends. Does everyone really want to wear all beige and be stick thin and waste time doing "no makeup makeup looks" ?? Or do they just think they need to do that to be loved/accepted/happy/marketable.

.

[dreamdropdollop]

fixed it, Ace Alastor yippie

[naps-and-nonsense]

The classic experiences of figuring out you're asexual include:

1) "There's something wrong with me."

2) "There's something wrong with everybody else."

3) "There's something wrong with me but thank God."

4) "Everybody experiences things differently." (There's something wrong with everybody else.)

[narutwitter]

[allastoredeer]

Asexual and couldn’t be happier

[silvermoon424]

As an ace this is the only time "you just haven't met the right person yet" has made me laugh lmaoooo

[stiffyck]

Something I keep thinking about is how often times aroace people will feel alienated because romantic and sexual attraction are seen as "universal" experiences, and it drives me a little insane that Grace, a character lot of us aspec people can relate to, found his home on an alien planet.

I feel like Graces story in general is a really good look at how aspec people are treated in real life ("you have no family, you don't even have a dog.") but the fact that Grace finds a home among aliens, lightyears away from Earth and he feels welcome there- yeah.

[sickbitterandcoveredinglitter]

Like a month ago I messaged a craft group about accessibility for wheelchairs and the answer I got was “there’s a lot of stairs but we have cute boys who can carry you”. And it’s…not good. As a wheelchair bound person I largely depend on people when I want to go out and do *anything* so I’m used to it, I laugh it off, make an annoyed post about it and off I go. But I wanna just say a thing real quick.

Even if I wasn’t gay, wasn’t a survivor scared of men, getting help as a disabled person is just…Not a pleasant thing to us! Imagine for a sec how you’d feel being carried up a flight of stairs. You’re a grown person. You’re being touched in an awkward way. You’d rather do it yourself. You’re So Uncomfortable. It’s not where I look for the beginning of a romantic relationship. So like…could abled people stop doing this thing where they think helping us in a condescending and infantilizing way is cute? Cause I’m real tired. Just get me a ramp or lift and I’m cool. I don’t need a dating service when I’m just trying to go about my day

[sickbitterandcoveredinglitter]

If you’re abled please reblog it cause like…the more ppl knows the better

[deathtokillian]

Ideas are cooking for my pride outfit.

[deathtokillian]

Oh boy have I pissed off the transphobes with this one.

[acestories]