KAFFRYN

Queer writer. Full-time nihilist, part-time zombie. They/them.

[kaffryn]

I really wanna watch our flag means death - saw the pilot, it looks great! But i live in the uk. I can get onto hbo max with a vpn but can’t sign up for a subscription because all my payment methods are tied to the uk.

They literally won’t take the money i’m trying to throw at them 😅

Can anyone help? Anyone know a way around this? I would really appreciate it

[savemefrommysolitude]

Found out my Peter Pan goes wrong programme from December 2015 if anyone wants the cornley lore!

[ukftm]

List of UK gender clinics (with contact details)

Many people who transition in the UK will want to access an NHS gender identity clinic (GIC) at some point, whether from the start of their transition or after having accessed some treatment privately (see here for info on private clinics). This is a list of the current NHS GICs in the UK.

If you are in an area where you have a choice of clinics, you might like to consider how far you are willing to travel, how frequent appointments are, and how long waiting lists are, as well as any other factors that are important to you.

Clinics for under 17s in all countries are listed separately at the bottom.

We try to keep up to date with clinic waiting times, which can be found here.

Adult clinics

England:

Adults in England are free to choose any of the 7 GICs below, regardless of which is closest.

List of Gender Clinics on the NHS website.

West of England Specialist Gender Identity Clinic (The Laurels)

11-15 Dix’s Field Exeter EX1 1QA 01392 677077 [email protected]

Nottingham Centre for Transgender Health

12 Broad Street Nottingham Nottinghamshire NG1 3AL 0115 876 0160 [email protected]

London (Charing Cross) Gender Identity Clinic

Lief House 3 Sumpter Close Finchley Road London NW3 5HR *no public email address*

0208 938 7590

Sheffield Porterbrook Clinic

Porterbrook Clinic Michael Carlisle Centre Nether Edge Hospital 75 Osborne Road Sheffield S11 9BF 01142 716671 [email protected]

Leeds Gender Identity Clinic

Management Suite 1st floor, Newsam Centre Seacroft Hospital York Road Leeds LS14 6WB 01138 556346 [email protected]

Northumberland Gender Dysphoria Service

Benfield House Walkergate Park Benfield Road Newcastle NE6 4QD 0191 287 6130 [email protected]

Northamptonshire Gender Clinic

Danetre Hospital London Road Daventry Northamptonshire NN11 4DY 01327 707200 [email protected]

Scotland

List of GICs on the NHS Scotland website.

Sandyford Clinic

Sees people from across Scotland, and has an adult and youth clinic. The adult clinic sees those aged 17+; the youth clinic sees under 17s. Accepts self-referrals.

6 Sandyford Place Sauchiehall Street Glasgow G3 7NB 0141 211 8130 [email protected] [email protected]

Edinburgh (Chalmers) Clinic

Only accepts patients from NHS Lothian, NHS Borders and NHS Fife areas. Does not accept self-referrals.

Lothian Sexual Health Clinic 2A Chalmers Street Edinburgh EH3 9ES 0131 536 1570

Aberdeen (Grampian) Clinic

Only accepts patients from NHS Grampian. Does not accept self-referrals. No website available.

Royal Cornhill Hospital Cornhill Road Aberdeen AB25 2ZH 01224 557651

Inverness Clinic

Only accepts patients from NHS Highland. Accepts self-referrals.

Raigmore Hospital Old Perth Road Inverness IV2 3UJ 01463 704202

Northern Ireland

Brackenburn Clinic

Brackenburn Clinic, Shimna House, Knockbracken Healthcare Park, Saintfield Road, Belfast, BT8 8BH 028 9063 8854 [email protected]

Wales 

Under 18s will normally be referred to the Gender Identity Development Service in London (see ‘Child and Adolescent Clinics’ below). Adults will usually be referred to the new clinic in Cardiff: if you are already on the waiting list for the adult clinic in London you should be given a choice of which clinic to attend.

Welsh Gender Service

St David’s Hospital Cowbridge Road Cardiff CF11 9XB 0300 3023 670 [email protected]

Child and Adolescent Clinics

Gender Identity Development Service (Tavistock and Portman)

Note: they have clinics in London and Leeds, with satellite clinics elsewhere in the country. See the website for more information.

The Tavistock Centre 120 Belsize Lane London NW3 5BA 02089 382030 [email protected]

Sandyford Clinic

6 Sandyford Place Sauchiehall Street Glasgow G3 7NB 0141 211 8130 [email protected]

Knowing Our Identity (KOI)

Beechcroft Forster Green Hospital 110 Saintfield Road Belfast BT8 6GR 028 9063 8000

[ukftm]

Private Transition in the UK

This resource is a work in progress, and contains some frequently asked questions about private transition as well as information on the private gender clinics available in the UK. If any information is incorrect or you think something should be added, drop us a message! 

If you’re seeing this post via a reblog the master post may have changed: see this link for the original post.

Last updated August 2018.

Frequently asked questions

1. Can I go private for one part of transition and use the NHS for another? (e.g. go private for hormones and get top surgery on the NHS).

Short answer - yes! Lots of people are prescribed hormones via a private clinic whilst on the waiting list for an NHS clinic, for instance. It won’t negatively impact your treatment at the NHS clinic, and the NHS clinic will generally take over any care the private clinic has been providing once you have been through their assessment process.

However, if you have already started having appointments with an NHS clinic, you should check with them before making a private appointment as they generally need you to ‘pick’ one or the other, to prevent getting conflicting advice/treatment from different clinics.

2. Can I use a private referral to get NHS-funded surgery?

No. The NHS will only fund surgery if the referral has come from an NHS clinic. You CAN use an NHS referral to go to a private surgeon though, and pay for it yourself (some people use NHS referrals to go to surgeons abroad, for example).

3. How much do hormones cost privately?

Hormone prices vary depending on the pharmacy, so it can be good to shop around.  As a rough guide, the following prices tend to apply.

Nebido: £120 per injection (which would be every 10-14 weeks after the initial loading phase has been completed).

Sustanon: £3 per injection (which would be every 3-5 weeks).

Gel: £40 for 30 sachets

4. Can I pay NHS prices for hormones from a private clinic?

It depends whether your GP is willing to engage in a ‘shared care’ plan with the private clinic - in essence this means that your GP agrees to carry out the day-to-day prescribing, monitoring etc under the instruction of the private clinic. GenderCare’s FAQ gives a good outline of what is involved and what the potential problems can be.

Private gender clinics

GenderCare - London

Gendercare’s FAQ is very thorough, and is probably the best way to find out more about the clinic and how it works. However, see below for a brief outline of what you can expect.

GenderCare can help with hormones, surgical referrals, gender counselling, speech therapy, and various medical reports. Who you see and how many appointments you need depends on what you are hoping for from them.

Who you see and how many appointments you need depends on what you are hoping for from them: see their How to use GenderCare page to get started. In general you should plan for at least two appointments. Prices are either advertised on the website or can be found out by contacting the clinician you are interested in seeing.

They see people from the age of 18. They may occasionally see younger people who have already been attending an NHS youth clinic, or agree to see people who are nearly 18 provided treatment doesn’t start until they are 18. If in doubt, get in touch with them to check.

The appointments

If you need any blood tests in advance of an appointment, they will let you know, and tell you what you need tested (the list is also in their FAQ).

Your first appointment will normally be a full assessment, where they take a history of your childhood, family, relationships, and education. You will discuss your feelings about your body and gender, any physical or mental health conditions you might have, and how you wish to progress with your transition. Dr Lorimer included a list of questions he tends to ask in initial appointments in this article - the procedure is unlikely to vary too much from clinician to clinician, but there might be some differences, and depending on your circumstances - and whether you have anything else you want to talk about! - there might also be other questions. An assessment letter will be written to your GP and copied in to you.

To date (August 2018) Dr Lorimer is the only clinician who has been known to agree to hormones after a first appointment, but these are given as a bridging prescription and you will still be expected to see one of their endocrinologists at a later date. See here for more information.

If you are starting hormones through GenderCare, your second appointment will generally be with an endocrinologist. It will cover some of the same ground as your first appointment, but may concentrate more on physical/medical aspects of hormone treatment. Your bloods will be reviewed, if they haven’t already. An assessment letter will be written to your GP and copied in to you. You may be sent a private prescription, if you haven’t already been given one.

Further appointments will normally be for the purposes of follow-up and monitoring (or for further treatment referrals, if you are going private for surgery and hormones). You’ll be told how to schedule these, and how regularly to send bloods for review if applicable (bloods can be reviewed without making an appointment, but you’ll be advised if you need a follow-up appointment).

If you are going through GenderCare whilst waiting for an NHS appointment, you can stop seeing GenderCare when the NHS clinic takes over your care (typically at the second or third appointment, but it varies from clinic to clinic).

YourGP - Edinburgh

The information below comes from tumblr user charliepa and was correct as of late 2014 (we have made some small edits to remove obviously outdated information). He welcomes questions about his experience with Dr Myskow, and can be contacted here.

elthadriel also submitted some information regarding their experiences with YourGP in late 2016 which may also be worthwhile reading. They also welcome questions.

Appointment 1 with Dr Myskow (60 mins): £250

This is a standard assessment appointment as described for GenderCare. It is helpful to take evidence of living in role, change of name documents etc. to this appointment if you have them. Dr Myskow will ask you to see a therapist, get blood work done, and commence RLE (if you haven’t already) before your next appointment with her in approximately 3 months’ time.

Second opinion appointment with Dr Kennedy (60 mins): £230

This appointment is necessary unless you have been diagnosed by a psychiatrist with ICD-10 Transsexualism F64.0. Dr Kennedy acts as a second opinion for treatment referrals/recommendations. The appointment is much like the appointment with Dr Myskow, but your thoughts and feelings about transition will be covered in greater detail.

Bloodwork (30 minutes): £270

This is done by either a doctor or paramedic at the clinic (paramedics are cheaper). The results only take a few days to come back, so provided Dr Kennedy has sent Dr Myskow a copy of your assessment, you can make an appointment with Dr Myskow for the following week. Appointment 2 with Dr Myskow (60 mins): £230 (+£130 nebido injection if agreed)

This appointment would normally occur no sooner than 3 months after your initial appointment with Dr Myskow, and would comprise a discussion of your progress in that time, results of blood tests done following previous appointments, and discussion of the next steps you wish to take in your transition. If hormone treatment is agreed at this stage it can be obtained and administered by Dr Myskow at this appointment. She generally prefers to prescribe nebido. She will ask you to get bloodwork done at either your second or third shot (3-6 months after your first injection). Appointment 3+ with Dr Myskow (60 mins) £230 (+£130 nebido injection)

This would generally be a follow-up appointment after six months. For those who went private whilst waiting for an NHS clinic e.g. the Sandyford, you can expect to have been seen there by this time and so this will likely be your last private appointment.

Private blood test and hormone costs:

Initial blood tests: around £270

Monitoring blood tests: around £54 excluding consultant fee, which will be between £70 and £100

London Transgender Clinic - London

We have limited information on this clinic at the moment beyond what is available on their website. See below for what information we do have:

Their leaflet

Anon message with some information on how they work.

Tumblr user @cluttered-fandoms is happy to answer questions.

If you have attended this clinic, please do get in touch!

Harley Street Gender Clinic - London

We currently have no information about this clinic beyond what is available on the website - if anyone has attended the clinic, please do get in touch!

[prideknights]

[prideknights]

[prideknights]

https://transgenderlawcenter.org/donate

[that-bastard-with-all-the-bones]

‘and fight like hell for the living’ I’M CRYING THAT’S SO POWERFUL I’M ABSOLUTELY GOING TO FIGHT LIKE HELL THANK YOU PRIDE KNIGHTS

[budgiesmuggled-deactivated20210]

[ID: Reed Erickson, a trans man with styled hair, wearing a dark suit and posing with his hands folded. END ID.]

Reed Erickson (1917–1992)

Excerpts from the podcast Making Gay History, S04E07: Reed Erickson.

“He was really accepted in society, both for his relationships with women and his transition, which is really interesting when you think about the 1960s. There were very few people who could so openly and publicly transition, let alone maintain multiple marriages.”

“The influence of the Erickson Educational Foundation cannot be stressed enough. We today would not have trans health care, period, without the funding and the information provided by the Erickson Educational Foundation.”

“It was the first organisation in the world that actually provided support and information to trans people, both through its newsletters and publications as well as an in-person office where people could call or drop in to receive information.”

“Essentially, the framework that trans rights organisations use today in terms of collecting resources by area and distributing them to trans people in need, is based off the work of the Erickson Educational Foundation. So without that, the modern trans movement as we know it would not exist.”

[ID: Three photos of Reed Erickson. In the first, he is standing with his girlfriend Daisy Harriman, wearing a dark suit while she wears a pink dress. In the second, he is posing shirtless, with his top surgery scars visible and obvious facial hair. In the third, he is posing with his wife Ailene and their daughter, in the late 1960s. END ID.]

Trans history involves a fabric of people across generations and cultures. Many trans stories have been erased, particularly trans male contributions, in favour of the myth that Stonewall rioting was the single galvanising event responsible for all progress.

Remember:

Trans men have always existed, and have always been involved in the fight for trans rights.

Stonewall was vitally important, but LGBT+ activism existed before then, too. To think otherwise is to erase the hard work done by the full spectrum of LGBT+ people.

Erasing trans male history further isolates modern-day trans men, and perpetuates the myth that we have never been involved with our own communities. Erasing cis gay and lesbian history perpetuates the myth that our communities have never overlapped, or acted as allies to one another. If you’re passionate about Stonewall, for example, I suggest you educate yourself about Stormé DeLarverie, AKA “the gay community’s Rosa Parks”. She instigated the uprising.

There is not one single person, or one single event, which is responsible for all progress.

[budgiesmuggled-deactivated20210]

This surprise and excitement warms my heart! But also makes me kinda depressed! Because, if our community actually knew its history, this wouldn’t be shocking at all!

I love helping people connect with our history, and I love reminding people that trans men have always been here, but it depresses me that such an effort is necessary. Imagine what things would be like if the true timeline of trans activism was realised. Imagine how many transmasculine lives would be improved, and even saved, if we weren’t constantly being sent the message that we are irrelevant to progress and history.

[budgiesmuggled-deactivated20210]

Hey yeah, if people could reblog this, I’d be really fucking thankful.

Remember…

Trans men have always been around.

Trans men have always contributed to progress.

Trans men are not a footnote.

If you think trans women were the only ones fighting for trans lives, you don’t know your history. Additionally, Erickson is an exception: many trans men throughout history have been persecuted, impoverished, harassed, and assaulted. Very few trans people have been shielded from difficulty in the same way Erickson was.

[treebroski]

Yes, I’m so glad to see people talking about Erickson! He’s such a crucial part of our past. I’d like to add a few more details, both on Erickson and earlier transmasculine history. (Historical note: many of the primary sources in the next few paragraphs use the term “transvestite.” Please recognize that language has evolved significantly over the past 100 years, and what is today a pejorative term began as a word that trans people identified with and built community around).

Erickson was able to fund medical research of transition after inheriting his father’s highly successful lead-smelting company, Schuylkill Industries, in 1962. He began his transition immediately after receiving this inheritance, and reached out to Dr. Harry Benjamin in 1963 for medical care. In the following years, Erickson both directly funded Benjamin’s research and provided funding for research programs at major universities, including UCLA, Johns Hopkins, and Stanford, that would focus on the study of trans health. Furthermore, he provided critical funding for the National Transsexual Counseling Unit (NTCU), an organization that fielded letters from around the world, provided walk-in counseling, and performed on-the-street outreach work. His interest in the NTCU sparked from discussions with Dr. Benjamin, who was directly connected to the trans scene at NTCU’s San Francisco headquarters.

Dr. Benjamin actually studied trans healthcare under the man who coined much of the language and conceptualization of trans identity that we use today: Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld. In 1911(!), Hirschfeld defined der Transvestit (the transvestite) as any individual “faced with the strong drive to live in the clothing of that sex that does not belong to the relative build of the body.” He pulled the word from the latin words trans, meaning opposite, and vestis, meaning clothing. His recommended treatment for this “drive,” as he called it? To aid the patient in presenting as the gender they understood themselves as– a radical departure from existing “treatments” which aimed to shunt the trans patient back into their birth sex, Hirschfeld’s approach centered the happiness and comfort of his trans patients. As he describes it in The Transvestites:

In the apparel of their own sex the feel confined, bound up, oppressed; they percieve [the clothing] as something strange, something that does not fit them, does not belong to them; on the other hand, they cannot find enough words to describe the feeling of peace, security and exaltation, happiness and well-being that overcomes them when in the clothing of the other sex

Now, as a historian of trans life in the early 20th century, I do want to contest Making Gay History’s argument that the EEF was “the first organization in the world” to provide support for trans people in the form of newsletters and in-person consultations. While it was certainly one of the earliest organizations of this nature in the U.S., the trans community is much older– and geographically speaking, much broader– than this.

There were multiple trans-inclusive and even trans-centered magazines in Europe through the 1920s, including Die Freundin, Garconne, and Das Dritte Geschlecht, to name a few. Weimar-era Berlin alone had a thriving trans community: der Internationaler Transvestiten-Bund (International League of Transvestites) was a prominent trans-rights activist organization, and it was common to see ads for trans social clubs in the gay magazines of the time. See for example, the weekly meetings held at der Zauberflöte (the Magic Flute, a gay bar) for “women living as men,” or the Transvestiten-Gruppe (transvestite’s group) lead by the transmasculine lesbian bar-owner Lotte/Lothar Hahm).

As for more medically-focused support, Hirschfeld’s Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for the Study of Sexuality) provided jobs and therapy to trans people from 1919-1933, and conducted medical research that was foundational to developing the hormone therapy and surgical techniques used today. Unfortunately, large swaths of this research was lost when Hirschfeld’s institute was burned by the Nazis, primarily due to Hirschfeld himself being both a Jewish man and a staunch civil rights activist for both gay and trans communities. 

I recognize that I’ve veered away from Erickson himself a bit, but I really want to showcase how far back the trans past stretches– even the pieces of history I’ve centered on today have focused on Western Europe in the 20th c, when the truth is that there is evidence of trans life stretching back thousands of years, across many other parts of the world (Southeast Asia comes to mind, as do the Cree and Ojibwe tribes of North America; honestly, anywhere you look, you’ll find trans people). I also send you one-thousand heart emojis for your specific focus on trans men, as too often I see our stories sidelined.

Sources:

Die Freundin. April 9, 1930.

Hirschfeld, Magnus. Transvestites, trans. Michael Lombardi-Nash (New York: Prometheus Books, 1991): 124-125.

Stryker, Susan. Transgender History: The Roots of Today’s Revolution. (New York: Seal Press, 2017): 56, 63-64, 100-105. (note: in my opinion, this book serves largely as a history of white trans women in America. however, you can find some useful leads on trans men if you’re willing to dig).

Recommended reading for more transmasculine history:

Hirschfeld, Magnus. The Sexual History of the World War. trans. Andreas Gaspar et al. (New York: Falstaff Press, 1937). See chapter 6.

Skidmore, Emily. True Sex: The Lives of Trans Men at the End of the 20th Century. (New York: NYU Press, 2017).

Smith, Brice. Lou Sullivan: Daring to Be a Man Among Men. (Oakland: Transgress Press, 2018).

Sullivan, Louis. From Female to Male: The Life of Jack Bee Garland. (New York: Alyson Books, 1990)

Plus a long list of books written about FTM experience, by transmasc authors. Mostly memoirs, but there’s a few historical pieces in there too. I’m also gonna throw in a translation I did of an magazine article on trans men in history…. written in 1930! It’s kinda sad, but a really interesting read (note: I preserved all pronouns exactly as they were presented in the original German)

[budgiesmuggled-deactivated20210]

Oh my god!! Please don’t apologise for one word of this wonderful update!! Thank you so much for educating me more about my own community!! I hope you are having a fantastic day!!

[weathernerdmando]

top surgeries in the 60’s and I THOUGHT READING STONE BUTCH BLUES AND SEEING MENTIONS OF BINDING BLEW MY MIND!!

Top surgeries in the 60s!!!

[dead-dyke]

Oh, the first top surgery for a trans man was before Erikson had been born actually! It took place in Berlin in 1912. Ten years before the term transsexual was even coined. (in 1923)

And in 1945, the first full sex change surgey was preformed by Ralph Millar and Sir Harold Gilles, for Michael Dillon. He officially diagnosed Dillon with acute hypospadias in order to conceal the fact that he was performing sex-reassignment surgery. Dillon had been taking HRT since 1940 and his birth certificate changed to say Male in 1944.

He was the first trans man to get a phalloplasty and he performed an Orchiectomy for Roberta Cowell (who you probably know as the first trans woman to get srs) which was at the time an illegal procedure. Dillion was a self-trained doctor, and had yet to get his credentials as a physician. Afterwards, Cowell would get her Vaginoplasty preformed by Gilles.

Dillon and Cowell were also lovers for several years! Making them the first recorded T4T couple along with the first trans man and trans woman to “fully transition”.

They eventually split up, Dillion became a Navy Physician and then after being outed as a trans man by the Sunday Exspress, he moved away from the UK and became a Buddhist monk.

[queerplatonicpositivity]

[ Image Description: First undescribed image is a screenshot of two hashtags under @budgiesmuggled’s first reblog. The screenshot reads: “#oh my god #top surgery in the 60’s!!” The second undescribed image is at the top of this most recent reblog from @dead-dyke and is a screenshot of tags. The tags read: “#trans history #lgbtqia history #trans masc #trans men #we have had this we have had these #holy shit #the surgeries are NOT as new as i thought holy fuck #i am just thrilled and pissed that they’re not more available #its been 60 fucking years minimum” and at the bottom of the screenshot it shows the post has been liked (the heart is filled in red) and there were 1,538 notes at the time End Image Description ]

[kaffryn]

✨ Same energy ✨

[kaffryn]

Am I asexual or just depressed?

[kaffryn]

✨ yOu ArE bEinG WaTchEd ✨

[kaffryn]

Doodled my cat if she were human

Really tried to capture the way she looks down on everything in existence

[kaffryn]

Still gives me chills

[kaffryn]

✨ Y O U A R E B E I N G W A T C H E D ✨

[gendercensus]

The 2021 Gender Census is now open!

[ Link to survey ]

The eighth annual international gender census, collecting information about the language we use to refer to ourselves and each other, is now open until 10th March 2021.

After the survey is closed I’ll process the results and publish a spreadsheet of the data and a report summarising the main findings. Then anyone can use them for academic or business purposes, self-advocacy, tracking the popularity of language over time, and just feeling like we’re part of a huge and diverse community.

If you think you might have friends and followers who’d be interested, please do reblog this blog post, retweet this tweet, boost this Mastodon post, check out this post on Reddit, and share the survey URL by email or at AFK social groups or on other social networks like Facebook. Every share is extremely helpful - it’s what helped us get 24,000 responses last year.

Survey URL: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/gendercensus2021/

The survey is open to anyone anywhere who speaks English and feels that the gender binary doesn’t fully describe their experience of themselves and their gender(s) or lack thereof.

Thank you so much!

[kaffryn]

The thing I love about living with cats is that, at any point during the day, I could walk into a room and be met with

Just severe judgement

And I know it would be completely undeserved but just like mother earth is out of our control, it’ll happen, and you just gotta roll with it.

[kaffryn]

Zarkon do just be a jealous ex tho

[aroundmeblackbats]

can we weaponize comfort already? 

a lot of places have a culture that valorizes never sleeping and not eating right and not taking breaks and stuff like that. 

fuck that. I want like

look at how comfortable and well rested I am. I am well-nourished, I take bubble baths, and I have a good work-life balance. 

self-care has made me strong. has running yourself into the ground made you strong?

I will destroy you. and then I will have a pleasant lunch.

can we weaponize that?

[kaffryn]

Weapon of mass derelaxation

[kaffryn]

Time to gush over she ra and gay rights ❤️🧡💛💚💙 I’m so glad kids will get to see:

• powerful, vulnerable AND well rounded lesbians ( in lead roles no less )

• gay parents

• non binary characters

• gays that live AND are happy

I wish I’d had these growing up, but it warms my heart to know that the lgbtq+ youth of today have places to look to and see ordinary, good representation. Thanks to She Ra and to netflix.

Honestly think netflix and other streaming services have been a big win for lgbtq+ representation - particularly for kids. I’m not sure we would have seen half these things if she ra had been forced to rely on network television.