Forest/Crow | 24 | Queer | Genderfluid-Transmasc | Pagan | Mostly reblogs, nature, science, fandoms, and shitposts with the occasional bit of my writing or art tossed in | Please don't message offering commissions, I can't afford them.
YOU DON'T NEED TO BE A SKINNY WHITE TWINK TO BE ATTRACTIVE AS A TRANS GUY. BE FAT. BE CHUBBY. HAVE SCARS AND STRETCH MARKS AND SPOTS AND CYSTS AND DRY SKIN AND DANDRUFF AND ECZEMA. HAVE MOHAWKS AND LOCS AND AFROS AND CURLS AND PIN-STRAIGHT HAIR. BE A POC. GET DARKER IN THE SUMMER. WEAR FEMININE CLOTHES, WEAR MASCULINE CLOTHES, WEAR A MIX OF EVERYTHING. GET SURGERIES, DON'T GET SURGERIES, GET HORMONES, DON'T GET HORMONES, MEDICALLY TRANSITION OR CHOOSE NOT TO OR CHOOSE TO ONLY DO CERTAIN PARTS OF IT BUT NOT OTHERS. USE WHATEVER PRONOUNS YOU WANT. HE, SHE, THEY, XEY, ZIR, OTHER NEOPRONOUNS, WHO CARES! BE WHOEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT TO BE, HOWEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT TO DO SO, BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT TRANSITIONING IS SUPPOSED TO BE. DO NOT LET YOURSELF BE CONTAINED IN ANOTHER MOULD RIGHT AFTER YOU JUST BROKE OUT OF THE LAST ONE.
#And please STOP trying to contain your trans siblings
#we should never be enforcing imaginary rules on each other
#part of community is helping each other stand tall
The worst-sounding piece of advice I've ever been given that does actually work is to frame your health concerns as coming from someone close to you, whom you do not believe. Tell your doctor that you've been having pain and your mom/friend/partner thinks it might be an ovarian cyst, but you don't think so because the pain is much more intense and it has to be something else. This gives your doctor an unseen third party to fight instead of you. They can't just tell this third party, who isn't present, that you pulled a muscle, they now need to prove to this third party that it is not an ovarian cyst.
At which point they will find an ovarian cyst, but they now get whatever fucked up satisfaction they derive out of proving you wrong, because you didn't believe it could a cyst at all, but guess what? They did find a cyst! It's such a good thing you didn't listen to your intuition and came to them to verify your lay diagnosis from that third party! Bonus? Doctor doesn't have to feel like they look stupid in front of a patient, which is really what all this is about. Not your health, why would you think your medical diagnosis is about your health? It's obviously about a doctor's potential ego.
And apparently this works. Apparently you just need to be able to always play 4D chess with your medical professionals in order to find an avenue of advocating for yourself and getting you medical needs met. Isn't that great?
Genuinely think the most underrated skill in writing is knowing when a scene is done. not perfect. done. there's a version of every scene that keeps going because you're scared to leave it, scared it wasn't enough, scared the next scene is harder. so you keep adding. one more line. one more beat. one more little moment. and the scene dies from it. it needed to end three paragraphs ago and you just kept talking because you didn't want to face what came next. same as real life actually.
Transphobia is about to be signed into law in the UK. We can fight this.
I am begging the UK trans community and its allies to attend the Mass Lobby at Parliament on June 25th, 11am-4pm, organised by Trans Solidarity Alliance.
Last year we broke the record for an LGBT+ mass lobby of Parliament. Will you help us break it again? Join us on 25th June 2026 to demand be
The new EHRC Code of Practice pushes trans people out of toilets, hospital wards, and community spaces. It normalises gender policing based on appearance and stereotypes. It becomes statutory guidance in the UK by the end of June.
Trans people are now legally their assigned gender at birth and must join gendered spaces accordingly, but if they are perceived as their lived gender, they can also be ejected from those spaces. The guidance says: either break the law, or don’t pass too well.
A mass lobby is where you invite your MP to discuss your concerns with you in-person. Ask your MP to:
Demand full parliamentary scrutiny, debate, and use their free vote on the EHRC Code of Practice.
Support any motions rejecting the EHRC guidance. As of June 4th, Labour MP Nadia Whittome has submitted a prayer motion - Early Day Motion 240.
Write to Bridget Phillipson, the Minister for Women and Equalities about our concerns
Your MP does not have to be an ally, they do not have to respond to your email for you to show up and greencard them (details below the cut.) What matters is that as many people as possible show up.
I cannot stress this enough: Showing up in person matters. It is much more effective than petitions, emails, and letters.
It is a horrible, stressful time, and I am so sorry if you're trans and live in the UK. But I was at last year's mass lobby and the line for greencarding alone stretched around the back gates. It was a record breaking mass lobby and made us impossible to ignore. Let's do even better this time. Details under the cut:
Worried about what to say?
Bring your personal worries about transphobia being signed into law, and trans friends being excluded from public spaces. You are a living person who deserves dignity. Remind your MP of that. You will also get guidance and brochures from Trans Solidarity Alliance that outlines our demands. This is mine from last year.
Money issues?
Trans Solidarity Alliance provides a travel bursary that you can sign up for via the link.
Got a refusal or no response from your MP?
Come anyway! You can request a same-day appointment with your MP through a process called greencarding. They will come and see you if they’re already in Parliament. Even if they don’t, they’re made acutely aware of your cause because you showed up in person. This is my greencard from last year.
Here is the EHRC Code of Practice in full. It's a tough read, but some highlights are:
Organisations can’t provide trans-inclusive, single-sex services, or they risk being sued for discrimination.
e.g. domestic violence support for women including trans women, men’s rugby group including trans men (12.68).
Trans people will have nowhere safe to pee.
If you’re a trans man, businesses can't allow you to pee in the men's, and you can also be ejected from women’s bathrooms if you’re perceived as a man. Vice versa for trans women. EHRC suggests a ‘third space’ bathroom, which is discriminatory and unworkable for most businesses. (13.130-133)
Sports organisations must exclude trans people from single-sex competitions (13.73).
A women’s only sports competition must exclude trans women because of their biological advantage or face potential lawsuits (13.74), but a trans man who has undergone testosterone treatment can also be excluded based on fairness rules (13.81).
Trans women are stripped of the legal definition of ‘lesbian’, and therefore no longer have legal protections if they’re discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation. (2.50, 2.92).
Here is the Good Law Project's better explanation of the EHRC Code.
I have also made a PDF printout of QR codes for the government petition, email your MP tool, and mass lobby link to pass around your communities. DM me and I'll send it to you.
Writers have two modes and they are "i haven't written in three weeks and i am rotting from the inside and everything feels wrong and i don't know who i am anymore" and "i wrote for four hours straight and forgot to eat and it's dark outside and when did that happen and i feel like a god" and there is nothing in between. no chill. no medium setting. just famine or feast and a very confused nervous system.
we do have to contend with the fact that the reason there is this like perpetual conflation funnel that turns aave and other black dialects into 'gen z slang' and memes and the reason non black performers keep putting on blaccents and the reason pictures of black people just existing gets turned into memes is the same and its because its all minstrelsy.
I think it’s beautiful when what you loved doing when you were 6 finds you again when you’re in your 20s or 30s or 40s or 50s or 60s or 70s or 80s or 90s or
you have to love trans women more than you hate transmisogyny, you have to love jews more than you hate antisemitism, you have to love Black people more than you hate white supremacy, you have to love Indigenous people more than you hate colonialism, you have to love the disabled and mentally ill more than you hate ableism, you have to love. you have to love.
Forest Heart @lost-forest-heart - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
