The reason vaginal atrophy in HRT is rarely discussed isn't because some nefarious boogeyman wants to transgenderficate all your pretty lesbian crushes into chronic pelvic pain it's because people don't give a shit about transmasculine reproductive health and you hijacking the topic for your detransition propaganda will only make things worse as you discourage transmascs from researching the subject and learning that it's treatable
"You'll live with chronic pain for the rest of your life is it worth it" casual ableism aside you're saying that as if vaginal atrophy doesn't happen to half of all postmenopausal people, what makes you think you're immune
Because I am on a mission to make sure everyone knows this and every time vaginal atrophy comes up, I will bring it up:
Vaginal atrophy is easily preventable and treatable. if YOU are on T and you're experiencing it, PLEASE let your gyno/HRT doc know. They can prescribe topical estrogen which will treat the issue without interfering with your HRT!
I've looked into it a LITTLE and over the counter phyto-estrogen creams seem to have an effect but IDK if I'd 100% trust them.
Sorry, this is just super fucking important to me and literally everyone on T needs to know about it because when I was doing the research NO ONE brought up how easily it was treated until I looked into vaginal atrophy itself and found out because of how it's treated in menopausal women.
When I talked to the doctor at planned parenthood she echoed this, too. That if vaginal atrophy starts to develop, I should just let her know so she can prescribe me topical estrogen to help!
the fact that we aren't fucking told this is PART of the problem. The fact that we're told it's inevitable and untreatable is part of the problem. You don't *have* to deal with that pain and discomfort.
Topical estrogen won't affect your T levels either, from what I know. It will just affect the vagina, so you don't have to worry that your transition will be impacted if you do get vaginal atrophy treated. If you are worried about topical estrogen affecting your transition talk to your doctor! There's no reason trans people should suffer out of fear and misinformation.
This is true! Be aware that whether you can get effective treatments over the counter will depend on the exact pharmacy laws in your area -- for example, in NZ it’s a prescription-only medicine (but prescriptions are subsidised so this isn’t too bad).
This matters because there’s a bunch of products out there that claim to treat vaginal atrophy, including lube and “vaginal moisturisers”, which don’t have the estrogen in them that makes it work properly. You’ll probably get some relief from the moisturising but it won’t be reversing the atrophy. These products are available over the counter and one is directly shilled by Buck Angel lmfao so it can be tempting to go for them rather than going through the hassle of getting a script, but please, if you can, get the prescription stuff that works the best ^_^
Being trans is not a new, trendy thing. Trans people have always existed.
Dr Alan L Hart was born in Kansas in 1890. He was assigned female at birth, but started presenting and living his life as a boy at a young age. In 1917/1918 he was the first trans man to go through GCS in America. After the procedure, he changed his legal name. Shortly thereafter he married his first wife, Inez Hart. They separated and divorced a few years later and in 1925 Alan married his second wife, Edna Ruddick, to whom he was married until his death. After the second world war, synthetic testosterone became available and Alan started HRT. Alan dedicated his life to helping people. He was a medical doctor and radiologist and he put much time into researching tuberculosis and collecting money for people who could not afford treatment themselves. He died of heart failure in 1962. His body was cremated and spread over Puget Sound.
This is excellent trans history, but Hart did not come from an unsupportive family! Him being a boy was not really an issue at the time. To quote:
“Hart wrote later, in 1911, of his happiness during this time, when he was free to present as male, playing with boys’ toys made for him by his grandfather. His parents and grandparents largely accepted and supported his gender expression, though his mother described his “desire to be a boy” as “foolish.” His grandparents’ obituaries, from 1921 and 1924, both list Hart as a grandson.”
Even growing up, Hart rarely faced resistence for his transition. Even while attending college, he had professors who indexed his medical degree under his chosen name despite needing to issue it under his legal name (which was Lucille at the time).
Most people simply did not know Hart was trans unless he told them. He was sadly outed as trans in Oregon in a local paper by a former classmate. This motivated him to get marry his first wife and move back home so all his friends knew he was ashamed of nothing and quite happy.
Unfortunately, the strain of financial insecurity weighed on his marriage and his first wife left him. He married his second wife (who he was with until he passed) the same year he divorced his first.
Hart found his way into tuberculosis research regarding radiology. Without his techniques, tuberculosis would have continued to be a devastating disease. Hart saved the lives of thousands of people, most of whom could previously not afford to be screened and advanced radiology as viable and cheap.
He also stopped the stigma sorrounding the disease in its tracks. Tuberculosis was once akin to a veneral disease, but Hart insisted his clinics and treatments be referred to as “chest clinics” and “chest treatments” so his patients would not face ostrasization for seeking help.
It would be remiss to not acknowledge that Hart was an important figure in medical history who truly cared about people.
Even today, Hart is still helping people! After his death, Hart’s wife Edna did what he wished and established their estate to gain interest. That interest is given to leukemia research every year (Hart’s mother died of leukemia).
He said in a speech to a class of graduating medical students:
“Each of us must take into account the raw material which heredity dealt us at birth and the opportunities we have had along the way, and then work out for ourselves a sensible evaluation of our personalities and accomplishment.”
Sure, detransition is real. The vast majority of people who detransition do so because of trans antagonism, not because they were pressured into transitioning in the first place. Most of the detransitioners I know are fully supportive of the trans community. Many of them even plan on transitioning again later in life.
Hope it’s okay that I add to this. As someone who detransitioned, I personally did it due to my parents, extended family, and other people in general. Also, having no support or anyone who wanted to even try to understand. I was too afraid of other people hurting me, so I didn’t reach out more. I just tried to white knuckle it and bottle up all of that pain. After 3 years I thought “is this going to be my entire life? Alone except for people who just add to my pain? Afraid of everyone?” I couldn’t do it anymore. I was just a kid. I couldn’t handle the cruelty.
Thank you for sharing! And for the people asking, this study is from the National Center for Transgender Equality, which surveyed nearly 28,000 people. The results are skewed, of course, but this is still considered the best data we have by research professionals.
hot take maybe but i hate when people use afab/amab as shorthand for anything to do with someone's body, or thoughtlessly uses it as a replacement for gendered language.
like for example if you have a scientific study that says "we found women are at higher risk for xyz than men" you CANNOT just turn around and say "hey guys this study says afab people are at higher risk for xyz than amab people" because you DON'T KNOW!
like, did the study include trans participants? no? then it doesn't tell you SHIT ALL about how someone's assigned gender affects things, because it's not comparing afab people and amab people of various genders, it's comparing cis men and cis women.
oh, and even if it's a medical study you STILL can't jump to conclusions! "cis women are at higher risk for xyz" does not translate to "afab people are at higher risk for xyz" because there are afab and amab people with all sorts of bodies. for example, if cis women are at higher risk for whatever because of estrogen levels, a trans man on testosterone might have a risk level more comparable to cis men, and a trans woman on estrogen might have a risk level more comparable to cis women.
if the study doesn't conclude anything about WHY cis women were at higher risk, or you're not sure if trans participants were included, you might have to say something like "it is unclear how this applies to trans people."
TLDR if you want to replace gendered language with something more inclusive you HAVE to think about what it is you're actually talking about and what assumptions you're making.
82.5% of detransitioning trans people say they detransitioned because of threats and "external pressure," not because they regretted it. Actual research on trans people, performed by actual scientists, doctors and journalists, in moral conditions, always seems to destroy terf and conservative literature on trans people. Isn't that simply....interesting.
In order to believe in the terf narratives about trans people, you have to believe in decades old outdated research conducted by conservative bigots that modern researchers throw out as corrupted research because the researchers conducted them in immoral conditions and have literally straight up lied, all the while modern research is all trans positive when conducted by real professionals and not conservative stooges. It's interesting to me how, having a knowledge of this stuff, how terf arguments begin to look more and more like weird conspiracy theorists, it's like we're watching the radfem equivalent of the flat earth movement take over the UK right now. The world sure has it's scary people, and terfs fit into that collection very easily.
"just not seeing enough people talking about carl clemons-hopkins, the first out nonbinary actor to be nominated for an emmy, and the nonbinary flag gown they wore last night"
The Story of James "Jim" McHarris, a Black Trans Man from 1954
[Photo ID begins: A color-enhanced photo of James McHarris. He is a Black trans man, with close-cropped natural hair. He is wearing a white button-down shirt, tan pants, and dress shoes. He is standing on a porch, using one hand to strike a match on the bottom of his shoe. In his other hand, he holds a cigarette. He is looking directly at the camera, which is slightly below him. Photo ID ends.]
Note: the following writeup includes discussion of anti-Black racism, misogynoir, police intimidation, transphobia, and misgendering.
In a six-page story heavily framed with advertisements for domestic goods and photographs of the article’s subject, the November 1954 issue of Ebony (a Black-owned American magazine) recounted the “unmasking” of a Kosciusko, Mississippi resident. The story began when a white police officer pulled a 30-year-old Black motorist over for “improper lights”— a common excuse white police officers use to harass and intimidate Black drivers. When he then attempted to search the man, whose driver’s license read James McHarris, he told the cop “Take it easy: I’m a woman.”
The Ebony article then launches into an account of McHarris’ arrest and trial, which sentenced him to 30 days in jail. In what the article calls a “courtroom striptease,” he stepped into a nearby closet to undress, walking out with his shirt open to show the cloth wrappings he used to bind his chest. In the words of Ebony, this was the moment when James “Jim” McHarris revealed himself as “no man at all, but a fully-developed, big-breasted woman.” This focus on his body, paired with the erotic description of a non-erotic action, establishes the contrast between James’ body and his gender expression as a site of public spectacle.
This stems from the fact that Ebony frames McHarris as a Black woman, a state of being which Evelynn Hammonds describes as “simultaneously invisible, visible (exposed), hypervisible, and pathologized.” The magazine over-sexualizes the entirety of his being, and in doing so, makes his sexuality both invisible (by ignoring the nuanced relationship between his gender identity and his relationships) and hypervisible (through repeated reference to and speculation on his body). As a result, Ebony's presentation of James McHarris’ body eclipses his own personal concept of his gender identity. Beyond simple masculine attire, James' gender presentation included a desire for the “roughest jobs” at the gas station he worked at, continued attempts to become a preacher, and his “solid reputation as a ‘hard-working, God-fearing young man.’”
[Photo ID begins: a black-and-white photograph of three Black people standing outside a house. In the center is McHarris, a black trans man wearing a white button-down shirt and slacks. On his left is a young Black woman wearing a sleeveless white button-down shirt and glasses. On his right, another Black woman wearing a straw hat, a linen dress, and glasses. They are engaged in conversation, and McHarris is smiling. Photo ID ends.]
James McHarris stood at 5’5”, weighed 175 pounds, and had several girlfriends, including one who he often referred to as his wife. Orphaned at a young age and raised by foster parents, McHarris found great comfort in religion, and quickly grew close with Bishop Smiley Jones of the local tabernacle church:
Bowtie-wearing Bishop Smiley Jones had known and kept [James’] secret. Said he: “I knew he (sic) had been a woman, but when ___ came up here and everybody started calling ___ 'Jim' and ‘Little Brother’ I started to wondering” … Bishop Jones came under heavy fire from some citizens who felt that he should have reported [James’] masquerade. These citizens said it was "indecent” for him to have permitted a known woman to join his church as a man. "I don’t feel like I did no harm though," Bishop Jones says, “cause everyone must be saved."
Though the writers at Ebony annotate Bishop Jones’ use of “he” as an error, I invite readers to instead see it as a holdover from years and years of accepting McHarris as a man. And more than that, a man who was fully embraced as part of the Kosciusko community: Jim sang every Sunday with the men in the church choir, the owner of the local gas station said “he was such a good worker,” and even his landlady called him “little brother.” The writers at Ebony seem to willfully ignore this as they misgender McHarris, repeatedly calling him “a woman who posed as a man.” Their insistence on she/her pronouns is particularly striking when contrasted with the interviews given by those who personally knew James, as many of them use he/him pronouns. Though these personal interviews portray McHarris as a well-liked and respected man, the writers at Ebony frame these testimonies not as expressions of genuine approval from his cisgender peers, but instead as evidence of how he had “fooled” the general population.
This framing of James McHarris’ story, combined with the undue sexualization of his body, dehumanizes him in a way that marks a shift in public perception of trans people. Though wearing men’s clothing, taking on “rough” labor, and pursuing heterosexual relationships was enough for Jim to be accepted as male within his community, the writers at Ebony dismissed this as “impersonation.” By emphasizing the “female” elements of McHarris’ figure, this article ultimately argues that the body, not the social self, is the true determinant of one’s gender. However, reality begs to differ: McHarris did not need to medically alter his body to be accepted within his community. He needed no hormones to sing in the men’s choir, no surgical intervention to be called “Little Brother.” He needed only to live, and work, and love, just as any other man in the town would.
The article ends with McHarris’ release from jail, and—much to the writers’ astonishment—his determination to continue living as a man:
Bidding ___ goodbye,Superintendent Eakin advised: "Girl, you get you a dress now and do the things a woman oughta do." [James] shot back: "I don't see it like that." Wearing an old pair of pants, a white shirt and a truck driver's cap, Jim set out from the farm… [James] made an incredible decision: ___ decided to remain a "man,” though exposed and publicized as a woman. ___ is determined to hold on to the strands of a way of life which makes ___ happy.
[Photo ID: a colorized photo of James McHarris at the jail farm. He is wearing a ballcap-like hat, a grey button-down shirt, and black pants. He is carrying two metal milk pails out of a wooden barn. Photo ID ends.]
A note on methodology: The Ebony article I cite throughout this piece repeatedly misgenders McHarris. Out of respect, I refuse to perpetuate this misidentification, and so I have replaced all she/her pronouns in a selected quote with “___.” I choose to redact rather than overwrite this misgendering because I wish to draw attention to the power a cisgender writer holds over the recorded identity of a trans person.
Sources:
“THE WOMAN WHO LIVED AS A MAN FOR 15 YEARS.” Ebony, Volume 10, Issue 1. November 1954.
Hammonds, Evelynn. “Toward a Genealogy of Black Female Sexuality: The Problematic of Silence.” Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures. Ed. M. Jacqui Alexander and Chandra Talpade Mohanty. (New York: Routledge, 1997).
Shipp, E.R. "EBONY, 40, VIEWED AS MORE THAN A MAGAZINE." New York Times, December 6, 1985.
Snorton, C. Riley. Black on Both Sides. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017).
Had too much fun at colorado ren fair with my beloved it felt so good to have people appreciate how fucking long chainmail actually takes I am an ARTISAN
Had a guy ask me if they give that armor to squires who transition to knights like OKAY don't be funnier than me
gender-neutral pronouns in german | geschlechtsneutrale pronomen im deutschen
so! as a german and non-binary person, i feel qualified to make this post :) this is by no means a complete list, just a few i've heard of a lot - other german people feel free to add on! | so! als eine deutsche und nicht-binäre person fühle ich mich dazu in der lage, diesen post zu machen :) das ist keineswegs eine komplette liste, nur ein paar von denen ich viel gehört habe - andere deutsche können gerne ergänzen!
es - the third grammatical gender, very rarely used by non-binary people as it has similar connotations as "it" in english - fine for those who want to use it, but not usable without the person's consent
en - the pronoun i use in german and my personal favorite; it fits the overall sound of the language very well :) (pronounced like "es" with an n instead of the s)
En ist groß.
Das ist sin Stift/sine Katze/sin Haus.
Ich gehe zu ehm.
Ich kenne ehn.
"en" is loosely based on the swedish pronoun "hen", which is (to my knowledge) used to refer to someone of unknown gender! it was created to fit as smoothly into the german language as possible :)
nin - the most common one i believe? i have yet to meet people who use nin irl but it's common on trans* forums :) (pronounced with the same "i" sound as "immer")
Nin ist groß.
Das ist nimser Stift/nimse Katze/nimser Haus.
Ich gehe zu nim.
Ich kenne nin.
nin also has an ending for gendered terms such as job descriptions: -ir, so rather than, say, zauberer (wizard) you would have zauberir!
sir/sier - an amalgam of "sie" and "er" - both variants are pronounced the same way, like "sie" with an r at the end!
Sir/Sier ist groß.
Das ist sihr Stift/sihre Katze/sihr Haus.
Ich gehe zu ihrm.
Ich kenne sin.
xier - i find this one difficult to pronounce naturally, but many non-binary people like this one for the "x" (the third-gender marker) :) it's pronounced like "sier" but with a "ks" sound at the start
Xier ist groß.
Das ist xieser Stift/xiese Katze/xieser Haus.
Ich gehe zu xiem.
Ich kenne xien.
the relative pronoun (der/die/das) for "xier" ist "dier"!
★ many non-binary people will also use no pronouns, or ask people to alternate between er and sie or pick one of the two to refer to them with! make sure to ask people what they're comfortable with :)
some trans vocabulary:
transsexuell/trans/transgender - transgender (transsexuell is slightly dated but doesn't have the same connotation "transsexual" does in english)
cis/cisgender - cisgender
nichtbinär/nicht-binär - non-binary
(der/die) Transmann/-frau - trans man/woman (you don't really refer to anyone as a trans boy/girl in german)
(der) Geschlechtsausdruck - gender presentation
maskulin - masculine
feminin - feminine
androgyn - androgynous
geschlechtsneutral - gender-neutral
geschlechtslos - genderless
gender-nonkonform - gender non-conforming
(die) Geschlechtsdysphorie - gender dysphoria
(die) Geschlechtseuphorie - gender euphoria
(das) Neopronomen - neopronoun
(das) Testosteron - testosterone (commonly referred to as "Testo")
(das) Östrogen - estrogen
"Was ist dein Pronomen?"/"Welches Pronomen benutzt du?" - "what are your pronouns?"/"which pronouns do you use?"
"Ich bin trans/nicht-binär." - "i'm trans/non-binary."
"Ich benutze en." - "i use en."
most non-binary genders will be known by their english name :) i've been asked "bist du genderfluid?" ("nein, genderqueer") so there's no need to learn a whole list of words for that
hope this helps! i'll link some posts for further reading (and with more pronouns) in a reblog :)
Note from a Spanish speaker: I’ve only ever heard it as “no binario,” always, just like how it’s always “transgénero.”
Even “mujer transgénero.” Even though she's a woman, you keep the -o because of the compound word. “Trans” describes “género,” a masculine noun in Spanish regardless of the person who has the gender.
Many people are starting to adopt -e endings for mixed gender groups and mixed gender people, but it’s really not necessary with “no binario” because the thing that is nonbinary (the gender of the human being described) already has a masculine grammatical gender.
Actually, it depends on what it refers to as any other Spanish adjective.
"A non binary person" would be "Una persona no binariA" because person is a feminine noun.
"The non binary gender" would be "El género no binariO" because, as transgenderhelp said, gender is a masculine noun.
If you said "Alex is non binary" then you'd use "Alex es no binariE" because Alex is neither masculine nor feminine.
The Real Academia de la lengua Española (RAE) says that using E for neutral nouns is incorrect and the default for mixed groups and things of unspecified/non-binary gender is the masculine O. But we're ignoring scholars because they're a bunch of old white guys with multiple sticks up their asses.
Tldr: This is how you'd use all versions of non-binary: Alex es una persona no binaria, porque su género es no binario, así que Alex es no binarie.
While we're all here and I'm trans and cranky I also want to say that there is no like gender conforming presentation as nonbinary. There is not and should never be a gender role for nonbinary that anyone should feel pressure to confirm to, and no specific presentation as nonbinary person is more correct or acceptable. Masculine and feminine are arbitrary and presentation does not equal gender this is like trans 101 yall.
Nonbinary people do not owe you androgyny and nonbinary people who are 'masculine' or 'feminine' are not any less nonbinary and they are not privileged by having their gender identity erased because they are assumed to be men or women, nor are nonbinary people who are 'androgynous' conforming to a socially accepted nonbinary gender role and they are not privileged by being visibly trans, nonbinary, or gender variant in a cis binary gender normative society that is hostile to gender nonconformity.
"How do you reconcile the idea that nonbinary people who present more masc or fem feel pressure to give up any connections to binary gender or present more androgynous in order to have their gender respected with the idea that nonbinary people who present more androgynously feel pressure to choose a gender alignment and present more masc or fem in order to have their gender respected?"
Easy, cis and binary people don't like how we challenge gender norms and the gender binary and will say whatever they have to in order to try and shame us out of it. It's not about trying to make us the "right" kind of nonbinary, it's about trying to get us to stop being the kind of nonbinary that we are in order to control us and eventually shame us out of being nonbinary at all. Next fucking question.
(Image description: 10 rectangular images with multicolored gradient backgrounds and text in the center; every image has a different set of pronouns in large white text with a pronoun in smaller black cursive text in the middle. The pronouns are they/them/their/theirs/themself, ey/em/eir/eirs/eirself, she/her/hers/herself, he/him/his/himself, xe/xem/xyr/xyrs/xemself, zie/hir/hirs/hirself, ve/ver/vis/verself, sie/sier/siers/sierself, hy/hym/hys/hymself, and fae/faer/faers/faerself.)
When my surgeon first explained that I would end up with one long scar instead of two, I was crushed. For years, I had pictured two scars and for some reason the idea of one long scar running across my whole chest saddened me.
A year and however many months later, I can’t picture my chest any other way.
I think my fear and disappointment towards it was rooted in the fact that I hadn’t seen many people with single scars.
So here’s some representation.
The worry of a single, massive scar turned into a 23 inch long mark of freedom.
this is so freakin true dude. my scar ended up being the same, and i feel like i only ever see the two scars (both in peoples pics and in art). its so good to see someone else with the same.
let me know if youd rather i remove this addition, but your post made me think.
one of the things that happened to me - after id flown home and was post-op, my stitches ripped and got infected (i think my body had a reaction, cuz i followed all the docs orders), and it took me a while to find good treatment for them, and it was thankfully sorted out thanks to a rly kind nurse who called her cousin to get me in at an out of the way wound care clinic, but it left a scar on top of my other scars. all the while it was happening i was so scared about looking terrible and that it would never look okay and it broke my heart every day having to take care of it and look at what i thought was my undoing, ruining what id worked so hard for.
over 2 years later? i barely even notice it. but i so rarely see anyone talking about post-op complications, let alone posting pictures of a chest that dealt with them. so thought id add on to the single scar love and post unconventional double scars. shoutout to everyone whos top didnt turn out like they expected. our bodies are as theyre meant to be, and theyre ours, and thats everything
FACT: Black trans women experience violence against them at a disproportionately higher rate than the rest of the population.
MYTH: Black trans women have a life expectancy of 35 years.
This “statistic” is not based in any real research or fact. A simple google search will tell you that number is false. Continuing to spread the lie that trans women of color have such a short life expectancy does nothing but scare the hell out of trans women and girls who have to see that line parroted over and over again on social media. It’s important to check our facts before we spread awareness.
gummygunk
blakekathryn
theartofmadeline
janainaart
