#cta

[lettenho]

it's being reported that some democrats are getting ready to roll over regarding the aca subsidies, so if you are able, now might be a good time to call your democratic senators and thank them for holding the line, while letting them know that passing a brief reprieve with the promise of a future vote would be ill advised.

and if you have republican senators, if you are able, now might be a good time to call them and ask them why they are shutting down the government to raise health insurance costs.

Find Your Members in the U.S. Congress

Find your members of Congress by typing in your address on Congress.gov.

edit: the democrats caved, having somehow just enough votes for the deal with republicans to go through.

[89degree]

January 2, 2026 - first neighborhood walkabout of the year.

The New Argyle Street Station

[samimarkart]

Impromptu drop of some cta/public transit themed bumper stickers, this morning at 11am cst! Find the shop here

[lucyslenses]

conductor.

Shot with Reto Maple 100.

[thisis-intersexism]

Definitions

[pt: definitions]

Here, I will be listing terms and words that may be used throughout this blog by me and submitters, that may help you to understand what is being discussed and language to use in the future.

Note: Here is why we won't be using TSDP/-pathian language [link]

SIG: Socially/Societally imposed gender [link]

This describes the gender that is imposed onto you based on your appearance, presentation and sex characteristics. Everyone has a socially imposed gender, but this language is most used by trans and intersex people to talk about how one's SIG may not be accurate to their internal view of their gender, or how one's SIG is inconsistent.

• ISIG: Inconsistent Socially/Societally Imposed Gender.

This is most often used for intersex individuals (though, not exclusive to them) to describe the experiences one might face having an inconsistent gender imposed onto them because of their intersexuality. A few examples may be that someone is born with wolffian external genitalia and their SIG is a boy/male, but when they experience estrogenizing puberty, their SIG changes to a girl/female, or one has ambiguous genitalia so they experience IGM as an infant to fit into a peritypical female ideal and later are androgynous and are treated as either a man or a woman interchangeably throughout their life.

Perisex trans people may also experience ISIG, an example may be a trans man who is in the process of medical transition and doesn't fully pass as a man 100% of the time, so people may assume they are a man or a woman or as non-binary any given day.

• CSIG: Consistent Socially/Societally Imposed Gender.

This describes the experience of having one consistent socially imposed gender, which is often true for the majority of perisex cisgender/cissexual individuals. Like the wiki states, it's often why people conflate having a certain AGAB to being perceived/raised as being x gender, which isn't very true for a lot of people.

CT[X]: Close to [Sex] [link].

It is a set of terms to describe one's personal view of what their sex is closest to. They aren't inherent, or a catch-all for whoever you believe to be CT[X], it is a personal term that is completely free to be opted into or out of. One may feel that their traits/variations bring them closer to female, while others may feel that those same traits that they share bring them closer to androgynous, or they may use multiple terms to describe their own feelings versus what they think people perceived them to be (ex: I think my variations bring me CTA, but others perceive me to be CTF) it's nuanced and unique to the person.

• CTF: Close To Female

• CTM: Close To Male

• CTN: Close To Neutral

• CTA: Close to Androgynous

People can combine and switch them as they please, here are some examples of some combos:

• CTFA: Close To Female - Androgynous

• CTMN: Close To Male - Neutral

• CTNA: Close to Neutral - Androgynous

Etc.

IGM: Intersex Genital Mutilation.

Intersex Genital Mutilation is what it sounds like- a horrific practice done by doctors to intersex people to "correct" their genitalia, most often done on infants, who cannot consent, and often leads to lifelong disabilities, chronic pain and other health issues.

Doctors will often fearmonger about letting the intersex patient's genitalia be, telling parents / patients "you will never have children / you won't live past x age / you will become permanently disabled / you will never have a lasting relationship*", coercing parents and patients to do the unthinkable without informed consent.

• CIMI: Coercive Intersex Medical Interventions.

This term is to describe any medical procedure done to "correct" someone's intersex traits and variations, done coercively or behind the patient's back.

Ex:

• being pressured onto birth control to subside the effects of hyperandrogenism in those who are feminized.

• being put on hormone replacement therapy without being told what for.

• being coerced by doctors to have one or all of your gonads removed so you can participate in a sport.

• having extra, unwanted things done during a procedure/surgery that you did consent to.

Etc.

(*while one of these things are true, some variations will cause people to be infertile and never have children biologically, never in a million years could that fact ever justify the surgeries that are being performed. It often makes the situation so much worse.)

If anyone has more suggestions for terms that need to be listed here especially acronyms / terms that are difficult to find information on, please share!

[route22ny]

Under the El tracks at North Franklin Street, Chicago (1915)

Photo: CTA / Chicago History Museum via SK at Bluesky

[dhddmods]

so, with CT[X] labels, in your opinion, what's the... best? most proper? correct? reasoning for applying a CT[X] label to oneself? for euphoria? for avoiding dysphoria? for describing one's body? for describing how one is perceived by others? for describing how one perceives oneself? for describing one's experiences with being gendered? we've been tossing around the idea in our head of whether we self-apply CTF, or self-apply CTA, or even CTM. hell, maybe we simply apply none at all, or several if that's even a possibility. and we're not seeing as much discussion on these terms as we'd like to to use as scaffolding for our own introspection in regards to it, so. gestures. yeah. thank you!!

So! The most "proper" usage of this term is honestly...whatever you think best describes your experience?

When we created the terms CTF and CTM initially, it was because intersex people in our life at the time kept being gatekept out of intersex spaces for being "too male" or "too female", and wanted to remain anonymous, so asked us to create terms for them. Initially these were created to be used like "oh, I am CTF, which means people view me as SPETE [link] in most settings but I'm actually intersex."

PLEASE keep in mind, we were all teenagers (us and the people requesting the terms) during its creation. The coining of these terms were far from perfect at the time.

Basically, the terms were made not necessarily to just describe physical traits, but to describe how ones variation causes society to treat oneself, and how ones own perception of oneself develops as a result. (Sort of similar to how mesosex was created for people who didn't feel "intersex enough" by perisex standards)

The community latched onto it, but there developed a subset of exclusionists that began using it to say "this variation is CTF! This variation is CTM!" when it was never meant to be applied like that. No variation is inherently anything.

We created CTA and CTN, and then people began creating terms like CTFA, CTFN, CTMN, CTMA, CTFM, CTFAM, CTFAN, etc.

People ask us often how to "use it correctly" and "what variations count as _" and we always have to answer saying that's not up for us to decide because it's self interpretive. Is hyperandrogenic PCOS CTF, CTM, CTA, a mixture? Idk! Depends on who you ask! "I have a mullerian duct and people treat me as SPETE that is disordered, that makes me CTF" one person may say, while another person says "I have higher androgens, lots of body hair, a deep voice, and clitoromegaly, that's CTM", meanwhile another says "my mixed sex traits make me CTA!"

See how all of these things can make sense? That's because intersexuality can't really be classified into these strict categories. Another example is that there are people with Turner syndrome who consider themselves CTF, CTN, both, etc.

The examples can go on and on, but our point is none of them are "right" or "wrong."

Basically, in conclusion - the only correct usage of these terms are...well, whatever you make of them! Do you want it to describe how others view you? Go for it. Do you want it to describe how you view your own traits? Go for it! Do you want it to describe a bit of both? Go for it! Do you not feel drawn to them at all? Don't use them!

All it was ever meant to do was to give intersex people additional language that they can personally interpret. Think of this scenario in a new context - it's like how intersex people interpret terms like cis and trans their own ways, too, and use terms like ipsogender, ultergender, intergender, etc. What one intersex person may consider cisgender for themself can be transgender for another intersex person, or neither for another, or both for another, or an intersex person can refuse to use any gender labels whatsoever, and all of those are perfectly fine options to take.

[yz]

Wells and Hubbard. Chicago.

Fujifilm X-T50 with XF23mm f/2.0.