Queer Plural Culture is taking feminizing hormones, changing your legal name to a feminine name, and going by she/her for years until your plural egg cracks and it turns out your other two hosts are both nonbinary and now she/her feels like misgendering
Today is my 11 year anniversary of living as myself full time/being on HRT.
It's surreal. On one hand it feels like no time has passed, the anxious teen who hates what their body was becoming. On the other hand, it feels like this has always been my life. HRT hasn't given me everything I was hoping it would, but I wouldn't trade the last 11 years for anything.
I've met so many wonderful people on my journey. People on similar journeys, the opposite direction, or journeys I never would have considered before meeting them. I'm so happy to have met you all. I'm so happy and proud to be a part of this community. I'm so proud of you all.
Hi! Am Jo, a purple TigerCow! Pronouns are they/them and been openly nonbinary for about a year now!
So proud to be nonbinary. It fits comfortably in a way no other label does. So happy to be part of this wonderful community! You all are wonderful and unique!
It was a calm day in the city. “Room temperature” but outside, whatever degree that is. My journey thus far led me to one of the lesser-visited parks, my destination directly in front of me: A white Tigress sitting on a park bench, creature watching as she always likes to do.
It was a friendship born only of this city, of this time, of these two people. Nowhere, no when, no one else would have expected a tiger to befriend a cow and vice versa. But stranger things have occurred in Hyper City.
(Art by @tigergirltail)
I approached and soon we were engaging in the ritualistic, polite gestures of greetings. A hug, compliments, performative questions that do not seek an honest answer, merely a reply. Soon enough I sat beside her and joined in her activity, joking that we should have brought opera glasses.
And then it was the silence. A silence not of the city but of the two animals as they relaxed in each other's presence. Occasionally looking at their respective phones, Alexis occasionally sneaking looks at the corvid daughter of hers she brought along, but mostly just soaking in the afternoon’s air and energy. It was the tigress who broke first with a warm tone, as if she had just woken up from a rejuvenating nap.
“It's nice to hang out like this. I feel like we don't see each other often.”
I raised my brow: “We work together, Alexis. I literally saw you, like, 2 hours ago.”
“I mean like this. Away from our jobs. Away from always another case, a person, to care for. Away from the fulfilling stress that's become of our lives. Just relaxing in a park, enjoying each other's company.”
“I do hafta admit it's nice.”
And the quiet continued. As it grew, so did my discontent. I always felt so much smaller than the tigress, and I don't mean because she was a towering predator. I've watched her grow and I'll forever be eternally in awe. From her transition to her other accomplishments, this was a woman I felt was eternally in another league. The fact she extended her hand towards me, consistently, will never not make me waver inside; insecure at everything I saw her excelling at.
But I'm happy, too. Someone I view with such esteem decided that the best way she could spend the afternoon atmosphere was with me, soaking in the air tinged with the first missionaries of night’s cool oxygen. The street lamps and headlights of cars flickering on like a luminescent fog. I cross my arms and gripped either side of my hoodie before it is my turn to sunder the silence:
“It's hard to continue, you know? I love helping the critters of this city. I want to help everyone… But I know you see the same news I do. The constant bills being pushed forward, the vile rhetoric smothering us, the exhaustion of our peers. The fear that one day they'll find some loophole, some ill-inked document that justifies their abuse. I want to help, but I'm tired and a coward… I'm scared of the future…”
“Aren't we all?” the Tigress interjected, gripping her cane tightly. “You'd have to have the confidence of a mediocre white man to not be scared at these changing winds. And I know it's trite and cliche…”
The Tigress took a long sideways glance at the Corvid Therian now crouching in a tree, gesturing excitedly and enrapturing her friends with some tale I'm too far away to hear, but which has captivated those sitting beneath her.
“I do it for her. I don't know what else I could do, honestly. I want to actualize a future she would be happy to live in. That treats her and all other therians with the respect, access, and dignities we achieved later in our lives. And if I cannot guarantee these things… then she, and everyone, will see me fight and claw and bite until they are. I will not allow anyone to fool themselves into thinking we are a community that will go quietly.”
I couldn't help but laugh, not in jeer but in cheer. She did shake off my brainworms, if only for the night. I raised my arms high: “And they'll learn that a cornered cow is just as dangerous as any tiger!”
She smiled; and soon we settled into the ritualistic infodumping of hyper fixations, the water from which girls like us drink. Eventually the first star punctuated through the light pollution and that heralded that night had finally arrived. While the alabaster-colored predator would do just fine during these hours, and in fact preferred it, she did still have such responsibilities like her child and occupation to take into account.
We gave each other one final hug before we bid our farewells. Nothing extravagant, we'd see each other in the morning after all. Still, it was comforting. To be invited out like this, to spend the afternoon just enjoying each other's company, to find solace in a like-minded creature. To be a source of support for her but also knowing she was watching my back.
