im a trans woman, im considering making my MC trans as well. the reason im uncertain is because they are a half-devil(think dnd tiefling) and eventually they get their horns removed. their horns are entirely separate from them being trans, and there are other trans characters already in the story. my worry is this being taken as a hamfisted “allegory”, drawing comparisons to trans people and devils, and gender-affirming surgery. should i be worried?
It is totally okay for trans writers to write nonhuman trans characters. I think having other trans characters in the story really helps as well.
Re: the possible ‘allegory’ - I don’t feel like that’s a big issue in #OwnVoices stories exactly. I do want to say though that a lot of this is affected by readers knowing that the author is trans, because that affects how these things are read (in terms of intentions), at least a little bit.
If you aren’t openly trans (or are and just want to do this anyway to be sure) I might suggest having a character making a casual joke about the horn removal being not comparable to trans body stuff. If it’s cosmetic, mention it as being cosmetic, that kind of thing.
- mod nat