it’s so strange to me, that so many trans narratives, both from trans people and not - are not about gender euphoria.
like if there’s a common unifying characteristic of trans/nonbinaryness, it really might truly be that bone deep shiver of brilliance, of discovery, that comes with a gender echoing back at you, that settling into yourself with a soft ‘aha !’ ping that runs gentle down your heartstrings. it’s the wonder in the worlds of gender. it’s the shared sense of ‘i understand something, i experience something about the universe that so many other people don’t. i am an understood and belonged part of something that stretches into the past and the future and the stars.‘
euphoria in gender is such a huge element of being trans and it sucks to see it subsumed underneath other narratives (just as important, but strangely overrepresented)
and i guess my biggest concern with this isn’t really representation, so much as how it skews the experience of people who are questioning, who are looking at the potential in themselves and thinking, “what if -?”
because gender experiences can be so warm and soft and kind, but we don’t come into transness knowing that, we don’t have an understanding that our community can exist with both dysphoria and euphoria, and that one isn’t more real than another. no one teaches you how to enjoy gender nonbinaryness. and that makes me so sad.
but also, it’s such a strange, resilient joy too - because you know, even with that, even though i didn’t know 3 years ago that transness was anything more than transition and dysphoria and i hated myself and i was scared of myself because i felt different and other -
i’ve still got euphoria. i’ve still got so much love and joy in my gender. i’m here and i’m trans and transness brings me joy and wonder everyday.
i don’t believe in inevitability, but -
this is the narrative i see repeated in the trans community around me: even if joy is not given to us by the world - we find it, we find it in ourselves.
you know, dark matter, too, isn’t understood or measured or seen - but it makes up the most massive bit of the universe. transness is big and vast and it’s here to stay and its matter matters the most.










