Jul 13, 2023
we DO grow old and happy. btw.
seen from Spain
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seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Sweden
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seen from Malaysia
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seen from Maldives
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seen from Jordan
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
seen from United States
we DO grow old and happy. btw.
Marlo also interviewed Meredith Lee/Derek Moo who identifies as "dual gender." They have been out publicly for six years, and in "various semi-private spaces" for up to 20 years. "I pretty much live openly as either presentation, and it seems to work. I go to work as either Meredith or Derek. My kids are fine, my kids are almost adults. All of my family knows, all of my relatives know," they say. "The software company I work for has been pretty proactive in terms of the whole diversity and inclusion thing. I was the first openly trans person in the company, to my knowledge. "When I first presented as Merri, it was at one of the Christmas parties, which is the classic way to do it, right? Might as well wear a dress to the party!"
from this article about trans and gender-diverse elders in Australia. I just love hearing about older multigender people so much <3
Hi, my name is Mardi and Im a 63 y/o woman of a teen trans journey. It's… Mardi Pieronek needs your support for Trans elder needs help to s
Mardi is a trans elder who needs help keeping her home, and renovating it to be accessible to herself and her husband. She's about 2200 CAD away from her goal — please give as you're able and boost to those who can.
Trans men do live
I threw together a short list of living, “older” trans men and trans mascs because I keep seeing people saying all of them are dead. True, a lot of them are dead, but with these posts speaking about where so many of us went, I am not encountering many that also decide to include any examples of who is still here. I will put the cutoff at 50 because it is about as low as I am willing to go on “older” as a loose term, and because if people in their teens see it, then that is still a big margin for them.
A lot of these people either wrote books (I own some, which is how I became familiar with them) or have video content on various online platforms, specifically about being trans. In terms of their other work, the variety is wide. I tried to briefly indicate what they do (and whether or not they are active in online spaces), but most, if not all of them, outstrip those simple descriptors and have many more achievements.
All of them should be easy to find with this info (many of these people have Wiki pages and bibliographies/similar) but if for some reason you have trouble finding something, or want input on a book you think I might own, you can always find me at home.
- Jamison Green - 77 years old (activist, author, former head of FTM International)
- Kylar Broadus - 62 years old (activist, attorney, founder of Trans People of Color Coalition)
- Max Wolf Valerio - 68 years old (activist, author, online trans content creator)
- S. Bear Bergman - 51 years old (activist, author, online trans content creator, part of the first GSA in the USA)
- Yance Ford - 53 years old (director, producer, first openly trans winner of a Creative Arts Emmy)
- Jevon Martin - 55 years old (mentor, educator, advocate and Ballroom House Father)
- Spencer Bergstedt - 62 years old (activist, attorney, author, online trans content creator)
- Deacon Grayson - 62 years old (online trans content creator)
- Justin (surname not given, @littlebaldman on TikTok is the only place I see him) - 62 years old (TikTok trans content creator)
It’s a small sample, because I have shit to do, but non-exhaustive. You don’t need my permission to add on to it, but if you thought you did, you have it now. You know some more living trans men over 50 who are not Buck Angel? Tell us about ‘em.
Knowing about them, finding out about others, will not do anything to change what happened to all the trans men and trans mascs we lost. Alongside how that may make you feel, though, try to remember: some people are indeed still here, and they are busy as hell doing work for our community, in many cases.
Being a good friend to other trans men and mascs is how we plant the seeds of community. Consistency and a sense of responsibility to one another will help us blossom into the transmasc elders we deserve to be and that queer youth deserves to see.
Transmasc community isn't a lost cause. We just have to build it back up ourselves and take care of it, take care of each other. Do it for the brothers we've lost and the siblings we are yet to meet!
MY CHEST SURGERY EXPERIENCES:
Rafe's FTM Page (GeoCities)
" My chest surgery in healing very well. I underwent chest surgery on December 1, 1997. I had the procedure done in San Francisco by Dr. Brownstein, my hero......hehe. I was pretty well-endowed before surgery, (38C+) so I had what some people refer to as a double incision procedure. That is where they make two longish incisions along the lower edge of the pec muscles and remove the breast tissue. It does leave some scarring, but it contours very nice and works out well for people who were pretty big before. My scars have faded considerably, even for having had surgery recently. Scarring depends so much on your own personal factors, like your age, skin type, how big you were, whether or not you smoke, etc. Fair-skinned people tend not to scar as badly. The following excerps are taken from my journal. They explain a lot of thoughts and emotions that I experienced around my chest surgery.
Sunday, November 30, 1997:
It is one day until I have my chest surgery. It is scheduled for 7:30AM. I have to be there at 6:30AM. Right now, I am feeling very alone. I am staying at a friend's house in San Francisco. I am surrounded by people, but still I feel alone. I feel like I am the only person in the world who would go to these extremes to be the person I truly am. I have often been asked, "Why do you always have to swim upstream?" Sometimes, I wonder this about myself. This is one of those times. But, dammit, I am who I am, and I have struggled hard to get to this very place in my life. And damn everybody who doesn't have to question such basic things as gender, and who just take it for granted. Yes, I am having a very alone moment. I am scared. I wish I had another FTM to talk to who has gone through all of this. Nobody told me that I would be thinking these thoughts before the long awaited chest surgery. They only talk about what a relief it is, and how excited they were. I don't even hate my tits that much, they just seem foreign to me. Maybe, I just didn't try hard enough to like them. What if this is all just a bad mistake. How come no one ever talks about that? Well, enough, I've got to try and get some sleep before this surgery tomorrow morning...........
Monday, December 1, 1997, Day of Surgery:
I went into the hospital at 6:30AM, who's idea was it to start that early anyway? Anyway, I filled out piles of paperwork and soon a nurse took me into a room to change into a hospital gown. "All the better to get at you", she said with a smile. I was wondering if they found her on the show 'Tales from The Crypt'. They came and wheeled me away to another room and I talked to the anesthesiologist for a while. I must have asked him two hundred questions. He was talking about sticking some big tube down my throat, so my throat doesn't close. But, by this time the good stuff was pumping into my veins at a very rapid rate, and all I could say was, "That's nice". I really don't remember much else that day..................
Wednesday, December, 3, 1997
I feel like a cyborg. I've got these gnarly drain tubes coming out my sides, and they are taped to my chest with big bulbs hanging down, filled with fluid. EEEEK! Gross!!! Too bad I'm not grossed out by this at all. It's neat. I'm so flat. The week before this, I had the flu and I was MUCH more uncomfortable then, then I am now. I am surprised it doesn't hurt any worse than this. It felt like a very dull ache the first day and a half, but now, I can barely feel it at all. Doc Brownstein says I can have my drains out Friday, if I'm a good boy. I can't wait to get them out. They actually hurt more at the openings, than the actual surgery did. The pain I felt the most from my surgery was that my back was really sore for lying in the same place on the operating table for about four hours. That is about how long the surgery took. I never even felt nauseated after I came out. The anesthesiologist said that it was because they have a new kind of anesthesia that they keep having to reapply while you are out, and they stop it about 20 minutes before you come out of surgery. He said that this makes 'coming to' a lot easier.
Thursday, December 4, 1997:
Today, I am a little uncomfortable. I think my vest is too tight because at first it felt like my arm was asleep, now it just aches and aches. It is my left arm and it is also painful to touch. I noticed a little black and blueness around the inside of my arm. I called Doc Brownstein, and he said that it could be a little blood clot, which I am pretty prone to anyway. He said I could come in tonight (it was eleven o'clock), or I could just wait until the morning when I would have my drains out anyway. I waited until Friday.
Friday, December 5, 1997:
He took my compression vest off today, in order to take my drains out. I got a first look at my chest. I was surprised it didn't look that bad. I expected it to be very bruised and cut up, afterall, they made two ~ 7 inch incisions under my pec lines, cut out a whole flap of skin, and took my nipples off and grafted them on higher up, and smaller. There wasn't a bruise anywhere. It just looked flat........and stitched together. I was still thinking about how wonderful it looked, when, out came the right drain. OUCHHHH!!!! It was a sharp pain that lasted about five seconds. Damn, that hurt!! Nobody told me about the drains. Then, the left one, the sore one came out. AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!! OUCHHHHHHH!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEE! WWWWOOOWWWW!!!!! That was a big hurt. It actually hurt so much, that I was giggling out of nervousness. "Well, what do you expect when you pull something this big (he showed me the part of the drain that was inside me), out of something this small (I looked down at the pinholes at my sides)." I laughed. It was over.
Sunday, December 7, 1997:
It was stitches out day.......yeah! I don't have to be Frankenstein anymore. My arm is still a little sore from the compression vest being too tight, but the pain is going away. Getting the stitches out was easy compared to the drains, and pretty uneventful. But, it was the first time I got to see my new grafted nipples. They looked OK, not as scary as I had heard. I went to look at myself in the mirror, without bandages or stitches. Just me. It was wonderful. I was so flat. Now this is what I'd pictured I'd look like when I grew up. I could finally start owning my body, living inside my body as well as my brain. It was a trip!!
Saturday, April 3, 1999:
I cannot tell you how having my chest surgery has improved the quality of my life........It has been about sixteen months since I had surgery. I have been using this scar cream called MEDERMA to try and heal the scars, and my scars have faded to almost nothing. They are thin, skin-colored lines. Now I can feel the hot sun on my chest while I lie out on a sunny beach in summer. I can feel the cool wind blowing on my chest, making my little hairs tickle. I am more confident than I have ever been. I feel like I no longer have to hide this terrible secret. I do not have to try to prove who I am, people just see me that way. I enjoy the way my clothes fit me now. I feel a lot less shy, while being intimate with people.......now they are allowed to touch my chest. And don't forget some of the less obvious advantages that you would never think of: I can see my belly button now, I don't have to hold my chest down when I run, or go up and down stairs, no more sweat underneath your breasts in the summer, running doesn't hurt, and I can reach over my body and turn out my bedside lamp without having to rotate my whole body or push my breasts out of the way.
Tuesday, October 3, 2000:
My scars are barely visible. Now my chest hair growth has helped to cover them further. I will be going back to do a few little revisions on the sides under my arms. There is a little nip and tuck to be done. I now take my chest for granted. It is a permanent part of me and I forget that breasts were ever there in the first place. "
transmasc solidarity <3
NEW ZINE! – TrannyToons Presents: Annotated Trans Comics of the Early ’00s
TRANNYTOONS PRESENTS collects my earliest comics on Transgender topics, which were originally created in 2000-2006. From silly single-panel jokes to trans superheroes, I made these comics with a contemporary trans audience in mind. Since trans culture has changed so dramatically in the intervening quarter century, I have included annotations to highlight deprecated terminology and explain cultural practices that have fallen by the wayside. If you’re interested in trans history, or archives of underground comics, this is the collection for you!
THRILL to explanations of deprecated terminology, descriptions of cultural practices that have fallen by the wayside, and learn why I was mad at Norah Vincent in 2001.
Some comics in this collection were originally published by The Nib and Trans-Health. Others have been reprinted in FTM Newsletter and No Straight Lines (Fantagraphics, 2012).
16 pages, color cover, black and white interior, 5.5″ x 8.5″
You can snag a copy of your very own from my Ko-Fi