#transilient

[wearetransilient]

Kahlil, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma "Okay my name is...everyone calls me Solo..but I am Kahlil. I moved here from New York for a girl and she’s gone but I’m still here. I don’t have any friends or anything so I’m mostly by myself. In my time alone, I write about things, about life you know. Poetry. I’m a poet as well. I love the arts. I love food, I love cooking. I can bake. Baking is secondary to cooking savory foods.. Mmm, I love Italian, home style, and Caribbean food. You know, but, I also know how to bake. I’ve learned to have the love. Because like I said I just love the arts. Cooking, music, painting.... anything that falls under the definition of art, I just love it. Art helps you express who you are. You know, we die over who we are, many people. I realized, “You don’t owe anybody any explanation of who you are, period.” But if you do, it’s “for me to be me.” And that’s it. For me to be me. And that’s why I came up with this idea. So, from that and talking to other just people, it’s like at the end of the day you are who you are for you to be you on this earth. In this flesh. You do what you do, because you gotta be you for me to be me. So, my idea was, you know, create this t-shirt company that brings “for me to be me” home. And I love t-shirts obviously, I wear t-shirts! I have a Mickey mouse little Hawaiian thingy here.. and anyway, I love t-shirts. People love t-shirts. It could have a dot on it and it means something to the person wearing that shirt. So, my thing was I want to create t-shirts, screen t’s, and travel to different events. It’s not making me any money right now, but it’s not about the money for me." #transgender #lgbt #ftm #MoreThanTrans #OKC #Oklahoma #OklahomaCity #tshirts #favoritetee #artist #artistic #beyourself #love #joy #blackjoy #TPOC #wearetransilient #Transilient #transisbeautiful (at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)

[queen-carmen]

www.wearetransilient.com

[erin-nations]

Transilient is a photo and interview based project that documents transgender and gender non conforming people in their day-to-day lived realities while using only their voices. The project humanizes trans people through discussing things outside of their gender journey, and incorporating their lives into the overall human experience with an understanding of our many intersections. The project intends to destroy a notion that trans folks are only trans and do not have a much going on outside of their gender identity.

Right now, they're raising funds to head northwest. Donations will help cover the cost of the trip and a book documenting their travels.

Learn more about the project and the creators at wearetransilient.com and please share/donate at https://www.youcaring.com/transilient-745482

TUMBLR ll TWITTER ll INSTAGRAM ll FACEBOOK ll WEBSITE

[magiccityacceptancecenter]

Hey y'all LGBTQ young'uns! We're open today for Drop-In Hours from 3:00 to 7:00 with a special and exciting twist! We will be joined this afternoon by some folks from @buzzfeedlgbt and @wearetransilient who are currently traveling & producing a video series about trans identities in the south! We're proud to know some incredible trans and queer folks from Alabama who have already worked with both Buzzfeed and Transilient in the past to share their stories about the resilience and vibrancy of our community. We're excited to host them here at MCAC for our youth who are interested in doing the same! Check out this example of Buzzfeed's work and visit https://www.wearetransilient.com/ for information about Transilient. Please know if this is not something you're interested in or feel don't comfortable being a part of that Drop-In Hours are still for you! We'll still be up to our everyday community check-in and carefree free time business as usual. The Buzzfeed and Transilient teams will be here during Drop-In Hours hanging out and filming only with those who consent to be on video. If you are a minor and are interested in speaking on camera, please access the release form linked below and bring it signed by your parent or guardian this afternoon. If you are unable to print it beforehand, we will have copies at MCAC for you to take to be signed. Buzzfeed will require a signed release for your image to be used in their series. Minor release form: https://we.tl/95yOyxBFIJ Adult release form: https://we.tl/BfcpmMvDAp

[wearetransilient]

Transilient is featured in the newest issue of Original Plumbing Magazine!

Get you one! 

[wearetransilient]

JONAH WELCH, AUSTIN, TEXAS

“I have always doodled and in college I would use sketch books for my notes and draw during class. It’s always been something I’ve done but art really opened up for me when a friend of mine looked at some of work during my freshman year. She was an artist too and said, “You have something really unique here and I think you should work hard at this and keep going.” That really inspired me to get a little more serious about it and then it progressed to a point where I decided that making art is what I wanted to do with my life. In the past, I’ve done art activism, mostly with theatre, but what I really want to do is create graphic novels and stories that have trans and queer characters in them. Not just in the melancholy trope that surrounds queer and trans characters. I want to create very accessible stories that queer and trans people can relate to. I’m not really making a lot of money off of it now but it just feels really nice to get my work out there. I sell my work cheap so I can scatter it and give it to people need it. My business model is “Steal from the cis and give to the trans.” My goal is not to make money off my community but if a cis person wanted to pay a bunch for my work I would be down so that way I can give my work to trans folks. I am writing a book but work full time too. It’s a lot of work but I am motivated to get it done.

 Check out Jonah’s art on Instagram: @j_onahwelch”

[projectqueer]

Transilient: Pulling Back The Curtain On Trans Lives

Trans and non-binary folks from New Orleans to Charleston to Detroit to Omaha have shared their hopes, fears, first kisses, fashion inspirations, livelihoods and relationships.

[wearetransilient]

GRIFFIN, DENVER, COLORADO 

"I met these punk kids through the GSA at my school and I became the singer in a street punk band by the time I was fourteen. One year I was mortified, had no voice and felt so defeated by all these people and the next year I was at X-Games street park screaming about how much I hated suburbia.I hung out with straight, punk, white guys, who were all huge and they protected me in my high school of three thousand kids. There was only two percent of minorities. It was a farm town and a really republican country. Lots of backwards ideals. Do you guys remember what Scene is? I was so scene. I was really recognized on MySpace for that. I was huge! I had no friends in my town but I had 10,000 friends on the internet. It’s funny because I have had so many opportunities to explore my gender in various ways. Ultimately having all these brothers and a dad who was really into America and the military, he’s a barbecue everyday type guy, anyways I think that’s what put me in the place where I couldn’t really accept my transition.

Sexually, I had repressed myself so much because of my abuse as a kid. I thought I was gender non-conforming and asexual. Then I started to really be honest with myself. I was doing lots of yoga at that point and focusing on my health and who I was as a person. I remember one of my Yoga teachers saying “You have all these beautiful expressions in all of your yoga poses but I don’t see the heart in it”. That just destroyed me. I thought about it and it was true. The skill was there but the passion was invisible. I took it to heart and I started to think about how I didn’t show who I was ever. Through yoga and really sitting with myself I came to understand my gender identity and I started small at first. A hair tie can make all the difference in the beginning.

Transitioning has not been easy but I am happy to know who I am. Because I was able to pass so quickly I was experiencing cat calling and all of the stuff women go through right from the start and it was so scary. I had to learn how to hold my ground and how to say no. I was a virgin until March of last year. Due to the abuse I endured as a child and being uncomfortable with myself, I just never had wanted to have sex. The part of transitioning where I experience the most hardship has been that all of these cisgender men want to have sex with me but they don’t want to commit to the fact that they did have sex with me. They think of it as a gay experience instead of just a sexual experience. The hardest part is that I have really worked on myself and I have gotten to this place where I am comfortable with myself but I have to remember that I can’t beat myself up because I have gone through so many changes so fast.

Cisgender women have had to develop instincts around men and patriarchal bullshit their entire life where as trans women are learning it as all at once as they transition. When I transitioned I began dating a lot and have experienced two separate sexual assaults by men. The last year has been so interesting because it has been me being myself but experiencing violence because of that.My survival instinct has always been to react and react and react and at this point I think about it and think that’s not the direction I want to go in anymore. I want to choose the healthy route. A route that is going to amplify and make my life feel good. Now that I am doing that I realize how much I have to let go of. Like letting go of feeling ugly and feeling like you can’t share everything with people. I know who I am. I’ve started to see who my friend are and who my family is. "