seen from Denmark
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from Switzerland
seen from Russia
seen from Russia
seen from Türkiye
seen from India
seen from Australia
seen from Germany
seen from Italy
seen from United States
seen from Taiwan
seen from Singapore
seen from South Korea
seen from Germany
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
being feminine does not make you trans
being masculine does not make you trans
being feminine and masculine does not make you trans
being too edgy for gender does not make you trans
what does? being uncontent with your genitalia aKA GENDER DYSPHORIA
"I refuse to be part of a pageant system that has so far and so completely removed itself from its foundational principles as to allow and support natural born males to compete in it," the email, dated June 4, said. "This goes against ever moral fiber of my being. I believe in integrity, high moral character, and fair play, none of which are part of this system any longer. "I hereby return the title of Miss Pennsylvania USA 2012."
lol how dare a person DMAB impugn the honor and dignity of donald trump's competition for who gets his dick the hardest?
Day 1 of the rest of my life....
*this post was written two weeks ago but I had to put my thoughts together more before I could post
Today was really interesting. It was the first time in my life I felt completely seen as a woman throughout the whole day. No “excuse me, sir” or “hey man” or “him” directed at me. It probably helped that I was in Berkeley all day, where, unlike orange county, many women have short shaved parts of their heads like me.
In fact I am beginning to taste a sense of being a woman with conditional cissexual privilege, to use the words Julia Serrano prefers over “passing” (The Whipping Girl). After receiving so many negative attitudes from just random people on the street, at stores, on campus, at parties, and at clubs, it feels nice to have a little more piece of mind. To feel much more confident when using a public restroom just helps with my stress levels so much which have been much higher than I would like for the past couple months. But it’s still a privilege to feel this way. I mean everyone should be treated with respect and kindness, but when you don’t fit into binary gender expectations, people are rude, sometimes just uncomfortable, and other times outright hostile. I think that this is especially true towards the camab (coercively assigned male at birth) trans folks, from personal interactions and statistics. After experiencing so much passive hostility for such a long, and knowing so many other wonderful people who are not able to be recognized as their genders, it almost seems like I’m leaving the front lines of a war when I pass.
The reality is that in a couple more months, I’m going to start being read as definitely female with my clothes on. I have the privilege of having a small physique (I’m 5’ 3”, 120 lbs) feminine facial structure go begin with, and half of an ethnicity which has been historically feminized in the West. I have the privilege of starting, and being able to pay for hormones at the age of 21. I have the privilege of having health insurance. I have the privilege of still receiving support from my parents and community. I have the privilege of spending a whole day in Berkeley passing. This is a lot more privilege than so many beautiful people in our community get.
How can I enjoy being recognized as a woman when it only happens consistently (outside of queer contexts) when I am not seen as transgender? It seems like an awful thing, and yet it brings me joy when I have this conditional cissexual privilege. It makes me feel like people see me for who I am when I walk down the street or strike up casual conversation. I feel safer in public, and I feel more welcomed by society.
.....
But what is this feeling... guilt?
I'm starting to realize that I need to make much more room for other trans women to talk about dysphoria, because I've had it pretty easy. I've always have known that I'll look like a pretty attractive cis woman, eventually, if I choose to. I don't know if I will be able to afford surgery, but if that's I really want, I know I will probably find a way to get it, even if I have to put my anti-capitalist art career on the back burner for awhile.
A year from now, when I leave Orange County, I will be leaving a significant part of my trans identity behind, part that I will never really get back. Anyplace new won't have the memory of my transition, the sometimes painful and beautiful performance of going through puberty both physically and emotionally. Things will get easier... that's a huge privilege I will have.
I plan on always giving to the trans community, and in a lot of ways I find myself making my transition more public than might be considered emotionally healthy for me because of the activism that it can create. I also know that much of the cis privileges that I will have in the future will be conditional, and can be taken away very easily....
How much privilege do I need to survive? To feel in control of my life? To feel like I can love myself?
I feel that as a life-committed activist, I have to make sure to work on myself, that I can heal from the wounds I have and have a strong enough armor to make it in this fucked up world and be strong and kind enough to help others.
All of that said, I still feel like the worst is still to come for me in terms of transition. I look undoubtedly woman (sometimes trans and sometimes cis) and my life still has to adjust as well as the transphobic aspects of certain communities I'm in.
Here's to Day 1 of the rest of my life... I've dived head first into the water and I'm hoping I make it through
My first bra... Delicious pictures time :D
My mom helped me buy try on some bra's at Macy's yesterday... it was a deliciously awkward bonding experience. She even bought them for me, saying that every mother should buy her daughter her first bra. She is wonderful human.
In celebration of a successful shopping experience, of which I was too intimidated to do by myself as a transwoman, I'm posting some pictures.
The quotes are from Audre Lorde's essay, Erotic As Power
"THERE ARE MANY KINDS OF POWER, used and unused, acknowledged or otherwise. The erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling. In order to perpetuate itself, every oppression must corrupt or distort those various sources of power within the culture of the oppressed that can provide energy for change. For women, this has meant a suppression of the erotic as a considered source of power and information within our lives."
"We have been taught to suspect this resource, vilified, abused, and devalued within western society. On the one hand, the superficially erotic has been encouraged as a sign of female inferiority; on the other hand, women have been made to suffer and to feel both contemptible and suspect by virtue of its existence. It is a short step from there to the false belief that only by the suppression of the erotic within our lives and consciousness can women be truly strong. But that strength is illusory, for it is fashioned within the context of male models of power.""
"The erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings. It is an internal sense of satisfaction to which, once we have experienced it, we know we can aspire. For having experienced the fullness of this depth of feeling and recognizing its power, in honor and self-respect we can require no less of ourselves."
"This is one reason why the erotic is so feared, and so often relegated to the bedroom alone, when it is recognized at all. For once we begin to feel deeply all the aspects of our lives, we begin to demand from ourselves and from our life-pursuits that they feel in accordance with that joy which we know ourselves to be capable of Our erotic knowledge empowers us, becomes a lens through which we scrutinize all aspects of our existence, forcing us to evaluate those aspects honestly in terms of their relative meaning within our lives. And this is a grave responsibility, projected from within each of us, not to settle for the convenient, the shoddy, the conventionally expected, nor the merely safe."
"Only now, I find more and more women-identified women brave enough to risk sharing the erotic's electrical charge without having to look away, and without distorting the enormously powerful and creative nature of that exchange. Recognizing the power of the erotic within our lives can give us the energy to pursue genuine change within our world, rather than merely settling for a shift of characters in the same weary drama."
"For not only do we touch our most profoundly creative source, but we do that which is female and self-affirming in the face of a racist, patriarchal, and anti-erotic society."
free trans shot clinic in mn-great place
peace ya.
i was at creating change this weekend and had the pleasure of catching up with my chosen family roxanne. roxanne is instrumental in creating the only shot clinic to work with trans folks in mn and be funded by the state. big accomplishment. they give out free needles/ sharps container and teach you how to do your shots. they also connect you to inexpensive hormones. i will be getting mine from mn. $35 for 10ml testosterone bottle in sesame oil. yeah
the folks at the shot clinic were also helpful in informing me about my shot. i have been using 22g to inject. last week wednesday b4 heading to the conference i injected in my rt tight. when i pulled the needle out over a teaspoon of blood came out. i was nervous & like what the fuck. besides confirming that its regular to bleed because you can go thru a vein or artery. they also schooled me to use 23g needle instead. it will hurt less when i puncture the skin. its good to alternate the parts of my body im injecting to reduce or prevent scare tissue. i will be learning in the future doing it on my ass & deltoid. no one needed a shot when i was there so can't see one.
they also complimented me for being brave and doing my shots on my own. i guess it would have worked for me to take the compliment instead of belittling it in the moment. the folks they have been seeing are scared when doing there shots and have seen that in numerous states. affirming to hear that.
this place is also great because they linked up with this kid that was so isolated in mn that he is scarred for life. he lives in a rural area and has been injecting with the same needle for 1 year. what oppression will do to us & preventing us from accessing health care and allowing basic human rights.
check them out and please post widely.
Clinica de Shot or as we say, the Shot Clinic MN
The Trans Shot Clinic: Trans folks helping Trans Folks. Partially funded by MDH.
We are open Tues. 9-12 (for syringe exchange only)
Wed 5:30-7 (Trans support Group)
Thurs 9am-1pm
Fri, 4-6 pm (Fridays are Trans specific)
The Family Tree Clinic will do free, anonymous rapid HIV testing the 1st Fri of every month at the Shot Clinic. You simply need to stop by and be able to stay for at least 20 minutes, depending on how many tests we have to do.
Hepatitis C testing is free and available Thursdays 9-1 and by appointment. They will take at least 25 minutes and your results will be available in two weeks. We offer counseling and referrals for people who test positive and all the information you need to stay Hep C free if you are not. Message us on Facebook or email to find out more about making an appointment or if you can just stop by Thursdays between 9 and 1.
We're now in our new space at 3405 Chicago Ave, Suite 103 in South Minneapolis. Please e-mail Billy at [email protected] for directions or more information.
The Shot Clinic is a place for Trans identified people who are currently using or will be using injectable hormones (testosterone-estrogen) and for all communities who are in need of clean needles and other harm reduction services. If you want to get your shot done at the shot clinic you will need to bring in your prescription/hormones and ID. We can give you your shot and teach you or a friend to do it. You can pick up clean needles and/or drop off dirty ones. We also do mobile outreach for syringe exchange and injections.
We focus on HIV and Hepatitis C transmission education but know a lot about other Trans health concerns especially about your hormones. Fridays are the best day to come by to hang out and meet people. You can get info on not just Trans stuff but things like where to get a free meal and clothing or shelters if you need a place to stay.
Soon we’ll be starting our Education/Support Groups again, which will run while you wait for your shot. We’ll discuss numerous topics like; How to do your own shot, Teaching your family and friends how to do your shots, Info around syringe sizes, needle exchange, Hepatitis C, HIV, Safer sex info, Safer Drug Use info, Nutrition, Exercise, SRS surgery info, Name Change/Gender change workshops, etc.
For even more information on HIV/STD Prevention contact:
MAP AIDS Line 612-373-AIDS (metro)
1-800-248-AIDS (statewide)
facebook.com/ShotClinic
http://www.myspace.com/transshotclinic
1 612.823.1152 mobile
