Join us for the first Trans* & Inter* Conclave Week!
Modelled after Trans Terror Week, this is a trans* & inter* event, run by trans* & inter* folks, to highlight trans* and inter* fanworks creators and their work. The event will be running for seven days from August 31 through September 7, 2025.
You may contribute fanworks (more on this below and in the linked Rules & FAQ post) or Creator Highlight Posts where you talk about yourself and your work! We'll share creator highlights on Day 1 as an appetizer.
Rules & FAQ
Prompts
AO3 Collection
Discord server
As per the rules, this event is specifically for trans* and inter* content creators, however cis perisex allies are more than welcome to show their support by sharing works posted.
There is NO restriction on type of content! Art, fics, edits, playlists, videos, textile art, cosplay, ... everything is welcome! You can also make a Creator Spotlight post - a post highlighting yourself and your work, and we’ll give you a boost.
Submissions to our tumblr are open. You can also post to your own blog and tag your works #transclave and/or ping us @transconclaveweek to make sure we see what you've made!
Your mods are @queerplatonicity and @yourlocalnerdychristian. If you have any questions, please head to our ask box.
not to wade into the disk horse or anything, but I think a secondary issue some conclave fans are running into right now, but that I haven't seen anyone discuss at all, is that essentially conclave is to progressivism what barbie is to feminism. if progressivism/feminism is something you are deeply involved in and live by, then the film in question is going to be quite clearly so surface level that it's practically offensive. but if you're part of a general population, mainstream audience - which the vast majority of film audiences and even fandom participants are going to be - then it can seem groundbreaking. there were people who stormed out of conclave in the last few minutes, and those were people who probably really needed to see it and think about what it was saying (along with those that didn't storm out, but still found the ending to be profound and brave). there were people who watched the end and went, "that's it? that's the big twist?"
I don't think you should, or even can, expect every fan of conclave to meet you at the same place. personally, I think any step forward toward a more progressive world is good, even if it's a small step. and, again this is just me, but you can't expect art or religion alone to save you. and you certainly can't expect social media to do so, either. building a better future isn't about making sure you engage with the "right content" or the "right social media accounts". it's work, internally and especially externally. it means talking to people for real, having difficult conversations with people who aren't engaged with the world and don't already agree with you. it means organizing in the real world or joining efforts that already exist.
many people in this fandom are quite young, in high school or college. so, if that's you, I'll recommend seeing what you can get involved in at your school. join a club like a gay-straight alliance (or get a teacher's help to start one, if one doesn't exist). look up your school's newspaper or literary journal - anything that platforms student voices - and get involved. not to end a disk horse post on a james baldwin quote but "There is never a time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment, the time is always now."
Hi, I just wanted to say how much I appreciate you mods for doing this! As a Christian ally this is all so incredibly necessary. I don’t think I can participate bc life is busy, but thank you so much for doing this!
hello, I wrote a fic for the trans conclave week but I posted it on ao3 without being able to post it to the collection, I wasn't able to find it when I tried to put transconclaveweek into the search bar. When I went to the collection website I saw that you could post a fic there too, from scratch. Do I need to delete my fic and then post it there so that it becomes a part of the collection?
Hi! No, you won't have to delete and repost. If you click the "Edit" button on the fic, you can enter "transconclaveweek" in the field where it says "Add work to collections/challenges" and it will end up in our collection. Once it's there, one of us needs to approve it and then it will show up. You can also send us the link and we can invite it to the collection, but for that to work, you need to have the option "Let others invite my works to collection" turned on in your preferences.
Thanks to everyone who participated. The AO3 collection will remain open until the end of the month so you can submit your fanworks until then. We'll likely be back next year, but with some changes! We'll link the event with intersex awareness day in October or TDoR in November and are debating whether to shift focus from creator identity towards trans* & inter* character portrayals, since coming out publicly as trans by participating in the event seems to be more fraught for people than we anticipated.
The Discord server still exists but is a bit unmoderated. Get in touch if you want to help run it.
Get your stuff in, trans* & inter* Conclave fans! We kick off tomorrow with a prompt about bodies. Let's talk about these weird meat sacks that carry us from A to B and how they make us feel.
All info about how to participate is collected in this post
Trans* & Inter* Conclave Week Warm-Up Day 6: Third
A prompt beyond the binary. Yes, yes, I know it's a hackneyed phrase, but we felt it would be remiss of a trans* and inter* event, especially one in this fandom, not to have a prompt that hints at the space between the world's certainties.
Maybe you want to look at ways people relate to their gender that are more complicated and complex than "binary trans". Maybe your characters are exploring what masculinity and femininity mean to them in response to a life event? Maybe they realise that their identities are fluid, or fit in a space between, or beyond, the "man-woman" binary. Maybe they're having fun in this space and exploring it on their own or with someone else, and they have a laugh when something doesn't work the way they thought it would. Or maybe they're struggling because not fitting into categories means not fitting in and that is hard.
Or maybe you want to take this prompt in a completely different direction... poly ships or love triangles perhaps?Tell us about the third element in an equation that is commonly seen to have two elements and the highs and lows that come from being in that position.
Trans* & Inter* Conclave Week Warm-Up Day 5: Words
A prompt about language. The words we use and the words that are used for or indeed against us.
"Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me" is generally considered to be poor advice. Words can be violence—misgendering, using wrong names and pronouns for people, using outdated or offensive terminology, you name it. But words can also be a tool of affirmation. A friend using your name and pronoun and enforcing it with others. A lover using words for parts of your body that you want used for them because they make you feel good, or loved, or affirmed, or all of those. Journalists using correct terminology to describe trans* and inter* individuals and communities.
The religious side of this prompt is "prayer"—the words we use to communicate with the Divine. There are rote prayers such as the rosary and the liturgy of hours, but we can also communicate our joy, our despair, and every emotion in between.
A bit of a meta exercise if your medium is writing, this prompt invites you to consider language and the ways it can be used to help, to hurt, to connect and to express emotions, and whatever else besides.
(Last anon) Oops realised I don’t qualify for submissions but I look forward to whatever comes out of this!
Thanks! You can participate as ally by sharing the event and reblogging the participants' posts when we do—in actual fact, that's what we want everyone to do. And you can obviously write trans character content! There's a trans Thomas Lawrence week planned @trans-thomas-lawrence-week but that's probably too soon for you? but I hope there will be more trans* focussed events outside this one.
Trans* & Inter* Conclave Week Warm-Up Day 4: Between
The prompts for Day 4 are considered with the concept of "between" and the concept of intersexuality as one manifestation of that.
What's it like being between the categories the world has determined are salient? Whether it's intersexuality, or gender identities that are between or beyond the binary concepts of man and woman or cis and trans, there are many ways to be that are in some way "between". Vincent Benítez, the intersex character in Conclave, famously says that he knows what it is to exist "between the world's certainties". We can even apply this concept to relationships—what is it like to have a relationship with someone, or several someones, that is between or beyond the world's certainties of platonic vs. romantic, or sexual vs. non-sexual?
Day 4 is about exploring the spaces between, about celebrating messiness and complicated people, places, and things that evade or actively resist classification. Let's dig in and look at what is "between".
Trans* Conclave Week Warmup Day 3: Clothes | Vestments
Theme #3 in our trans* & inter* Conclave event is clothes and vestments!
Like it or not, clothes are often gendered in our societies. But this also means that dressing in a style that feels affirming for your gender identity, or in clothes that help you feel comfortable/attractive/sexy/beautiful/positive in some way can be a really effective way of looking after yourself and expressing yourself and your identity.
On the flipside, people sometimes have to wear clothes that they don't feel so good in, be that because of societal expectations or a dresscode at work or because they don't have the means or the courage to obtain nicer clothes for themselves.
Liturgical vestments are imbued with symbolism and meaning, but everyday items of clothing can also carry significance and symbolism for a character in a myria of ways. This prompt is all about exploring the ways characters related to clothing in ways that are positive, negative, and all shades of complex in between.
The second theme in our trans* & inter* Conclave event is all to do with our connections to people who uplift, support, and accept us—whether that's through friendship, allyship, or other types of relationships.
Aelred of Rievaulx wrote the book Spiritual Friendship, which has many recommendations for creating and maintaining long-term friendships that still hold true today, and which has been important for gay Catholics since at least the 1970s. Although there is, of course, scholarly debate as to whether or not the man himself would identify as a homosexual if he lived today, it's an important text in the history of queer Christianity and queer Catholicism specifically. You can find a summary on Aelred's Wikipedia page and the full text on Google Books.
The gender-y prompt for this day is "Allies | Affirmation | Acceptance". Think about who your characters' allies are and how they show up for them. Think about what affirmation could mean for them. Maybe it's seeing themselves in a piece of art. Maybe it's trying out some change to their physical appearance—different clothing, makeup, underwear, tucking/binding/packing; maybe even writing something affirming on their skin where only they can see it. Or maybe it's being affirmed by a friend or lover in a domestic or intimate situation. The possibilities are endless.
Finally, think about acceptance. Accepting yourself as you are can be a challenge for queer people of all stripes and trans* and inter* folks are no exception. Maybe your character finds it easier to accept themselves once someone else accepts them in small or big ways. Maybe they're trying out names and pronouns with a loved one, maybe their person shows their acceptance in public, or gives them a gift that speaks of acceptance and affirmation.
Finally, a note that is unrelated to the topic but nonetheless important: mobile submissions appear to be broken. This is an issue with the tumblr app and not something we can fix unfortunately, so please submit your work as an ask if on mobile, or use the desktop version. Here are all the important links to all our info:
Just over a month to go until our event for trans* and inter* creators opens! Are you excited? Well, you should be.
In this series of posts, we'll delve deeper into the seven days and the prompts that come with them. First up is Day 1, which is broadly themed around bodies.
The prompts for this day are:
Your Body Is Good: A Resurrection Sermon by Fr. Shannon Kearns
A sermon by Shannon Kearns, the first openly transgender man ordained to the Old Catholic priesthood (not the Roman Catholic Church).
“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made”
A prompt all about bodies. Let’s talk about the ways in which our characters relate to their and/or others' bodies.
As trans* and inter* people, we often have complex relationships with our bodies. Let's have a little look at that!
There are, of course, the negative experiences of learning late in life that you have an intersex condition, that maybe you had "corrective" surgery (also known as intersex genital mutilation or IGM); going through "the wrong puberty" as a trans person; experiencing changes from hormone treatment that we feel ambivalent or negative towards; scars from surgeries or stretch marks from weight gain and loss that we don't like; not matching what men or women "should" look like... the list goes on.
But there is also joy. Feeling "right" when you take blockers or hormones or get surgery. Passing when you're not trying. Relearning your body's responses to being touched in certain ways. Feeling proud of scars and stretch marks as records of one's personal history. Being intimate with someone who appreciates your body for what it is.
No two trans* or inter* people are the same, so it stands to reason that we all have different experiences with relating to our own bodies and those of other people. Those of us who like putting our trans* and/or inter* blorbos in intimate situations will often draw on their real-life experiences or those of other people with similar issues. There's no right or wrong way for a character to feel about their body! This prompt is really all about exploring ways they and other people relate to everything to do with bodies and corporeality.
There are two resources we want to highlight today:
The first is Intersex Wiki, a wiki all about intersex conditions, set up by @ipso-faculty and maintained by zer and other awesome intersex people.
The second is r/TransSurgeriesWiki, a collection of links to more resources that show all kinds of trans bodies and trans hormone treatment and surgery progress photos and results.
We're looking forward to everyone's works and creator highlights posts! If you would like us to feature you and/or your work for Trans Conclave Week, please send us an ask or submission or add your work to our AO3 collection (see the Rules for how to do either of those anonymously).
Modelled after @dramatic-opening-shot, the amazing info hub and archive for The Terror, Conclave Central is now live and looking for contributions especially in the resources and interviews area. Of course, if you have something for the other sections that should go on the page, please do get in touch! You can submit or ask here, or email the email address on the site's contact page.
Here's an overview of the week in handy tumblr graphic format.
The prompts are on our Prompts page, but you can also find them under the cut!
Theology/Catholicism Prompts
Your Body Is Good: A Resurrection Sermon by Fr. Shannon Kearns
A sermon by Shannon Kearns, the first openly transgender man ordained to the Old Catholic priesthood (not to be confused with the Roman Catholic Church, sorry!).
“We are good even if we are queer and transgender. We are good in our sexuality. We are good being sexual. We are good alone or with other people. Our touch is good. Our flesh is good. Our scars are good.”
Spiritual Friendship by Aelred of Rievaulx
Spiritual Friendship is the best-known and perhaps most influential of the surviving works of Aelred, abbot of the English Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx from 1147 to 1167. During his abbacy, he built Rievaulx into a place of spiritual welcome and physical prosperity, desiring to make it a “mother of mercy” to those in need. In Spiritual Friendship, Aelred defines human friendship as sacramental, beginning in creation, as God sought to place his own love of society in all his creatures, linking friends to Christ in this life and culminating in friendship with God in beatitude.
Vestments & Vesting Prayers
There is a prayer for each piece of liturgical clothing that Catholic priests wear. The linked website describes the process of vesting and contains all the prayers that are said during it.
Crisis of Faith
An article on what a crisis of faith might feel like. The article describes the crisis in stages and also gives some advice for what to do to support someone who is experiencing a spiritual crisis. This wikipedia article describing a faith crisis as a form of identity crisis may also be of interest.
Rosary|Hail Mary
The rosary refers to a set of prayers and also the beads used to count them. The Hail Mary forms the basis of the rosary. Colloquially, a last-ditch effort or action, often taken when all other options have failed, is also referred to as a Hail Mary.
Trinity
The Trinity is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three divine persons: God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
Mystery
The phrase “mysterium fidei” in theCatholic Mass is officially translated as “the mystery of faith”. In this context, the phrase, spoken or sung after the Words of Institution, refers to “the entire mystery of salvation through Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension, which is made present in the celebration of the Eucharist”.
Gender-y Prompts
“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” | Bodies
A prompt all about bodies. Let’s talk about the ways in which our characters relate to their and/or others' bodies.
Allies | Affirmation | Acceptance
A prompt all about what it takes to feel accepted and affirmed. Let’s look at what makes a good ally; what affirmation and acceptance for yourself or from others means.
Clothes | Lingerie/Underwear | Makeup
A prompt about dressing! Let’s dress our characters up, or down, appropriately or inappropriately; let’s undress them; let’s examine how they feel about the things they wear or trying a new look.
Could Jesus Have Been Intersex?
An essay prompt that invites us to ponder the question: what if Jesus, the person our characters follow, was One Of Us?
Words | Language | Prayer
A prompt about words. Let’s talk about the words we use to describe ourselves and others, or to speak to God; let’s talk about what happens when words fail.
Eunuch | Third sex | Third gender
A prompt all about exploring what’s beyond the binary.
Trans* & Inter* Saints/Figures from Church History
A prompt about trans* and inter* people being venerated in the church. Let’s talk about the people who were Like Us who came before us.
