All Our Trans Questions

Got questions about being transgender? Or know someone who is? You're in the right place! This blog is meant to serve as a source of safety, a place for help, and a resource for your inquiries. Tobi's Tip Jar! Answers || Positivity || Resources FAQ || Help Art in cover by Julia Winegard Who is Tobi?

[makingqueerhistory]

Invitation: Making Queer History in 2024

The urgency around learning and uncovering queer history feels more present than ever. Queer stories are being suppressed globally, and much of that includes the queer community's long legacy. It is easier to erase a group of people when they are unaware of their roots. That's why in 2024, we are inviting everyone to make an active choice to learn more about queer history. That can look different for different people, but here are some suggestions:

Read queer books, there is a reason queer books are being banned. They are powerful tools to connect community, use them. Read them, request them from your library, support queer authors in these uncertain times. (The masterlist linked is an affiliate link)

Follow queer accounts on social media, if possible, social media is a regularity in many of our lives, and it's a great way to keep queerness and queer history present in your mind. Our social media are here on Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Sign up for newsletters about queer history, email newsletters are a lot harder to suppress with algorithms. https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/ https://www.makingqueerhistory.com/ https://www.glbthistory.org/newsletter https://arquives.ca/

Look for and record queer history in your local community, there are lots of city-specific queer history projects around the world, and they would love your stories. If you don't have stories, see if you can find some. Queering the Map is a great alternative if there is no queer center in your city.

Learn and share queer history with your friends, talking about queerness in history does more than spread awareness it builds a legacy for often forgotten figures.

Support queer history projects, queer history costs a lot of money to research. With academic paywalls, language differences, and active erasure, this job is not easy. Help queer history projects continue by supporting them financially.

As the year ends, most people start thinking about their goals, and many will be discarded as 2024 goes on, which is why I put a lot of options, both long-term and short-term ones, on this list. Almost all of them are immediately actionable, though. You can do them right now on your phone, and I encourage you to. A lot of people talk about the importance of queer history, but the active choice to preserve and uplift history is much rarer. Don't let queer history slip through the cracks, not when so many people are trying to sweep it out of the narrative entirely.

[transqueerquestions]

I'm AFAB but I recently discovered I'm demigirlflux. Am I still considered trans? I feel like the answer is yes but I don't feel like I'm "trans enough" I guess

Tobi: Hey Nonnie!

Firstly I want to say at their core, any kind of ‘label’ (gender, sexuality, or otherwise!) is meant to serve you, not define you. This is why no one can place a label on you, and only you can decide what fits best for you. On that note, I’m super proud you’ve been able to find a label for yourself that fits who you are best!

And, in the spirit of labels serving instead of defining, the general understanding of ‘trans’ or ‘transgender’ is that it means you know yourself to be incongruent in some way with the gender you were assigned at birth. If you feel this describes you as someone who is demigirlflux, then that’s something you can claim, and if it doesn’t feel right, then it doesn’t!

All that to say, I cannot definitely tell you whether or not you are trans, because that’s something only you can decide. There is no such thing as ‘trans enough’ because if you feel that label fits who you see yourself as and know yourself to be, then you ARE trans ‘enough’ to claim that label!

I hope this helps, and feel free to send in another ask if you’d like some more information or details on this. Best of luck to you!

[bossymarmalade]

Museum staff push for all-gender restrooms

The [Manchester] museum’s new restrooms don’t just appeal to trans and gender-nonconforming visitors, though, Davies told Hyperallergic. They also feature baby-changing spaces and three different types of accessible toilets, including a “Changing Places” toilet, equipped with a full-size changing bench and hoist so people with limited mobility can use the restroom or have their continence pad changed.

“By combining these facilities under the All-Gender Toilets, visitors and families of any combination of disabled, neurodivergent, trans, and nonbinary identities can use the same facilities,” [Mattie] Davies explained.

[adorablegorilla]

"Trans men and women are both suffering" and "trans women are often specifically targeted by bigotry and harassment even within their own communities and deserve to be able to talk about their own unique challenges without being talked over" and "trans men are often erased from conversations about how bigotry and transphobia targets them and are not exempt from all the horribly draconian laws transphobes are attempting to pass" and "being trans doesn't make you immune to participating in horrible transmisogyny even and especially if you aren't aware you're doing it" and "holy shit don't reinvent bioessentialism but for trans people like holy fuck men are not destined to be evil and women aren't automatically incapable of harm" are all opinions that can and fucking SHOULD coexist

[gallantblade]

Also nonbinary people exist in ways that can't and shouldn't be reduced to "trans man lite" and "trans woman lite" and experience transphobia in ways that frequently can't be generalized at all.

[makingqueerhistory]

Queer History Books for Different Age Groups

Connecting younger people with their history is vital, so here are some resources to start that journey!

Kapaemahu

Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu (Author) Dean Hamer (Author) Joe Wilson (Author) Daniel Sousa (Illustrator)

Desert Queen

Jyoti Rajan Gopal (Author) Svabhu Kohli (Illustrator)

Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality

Eliot Schrefer (Author) Jules Zuckerberg (Illustrator)

Liberated: The Radical Art and Life of Claude Cahun

Kaz Rowe (Author)

300,000 Kisses: Tales of Queer Love from the Ancient World

Seán Hewitt (Author) Luke Edward Hall (Author)

The LGBTQ + History Book

DK

[ms-demeanor]

do you know of any trustable source to learn about sex ed?

Scarleteen is an extremely reliable, extremely comprehensive resource for sex ed information.

Here is a series of sex ed courses for various ages put together by Planned Parenthood. It includes accurate, easily understandable information.

[ms-demeanor]

Also here's an open source college-level textbook on human sexuality; it covers everything from anatomy and reproduction to gender and sexuality to STIs and safer sex.

[dunmertitty]

A couple of trans specific ones!

Primed: safer sex guide for gay trans men

Fucking trans women by mira bellwether

[rooksunday]

hey! donate to uk trans charities today because it’s gonna be a rough one

[non-un-topo]

Folks in the UK, could we have some trusted links to charities?

[raedear]

There's Mermaids which is always a great option, and then Scotland-specific there's LGBT Youth Scotland, to give you just a couple. There will absolutely be more that other people can suggest though!

[rooksunday]

switchboard.lgbt and akt.org.uk are two i regularly support, and there’s always stonewall !

[ofmd-ann]

Gendered intelligence is a trans-led charity that works to improve the lives of trans people in the UK

[thedreadvampy]

cannot recommend LGBT Youth Scotland enough, they are sound as hell and seriously leading the way on a lot of trans support in the 3rd sector

also, sticking with Scottish orgs, LGBT Health & Wellbeing have trans-specific support for people of all ages, including over 60s, and took over the Lothian Gay and Lesbian Switchboard which was the first LGBTQ+ helpline in the UK. they are solid.

Scottish Trans have a list of trans support organisations here but some of them (like ERCC) have lost some ground in the last few years. still, most of them are sound.

And this one isn't specifically trans but the Good Law Project has been involved in defending teams rights in court in several recent cases, notably appealing the puberty blocker ban following the Cass Review.

[wolfertinger666]

treat black queers kindly and love us. that's all.

[wolfertinger666]

and don't add any stupid shit derailing this, this is about black queers only. make your own damn post.

[wolfertinger666]

please if you're going to reblog this, please reblog this addition so people get the memo along with:

listen to our voices and make us feel safe and comforted.

[behaviornerdwithahat]

In case anyone finds it helpful because mobility aids are horrifically expensive and inaccessible…

And for those people who have access to mobility devices but might benefit from a second chair they can abuse without risking expensive damage…

Erik Kondo has made a website, Open Source Innovations, that details plans for DIY wheelchairs. These wheelchairs can be made from common materials like wood, plastic, and pvc. They are lightweight and can be custom fit to the user allowing from the same degree of movement you would get from a custom chair. And they are durable and easily repairable. (he has been stress testing his latest design by dropping it down stairs, dropping it out of a car, launching it across a driveway, and throwing it off a deck). Its 12lbs and I think he said its was in the $200 ish range for parts.

He also is working on cheap, open source, accessible designs for beach chairs, off road chairs, motorized attachments (think smart drive), and so on. Plus he skateboards in his wheelchair. Cool dude, helpful info, pass it on.

[sumi-sprite]

It's incredibly sad people have to resort to this, but it's a damn good resource. Use it. Spread awareness. Maybe one day people with physical disabilities won't need DIYs like this. But until then, reblog and share.

[terraswallows]

I think the sky is trying to say something? 🤔 👀 🏳️‍⚧️

[makingqueerhistory]

Read the rainbow!

[rocketsaurus]

PUBLIC COMMENTS ARE OPEN FOR GENDER IDENTIFIERS ON US PASSPORTS

Right now, you can submit a comment for consideration on the proposed changes to US Passport law that will include requiring a change from "Gender" to "Sex" on all passports and require that people identify with their sex assigned at birth.

THIS IS THE LAW THAT WOULD BAN TRANS PEOPLE FROM UPDATING THEIR IDENTIFICATION

Please take a moment to click through and submit a comment. This kind of thing is fast, easy, and is one of the many ways to show your support of the trans community to the people that need to know how many of us there are.

[rocketsaurus]

YOU HAVE TWO MORE WEEKS TO COMMENT

This is an excellent low effort way to make a clear statement to the government that you do NOT support the unnecessary and expensive process of changing everyone's passport just so that a tiny population that has done no measurable harm to society can feel afraid.

Public comments are one of the many tactics we have to show the people in power how many of us are willing to stand up and say fuck this. Stand up and say fuck this in every single place that you can.

[stephenroot]

Writing Effective Comments

[sanguinarysanguinity]

Will accept comments up to March 17, 2025.

[naamahdarling]

There's only 12,000 comments. We can do better!

[focsle]

Couple more proposals to submit your public comment to, too. The above proposal is about language changes to new passport applications.

Here’s the one concerning renewals:

Regulations.gov

And the one for updating current passports:

Regulations.gov

Both have open comment periods until March 20th.

[shopwitchvamp]

Just wanted to share some shockingly good news in these difficult times. The full article is really worth reading. [Find it here]

[pompompurin-futch]

important reminder (esp to those in liberal states) to never doubt the power of queer folks in red states to get 👏 shit 👏 done 👏

[aireina]

donate to black trans groups

the following organizations accept donations via Venmo, PayPal or Cashapp:

Homeless Black Trans Women Fund: supports Black Trans women that live in Atlanta and are sex workers and/or homeless

Trans Justice Funding Project: supports grassroots trans justice groups run by and for trans people, focusing on organizing around racism, economic injustice, transmisogyny, ableism, immigration, and incarceration

Trans(forming): membership-based organization led by trans men, intersex, gender non-conforming people of color, to provide resources and all around transitional support

Black Trans Men Inc.: the first national nonprofit social advocacy organization with a specific focus on empowering Black Transgender men by addressing multi-layered issues of injustice faced at the intersections of racial, sexual orientation, and gender identities

Kween Culture: provides programming towards social and cultural empowerment of transgender women of color

Heaux History Project: a documentary series and archival project exploring Black and Brown erotic labor history and the fight for sex workers’ rights

Tournament Haus Fund: mutual aid fund for protesters and trans/non binary BIPOC in the ballroom scene in Portland/Tacoma/Seattle

Black Excellence Collective Transport for Black NYC LGBTQ+ Protesters: raising funds to provide safe transport for Black LGBTQ+ protesters (NYC)

F2L Relief Fund: provides commissary support (and legal representation & financial assistance) for incarcerated LGBTQ+ and Two-Spirit POC in NY state

Trans Sistas of Color Project Detroit: uplifts, impacts and influences the lives and welfare of transgender women of color in Detroit

Black Trans Protesters Emergency Fund organized by Black Trans Femme in the Arts Collective: supports Black trans protesters with resources like bail and medical care

Black Trans Travel Fund: a mutual aid project developed to provide Black transgender women with the financial resources to self-determine safer alternatives to travel, so they feel less likely to experience verbal harassment or physical harm

Reproductive Justice Access Collective (ReJAC): a New Orleans network that aims to share information, resources, ideas, and human power to create and implement projects in the community that operate within the reproductive justice framework

the following organizations can be donated to individually or all-together via this split donation form that will split your donation amount to equal parts:

Okra Project/Tony McDade and Nina Pop Mental Health Fund: provides Black Trans people with quality mental health & therapy and addresses food security in Black trans communities

For The Gworls: provides assistance to Black trans folks with travel to and from medical facilities, and co-pay assistance for prescriptions and (virtual) office visits ⁣

Third Wave Fund: an activist fund led by and for women of color, intersex, queer, and trans people under 35 years of age to resource the political power, well-being, and self determination of communities of color and low-income communities; rapid response grantmaking, multi-year unrestricted grants, and the Sex Worker Giving Circle

Unique Womens Coalition (Los Angeles, CA): supportive organization for and by transgender people of color, committed to fostering the next generation of black trans leadership through mentorship, scholarship, and community care engagement work

Black Trans Women Inc.: a national nonprofit organization committed to providing the trans-feminine community with programs and resources 

SisTers/Brothers PGH (Pittsburgh, PA): A transgender drop-in space, resource provider and shelter transitioning program

Love Me Unlimited for Life: helps transgender community members reach their goals and fulfill their potential through advocacy and outreach activities

My Sistah’s House Memphis (Memphis, TN): designed to bring about social change within the Trans Community in Memphis by providing a safe meeting space and living spaces for those who are most vulnerable in the LGBTQ+ community

Black LGBTQIA Migrant Project: builds and centers the power of Black LGBTQIA+ migrants through community-building, political education, direct services, and organizing across borders; provides cash assistance to Black LGBTQ+ migrants and first generation people dealing with the impact of COVID-19

Taja’s Coalition at St. James Infirmary (San Francisco/Bay Area): navigating housing, medical services, legal services, and the workplace, as well as regularly training agencies

Marsha P. Johnson Institute: helps employ black trans people, build more strategic campaigns, launch winning initiatives, and interrupt the people who are standing in the way of more being possible in the world for black Trans people

Black & Pink Bail Fund: national prison abolitionist organization dedicated to dismantling the criminal punishment system and the harms caused to LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV/AIDS who are affected by the system 

Black Visions Collective (MN): healing and transformative justice principles and develops Minnesota’s emerging Black leadership, creating the conditions for long term success and transformation

Middle Tennessee Black and Indigenous Support Fund (Middle, TN): a community fund for Black and Indigenous queer and trans folks to foster wealth redistribution in its larger community, direct the funds to Black and Indigenous community members, and build the leadership of Black and Indigenous community members

SNaPCo (Atlanta, GA): a Black, trans-led collaborative to restore an Atlanta where every person has the opportunity to grow and thrive without facing unfair barriers, especially from the criminal legal system

Brave Space Alliance (Chicago, IL): created to fill a gap in the organizing of and services to trans and gender-nonconforming people on the South and West Sides of Chicago

House of GG: a nonprofit, founded trans activist Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, that is raising money to build a permanent home for Transgender people  and be part of a growing network of Southern trans people who are working for social justice

TGI Justice Project: a group of transgender, gender variant and intersex people inside and outside of prisons, jails and detention centers challenging and ending human rights abuses committed against TGI people in California prisons, jails, detention centers

Trans Women of Color Collective: creates revolutionary change by uplifting the narratives, leadership, and lived experience of trans people of color

Youth Breakout (New Orleans, LA): seeks to end the criminalization LGBTQ youth to build a safer and more just New Orleans, organizing with youth ages 13-25 who are directly impacted by the criminal justice system

Translash: a trans-led project uses the power of individual stories to help save trans lives, shifting the cultural understanding of what it means to be transgender, especially during a time of social backlash, to foster inclusion and decrease anti-trans hostility

TRANScending Barriers:  empowers the transgender and gender non-conforming community in Georgia through community organizing with leadership building, advocacy, and direct services

My Sistah’s House: a trans-led nonprofit providing first hand experience and field research to create a one-stop shop for finding doctors, social groups and safe spaces for the trans community, providing emergency shelter, access to sexual health services, and social services

TAKE Birmingham: focuses on discrimination in the workplace, housing advocacy, support for sex workers, providing trans-friendly services, and working to alleviate the many other barriers that TWOC face

Dem Bois: provides charitable economical aid for female to male, FTM, trans-masculine identified person(s) of color ages 21 years old and older for them to obtain chest reconstruction surgery, and or genital reassignment surgery

G.L.I.T.S: approaches the health and rights crises faced by transgender sex workers

Emergency Release Fund (NYC): aims to ensure that no trans person at risk in New York City jails remains in detention before trial; pays cash bails

HEARD: Helping Educate to Advance the Rights of Deaf Communities: supports deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind, deafdisabled, and disabled people at every stage of the criminal legal system process, up to and including during and after incarceration

Black Trans Advocacy Coalition COVID-19 Community Response Grant: works daily to end discrimination and inequities faced in health, employment, housing and education to improve the lived experience of transgender people

Princess Janae Place: provides referrals to housing for chronically homeless LGBTQ adults in the New York Tri-state area, with direct emphasis on Trans/GNC people of color

The Transgender District: aims to stabilize and economically empower the transgender community through ownership of homes, businesses, historic and cultural sites, and safe community spaces

Assata’s Daughters (Chicago, IL): Black woman-led; organizes young Black people in Chicago by providing them with political education, leadership development, mentorship, and revolutionary services

Collective Action for Safe Spaces: A grassroots organization that uses comprehensive, community-based solutions through an intersectional lens to eliminate public gendered harassment and assault in the DC area.

The Knights and Orchids Society (TKO) work for justice and equality through group economics, education, leadership development, and organizing cultural work throughout rural areas in Alabama

The Outlaw Project (Phoenix, AZ): prioritizes the leadership of people of color, transgender women, gender non-binary and migrants for sex worker rights

WeCare TN (Memphis, TN): Supports trans women of color 

Community Ele'te (Richmond, VA): provides safe sex awareness and education, linkage to resources, emergency housing assistance

TAJA’s Coalition (San Francisco, CA): ending violence against Black Trans women and Trans women of color 

Black Trans Task Force: intersectional, multi-generational project of community building, research, and political action addressing the crisis of violence against Black Trans people in the Seattle-Tacoma area

The Transgender District: stabilize and economically empower the transgender community through ownership of homes, businesses, historic and cultural sites, and safe community spaces

Black Trans Media (Brooklyn, NY): #blacktranseverything storytellers, organizers, poets, healers, filmmakers, facilitators that confront racism and transphobia

Garden of Peace, Inc. (Pittsburgh, PA): for black trans & queer youth, elevates and empowers the narratives and lived experiences of black youth and their caretakers, guides revolutionary spaces of healing and truth through art, education, and mentorship

House of Pentacles (Durham, NC): Film Training Program and Production House designed to launch Black trans youth into the film industry and tell stories woven at the intersection of being Black and Trans

Minnesota Transgender Health Coalition (Minneapolis, MN): committed to improving health care access and the quality of health care received by trans and gender non-conforming people through education, resources, and advocacy

RARE Productions (Minneapolis, MN): arts and entertainment media production company for LGBTQ people of color that promotes, produces, and co-creates opportunities and events utilizing innovative artistic methods and strategies

Baltimore Safe Haven (Baltimore, MD): providing opportunities for a higher quality of life for transgender people in Baltimore

Transgender Emergency Fund of Massachusetts: recently helped organize a Trans Resistance Vigil and March through Boston, in place of the Boston Pride Parade that was cancelled due to COVID-19

Semillas: in Puerto Rico, the trans, gender non-conforming and queer communities are facing many obstacles to survival

Street Youth Rise Up: change the way Chicago sees and treats its homeless and street based youth who do what they have to do to survive

[makingqueerhistory]

As someone who has worked in the queer community for a long time, you need to be careful of the people who stretch the reality of scarcity in our community to fit their agendas of making money off of our community.

A major sign of snake oil salesmen is someone saying they are not just the best, but the only option. This is made more believable in marginalized communities, where we are genuinely seeing a lack in resources, but a lack is not the same as an emptiness. As someone who studies queer history, let me say this: queer people (and other marginalized groups) have been fighting to provide for each other and their future for much longer than you'd expect.

There are resources. They aren't always spread equally or easily accessible, but there are more resources than some people want you to believe.

Don't let less get mistranslated into absence. Generation after generation of queer people have fought to make sure there was something for us. Do not let someone disrespect this work by claiming they are the first and only queer person to do something. If someone claims to be a first or only, fact check that. While firsts deserve celebration, we should be grateful to live in a world where they are more rare than they used to be.

[makingqueerhistory]

Canadian Queer Books

Park Cruising: What Happens When We Wander Off the Path

Marcus McCann

People Change

Vivek Shraya

The Subtweet

Vivek Shraya

Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Fantabulous Memoir

Kai Cheng Thom

Disintegrate/Dissociate

Arielle Twist

Indigiqueerness: A Conversation about Storytelling

Joshua Whitehead

A History of My Brief Body

Billy-Ray Belcourt

We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir

Samra Habib

Iron Widow

Xiran Jay Zhao

I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World

Kai Cheng Thom

I'm Afraid of Men

Vivek Shraya

[makingqueerhistory]

Native Youth Sexual Health Network

The Native Youth Sexual Health Network (NYSHN) is an organization by and for Indigenous youth that works across issues of sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice throughout the United States and Canada.