It saddens me that we don’t stand alongside our trans community when they may need us the most. Transgender Texans are finally afforded legal protection against hate crimes. With the recent introduction of House bill 1513 to add gender identity to the list of protected classes under the 2001 James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act, Texas state […]
There’s a strong narrative in our country that suggests queer people shouldn’t be allowed to raise children because they’ll make them queer. My response to that is: Queer people should raise children because we give them possibilities. The other day I was caught in the kind of awkward conversation I am often caught in. My […]
While I will admit, my overall feelings about my body have skyrocketed compared to where they were pre-transition, the reality is that for the trans and non-binary community, our selfies are our growth charts. When I was growing up, I always assumed everyone hated their body as much as I hated mine. I mean, there […]
From coming out as queer to coming out as a trans-woman, my mother, my family, my friends, and my employer have all been overwhelmingly supportive. This leads to a certain amount of guilt. I’ve been trying to write my coming out story for several months now. I probably have three or four Word documents with […]
The medical viability of uterine transplantation is challenging long-held notions about our bodies. In 2017, the United States passed a medical milestone: the first baby in the nation born through a transplanted uterus. Reports on the specific number of successful births via transplanted uterus vary, but all place the count at fewer than 30 births. […]
Transgender individuals deserve the choice to pursue all the same paths to parenthood as cisgender people. One of the reportedly seven newly banned words at the Centers For Disease Control is “transgender.” While the alleged banned list has been denied, the paradox of how we treat issues of transgender individuals cannot be denied. This is particularly true […]
The fact is that trans-exclusionary feminists and misogynists are, despite some trivial differences, basically on the same side. In the grand scheme of Women Having Opinions About Things In Public, I have it really easy. The tireless harassment, often escalating into abuse and even threats, that many women (especially but not exclusively Black women and […]
When self-proclaimed feminists decry ‘female erasure’ in pregnancy-related care, they endanger many. Last month, The Colorado Doula Project (CDP), a grassroots organization that provides “free emotional, physical, and informational support through the spectrum of reproductive experiences,” held the first formal abortion doula training in the state of Colorado. Nearly 50 women and non-binary people gathered to learn how […]
While there are broad aspects of male privilege that male children may experience, there is a high price to pay for being bad at being a boy. Recently, in an auto parts store in Columbus, Ohio, I was called a “faggot” for the first time as a newly out, non-binary femme. I am a 600-pound […]
In my moment of liberation and celebration as a white cis woman, I didn’t think for a moment there was a single woman there feeling shame or hurt. “Close your legs. That’s not very ladylike!” I had never heard my grandfather say such a thing before and, at 12 years old, I was mortified. My […]
I, too, felt destined to become the best version of myself. I have always been Emily; letting others see that was as unavoidable as gravity. Every good story begins with a dream. Rocky wanted to be a boxer, Luke wanted to be a Jedi, Dorothy wanted to get back to Kansas. And me? I wanted […]
I know many of you fight every day to make the world acknowledge you as the dads you are, rather than giving you the honorable but incorrect title of “mother.” My partner Charlie is a genderqueer butch dyke. He is my daughter’s father, and he is also the person who gave birth to her. I […]
