#a post i made for intersex solidarity day
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"Intersex"
#a post i made for intersex solidarity day#my comic#my art#intersex#intersex awareness#intersex pride#lgbt#queer#lgbtqia#intersex community#lgbt comic#lgbt community#lgbt art#lgbt memes#intersex memes#intersex art#intersex stuff
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[ID: A set of two flags with seven stripes. The left goes from light orange, to light red, to dark blue-purple, to light green, to dark blue-purple, to deep blue, to teal. The right goes from cornflower blue, to teal, to light green, to orange, to red, to dark pink-purple, to dark blue-purple. End ID]
Gay flag
This is a flag for anyone who considers themselves gay, regardless of their gender. It is not a general LGBTQ+, queer, etc. flag, it is a gay flag. Gay men, lesbians, nonbinary gay people, and any other gay person is completely welcome to use this.
This was both made to have a non-gendered gay flag, and as a flag of solidarity and unity among gay people in general. I do not care who uses this flag, so long as they consider themselves to be gay.
The flag and stripes:
I made two versions; one is meant to look similarly to the most popular flags made for lesbians and gay men so it fits the "theme," while the other one is styled originally without the tie to those flags. This is so that people who like the look of the sunset and wintergreen flags, and people who do not, can have their own style.
The name of this flag is Honeydew Gay, referencing the light green center or bottom. It can also just be called Intersectional Gay, if you'd rather.
Orange is for personal identity and lived experienced. It's for recognizing that every gay person is different, and so are their lives. There is rich diversity among gay people throughout history, and in the modern day.
Red is for gay rights, acceptance, and history. It's for the fight for gay rights and acceptance, and respect for those who have been fighting throughout history. It's for pushing for gay rights today, in our laws and our society.
Pink-purple is for gay solidarity, gay "family," and gay unity. It's for uplifting other gay people and recognizing each other as a unified force that has worked together and helped one another. It's also a nod to how "family" has been used as code for fellow community members in the LGBTQ+ community.
Light green is for gay intersectionality. It's for recognizing that there are other minorities within the gay community: gay women, gay disabled people, gay people of color, trans gay people, intersex gay people, and so on. It's about rooting out these issues from our community to create internal and external equality and support.
Blue-purple is for gay remembrance and mourning. It's for remembering those we have lost, throughout history as well as recently. It is for honoring their legacy and carrying forward in their names.
Blue is for gay pride and gay love. It's for pride in oneself, self-love, and the love gay people have for each other, whether as community members or as people in different types of relationships.
Teal is for supporting gay people, especially ones in dire situations. It's for protecting each other and our more vulnerable community members; the ones who can't come out or are in dangerous situations, the ones who are marginalized even in our community, and the ones who need to be uplifted the most.
reblog of post
originally posted by user Kenochoric / Kenochoric-moved
#gay#coiner: kenochoric#flag: kenochoric#mogai term#mogai#mogai community#mogaireal#mogai heaven#liom#liom community#long post
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3, 10, 15, and 16 ?
3. what, if any, disability aids do you use? (mobility aids, sensory aids, braces, communicative devices, IVs, etc. meds also count here). do you customize them/their containers/outsides?
Lots and lots! I use knee braces (they are hot pink & match my hair and I love them). I used to use forearm crutches, and might get a cane soon. I've had NG tubes before, and rely on supplemental oral nutrition rn. I use an AAC app for psychosis but I'm not a regular AAC user outside of that. Might not traditionally be considered aids, but things like mad mapping + my harm reduction supply toolkit with my sharps bin, safer supplies, stuff like that. I love customizing things-I'm a big fan of bright colors, stickers, sewing, diy, so almost everything I own has been customized in some way. I think I've posted photos of how i decorated my crutches, IV pole, and sharps container with stickers before.
10. already answered :)
15. what does disability pride mean to you?
disability pride means protest to me!!! for me pride is always going to be a protest and a lot of what I have learned about celebrating myself as a disabled person has come from the legacies of disabled people fighting back against a world that doesn't want us to exist. Disability pride means that I have the right to exist with everything that means for me, and that I don't need to love or be happy about every part of my experiences, but that I will fight for the right to have those be mine. disability pride means access intimacy and interdependence and disabled community where we can share that rage together and love the ways we exist together. Disability pride also means making room to honor my grief, and remembering everyone I've lost-their memories will always be present in my disabled community and I want to celebrate their lives and mourn together with my loved ones.
16. free space to talk about whatever disability issue or experience you want !
Ooh! I've been in a mood the past couple days to talk about intersex stuff. So will just mention again today that I personally view my intersex variation as both a queer identity and as a disability-I think that the social model of disability becomes very relevant when we look at the way intersex people are treated, our relationship with the medical industrial complex, and the way that intersex people are made disabled within it. I think that intersexism is rooted in ableism and that intersex liberation must be based on solidarity with the disability justice movement. I don't think that individual intersex people need to see their intersex variations as disabilities but I'm really drawn to how Dr Celeste Orr discusses intersex and/as/is/with disability in Cripping Intersex. and especially for my specific intersex variation, which depending on the subtype that you have, can require lifelong glucocorticoid therapy, can be the subtype with EDS, can have salt wasting crises, etc, it's clear why we might understand ourselves as disabled and chronically ill people. And at the same time, being intersex will always be queer to me, because we belong in LGBTQIA community and i want to honor how my intersex traits exist beautifully outside of the sex binary!
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I'm really sorry to bother you, but I had a question re: the terf blog sharing the abortion sign gif? I'm assuming this is a case where I'm missing a flag or it's a 'socially acceptable' disguise blog of theirs, but when I went to check them to block I saw they had rbed a post that seemed to be pro-trans addressing how the abortions rights is bad for the trans community too?
Like I said I'm assuming this is them rbing things to keep attention off of them but I wanted to ask how I can verify it just to be sure? I have a screenshot of the trans post if there's a flag in that too. If you or anyone else can help clear this up for me I'd appreciate it a lot, thank you so much for your time and I hope you have a good day.
(P.S. I'm stuck on mobile so while I could use shinigami eyes when on desktop, I rarely have access to my computer. That's why I can't tell rn 😔 )
Hey no worries! I went to their blog and while I wouldn’t call them a TERF specifically (they’re nonbinary, themself!) they are absolutely a radfem.
Here are some posts they reblogged that are anti-sex work, anti-kink, or just plain anti-sex:
Reblogged from k.atara-radfem
Reblogged from i.meverywoman420
Reblogged from c.annibalwomen
Reblogged from s.apphicgem
Some of the OPs of these posts are also openly anti-trans, and at least one person directly reblogged from is a self-proclaimed lesbian separatist.
Other posts, like this one (notice the tag), show a very radfem-based view of sex and gender. It's clear that they see things as a male/female binary, and see trans people who can get pregnant as female, despite perhaps superficial acknowledgement of their actual genders.
For anyone else reading this who might be confused, this is still bad. The emphasis on birth assignment is inherently anti-trans and anti-intersex, and "female solidarity" both penalizes trans women and transfemmes and is largely used to attack trans men and transmascs.* For the latter it's a way for them to tie us to our birth assignment, one, but it's also the first step towards what is often forced/coerced detransition, which involves...a lot of serious abuse which other people have better spoken on than I.
The better way to handle conversations about abortion is not to make yet another binary, and just say "this is an assault on our rights to bodily autonomy, medical autonomy, and privacy," because that's what it is. We can also discuss the role of misogyny in this crisis, because it does play a huge role, but that doesn't need to involve some sort of forced "solidarity" based on birth assignment.
Also, the addition itself raised some red flags for me. While it's normal to encounter gendered language in reproductive conversations, the poster added something along the lines of "this is an assault of female autonomy/rights." The use of "female" in that particular phrase, as well as the honestly constant repetition of the word "woman," is what made me initially suspicious. I'm not sure how else to describe it, but a lot of radfems have a similar sort of tone when discussing these things, which I have learned to pick up on.
The addition made by the radfem used a gif from a nonbinary Deaf vlogger, who is unfortunately themself being called a TERF at this point. I encourage you to check out this post, which has the video from which the gif was taken. It has a lot of good information, but please keep in mind that this whole conversation surrounds American Sign Language specifically!
*Those of us who are neither are still slotted into the binary on either side, depending on what benefits them.
#asks#mes asks#hope this helped!#i wanted to make sure i explained everything thoroughly#because it IS genuinely hard to tell and also accusations of radfeminism should be substantiated#radfems#asl#abortion#reproductive rights
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I appreciate your post. My brother has been made fun of for "looking Asian" his entire life (which is uh... messed up as hell, for lack of a better term, for many reasons, ofc) and I have never known how to describe how he has been treated as a result of that.
When I worked at radioshack several of my customers thought I was either Mexican or Filipino. I'm not sure why because to me I'm very obviously black, and I'd be willing to guess it's the Native facial features (which, unsurprisingly, other Natives have picked me out of the crowd WITH EASE compared to any other demographic even when I'm not wearing anything that hints at that part of my heritage) but in any case...
You'd be surprised how many people did the stupid eye thing and called me anti-Asian slurs and said dumb shit like 'chingchong' or 'me love you long time' to see if I'd react. I had MULTIPLE customers curse me out for 'being a traitor' and tell me I needed to 'go back' when we were running a fundraiser after a tsunami in Japan. One literally spat on me saying that people like me needed to stay overseas where I belonged. I'M NOT EVEN REMOTELY ASIAN and that's fucked up to say to someone even if they are, what the fuck.
Those who thought I was Mexican would ask to speak to a 'real American', yell at me to speak English even though I... was speaking English, say I had a completely unpronouncable name [spoilers: it's super not], deliberately pronounce my name wrong after I told them how to say it, multiple customers who were mad I wasn't going to do something for them (usually processing a return for a lost/stolen item, sorry not my job take it up with the insurance) would call me a job-stealing Mexican bitch or slurs depending on how they felt that day, and more than one threatened physical violence as well as calling ICE because there was 'no way' I was a legal citizen.
Y'all. My family has been here since WWII and slavery and colonization AT LEAST. I don't have a Spanish name and I don't speak Spanish very well at all despite four years of learning. But those people decided I was Mexican, so they lobbed their shit at me.
I suppose technically you could say that I experienced anti-Black and anti-Native racism those times because what made them target me was, in fact, visibly being a person of color with somewhat ambiguous features due to being trans, mixed race, and [probably] intersex. B U T. These people's motives were largely influenced by their anti-Asain and anti-Mexican racist beliefs, as well as blatant xenophobia, and so even though I don't fall under either of those groups, I still got to experience their bullshit.
And that's not saying that my ultimately brief encounters with mistaken identity are 100% the same as someone who does not have the ability to go 'hey stupid you're wrong', either. My coworker from PR put up with WAY MORE SHIT due to his accent, his Spanish name, his more blatant features, and we often comiserated in solidarity because customers were hell in that place. He also had to deal with more than what I saw in his own personal life, outside of the workplace. He absolutely had things worse on that front, like I had things worse on the factors of oppression I had to deal with.
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Happy intersex awareness day everyone! This is going to be a little bit of a personal post so please don’t reblog it unless we’re friends/mutuals on my main.
So today I thought it would be a good day for me to come out again, a lot of things have changed for me over the past year and it took me a long time to come to terms with this, but basically I wanted to come out and say that I now identify as bigender (man/woman), and bisexual. For a long time I felt a lot of fear and shame associated with being a man, this had to do with being so traumatized in my youth because I was forced to be a boy/man, also because being in the lesbian/sapphic community felt very safe and comfortable for me and I didn’t want to identify in a way that would make me in any way more unwelcome than I already was.
It’s honestly thanks to my intersex family that I was able to unlearn and move on from the fear of accepting myself, and I don’t think I would have ever been able to come to terms with it without them. A few months ago I found out that I was originally assigned male at birth, only later in life was I assigned female. My whole world kind of fell apart, all of a sudden my upbringing made sense, I can now understand why I was treated the way I was. I realized that being a man is a part of me that feels very hurt and abandoned, and I want to begin to heal that.
No longer identifying as a lesbian is part of that, but there’s also a lot of other factors in that. I don’t feel comfortable talking about that, but I really REALLY value the lesbian community, and I’m grateful that I got to grow alongside it. I have so much love, admiration, and respect for lesbians, and I hope that I can carry that with me moving forward. I will always advocate for solidarity between bisexuals and lesbians, a label change will never change that.
For now though, I am going to distance myself from this blog while I conceptualize my relationship to being sapphic, I still identify as sapphic but now I do so in a different way. I’ll still be posting intersex content on @intersex-support so it’s not like I’ll be gone, and I don’t think I could ever delete this blog.
Again, thank you so much to all my intersex friends and family, and every intersex person I have ever talked to. I wouldn’t be as confident without you all, I feel continually humbled, supported, loved, and challenged by being in community with you.
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Meet my MC: About the Future
Inara Hepburn (she/they)
New beginnings:
Inara will soon get a haircut done, that one haircut she was gathering courage for throughout her teenage years. An asymmetric chop, complete with semi-permanent purple highlights. Perfection! She'll also get her first ever tattoo, a prism with colours bursting, on her forearm. And of course, Ethan would plan weeks ahead to take a day off on the day of her appointment, just to be able to hold her hand through the entire process of her screaming her head off while getting the said tattoo.
Having created too much drama the first time, Inara will walk into the tattoo studio for a second round, this time like a mature adult, to get a stethoscope inked near her collarbone. This will originally be to foreshadow the release of her third book, the residency memoir, but unfortunately, she will fail to stick to that plan.
Speaking of the memoir, Hepburn's Stethoscope will originally be scheduled to release in 2022, but due to Inara's unfiltered commentary on the healthcare system, it's efficiency, American politics, and capitalism among other issues, the book will be rejected by several publishing houses. Due to their initial absence of permanent American citizenship, and hence the legal right to comment so strongly on those subjects, Inara too will temporarily shelve the project. Five years after residency/two years after their marriage to Ethan, with several edits, re-edits and a US citizenship in place, Inara will finally let the book out for the world to read, and sure enough, it will hit equally hard with both readers and critics.
Writing wise, Inara's next venture after the journal will be a spy thriller trilogy, based on a team of four agents who execute dangerous but necessary missions all around the world. The central character Veronica and her gang will become extremely popular, resulting in the second book being made into a movie.
In the activism department, Inara will start their own US based queer NGO, 'We the Rainbow People foundation', to legally advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, provide food, shelter, free physical and mental healthcare to queer people of all ages who aren't privileged enough to access those, as well as hold counseling sessions for parents of queer youth who want to learn more or are reluctant to come around.
Later down the line, Inara's ancestral home in Kolkata will be completely bought off by them, after paying due shares to their aunt and cousin. The Indian wing of Inara's NGO will be founded there. Said wing will be handed over to some prominent queer activists in Bengal for immediate supervision, and Kolkata will serve as the headquarters of We the Rainbow People, India.
Family <3:
More below the cut—
Inara will continue to live with Ethan and Jenner in their shared condo till three years after their residency. At 32, they will get engaged, and eventually married to their longtime partner, and buy a new home together, beautifully placed in equal distance from city-life and the countryside.
Post marriage, Ethan will be wanting a baby, but Inara won't be particularly comfortable with the idea of getting pregnant or opting for surrogacy. Hence, biological kids would be out of question, but fate will find another way to seep a third human into their lives. Through her NGO, Inara will meet a two year old in an orphanage, abandoned in infancy by their parents, most probably because they're intersex. The couple will adopt the child and raise them as their own, albeit in a gender neutral way, until they are old enough to figure out what their gender identity is.
Iris Ramsey (they/them) will be an adorable kid, enthusiastic about science experiments and music from a young age. Their love for cats combined with their Renny's would prompt the entry of a fourth member in the Hepburn-Ramsey household.
The family might consider naming their new cat Ethan, cause it would kinda look and act like him, but with little Ethan being a close friend and a regular visitor to Iris' home, three Ethans in one house would be too much confusion. Inara will only tease Ethan with a joke about naming the kitty Kardashian, just to follow suit with Jenner. Ethan will grimace, the other two will laugh, but the cat will end up responding. Hence, the Ramsey ragdoll would be named Kardashian; 'Kardy' for short.
The Ramseys will keep meeting up with Alan and Naveen during all major yearly events like Christmas and New Year's. Naveen will also team up with Inara to occasionally conduct mini poojas for their family, and Iris would thoroughly enjoy the preparation process.
Awards and accolades:
The diagnostics team of Bloom Edenbrook, and that of Solomon Kenmore (headed by Dr. Aurora Emery), along with the immunology research teams of the respective hospitals will join hands to find a cure to Caroline Bloom's condition. For this milestone achievement in the history of medicine, Dr. Baz Mirani, Dr. Aurora Emery, Dr. Inara Hepburn and Dr. Timothy Riaz (head of research team, Kenmore) will be honoured with several awards from medical organizations and invited to address in conferences around the globe.
Dr. Hepburn will join Dr. Ramsey in the management of several epidemics over the years in different parts of the world. The World Health Organisation will thus honour them both with a special accolade to acknowledge their contribution in this regard.
After its delayed release, Inara's journal 'Hepburn's Stethoscope' will win the National Book Award for Non-fiction due to its "honest and detailed account of devastatingly true events." Her following releases consisting of all three parts of her spy series will receive nominations and awards on both national and international levels.
At 45, Inara will be honoured with the Gleitsman Citizen Activist Award for their contributions in aiding queer liberation.
That was my final entry! This whole event was so enriching, so much fun and so much solidarity, I can't even! I'll probably rant in the host blog's asks. But before that, a HUGE THANK YOU to all of you who read and supported my submissions, you deserve the world.
Love to all, goodbye✌.
Tagging: @openheartfanfics @adiehardfan
#choices open heart#dr ethan ramsey#mc x ethan#open heart fanfiction#oph book club#meet my mc#Inara Hepburn
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hey I am not intersex but I have a question regarding the topic of a lack of representative language and terminology within the intersex community. specifically, I am wondering how many ppl in that recent discussion are from the global north? not to conflate being intersex with necessarily being queer or trans, but it came to my mind just now how the sub-Saharan African LGBT community/movement appeared to almost strictly use the acronym LGBTI or LGBTIA to describe itself in its infancy. Africa as a continent, with the slight exception of South Africa, is still very new to having queer communities but when we finally began forming support systems and advocating for ourselves, it seems organizers very much pushed or at least preferred to have intersex representation at the forefront of representation. I actually think I'm seeing the I being phased out in larger online queer spaces that include Africans in recent years, unfortunately, instead being replaced by LGBTQ. I identify as queer but like... idk that doesn't sit right with me. it's probably the result of modern day sexual minority discussion and advocacy being heavily influenced (for better and for worse) by Western/global north language and culture. :/
so i suppose my question is, have English-speaking intersex folks on Tumblr (which can become kind of echo-y between/dominated by the US and Canada; it just is what it is) looked to the global south's intersex terminology or advocacy groups and how they discuss themselves? I am not at all claiming they aren't having the same problem it's just... the internet feels big, but language and national barriers and vacuums like this exist and I think it's very common that similar groups from very different places miss out on supporting and empowering one another because of it. food for thought, perhaps? what countries have a longer history of intersex representation and advocacy, regardless of their level of mainstream visibility? which cultures? and how have they talked about their experiences, how have they developed their own terms?
oh and I hope it's clear I'm not saying people should just drop in and co-opt other cultures' intersex community's terminologies (history and context always matter), but I wonder if there's something to be learned this way? I hope this is a reasonable question and not insensitive. I really appreciate this blog and everyone who speaks about their experiences and struggles; it's important that we all strive to learn about and from one another, continuously, and this blog and the people who engage with it have taught me a lot just in the couple months I've been following you.
have a good one ✌🏾
Thank you so much for this question. I think you raise so many good points that are VITAL to address in the intersex community. It’s really true that the intersex community on tumblr is overwhelmingly people from the US and Canada, and I think a lot of the lenses that we use to discuss intersex language, terminology, and intercommunity issues are so influenced and mostly focused on US and Canadian intersex issues, which is honestly a problem! Like on one hand it makes sense that intersex conversations on here would be mostly involving American people since I feel like tumblr is overwhelmingly American, but I think that there needs to be more of a good faith attempt to look at and intentionally create spaces for international solidarity. I think that’s something that we really need to be aware of is that when we’re talking about intersex issues, we really need to steer clear of making overarching generalizations about what the “intersex experience” is or acting like American language preferences are inherently the standard. The intersex community on here is also so white, and there is a lot of issues with racism within the intersex community here-you really see white intersex voices getting prioritized over intersex people of color, and that’s a huge issue that we need to actively fight against.
And honestly like I think there is also a trend just to focus on American intersex activism, when there are sucessful intersex activist organizations doing important work world wide. And it’s important to recognize and support demands and issues that are more regional-for instance, a key part of the statement made by African Intersex Movement in 2017 is calling for an end to intersex infantcide, which is not a demand that most American intersex organizations are making. And I think really robust intersex solidarity requires looking at issues that affect us world wide, and looking at how to incorporate that into our activism.
You’re really right that we should be looking more to the global south and considering and developing some of our understandings based not just on American experiences, but also looking and learning from intersex organizations internationally. For instance, I know there’s been a strong intersex organization since 2000 in South Africa started by Sally Gross, which was quite a while before InterAct started really doing activism, and I think there’s so much to learn from people who have been doing the work for longer. Our resources page does have a list of intersex organizations broken down by country, which might be a good starting place to start to look at and learn about what unique issues intersex people in other countries have, and look at the amazing activism and important work that intersex people from outside of the global north are doing. We have so much to learn from eachother and I think acting like we don’t have anything to learn from intersex people outside of America is such an issue, and a perspective heavily influenced by white supremacy and xenophobia.
This is getting a little long lmao, but to answer your question-honestly, I really don’t think most intersex people in the tumblr community are considering the global south in conversations about intersex issues, community, and language. (this is a little different in spaces off tumblr-I’m in some intersex spaces that have a lot of people from different countries, but these spaces are still English speaking.) And I think that’s something we should change! I’m going to post this ask as a call in for the intersex community on here-how can we change the way we approach intersex community issues? How can we work to deconstruct the idea that American intersex issues and scholarship are the standard? How can we learn from intersex activists and people from other countries-especially countries in the Global south, especially Africa-and how can we fight against the way we might have internalized racism and xenophobia that leads us to view intersex work from those countries as less important? How can we decenter whiteness in our intersex conversations?
I’m not going to pretend that I have answers to all these questions, but I think it’s vital that we’re working on and addressing these questions, and building intersex spaces that intentionally make space for diverse intersex experiences, and that honor intersex work that is from other countries than America.
I know I’m going to commit to doing more research to broaden my perspective going forward, and I’d like to invite other intersex people following me to do the same.
Thanks for pointing this out. I really appreciate it.
-Mod E
#asks#actuallyintersex#intersex#people feel free to yell at me in the comments if u think im missing something important or disagree with what im saying here#or im overstepping#i can only speak from what i know#so let me know if i'm overstepping boundsa#also please let me know if i didn't answer your question lol i kind of went a little all over the place#long post tw
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Lgbt manga pt.1
If you had to put up with my sorry ass for a few years then yes you know that I have been searching for lgbt mangas!! I put up with the pain of going through most genres that sexualize/fetishize gender identities and sexualities (like yaoi and gender bender) and reading mangas to find if they have lgbt content so you dont have to suffer the pain of trying to! Clown on this post and please face my wrath
Keep in mind that these aren’t in order of ratings!! Its just a list. I also give summaries of the plot, the things that make it lgbt, and some content warnings!!
1. Welcome to Room #305! by Wanan
Kim Jung Hyun moves into an apartment (room #305) with a friend of a friend, named Kim Homo! Who (you guessed it) is gay! As Jung Hyung begins to live with Kim Homo, he slowly learns to accept him for his sexuality. Once he overcomes his homophobia and completely accepts him for who he is, other lgbt characters pop in too!! They all have their struggles with their identities, and it is very realistic, but the art style helps keep all that angst at bay! As far as english translations go, we have several lesbian characters, and a trans guy. You can read the english translation on several manga sites, but if you want the link to the original since this is a webcomic, here’s the [link]! Unfortunately english updates are very slow since translation teams have other projects, and legal companies who translate take their sweet precious time.
2. Bokura no Hentai by Fumiko Fumi
The title might seem misleading, however it can be translated as “Our Transformation”! Buckle up buttercup cause this manga will fuck you over emotionally. Three crossdressers meet up after being in a crossdressing group, with different reasons as to why they crossdress. Parou crossdresses to fall in love with a straight guy, Marika is actually a trans woman, and Yui crossdresses as his dead sister to “help” his mother with her grieving. There are some other characters who don’t fit within the gender norms!
Now let me tell you if you are dealing with some trauma and can’t handle very sensitive topics, this manga might not be the one for you. Although it isnt just homophobia and transphobia, it also contains content of sexual harrassment, pedophilia, and suicide. However these topics are not glorified or sexualized. They are trauma of some of the characters and they must learn how to overcome from it individually. However, there is a happy ending for them!! Please let that be known! I enjoyed reading it if sobbing your heart out counts as enjoying it, because it has indeed pulled my heart strings (although I am not a trans woman, I am a trans guy and I can identify with only some of the things Marika goes through, as trans women go through different experiences than trans men and have it harder on them.)
3. Hourou Musuko (Wandering Son) by Takako Shimura
This manga is one of the most well known mangas realistically depicting trans identity. It became popular when an anime adaptation came out! However the anime adaptation only covers the middle school part of our protagonists lives, however it encourages you to read the manga to find out what happens to them and their life! We have two protagonists. Shuichi who identifies as a girl, and Yoshino who identifies as a boy. Shuichi is the primary protagonist while Yoshino serves as a secondary protagonist.
This manga also realistically depicts how hard it is for transfeminine people to come out and be themselves while transmasculine people seem to have it easier (dont clown on this dear fuck). We have lesbian, gay, and genderfluid characters galore! Although they do have some touchy topics like transmisogyny and transphobia in general, it is less heavier than Bokura no Hentai.
Some people might not like the outcome of this story when it comes to Yoshino, however I am content with it because it shows that people should be able to explore their gender identity, and they are welcome to change it anytime as they see fit. Sometimes you won’t figure out your identity if you don’t explore.
4. Shimanami Tasagore / Our Dreams at Dusk by Yuhki Kamatani
Also one of the more well known ones, the mangaka of this beautiful story is X-gender and asexual! It follows the protagonist, Tasuku is contemplating suicide as rumors circulate that he is gay at his highschool (he is). He sees a woman jumping off a building nearby and runs to her aid. Her name is Anonymous/Somebody and she sees herself is asexual but other than that she does not like labels, she invites Tasuku inside the building she just jumped off, which contains a group of exclusively lgbt characters.
We have both trans, lesbian, and gay people. We see their struggles. We see how they overcome it. We see how even we ourselves can harm others even if we’re both lgbt. Of course there is homohpobia, transphobia, etc. however it is all handled perfectly and we get the satisfaction of these characters speaking up for either themselves or for each other. I also love Anonymous simply because she doesn’t like labels and chooses not to use them (excluding the asexual part). Not everyone whos part of the lgbt community has a label, however they are still a part of us!
5. Fukakai na boku no subete o (Fukaboku)/ Love me for who I am by Konayama Kata
Fukaboku is a very special manga to me, as it goes in depth on gender identity and sexuality. There are two protagonists, Tetsu who is a cis guy and supposedly straight (we later find out that he is not), and Mogumo, who is both intersex and nonbinary.
Tetsu works as a chef at Question Cafe, and everyone employed in fanlations are called girlyboys, however in the official translation they use otokonoko which is anyone crossdressing as a girl regardless of their gender. There are plenty of transwomen, gay people, etc.! Tetsu falls in love with Mogumo, so he isn’t straight, however he isn’t explicitly gay because he recognizes Mogumo as what they identify as, nonbinary. It is safe to say that he could either be pan, bi, omni, etc. however we can’t confirm since it hasn’t been explicitly stated.
We learn how transfeminine people have certain struggles, like shoes that dont fit them, breasts, and voice feminization. We also have a dose of family struggles when it comes to Mogumo in later/current chapters.
Before you dm me, yes. Yes I know about the shit prequel. The prequel actually features a gay couple in fukaboku. I have read it. Reluctantly even if it was only 24 pages. However just because the prequel is shit does not mean we should cancel Fukaboku. There is a thing called being critical of the content you’re enjoying. If we treated it like cancel y because of x, then things like persona 4 and danganronpa would be cancelled, but lets not get into that.
6. Kanojo ni Naritai Kimi to Boku by Umi Takase
I haven’t heard of this one as much as I have the others, so I was very much pleased when I heard about this! There are two protagonist (yes there are a lot of lgbt mangas with two protags I’ve noticed too), Hime and Akira. Hime has a crush on Akira, who identifies as a girl. However this manga is also realistic, as Akira doesn’t fully ‘pass’ as a girl herself. Hime wants to do anything she can to help Akira feel comfortable on her first day of school wearing a girl’s uniform. Because of Akira being made fun of, Hime shows up to school in Akira’s male uniform to help Akira in solidarity.
Their teachers are fully aware of Akira’s situation, however instead of discriminating her they accept her. Their homeroom teacher helps Hime overcome her internal problem about lashing out at others who try to befriend Akira, and she slowly realizes that just because people can’t accept Akira straight away, they will slowly get used to her and come to terms with the fact that Akira is trans in their own time rather than have it being forced on them.
Hime and Akira make friends slowly and we see that even little things (like calling Akira cute and/or a girl) helps Akira, even if theyre small things we dont usually notice. Hime also struggles with her crush as she sees Akira as a girl, yet she cant accept the fact that shes attracted to girls.
Although Akira doesnt feel the same way as Hime does, she doesnt just like her as a friend, but also not as a lover either. Its safe to say that these two have a quasiplatonic relationship with each other.
7. Yuzu no Koto by Arai Shou
I have noticed that there are plenty of mangas with transfeminine characters as the focus, rather than transmasculine, so heres one for the transmasculines! Ichigo’s best friend Yuzu comes back to school, however he is enrolling as a boy! It is very humorous as Ichigo tries to understand and get used to her best friend’s new identity. Although it is slow as each chapter is a single page, it is hinted that Yuzu has a crush on Ichigo (or if thats just me squinting really hard).
8. Ohana Holoholo by Torino Shino
It is a story about two bi women who are ex-girlfriends, raising one of the women’s baby together as a little family! There is also an idol/actor who helps them out and visits them occassionally! If you want something warming and wholesome, this is the manga for you!!
9. My Androgynous Boyfriend by Tamekou
Wako, a woman who works for a publishing company is in a relationship with an androgynous/genderless man! Her boyfriend wears dresses, makeup, and is an instagram model! It is not necessarily treated as crossdressing. It is handled pretty well, and the chemistry between Wako and her boyfriend is very strong. They both love each other so much and help each other with their hobbies and interests. This is what a loving and healthy relationship is supposed to look like!!
10. Inside Mari by Shuzo Oshimi
It is debatable if this is actually considered lgbt, considered the circumstances, however I put it on this list because it shows how mental illnesses and disorders really feel to the person whos suffering from it. Please read throughout this whole section to understand why.
Inside Mari is about a man named Isao who stalks this young girl named Mari. He follows her back outside of a little convenience store, but when she turns back and looks at him he wakes up inside her body and doesn’t know how to cope with it. He tries to find Mari while putting on a facade and living as her. He meets a girl named Yori who instantly recognizes that Isao isn’t actually Mari from his mannerisms. This girl has had a crush on Mari, just like Isao. Isao tries to prove to Yori that he switched bodies, and when he goes to his apartment, he finds someone living as him, but it isn’t Mari.
The more we delve into this manga, the more we figure out exactly what happened to Mari and Isao. As Isao and Yori visit and retrace his steps, Isao gets flashbacks to memories of Mari. Isao soon realizes that he isn’t actually the real Isao, but a introject of Isao, and that Mari actually has DID because of childhood trauma. The ending is bittersweet, as Mari comes back but Isao unfortunately becomes dormant/disappears since I don’t think what happened was them merging.
11. Seibetsu "Mona Lisa" No Kimi He by Yoshimura Tsumuji
In the world, people can choose what gender they want to be when they’re 12. When they’re 14 their appearance corresponds to their gender. Hinase however, is 18 years old and they still haven’t chosen a gender. They prefer to be neither. However when their two best friends suddenly confess to them, their hormonal development suddenly starts to increase.
Imagery and symbolism is very clear in this manga!! As we revolve around the color blue/cyan and the debate and interpretations of Mona Lisa’s gender. I’m very hopeful that Hinase will stay as nonbinary rather than choosing a gender, simply because both of their best friends confessed and asked them to become the opposite gender to be with them. It is very much hinted that Hinase will be in a romantic relationship with their male best friend however. I love this manga simply because the protagonist doesn’t want to identify as either male nor female.
12. Jun And Kaoru: Pure And Fragrant by Neiki Zui
Jun and Kaoru have a special condition, by midnight they both switch genders. Because they both have this condition, they hang out with each other and help each other with clothing, etc. It should be addressed that these two do not have the “I wish to be a girl/boy” etc. The problem that they have though is their growing crush on each other. They are either genderqueer, or genderfluid, or whatever you prefer since it isn’t directly stated within the manga. They’re not cis or straight! It is a very fun and comedic love story and I wish to see further updates on it!!!
13. Sakura-Chan to Amane-Kun by Asazuki Norito
This story revolves around Sakura who identifies as a girl and Amane who identifies as a boy. Amane spots Sakura dressed as a girl and instantly recognizes her, however instead of belittling her he asks her out on a date, only if she goes as a girl. During school however, they have to pretend to be the gender theyre assigned with while not interacting with each other.
Since there is a lot more but I dont want to break tumblr, I will be making a part 2 and I’ll post it tomorrow!
#lgbt#lgbt manga#manga#lgbtq#lgbtq manga#trans#gay#my post#long post#i enjoy doing stuff like this#prolly because its how i found out i was bigender
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I was ready to leave this topic behind yesterday, but I’ve gotten some messages and heard some concerns, so I just want to briefly talk about my views regarding allies & etc. I know people are ready to move on from this topic, so uh... just blacklist tw: racism // and you should be all set. :) I’m also placing it under a cut, so... I don’t think there’s anything more I can do for y’all, scoob. If you’re interested though, keep reading. But let me leave a disclosure.
I love people as people. That means, no matter what sex you may or may not have ( love for my intersex folk! ), no matter what gender you identify as ( or if you don’t, love for my non-binary folk! ), no matter your marital status, religious affiliation, ethnicity, nationality, physical capabilities, ability to speak English or otherwise communicate orally ( love for my non-verbal folks, whether you’re deaf, mute, or non-verbal autistic ), and especially no matter the color of your skin, you are welcome here.
So uh, y’all can stop apologizing to me for being x y z. You’re human, you’re you, you’re here. I’m not your maker, I’m not a saint, I’m not any of these things y’all make me out to be. I’m just a person, another human on this planet just like you.
The issue at hand are the reasons you’re apologizing. I get that what you’re apologizing for isn’t because you’re solely non-black, it’s because of what’s attached to that. Ignorance, privilege, etc etc.
I’m not here to police the English language or AAVE; in fact, the English language grows, and I’d argue came to exist, from adopting words from other languages. So no, I’m not here to ban words, or root of words, or slang, from English. It’s not my place to do that. The same argument that can be made about English stealing from AAVE can be made about Chicano English & Spanglish, about game talk, about LGBTQIA+ slang. I can’t direct a whole language which exists from this same phenomenon of stealing words, to put it blankly. Some black people might argue that, but I’m not.
The thing I’d like to bring attention to is the background behind those words, and for you to recognize where they came from. I’m not going to tell y’all you can or can’t used snatched or daddy or bae or yaaaas. But I do want you to be more critical of yourself before you use a “new word” or “slang.” Where did it come from? What was the original context? How was it popularized? This probably sounds like effort and work, but believe me, it’s appreciated. Why is that? Leading into the next point.
As I stated in my last rant about this lmao, people who actually use these words in their ordinary vocabulary are often demonized or considered inferior for using them. A vocabulary that they created in order to create solidarity, to use against mainstream culture. So for you to snatch the word from them is, well, committing an offense towards that community which has already been hurt, been attacked, been belittled, been mocked and ostracized when they attempted to assimilate. It’s kind of an act of modern colonization, tbh. So, that’s mainly the argument behind the posts you see regarding why others might not want you to use words in cultural dialect ( AAVE, LGBTQIA+ slang, etc. )
So, it’s your personal choice knowing that to police your own vocabulary. If you feel guilt about it, change your behavior. And that brings me to my next point. What else can you do about this? How can you show you’re an ally, that you’re anti-oppression? ( I didn’t want to wrap this up behind anti-racism because I’ve addressed sexuality and other identity topics, y’all should understand. )
Listen. Nothing devalues a person than having their story be told out of someone else’s mouth, and even worse having it summarized as not a big deal. Listen to our concerns and take them seriously, because that shows that you at least have an iota of respect towards us. Not only that, but it gives you the opportunity to learn, which is actually the next point.
Educate yourselves. Non-dominant people are always being forced to learn, to educate themselves, to adopt, to assimilate. They can’t afford to not know about mainstream beliefs in order to survive. POC have historically been required to follow the trends of the white colonizer in order to survive, women had to follow the path set by men until their own rights could be secured, queer people have the “closet” as a way to pass in straight society until they find a place or a community that can accept them. A less serious example is that left-handed people for the longest have needed to adapt to right-handed tools. People literally have been abused, have died, and still continue to die every day, for things you might take as average or ordinary. And that right there-- that’s privilege. Recognizing that is the first step to educating yourselves. And then if you’re curious about other topics, there’s research of course, but there’s also that handy-dandy listening tool we talked about earlier. Ask some questions, get some answers.
Support us. This can be by reblogging posts, by writing open letters of apology, by openly identifying yourself as a safe space. Use your platform as a way to allow oppressed peoples to be heard. In this case, share the view points of what black people are saying, the hurt that they’re feeling. Don’t retell it for them, don’t tell them how to feel. Even just saying you empathize helps-- because silence can be seen as complacency, which only further “normalizes” oppressive behavior. If you see some problematic behavior but don’t feel comfortable addressing it yourself, report it, tell some other folks, just don’t let it slide.
I write this directly as a response to what I wrote yesterday but also as someone who does voluntarily state they are anti-oppression. As stated yesterday, this is an anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-ableism, anti-abuse, anti-bullying, anti-negativity space. Y’all don’t like it, y’all are clearly in the wrong space & get to steppin’.
Finally, I just want to write a small note about @lockedfighter . Some people seem to have misconstrued that the reason I wrote things in response to her ask ( which, by the way, was a simple “ I love you ” ) was because I was angry at her, or because I identify her as part of the problem-- and neither of those are the case. I merely used her ask as a platform for me to address these topics, because I’d received plenty of other messages of people checking in on me & saying they loved me in light of the situation. Chanti can speak for herself, but I can attest that she’d like to identify herself as an ally and is anti-racism. She does listen, she does show support, she wants to show solidarity, and she is willing to learn and adapt and change her behavior as necessary. I don’t have any problems with Chanti in that regard. So if you unfollowed her as a direct response to what I posted, I apologize if I mislead you and I publicly apologize for misrepresenting her. That was never my intention.
But my intention is for y’all to be more cognizant of your words & to know that I will in the hottest of seconds call ya asses out if you call me out of name for anything & to remind y’all that I’m a human who makes mistakes like anyone else: not an untouchable angel, not some goddess who makes the rules, and most certainly not here to satisfy your exotic fetish kinks. I swear fo gawd if I get another unironic mention about my chocolate / mocha / espresso / chestnut skin tone or told I’m a “ good black ” again I’mma kick you across the globe. You know who you are. That’s a sick idea of a compliment and I’m not pleased by it, I’m humiliated that you would think to highlight me at the cost of damning the rest of black people, POC, and WOC. I hope y’all are ashamed of ya damn selves instead of being proud with the “ at least I didn’t call you a nigger ” attitude. Get the heck out of here. As if you have a chance.
Have a good day.
#[ ʏᴏᴜ ʙᴜʀʏ ᴀ ʟɪᴠɪɴɢ ᴘᴇʀsᴏɴ ɪɴ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴍᴇᴍᴏʀʏ ] // oυтoʇɔнɒяɒ#tw: politics //#tw: racism //#long post //#tw: slurs //
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JK Rowling’s essay about why she’s a TERF: Full Overview
Be forewarned, this is going to be LONG. I started reading the Goblet of Fire today and saw that JK Rowling has written and posted an ESSAY about why she’s speaking out about her blatant transphobia. I never intended for this blog to be about her, but since this is happening while I am attempting to read the series for the first time, I feel compelled to address it.
“This isn’t an easy piece to write, for reasons that will shortly become clear, but I know it’s time to explain myself on an issue surrounded by toxicity. I write this without any desire to add to that toxicity.”
I cannot fathom how she believed this would be a good idea and not add to the toxicity surrounding this issue. During pride month. When Black Lives Matter is protesting for equal rights. How is this necessary?
“For people who don’t know: last December I tweeted my support for Maya Forstater, a tax specialist who’d lost her job for what were deemed ‘transphobic’ tweets. She took her case to an employment tribunal, asking the judge to rule on whether a philosophical belief that sex is determined by biology is protected in law. Judge Tayler ruled that it wasn’t.”
First of all, Maya didn’t lose her job. Her contract was simply not renewed by her workplace, something that she was not entitled to under any law. JK Rowling also continues to falsely assert that Maya’s belief was that ‘sex is determined biology’, when she actually asserted that under no circumstances is a trans woman a woman nor a trans man a man, and the judge ruled that it did not fit all five necessary limbs to be a philosophical belief (it actually only failed the last one). The judge ruled that the ‘under no circumstances’ part of her assertion was absolutist, and that is what ultimately failed the fifth limb. [source]
“My interest in trans issues pre-dated Maya’s case by almost two years, during which I followed the debate around the concept of gender identity closely. I’ve met trans people, and read sundry books, blogs and articles by trans people, gender specialists, intersex people, psychologists, safeguarding experts, social workers and doctors, and followed the discourse online and in traditional media. On one level, my interest in this issue has been professional, because I’m writing a crime series, set in the present day, and my fictional female detective is of an age to be interested in, and affected by, these issues herself, but on another, it’s intensely personal, as I’m about to explain.”
Not much to say here, except that this paragraph is meant to tell us that she’s considered including this debate in a fictional book she’s writing for some reason, and that she has allegedly had time to talk to all of these extremely knowledgeable people who all failed to inform her that trans people don’t actually hurt her or take anything from her.
“All the time I’ve been researching and learning, accusations and threats from trans activists have been bubbling in my Twitter timeline. This was initially triggered by a ‘like’. When I started taking an interest in gender identity and transgender matters, I began screenshotting comments that interested me, as a way of reminding myself what I might want to research later. On one occasion, I absent-mindedly ‘liked’ instead of screenshotting. That single ‘like’ was deemed evidence of wrongthink, and a persistent low level of harassment began.”
First off, this goes against the statement a spokesperson made for her when this happened, stating that she had a ‘clumsy middle-aged moment’ and liked the tweet by ‘holding her phone incorrectly’. The tweet she liked also had no content that she could research, it was a baseless claim that men in dresses get more solidarity than cis women (which I won’t even dive into, we have so much more to cover). [source] I also won’t dive into the use of ‘wrongthink’ as if we are all characters in George Orwell’s 1984, simply because nobody is controlling her speech, she is simply facing consequences for the shit she chooses to fling at the wall.
“Months later, I compounded my accidental ‘like’ crime by following Magdalen Burns on Twitter. Magdalen was an immensely brave young feminist and lesbian who was dying of an aggressive brain tumour. I followed her because I wanted to contact her directly, which I succeeded in doing. However, as Magdalen was a great believer in the importance of biological sex, and didn’t believe lesbians should be called bigots for not dating trans women with penises, dots were joined in the heads of twitter trans activists, and the level of social media abuse increased.”
Just take a moment to laugh at the fact that she misspelled Magdalen Berns’ last name. But to clear things up, yes, Magdalen was suffering from a fatal aggressive brain tumour, but no, she was not a brave young feminist, she was an extremely outspoken transphobe, who regularly made videos misgendering, slandering, and twisting the words of trans people and trans activists in order to victimize herself. The vast majority of trans people will agree that you shouldn’t date anybody that you don’t want to date, or have any kind of sex with anyone that you don’t like. But Magdalen took it a step further, and said that NO lesbian could have sex with somebody with a penis and still be a lesbian, and NO lesbian could have a penis, despite trans lesbians continuing to exist to this very day. [for sources, Magdalen’s twitter and youtube channel remain active]
“I mention all this only to explain that I knew perfectly well what was going to happen when I supported Maya. I must have been on my fourth or fifth cancellation by then. I expected the threats of violence, to be told I was literally killing trans people with my hate, to be called cunt and bitch and, of course, for my books to be burned, although one particularly abusive man told me he’d composted them.”
Can we salute the man who decided to tell JK Rowling that he composted her books, because that’s absolutely hilarious. But really, I just want to point out that no matter how many threats of violence JK Rowling thinks she is getting, transgender people are subjected to much more abuse both online and in real life, and it affects their wellbeing much more directly than simply being called a cunt or a bitch on twitter. [source] While JK Rowling thankfully isn’t killing trans people, she’s disappointing so many of her LGBT+ fans who looked up to her and found comfort during their childhood in her books that encouraged people to be brave and be themselves.
“What I didn’t expect in the aftermath of my cancellation was the avalanche of emails and letters that came showering down upon me, the overwhelming majority of which were positive, grateful and supportive. They came from a cross-section of kind, empathetic and intelligent people, some of them working in fields dealing with gender dysphoria and trans people, who’re all deeply concerned about the way a socio-political concept is influencing politics, medical practice and safeguarding. They’re worried about the dangers to young people, gay people and about the erosion of women’s and girl’s rights. Above all, they’re worried about a climate of fear that serves nobody – least of all trans youth – well.”
I’ll tackle this paragraph from top to bottom. Firstly, the reason you believe the overwhemling majority of people supported you is because many of those who don’t (myself included, until now) simply rolled their eyes and ignored you, because you are not worth our time. We have lives to live that are unconcerned with your bigotry. Second, I hope those people who were working in fields dealing with gender dysphoria and trans people have since left their jobs, because they have no business serving a community who they secretly harbour unsupportive ideologies about. And finally, the idea of supporting and helping trans people (specifically trans youth) is DANGEROUS to young people, gay people, and women’s and girls’ rights is simply false. No women’s rights have been repealed in favour of trans people’s rights (mainly because trans women continue to shockingly be women). In fact, trans youth with parents who are very supportive and affirming show a statistically significantly lower rate of both depressive symptoms and suicide attempts. [source] [specific graph]
“I’d stepped back from Twitter for many months both before and after tweeting support for Maya, because I knew it was doing nothing good for my mental health. I only returned because I wanted to share a free children’s book during the pandemic. Immediately, activists who clearly believe themselves to be good, kind and progressive people swarmed back into my timeline, assuming a right to police my speech, accuse me of hatred, call me misogynistic slurs and, above all – as every woman involved in this debate will know – TERF.”
I can completely understand taking a step back from Twitter for mental health reasons (perhaps we all would have been better off if this had been an indefinite hiatus). To be clear, no activists are claiming the right to police your speech. People are speaking up against your speech because it is hateful and contradictory to current research about transgender people and the best way to treat and support us effectively. Some people maybe using misogynistic slurs, which I don’t condone, but let us be clear that TERF is not one of them.
“If you didn’t already know – and why should you? – ‘TERF’ is an acronym coined by trans activists, which stands for Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist. In practice, a huge and diverse cross-section of women are currently being called TERFs and the vast majority have never been radical feminists. Examples of so-called TERFs range from the mother of a gay child who was afraid their child wanted to transition to escape homophobic bullying, to a hitherto totally unfeminist older lady who’s vowed never to visit Marks & Spencer again because they’re allowing any man who says they identify as a woman into the women’s changing rooms. Ironically, radical feminists aren’t even trans-exclusionary – they include trans men in their feminism, because they were born women.”
The first two sentences in this paragraph are true. Viv Smythe, a trans inclusive cis radfem, is credited with coining the term TERF to describe her fellow radical feminists who are ‘unwilling to recognize trans women as sisters’. It has also become widely used to describe feminists who exclude trans women from their feminism, even if they are not radfems. [source] I don’t care about who has been called a TERF, all I need to know is that they are transphobes, which they should feel equally disgusted at the fact their behaviour warrants the label. Trans men do not want to be included in radical feminism because we were ‘born women’, and JK Rowling including this as if it is an excuse is appalling. Trans men are not women, therefore we do not appreciate radfems claiming to support us based on their obsession with what genitals we were born with.
“But accusations of TERFery have been sufficient to intimidate many people, institutions and organisations I once admired, who’re cowering before the tactics of the playground. ‘They’ll call us transphobic!’ ‘They’ll say I hate trans people!’ What next, they’ll say you’ve got fleas? Speaking as a biological woman, a lot of people in positions of power really need to grow a pair (which is doubtless literally possible, according to the kind of people who argue that clownfish prove humans aren’t a dimorphic species).”
I cringed hard at ‘speaking as a biological woman’, because that’s just the kind of language that TERFs consistently use to make it clear that they are NOT under any circumstances to be mistaken for trans. The notion that these people, institutions and organizations are ‘cowering’ out of fear of being transphobic as opposed to wanting to openly support and welcome trans people as they would any other person is extremely biased. And as a last note, people using clownfish are trying to show that sex is noy cut and dry binary, it varies between species, and there is so much more to it than ‘XX vs XY’ and ‘penis vs vagina’ like JK Rowling and company seem to think.
“So why am I doing this? Why speak up? Why not quietly do my research and keep my head down?
Well, I’ve got five reasons for being worried about the new trans activism, and deciding I need to speak up.
Firstly, I have a charitable trust that focuses on alleviating social deprivation in Scotland, with a particular emphasis on women and children. Among other things, my trust supports projects for female prisoners and for survivors of domestic and sexual abuse. I also fund medical research into MS, a disease that behaves very differently in men and women. It’s been clear to me for a while that the new trans activism is having (or is likely to have, if all its demands are met) a significant impact on many of the causes I support, because it’s pushing to erode the legal definition of sex and replace it with gender.”
I don’t think anyone will argue that JK Rowling’s charitable trusts and funds are a bad thing. But her need to specify that these have an ‘emphasis on women and children’, imply that survivors of domestic and sexual abuse cannot be men or trans people, and for some reason pointing out that MS can present differently in men and women, are all red flags that these are issues she’s injecting into her charitable efforts, as opposed to actual threats to the causes she supports. The fear that transphobes have over people being classified by the gender they experience and walk through life presenting with instead of the genitals they have underneath a few layers of clothes is ridiculous, especially when you strip it down like this.
“The second reason is that I’m an ex-teacher and the founder of a children’s charity, which gives me an interest in both education and safeguarding. Like many others, I have deep concerns about the effect the trans rights movement is having on both.
The third is that, as a much-banned author, I’m interested in freedom of speech and have publicly defended it, even unto Donald Trump.”
The movement to secure equal rights and protection under the law for transgender people will not have a negative effect on children or education, other than allowing kids to learn more about the diversity among people they’ll interact with throughout their lives. And once again, nobody is trying to tell you that you cannot say these things, only that you will face consequences for saying them, like Donald Trump does daily. Trans people and activists don’t even have the power to affect the right to freedom of speech, so this is a moot point.
“The fourth is where things start to get truly personal. I’m concerned about the huge explosion in young women wishing to transition and also about the increasing numbers who seem to be detransitioning (returning to their original sex), because they regret taking steps that have, in some cases, altered their bodies irrevocably, and taken away their fertility. Some say they decided to transition after realising they were same-sex attracted, and that transitioning was partly driven by homophobia, either in society or in their families.”
There is a lot to unpack in this paragraph. And I don’t have the room in this already much too long post to dive into detransitioning, so I’ll say this: it sucks that some people transition only to realize they shouldn’t have. But these people are a staggering minority of people who do transition, and there is no external person they can blame for believing them when they relay their symptoms (as doctors are supposed to do) and acting accordingly, with the patient’s consent. The issues I have here are the language JK Rowling uses to say young women are transitioning, purposefully misgendering trans masculine people. And implying that people are transitioning because they are gay, because their families or society push them to not be gay and instead transition, is absolutely laughable. Studies have already shown that society as a whole is much less accepting of transgender people than they are of gay people and lesbians. [source]
“Most people probably aren’t aware – I certainly wasn’t, until I started researching this issue properly – that ten years ago, the majority of people wanting to transition to the opposite sex were male. That ratio has now reversed. The UK has experienced a 4400% increase in girls being referred for transitioning treatment. Autistic girls are hugely overrepresented in their numbers.”
There are a number of factors that could have led to such an increase in referrals, and no studies have a definitive answer, though most speculate that the increase in acceptance and visibility of trans people is likely a major contributor. [source] Additionally, I personally believe that more trans women seeked transition years ago because it was impossible to be accepted as a trans woman without fully medically transitioning, whereas trans men could get by without transitioning and simply presenting as their gender. Now that transition is more acceptable and available, trans men do not need to hold themselves back from transitioning, but unfortunately, with more visibility has come more vitriol that is specifically aimed at trans women, and this could discourage them from transitioning or coming out at all. I won’t dignify the statement about autism in afab trans people being prevalent other than saying that cis people can be autistic, trans people can be autistic, and implying that neuro-atypical people cannot make informed decisions about their bodies and healthcare is abhorrent.
“The same phenomenon has been seen in the US. In 2018, American physician and researcher Lisa Littman set out to explore it. In an interview, she said:
‘Parents online were describing a very unusual pattern of transgender-identification where multiple friends and even entire friend groups became transgender-identified at the same time. I would have been remiss had I not considered social contagion and peer influences as potential factors.’
Littman mentioned Tumblr, Reddit, Instagram and YouTube as contributing factors to Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria, where she believes that in the realm of transgender identification ‘youth have created particularly insular echo chambers.’”
Lisa Littman’s study can be read here. There are a multitude of issues with this study, and many big names in psychology and gender studies have spoken up about the issues in her conclusions and in the methods to begin with, which are unscientific and deeply flawed. [source] The biggest flaw, in my opinion, is that the study interviews parents of trans youth as opposed to the trans youth themselves, and takes the parents’ limited knowledge of their child’s inner thoughts and experience as fact without consulting the trans person at all. Additionally, recruitment for the study was mainly done through anti-trans organizations. All of this information is available in the original study and in the rebuttal. Because of this, I cannot take anybody who cites Lisa Littman or her study seriously, because it is not credible whatsoever.
“Her paper caused a furore. She was accused of bias and of spreading misinformation about transgender people, subjected to a tsunami of abuse and a concerted campaign to discredit both her and her work. The journal took the paper offline and re-reviewed it before republishing it. However, her career took a similar hit to that suffered by Maya Forstater. Lisa Littman had dared challenge one of the central tenets of trans activism, which is that a person’s gender identity is innate, like sexual orientation. Nobody, the activists insisted, could ever be persuaded into being trans.”
There are reasons clearly stated above why Lisa Littman and her work should be discredited for publishing this work and claiming it to be a study (especially because it was not published in any journal and was therefore not subjected to peer-review). Also, for argument’s sake, why do people like JK Rowling take people’s word for it when they report their sexual orientation, but not their gender? Why should one be recognized as innate, but not the other? Both can only be determined by the individual and their internal thoughts and feelings and urges and sense of self. Nobody can be persuaded to be trans any more than anyone can be persuaded to be gay, or lesbian, or bisexual.
“The argument of many current trans activists is that if you don’t let a gender dysphoric teenager transition, they will kill themselves. In an article explaining why he resigned from the Tavistock (an NHS gender clinic in England) psychiatrist Marcus Evans stated that claims that children will kill themselves if not permitted to transition do not ‘align substantially with any robust data or studies in this area. Nor do they align with the cases I have encountered over decades as a psychotherapist.’”
I didn’t think it needed to be said, but a single psychiatrist’s experience is not representative of the entire reality. Many people misquote studies in order to make them work for their agenda. Studies show that trans people have higher suicide attempt rates, not higher rates of actually killing themselves. To insert personal experience like Marcus Evans did, I attempted suicide multiple times, and experienced high levels of depression and anxiety directly tied to my gender dysphoria, all of which has been alleviated since being allowed to medically and socially transition. There are hundreds if not thousands of other trans people who will report similar struggles to myself.
“The writings of young trans men reveal a group of notably sensitive and clever people. The more of their accounts of gender dysphoria I’ve read, with their insightful descriptions of anxiety, dissociation, eating disorders, self-harm and self-hatred, the more I’ve wondered whether, if I’d been born 30 years later, I too might have tried to transition. The allure of escaping womanhood would have been huge. I struggled with severe OCD as a teenager. If I’d found community and sympathy online that I couldn’t find in my immediate environment, I believe I could have been persuaded to turn myself into the son my father had openly said he’d have preferred.”
Comparing having OCD to suffering with gender dysphoria and all the side effects it can have (many of which she listed here) is offensive. So is saying that she, too, may have transitioned, because she clearly is very comfortable as a cis woman. Trans men do not transition to escape womanhood, we transition because at our core we know we are not women and this causes us deep turmoil, on top of all the sexism and misogyny we face as a result of moving through the world being perceived as women while in the closet. Comparing the admittedly terrible experience of growing into a world riddled with sexism and misogyny to that same experience topped with multiple deeper levels of emotional turmoil is just not a comparison any cis person can make or attempt to understand, which is difficult to hear and accept for JK Rowling I’m sure. If there were online communities when JK Rowling was struggling with severe OCD, she likely would have found sympathy in other people who have OCD. The following implication (out of nowhere) that there are trans people online luring in teenagers with unrelated mental health struggles trying to ‘persuade’ them to transition is just ridiculous and I cannot believe she attempted to make this comparison.
“When I read about the theory of gender identity, I remember how mentally sexless I felt in youth. I remember Colette’s description of herself as a ‘mental hermaphrodite’ and Simone de Beauvoir’s words: ‘It is perfectly natural for the future woman to feel indignant at the limitations posed upon her by her sex. The real question is not why she should reject them: the problem is rather to understand why she accepts them.’”
More people than JK Rowling is probably aware of feel ‘mentally sexless’ in youth, because they have no crippling discomfort regarding their gender identity, and either do not feel pressure to prescribe to gender stereotypical behaviours or actively rebel against it. According to brain studies, everyone is technically a ‘mental hermaphrodite’ because there remains to be no such thing as a male brain or female brain. [source]
“As I didn’t have a realistic possibility of becoming a man back in the 1980s, it had to be books and music that got me through both my mental health issues and the sexualised scrutiny and judgement that sets so many girls to war against their bodies in their teens. Fortunately for me, I found my own sense of otherness, and my ambivalence about being a woman, reflected in the work of female writers and musicians who reassured me that, in spite of everything a sexist world tries to throw at the female-bodied, it’s fine not to feel pink, frilly and compliant inside your own head; it’s OK to feel confused, dark, both sexual and non-sexual, unsure of what or who you are.”
Just to clarify for JK Rowling, trans men and trans women both existed in the 1980s, and long before that. If she had been a trans man, she would have been able to pursue a social or medical transition. Those trans people in the 80s also turned to books and music to get through their struggles. It has been long documented that women and girls have negative feelings towards their bodies that are mainly rooted in the misogynistic society we all have to grow up in, and it’s a battle that trans people fight to end alongside cis women. I think JK Rowling will also find that trans people are at the forefront of making it known that gender roles and stereotypes are not necessary and should not be the standard for being a man or woman; women do not need to like pink, frilly things and men do not need to like monochrome, masculine things. Trans people are also huge advocates for finding yourself and living your life in the way that is most authentic to you, without focusing on whether your body is ‘male’ or ‘female’ and fighting against stigmas surrounding that obsession.
“I want to be very clear here: I know transition will be a solution for some gender dysphoric people, although I’m also aware through extensive research that studies have consistently shown that between 60-90% of gender dysphoric teens will grow out of their dysphoria. Again and again I’ve been told to ‘just meet some trans people.’ I have: in addition to a few younger people, who were all adorable, I happen to know a self-described transsexual woman who’s older than I am and wonderful. Although she’s open about her past as a gay man, I’ve always found it hard to think of her as anything other than a woman, and I believe (and certainly hope) she’s completely happy to have transitioned. Being older, though, she went through a long and rigorous process of evaluation, psychotherapy and staged transformation. The current explosion of trans activism is urging a removal of almost all the robust systems through which candidates for sex reassignment were once required to pass. A man who intends to have no surgery and take no hormones may now secure himself a Gender Recognition Certificate and be a woman in the sight of the law. Many people aren’t aware of this.”
First of all, the number of kids who “desist” from their gender dysphoria are not reliable. Mainly because the methods in these studies are not robust (ie one study defined gender dysphoria as exhibiting any behaviour that was not typical of their gender, such as boys playing with barbies and girls playing with monster trucks; another study classified subjects that did not return to the clinic and did not follow up as desisters without confirming). [source] Additionally, studying children who do exhibit true gender dysphoria, the main factor determining whether it will persist or desist seems to be the intensity, and not at all related to peer relations. [source] Trans people wishing to transition medically may no longer need to subject themselves to extensive and unnecessary therapy to convince medical professionals that they are who they say they are, but they still need to wait on very long lists for our turn to access hormone replacement therapy and surgeries, and can spend all of that time being sure that we are indeed trans and want these medical treatments. JK Rowling is also purposefully misreporting facts in regard to Gender Recognition Certificates. In order to get one, one must be over 18, have lived as their true gender for at least 2 full years, and provide two medical reports (one from a gender specialist and another from a general practitioner) citing that they have gender dysphoria. If they have not had any medical transitional treatments, the medical reports must state whether they are waiting for them or why they are not pursuing any, in direct contradiction of JK Rowling’s assertion that any man can get this certificate. [source]
“We’re living through the most misogynistic period I’ve experienced. Back in the 80s, I imagined that my future daughters, should I have any, would have it far better than I ever did, but between the backlash against feminism and a porn-saturated online culture, I believe things have got significantly worse for girls. Never have I seen women denigrated and dehumanised to the extent they are now. From the leader of the free world’s long history of sexual assault accusations and his proud boast of ‘grabbing them by the pussy’, to the incel (‘involuntarily celibate’) movement that rages against women who won’t give them sex, to the trans activists who declare that TERFs need punching and re-educating, men across the political spectrum seem to agree: women are asking for trouble. Everywhere, women are being told to shut up and sit down, or else.”
I find it hilarious that JK Rowling believes that 2020 is more riddled with misogyny than the 80s, and even the 90s. There is only backlash against feminism that isn’t intersectional and purposefully excludes groups of people for reasons rooted in ignorance and bigotry, like TERFs. Her personal belief that things are worse for girls are not reflected in society as a whole for a multitude of reasons. Although I’ll give that Donald Trump being president is a failure of the American people and highlights the bigotry of Americans, it is completely unrelated to trans people, and I’m not sure why it is relevant. I’d even argue the existence of incels is due to the fact that women are no longer forced into relationships and marriages the way they used to, no longer have to find a husband because they can work and live without leaning a man for financial stability, and can say no to sex with less repercussions (except a very small minority of men throwing tantrums about it). Comparing trans people fighting against TERFs and wanting to re-educate them to incels, Donald Trump, and misogynistic men is just a blatant attempt to derail the conversation. JK Rowling refuses to see that she is not being told to shut up because she’s a woman, she’s being told to shut up because there’s a transphobe. (On a lighter note, this reminds me of the post of a comic where homophobes were told to hit a beehive like its a pinata, and Christians got upset for being targetted, without Christianity ever being mentioned....seems relatable here)
“I’ve read all the arguments about femaleness not residing in the sexed body, and the assertions that biological women don’t have common experiences, and I find them, too, deeply misogynistic and regressive. It’s also clear that one of the objectives of denying the importance of sex is to erode what some seem to see as the cruelly segregationist idea of women having their own biological realities or – just as threatening – unifying realities that make them a cohesive political class. The hundreds of emails I’ve received in the last few days prove this erosion concerns many others just as much. It isn’t enough for women to be trans allies. Women must accept and admit that there is no material difference between trans women and themselves.”
I think all trans people will admit that people with vaginas have shared experiences because, well, they have the same body part, the same way all people with arms can relate to having arms. What we are arguing though, is that womanhood is not tied to having a vagina, or the struggles that come with having one, even though those experiences may be shared by many women. Many women may also share the experience of playing with barbies or being part of a soccer league as a child, neither of which have to do with being ‘biological women’. Pushing the absurd accusations of segregation and some weird political plan, trans people don’t pretend that we’re the same as cis people. There are material differences between trans women and cis women, and between trans men and cis men. There are also material differences among cis women and cis men. Our argument is that these material differences are not a valid excuse to exclude us from being women and men.
“But, as many women have said before me, ‘woman’ is not a costume. ‘Woman’ is not an idea in a man’s head. ‘Woman’ is not a pink brain, a liking for Jimmy Choos or any of the other sexist ideas now somehow touted as progressive. Moreover, the ‘inclusive’ language that calls female people ‘menstruators’ and ‘people with vulvas’ strikes many women as dehumanising and demeaning. I understand why trans activists consider this language to be appropriate and kind, but for those of us who’ve had degrading slurs spat at us by violent men, it’s not neutral, it’s hostile and alienating.”
Trans people are not claiming that being a woman is a costume, or an idea in anyone’s head, or a pink brain or any gender stereotype. Men do not know what it is like to be a woman. I have absolutely no idea what it feels like to be a woman, because even when presenting as one, I did not feel womanhood or any kinship with other women, because I knew that on a deep level I was not a woman. But on to less personal experiences. Inclusive language shouldn’t have quotation marks around it. Those you call female people (which I call afab, or assigned female at birth) do not all identify as women, and do not all like the label female. Therefore, using inclusive language such as ‘people who menstruate’ and ‘people with vulvas’ includes all the women who have vulvas and menstruate (because not all cis women do), and also includes the people who do not identify as women or associate the word female with themselves, despite menstruating or having a vulva. This is not an attack on women, this is not the same as misogynists using these facts to degrade women. It is simply language being used in a more encompassing way that in no way harms cis women, no matter how much JK Rowling or any other transphobe tries to play victim.
“Which brings me to the fifth reason I’m deeply concerned about the consequences of the current trans activism.
I’ve been in the public eye now for over twenty years and have never talked publicly about being a domestic abuse and sexual assault survivor. This isn’t because I’m ashamed those things happened to me, but because they’re traumatic to revisit and remember. I also feel protective of my daughter from my first marriage. I didn’t want to claim sole ownership of a story that belongs to her, too. However, a short while ago, I asked her how she’d feel if I were publicly honest about that part of my life, and she encouraged me to go ahead.
I’m mentioning these things now not in an attempt to garner sympathy, but out of solidarity with the huge numbers of women who have histories like mine, who’ve been slurred as bigots for having concerns around single-sex spaces.”
It goes without saying but obviously I am sad to learn that JK Rowling is a survivor of domestic abuse and sexual assault. It pains me to know she went through something so traumatic and that her daughter also either witnessed or experienced similar horrors. I do however have a problem with weaponizing these experiences as a reason to continue being a transphobe.
“I managed to escape my first violent marriage with some difficulty, but I’m now married to a truly good and principled man, safe and secure in ways I never in a million years expected to be. However, the scars left by violence and sexual assault don’t disappear, no matter how loved you are, and no matter how much money you’ve made. My perennial jumpiness is a family joke – and even I know it’s funny – but I pray my daughters never have the same reasons I do for hating sudden loud noises, or finding people behind me when I haven’t heard them approaching.
If you could come inside my head and understand what I feel when I read about a trans woman dying at the hands of a violent man, you’d find solidarity and kinship. I have a visceral sense of the terror in which those trans women will have spent their last seconds on earth, because I too have known moments of blind fear when I realised that the only thing keeping me alive was the shaky self-restraint of my attacker.”
Again, I am deeply saddened knowing that JK Rowling had experiences that caused lifelong struggles for her at the hands of someone she gave her trust to and had to endure throughout her first marriage. It is interesting that she feels she is able to sympathize with trans women who suffer similar abuses, despite her blatant disregard for trans people’s struggles on display throughout this essay.
“I believe the majority of trans-identified people not only pose zero threat to others, but are vulnerable for all the reasons I’ve outlined. Trans people need and deserve protection. Like women, they’re most likely to be killed by sexual partners. Trans women who work in the sex industry, particularly trans women of colour, are at particular risk. Like every other domestic abuse and sexual assault survivor I know, I feel nothing but empathy and solidarity with trans women who’ve been abused by men.
So I want trans women to be safe. At the same time, I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe. When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman – and, as I’ve said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones – then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside. That is the simple truth.”
‘Natal girls and women’ is another transphobic dog whistle. There is a non-offensive way to say this, which I am sure if JK Rowling has done all the reading she has claimed to do, she must have stumbled upon the word ‘cisgender’ at some point. It effectively communicates the same information without alienating trans people and implying they are less than cis women. Trans women are not ‘men who believe or feel like women’, and this long standing myth that cis men will use the guise of being a trans woman to gain access to public bathrooms and changerooms has been thoroughly debunked, because trans women have been using women’s bathrooms and changerooms for years with no issues. [source] And scroll up for the claim that Gender Confirmation Certificates are given out to any man who decides to be a woman for a day above, this is just more misinformation, no ‘simple truth’.
“On Saturday morning, I read that the Scottish government is proceeding with its controversial gender recognition plans, which will in effect mean that all a man needs to ‘become a woman’ is to say he’s one. To use a very contemporary word, I was ‘triggered’. Ground down by the relentless attacks from trans activists on social media, when I was only there to give children feedback about pictures they’d drawn for my book under lockdown, I spent much of Saturday in a very dark place inside my head, as memories of a serious sexual assault I suffered in my twenties recurred on a loop. That assault happened at a time and in a space where I was vulnerable, and a man capitalised on an opportunity. I couldn’t shut out those memories and I was finding it hard to contain my anger and disappointment about the way I believe my government is playing fast and loose with womens and girls’ safety.”
First of all, JK Rowling is blatantly lying. The Gender Recognition Act Reform has been completely shelved by the Scottish government in light if the more pressing need to fight the coronavirus on April 1st, and I cannot find any updates on this being considered by the government. [source] The only trans related news out of Scotland I can find is that on June 5th, the Scottish government included trans women in the definition of women in guidance for school boards, which will have none of the effects that JK Rowling is fear mongering about. [source] Again, I am upset to know that JK Rowling is a survivor, but she is using this revelation as a weapon to make people fear that it will happen to others as a result of trans people gaining access to the same public spaces as their cis counterparts. Women’s and girls’ safety is NOT being put at risk by trans people using a bathroom or changeroom.
“Late on Saturday evening, scrolling through children’s pictures before I went to bed, I forgot the first rule of Twitter – never, ever expect a nuanced conversation – and reacted to what I felt was degrading language about women. I spoke up about the importance of sex and have been paying the price ever since. I was transphobic, I was a cunt, a bitch, a TERF, I deserved cancelling, punching and death. You are Voldemort said one person, clearly feeling this was the only language I’d understand.
It would be so much easier to tweet the approved hashtags – because of course trans rights are human rights and of course trans lives matter – scoop up the woke cookies and bask in a virtue-signalling afterglow. There’s joy, relief and safety in conformity. As Simone de Beauvoir also wrote, “… without a doubt it is more comfortable to endure blind bondage than to work for one’s liberation; the dead, too, are better suited to the earth than the living.””
This is misinformation. On Saturday evening, JK Rowling took issue with inclusive language being used in an informational and medical piece about coronavirus, which is in the best interest of getting the information out to the necessary people. I would stop reading an article that said it was concerning the health of women or females, because I do not consider myself a member of either category. I have, however, menstruated in the past, and continue to have a vulva, and if an article used that language, I would continue reading, because it would concern me. She then went on to strangely imply that trans people were removing the right of gay people and lesbians to be attracted to the same sex, which has never been true, and I don’t have time to get into the same-sex vs same-gender attraction debate, nor is it relevant to her original tweet. It’s ironic that Simone de Beauvoir’s quote relates more strongly to trans people and activists fighting for liberation instead of continuing to be bound by a transphobic society.
“Huge numbers of women are justifiably terrified by the trans activists; I know this because so many have got in touch with me to tell their stories. They’re afraid of doxxing, of losing their jobs or their livelihoods, and of violence.
But endlessly unpleasant as its constant targeting of me has been, I refuse to bow down to a movement that I believe is doing demonstrable harm in seeking to erode ‘woman’ as a political and biological class and offering cover to predators like few before it. I stand alongside the brave women and men, gay, straight and trans, who’re standing up for freedom of speech and thought, and for the rights and safety of some of the most vulnerable in our society: young gay kids, fragile teenagers, and women who’re reliant on and wish to retain their single sex spaces. Polls show those women are in the vast majority, and exclude only those privileged or lucky enough never to have come up against male violence or sexual assault, and who’ve never troubled to educate themselves on how prevalent it is.”
The only people who have any reason to feel any negative way about what a trans activist might say to or about them is a transphobe, so I can only assume the people JK Rowling is talking about are transphobes. The following sentence is just more fear mongering about ‘woman’ being redefined to include trans women, as if that somehow invalidates cis women or puts them in any more danger than they were in before. Predators are predators regardless of the existence of trans people existing. Trans people are not, nor do we have the power to, infringe on any right to free speech or thought, but transphobes will continue to face consequences for their speech, in way of trans people and activists exercising our own freedom of speech. The assumptions made about people who are okay with trans people in single sex spaces are baseless and completely unfounded, only biased assumptions that serve JK Rowling’s personal agenda. Even if these polls are true (she offered no sources), just because public majority agree with something does not mean it is right. History has multiple examples of this.
“The one thing that gives me hope is that the women who can protest and organise, are doing so, and they have some truly decent men and trans people alongside them. Political parties seeking to appease the loudest voices in this debate are ignoring women’s concerns at their peril. In the UK, women are reaching out to each other across party lines, concerned about the erosion of their hard-won rights and widespread intimidation. None of the gender critical women I’ve talked to hates trans people; on the contrary. Many of them became interested in this issue in the first place out of concern for trans youth, and they’re hugely sympathetic towards trans adults who simply want to live their lives, but who’re facing a backlash for a brand of activism they don’t endorse. The supreme irony is that the attempt to silence women with the word ‘TERF’ may have pushed more young women towards radical feminism than the movement’s seen in decades.”
Again, more fear mongering, because women’s rights are not being repealed or altered by granting similar rights to trans men and trans women. I find it entertaining that JK Rowling ironically fails to see that trans people are not the loudest voice, when she has clearly been the loudest voice internationally and has gained huge amounts of attention from her words, much more than any trans person has about this subject. Gender critical people feigning concern for trans youth aren’t excusing the harm their ideology does to trans youth (one example is the idea that trans youth must wait until 18 or even 25 to transition to be sure, and not ruin their fertility or body). Then comes the idea that the ‘good trans people’ who agree with JK Rowling and gender critical feminists and TERFs are getting a bad name from the trans people who just want to be allowed to change for the gym and pee in the right changeroom or bathroom. If more cis women are becoming transphobic, it has much more to do with loud voices like JK Rowling than it does with trans people, again, just fighting for equal rights and protections under the law.
“The last thing I want to say is this. I haven’t written this essay in the hope that anybody will get out a violin for me, not even a teeny-weeny one. I’m extraordinarily fortunate; I’m a survivor, certainly not a victim. I’ve only mentioned my past because, like every other human being on this planet, I have a complex backstory, which shapes my fears, my interests and my opinions. I never forget that inner complexity when I’m creating a fictional character and I certainly never forget it when it comes to trans people.
All I’m asking – all I want – is for similar empathy, similar understanding, to be extended to the many millions of women whose sole crime is wanting their concerns to be heard without receiving threats and abuse.”
I find it deeply troubling that JK Rowling chose this moment to come out as a survivor. It is extremely manipulative, claiming not to want sympathy, when she knows all decent people will feel hurt for her going through such experiences, and weaponizing it for her transphobic agenda. JK Rowling cannot expect empathy and understanding from any trans people or activists until she stops actively advocating and spreading ideology that directly works against the fight for equal rights and protections for trans people, that in no way infringes on the rights and protections for women. Until she stops trying to twist everything about trans rights into her own victimization, she will be stuck in the classification of transphobe, and TERF is she continues to align her views with radical feminism.
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Okay so I'm going to preface this by saying you've answered a very similar question once in the past, but I'm asking again myself because I feel a lot more comfortable getting my own answer ya know what I mean? It's also very long so I'm very sorry about that.
So I think I may be intersex, specifically I think I have NCAH. I saw it mentioned once on a post about intersex conditions and looked it up because I didn't know what it was, and upon reading more about it a lot of things started making sense?
The biggest thing for me was that within the past few months my voice has gotten significantly deeper and I'm not on testosterone. I couldn't figure out what caused it, I thought maybe I just like accidentally did voice training type stuff? But it would make a lot more sense if it was caused by NCAH. I mean I sound like I'm a few months on testosterone. It's a really noticeable difference.
But of course I wouldn't be coming to you if that was the only symptom that matched up.
The next one that made me kinda suspicious is that I'm definitely more hairy than the average afab person. I used to shave my whole entire body as a teen because I was so self conscious about it. But now that I've stopped I'm like, very hairy. Enough that I've had hairy women comment on it in solidarity. The place this is most noticeable is on my legs, but the little pubescent boy mustache I've got going on is definitely a close second. I was also quite tall for an a fab child, but when I hit 13 I capped out at 5'4" and just stopped growing forever.
I can't really remember if I got pubic hair early, but I know my periods came in a bit later than the girls in my grade and they were irregular enough that I once had a pregnancy scare because my period was so late. I've also read from a few different sources that NCAH can cause frequent dehydration? Because some of the hormones affected are ones that are supposed to regulate your sodium and potassium levels. And gee I definitely have that one. I had to buy these little pedialyte drink additives because just drinking a bunch of water wasn't helping.
So that's basically my case for why I think I have NCAH. Now for the actual like, question part.
I do intend to go get tested. I know that there are tests for NCAH and I definitely want to get those done to be sure. But until then (because I don't know when I'll be able to actually do that) is it okay for me to identify as intersex? I've been reading up on the experiences of other people who have NCAH and I find myself relating to so many of them. I've read and re-read and re-re-read all the sources I can find about NCAH. I have a track record of correctly self diagnosing various things so I think I trust my judgement enough to feel comfortable calling myself intersex before getting it confirmed. I just don't want to intrude on a community that I'm not 100% absolutely sure I'm a part of. Intersex people already get treated so poorly, and as a trans man I don't want to just turn out to be another perisex trans person that thought they were ~special~ or something (because I have seen perisex trans people say all kinds of shit about "wishing they were intersex" and that shit is awful). I just want to be as respectful as possible during all this, but god it feels like I've finally found a missing piece of the puzzle. Like this little lingering question in the back of my mind has finally been answered.
Anyway, thank you for running your blog and helping people learn about intersex experiences. You're really doing something so important and I'm sure so many people appreciate you. I hope you're having a good day/night/whatever it is where you are! Thank you again!
hey anon!
So first off, I want to say that I agree that it definitely sounds like it could be possible that you have NCAH. It sounds like you have a lot of symptoms of hyperandrogenism. The thing you mentioned about dehydration is definitely more significant in people with salt-wasting CAH who will go into adrenal crisis, but I wouldn't be suprised if that is also showing up in a milder way for us with NCAH.
On to your second question:
I'm not in charge of who gets to identify as intersex, or of deciding when have done enough research to self diagnose. What I can say is that I'm glad that reading and learning about intersex topics has made you feel validated and seen. I think that with your experiences, it would be okay for you to seek out intersex spaces that are welcoming of people who are self diagnosed or questioning (message me off anon if you want a link to the intersex discord server I mod). It is perfectly fine for you to be honest about where you are in your journey and tell people that you are pretty confident that you have NCAH and are intersex, and leave it up to individual intersex spaces that you would want to join about whether they are comfortable having you there. I think that there are a lot of ways that you can start to participate in intersex community without having a professional diagnosis, and I feel like the best approach is usually to just be honest about where you are in your own discovery. You can celebrate intersex awareness day, and join open intersex spaces, and follow intersex creators, or create art with the intersex pride colors, or many other different things that don't require you to have a professional diagnosis.
Intersex community is generally pretty welcoming to people who are questioning, or intersex adjacent, or who has a complicated diagnosis story. What we are wary of is the fact that there is a long pattern of people, especially trans people, faking being intersex when they know for a fact they are dyadic. It sounds like you're aware of that history, and I appreciate how you are trying to be considerate. And truthfully, some people in some spaces might react badly if you went into those spaces and said you were intersex and they later found out that you didn't have a professional diagnosis, because of the way that intersex people have learned to be wary about fakers entering our spaces. (I don't necessarily agree with that reaction or their approach to diagnosis, but I think that you should know that this is how some intersex people believe.) But honestly, I think you could avoid getting that reaction by just being honest upfront and explaining that you think you are intersex, you're in the process of getting diagnosed, but you don't know for sure.
That being said, I don't think that you owe it to other people to explain all your medical details or your personal story anytime someone asks. I don't think there's a huge problem with you saying that you're intersex if you're talking to an acquaintance, or a dyadic person who doesn't really need to know, or a casual intersex person you meet, or really any situation where it's not an intersex person who you're actually sharing community spaces and building a long term relationship with. You don't owe it to people to share all your medical records or life experiences just because they're curious, and you don't need to go around explaining everything to people who aren't in your life in a long term way. I just think that if you're going to be in intersex spaces, building solidarity, supporting other intersex people, speaking authentically about where you are in your own experience and really listening to other intersex people is the best way to go.
TLDR: I can't tell you what you can or can't do, and what feels right to you is probably the best way to go. There's probably nothing wrong with you casually mentioning that you're intersex in situations where you don't want to share your medical story, but when you're entering intersex spaces, it might be a good idea to share that you're intersex questioning and find spaces that will embrace you.
Other intersex people, if you want to add on with your own thoughts, please feel free!
#asks#intersex#generally with things like this i say: follow ur best instincts and the norms of any community spaces you are joining#there's not hard and fast rules
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