How Alastor would be as a boyfriend/lover pt.2

Pairing: Alastor x A!Reader

Tags:fluff,cute,maybe OOC?[out of character again :/],Alastor being jelaous,period(mestr*ation),supportive Alastor during tough times with d*pression

P.S: this is shorter than the first part so i'm sorry if you didn't enjoy this as much :/ also if you're wondering why i putted the period part even tough the reader is anon is because i want to reach people who transgender [god i wrote it so bad but i hope you understand what i meant]

It is true that Alastor can be a bit jealous when you are talking with other people, especially strangers. He is very possessive of you and does not like to share you, and will often find excuses to join your conversations or get you away from the other person. He can sometimes be passive aggressive or sulk if you continue to engage with the stranger despite his efforts at cutting off the conversation.

However, Alastor will never become violent or aggressive towards you for engaging with strangers. He respects your right to interact with others, but he also would rather you spend your time with him instead. He just really likes being around you and is somewhat possessive of you. He will often shower you with affection and compliments to let you know how important you are to him in an effort to ensure that you choose to spend your time with him rather than strangers. [and if he succed he will wrap an arm around your shoulders as the two of you walk away from the guy you've been talking to, as he looked behind him and staring at the stranger smiling wikedly "she's mine pal" you:"mhm? what did you said Al?" "oh nothing dear,let's just go"]

But if you continue to ignore him and keep talking to strangers, he will start to become frustrated and may express a subtle jealousy or resentment. However, he will never force you to leave or yell at you for continuing your conversations. He may sulk or give you the silent treatment for a bit, but he will never become violent or verbally abusive towards you. Instead, he will just quietly let his feelings of jealousy and possessiveness boil under the surface.

If you confront him about his jealousy, he will deny it at first but will eventually admit to being jealous and possessive. He will explain that he just really likes being around you and doesn't want to share you with other people. He will admit that it is not fair to be jealous and that he wants to work on it, but he just can't help how he feels when you talk with other people. He is willing to try working on his jealousy but he asks that you be patient and understanding with him.

He may also admit that he feels a bit insecure or not good enough when you talk to others, and that he is worried he is not good enough to keep your attention and affection. He will ask that you assure him that he is enough for you and that you are not thinking about other people. He is willing to work on his jealous and possessive tendencies and is willing to communicate about his feelings more openly with you in an effort to improve.

Alastor is mature and understanding about this issue. Whenever you have your period, he will be understanding and supportive and will not make a big deal out of it. He will not react in any sort of negative way or shame you for it, and will instead simply try to take care of you and make you feel comfortable. He might even bring you a hot water bottle to help alleviate your cramps, or make you a cup of tea to help relax you.

In addition to caring for you during your period, he also wants to make sure you have the right necessities on hand to get through it smoothly. He will often bring you tampons or pads, painkillers and other essentials to help with your period. He may also bring you chocolate or comfort foods to cheer you up and help distract you from the uncomfortable symptoms.

Even if you accidentally bleed on the bed and taint it, Alastor will not shame you or get angry. He will be understanding and compassionate about the situation, and will not react in any negative way. He will simply help you to clean the sheets, and then comfort you afterwards. He understands that accidents can happen, and it's nothing to be ashamed of.

If you're depressed and feel overwhelmed, Alastor will be as kind and thoughtful as ever. He will be attentive and comforting, and will offer you a shoulder to cry on or even just listen to you and let you vent to him. He will also try to encourage you to do things that make you feel better or distract yourself and take your mind off of it. He will make sure that you are cared for and comforted during this time, and will do whatever he can to ease your sadness.

He may also suggest things that could potentially help you feel better, such as exercising or going for a walk, but he won't force you to do anything you're not comfortable with. He understands that feeling depressed is not easy and can be draining and overwhelming, and he will do his best to be supportive and encouraging while also giving you space and respecting your boundaries.

If you do decide to take his suggestions, he will try to go along and help you with whatever you are doing. He will try to keep things light and make jokes to make you laugh as it can help uplift your mood. He will also encourage you and compliment you along the way to try to boost your confidence and give you positive reinforcement that you are doing well. 

On the other hand, if you decide to take some time to yourself and spend some time alone to process your feelings, he will respect that too. He will let you be alone and will check up on you periodically to make sure you are doing okay and ask if there is anything you need him to do. He understands that depression is a personal journey and sometimes being alone can help you focus on sorting through your feelings, so he will keep a respectful distance during that time.

hope you liked this second part and if there is something wrong tell me i wrote this on the verge of falling asleep so.... :/

Could you maybe do something with a ftm reader who has a lot of scars and tattoos especially on his back and like Ghost sees him shirtless for the first time? Without Ghost knowing your trans? And it just being fluff and a little bit of angst?

If you don't feel comfortable doing this its okay!!

Sincerely: a very cool person

His priority is your well-being, not some scars you have.

Summary: You have been shot, and Ghost, as your comrade, helps you treat the wound. What could go wrong?

Pairing: Simon "Ghost" Riley x FTM Reader

warnings: SWF content, "Ghost" '22, transphobia is mentioned, post-surgery scars are described, military, soldier! reader, blood, wounds were mentioned, reader gets shot.

word count: 592

Being transgender in the military wasn't easy. Sneaking into the shower right after everyone had left to just take a shower, just without anyone knowing. Just to make sure no one judges or looks weird. It wasn't easy in the army. The service here was even harder…

Being wounded in the line of duty was not unusual, even the best soldier could receive a scratch. And even now you are leaning against some old tree in East Asia. Things never go according to plan, that's part of the job.

Eyes barely open, this job is not for the weak. That's why you clench your teeth while Ghost starts pulling you out of your gear to put bandages on your gunshot wound on shoulder. Of course you wish you could do it by yourself but right now you priority was to not get infection.

"Keep your eyes open, soldier." Ghost’s harsh tone didn’t let you relax even for a second, which was probably for the best. He didn't pay much attention to your tattoos or scars, figuring he could take a closer look at them once he stitched you up.

You feel his gloved hands slowly pour the alcohol onto your shoulder. Sharp pain simply drowned out all your thoughts. Every cell of your body felt like it was on fire. "Fuck! Be gentle, I’m bleeding.” You spat as soon as you unclenched your teeth. Everything hurt so much, your mind could barely focus on one thought.

"I'm well aware of that." He said that once he found the nearest piece of cloth to cover the bleeding, he would help you get to your feet and get to the nearest evacuation site.

He picked up the radio and said something, but you could barely hear what. Only thing you got was that he said that you had been shot and you both needed to evacuate as soon as possible. He probably said something else, but your head hurt, along with that damn shoulder that felt like it was being cut off, slowly, piece by piece. His skillful hands quickly tightened some fabric on your shoulder. And without giving you time to come to your senses, he picked you up, throwing your good arm over his shoulder. “The evacuation helicopter will be there in a few minutes. Get back on your feet."

You both slowly walked towards the place Ghost lead you to. Only now did you remember that he probably saw your scars… Those top surgery scars that you covered with everything you could. Those scars that you hid. These white lines are right under your pecs. You worked hard to make them hard to see. But neither cream nor some beaty products could remove them. A constant reminder of who you were born…

Anxiety rise in you, your stomach became a tight knot. You're afraid that he saw the scars that you tried to hide. “So, about what you saw…” You were afraid he might tell someone. The military was not the most acceptable place. Here you will have to fight not only on the battlefield, but also earn your place among others.

“I don’t care who you are, lad. My job is to keep you alive, not to pry into your personal life.” His words can be harsh and cold. But you don't see any condemnation here. He considers you his equal. Ghost wasn't the nicest person, but he wasn't an asshole who treated you differently just because you weren't like him.

The rescue helicopter was visible in the distance…

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𝔑𝔬𝔱 𝔪𝔲𝔠𝔥. ℑ'𝔪 𝔰𝔱𝔦𝔩𝔩 𝔤𝔢𝔱𝔱𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔲𝔰𝔢𝔡 𝔱𝔬 𝔴𝔯𝔦𝔱𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔰𝔦𝔫𝔠𝔢 ℑ'𝔳𝔢 𝔟𝔢𝔢𝔫 𝔞𝔴𝔞𝔶 𝔣𝔬𝔯 𝔞 𝔴𝔥𝔦𝔩𝔢. ℑ 𝔨𝔫𝔬𝔴 𝔦𝔱 𝔴𝔞𝔰 𝔰𝔲𝔭𝔭𝔬𝔰𝔢𝔡 𝔱𝔬 𝔟𝔢 𝔞 𝔣𝔩𝔲𝔣𝔣 𝔰𝔱𝔬𝔯𝔶, 𝔟𝔲𝔱 ℑ 𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔫𝔨 𝔦𝔱 𝔴𝔬𝔲𝔩𝔡 𝔣𝔦𝔱 𝔪𝔬𝔯𝔢 𝔱𝔬 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔊𝔥𝔬𝔰𝔱'𝔰 𝔠𝔥𝔞𝔯𝔞𝔠𝔱𝔢𝔯.

Going to put this as simply as possible. I have a dog. The dog's name is very stereotypical for a dog in my country. It's not this, but think something like "Fido" or "Rover". You hear that name and think that's a dog's name. We'll call him Rover for this ask.

I have a friend (he is 26). We are pretty good friends and see each other a lot but he is not my best friend if you understand. But he knew what my dog is called and has met the dog many times. He is nice to dog Rover but they are not that close either. Just normal friendly.

He is transgender (I am also transgender but that is not relevant) and changes his name pretty often. Recently he said he wanted to go by the same name that my dog has (so "Rover").

This is not really an issue to me. It's not a unique name. Well it's not unique for dogs. For people it is a little unusual. But I do not care, we will have human Rover and dog Rover. But my friend human Rover does not like this. If I say something like "I will go to the park with Rover tomorrow" he would very exaggeratedly say "I'm not going to the park... oh you mean the dog!" I thought at first this was just a bad joke but he seemed more and more annoyed by it.

Eventually he told me I should start calling dog Rover something else. I said well no, he is five and has been Rover all his life you have been Rover maybe five weeks. My friend said his needs were more important than dog. I said he better get used to being confused because he picked a dog's name so he's going to have to fight a lot of dogs over it. Then he got very upset. Said he related very deeply to name and I was being inconsiderate and rude. I said he was being rude to dog Rover. I also made some jokes about how silly it is to pretend that it's confusing. Like if I say I need dog food for Rover, no one will think I mean human Rover. This made him more mad.

I am still struggling to take this seriously because I think it is so silly. Human Rover changes his name at least every couple of years and I feel like it will be harder for dog Rover to learn new name. He is just a little guy he is not very smart. But my friends say human Rover is really mad at me and feels disrespected. AITA for telling human Rover to get over the name stuff and not changing dog Rover's name?

What are these acronyms?

This case is making me so fucking angry. theyre using common transphobic language, and also theyre not even HIDING their BLATANT FUCKING TRANSPHOBIA-

Wanna see the poster that made me aware of this current bullshit going on?

The second paragraph. 'Roxy Tickle is a man that wants to be a woman.' Okay, well a simple google search says shes transgender. Going a bit more in depth? She has done Three years of hormone therapy and gender reaffirmation surgery. Like this isnt a transgender woman who has done nothing to change her identity, she's got surgery and 3 years of hormone therapy! And looking more into it? She has said;

"I am now legally a woman.

“I am already allowed to have a female gendered passport thanks to the letter from my GP confirming that they are treating me.

“I only have one step left - to update my birth certificate to say that I’m female.

“I needed two medical specialists saying they have seen my genitals and they both needed to sign a form in the presence of a JP.

"These are the most extreme levels of identity proof I’ve ever come across – to have to show your genitals to an MD is embarrassing to prove who you are. The documentation has all now been completed and I will mail it this weekend."

That was all 4 years ago. 7 years of this shit now. (as of today, april 11th, 2024)

And the poster still refers to her as a he?

And thats the picture they use. Now heres a better one.

That was deliberate. They used an unflattering photo of her, and a very flattering one of Sall, just to try and tip people to Salls side. Common marketing ploy.

More research shows that she now has her birth certificate identifying her as female.

And this isnt enough?

By her logic, shouldnt a trans man be allowed on giggle, no matter how far through transitioning they are, purely because they were born female? I get the feeling that she would say no. This is simply blatant transphobia. Personally, I cant do anything, being a minor. I'm not sure how far this case is along, seeing as it started 2 days ago.

But I simply cant let this slide. When I saw it this afternoon it made me so fucking angry.

This case could change a lot of things. Make a lot of changes that make everything far worse for non cis gendered people, potentially influencing things world wide

Was Jesus transgender?

Jay Hulme has written a fascinating thread about how theologians have understood the gender of Jesus. Even though no one thinks of Jesus as transgender in the modern sense, it is pretty clear that Jesus has been seen as crossing the gender binary.

Jay Hulme is a transgender poet, performer and education and you can find his web site here! Jay is currently Poet-in-Residence at ‘The Poet’s Church’, St Giles-in-the-Fields in Central London.

Recently there was some drama where news outlets got angry at a sermon which supposedly claimed Jesus was trans. Obviously the sermon did not say Jesus was trans - but it did touch on some fascinating (and very old) theology surrounding Jesus and gender. So let's talk about that.

God is not male

First I've gotta explain the Trinity... which is way too complex for twitter Suffice to say that God is not male (despite what you may have heard) and is in fact all genders and none simultaneously Jesus is God made flesh, God embodied as human. As a human man, yes, but also...

If you've been on Trans Twitter you'll have seen the "Jesus is trans" jokes. Saying his chromosomes had to be XX because he couldn't have got a Y from his Father. The meme about his side would being from top surgery But people have been playing with Jesus' gender for centuries

And the reason that people have been playing with Jesus' gender in art and theology and all that for centuries, is that Jesus gives us REASON to. So, of course, as we expand our understanding of gender in the modern world, we expand that to trans stuff too.

For all mankind

So lets talk about how, historically, the "Masculinity" of Jesus has been seen and considered, shall we?

So the whole point of Jesus is that he comes for ALL of humankind. We are told that we are all capable of, and supposed to work towards, being "christlike" - after all, Jesus is the embodiment of a genderless (or genderfull) God. The point is not that Jesus is a man, but a HUMAN.

And Jesus is clear about the fact that he didn't come as "a man" but "a human". So clear that all of the Gospel writers agree on it. In fact, throughout the Gospels Jesus never uses the word "anēr" (male/masculine) to describe himself. He always uses "anthrōpos" (human).

Jesus is the human incarnation of a God who is all genders and none, all at the same time; a God that has created each of us in their own image - all of us, of every gender - and therefore Jesus is not simply "male", but "human", and theologians have long recognised this.

Jesus as mother

Understanding that Jesus isn't merely "male", theologians have often described Jesus as a "mother" - most famously Julian of Norwich, who wrote in the 1300's, said: "Jesus Christ therefore, who himself overcame evil with good, is our true Mother."

Julian of Norwich also stated "The mother can give her child to suck of her milk, but our precious Mother Jesus can feed us with himself, and does, most courteously and most tenderly, with the blessed sacrament, which is the precious food of true life"

This idea of the sacrament as breast milk was not unique to Julian - many theologians drew the connection between these life giving things - even reflecting Rabbinic understandings of the Manna from Heaven as breast milk to create a long thread of understanding.

But one of the most "contentious" parts of the sermon that started this furore and started this thread is a particular (and long held) understanding of Jesus' side wound. Obviously, Julian has thoughts on that, too...

Julian says: "The mother can lay her child tenderly to her breast, but our tender Mother Jesus can lead us easily into his blessed breast through his sweet open side, and show us there a part of the godhead and of the joys of heaven, with inner certainty of endless bliss."

Jesus side wound

Medieval Christians were OBSESSED with Jesus' side wound. It was the highlight of artistic depictions, the focus of sermons, the content of visions. And one of the main things they saw it as, was some kind of portal...

And by "portal", I do, of course, mean vagina. And that's what the oh so contentious sermon said - "look, medieval christian art saw Jesus' side wound as a vagina. Let's talk about that."

The idea is that Jesus gives life. Like a mother giving birth. Jesus raising Lazarus from the tomb, Jesus himself rising from the tomb, they both involve the miraculous drawing out of human life from a dark cave, along a tunnel, and into the light. Sounds a lot like childbirth.

We say that Christ died so that we could live. The Bible says it a lot. Many theologians, living in a time where death in childbirth was common, and childbirth itself could be horrifically painful drew the connection between Christ's physical death on the cross and childbirth.

Theologians saw Jesus' agony on the cross as a form of 'labour' as he 'birthed' new life for all of us. And so, when the soldier pieced his side, proving he was dead, and "blood and water" came out, they saw that as the moment of 'birth'. Like blood and water come in childbirth

With that in mind, when an opening in a body brings forth water and blood, and in the midst of that water and blood comes new life... it's fair to think of it as a vagina. So medieval artists, depicting that moment, depicted Jesus' side wound as such. It was a thing.

The femininity of Jesus

There's also all the theology that surrounded Jesus' actions: theologians living in times of strict gender roles obsessed over the "femininity" of Jesus feeding and serving others. Even speaking to women as if they were equal. Of him taking the "feminine role" in his interactions

But this thread is already very long...

In summary: If you think it's heresy to see Jesus as "feminine" or "mother" or anything other than a masculine macho manly man, you're wrong. And if you think it's "modern woke nonsense", then you've not been paying attention to centuries of theology, or the Gospels themselves.

One day I'll do a whole thread on how it actually is Big Trans Vibes for God to shrink down to a single "gender" and body to walk among us as Jesus, and how weird that must have been for Jesus to suddenly be "male" and not "the genderweird vibe of God" but that's for another time

Ppl have been going BUT WHAT ABOUT 'THE SON OF MAN' and my friends, the earliest Gospels we've got are Ancient Greek and Luke 9:22 says "υἱός τοῦ ἀνθρώπου" υἱός is often translated as "male child" but regularly applies to female children ἀνθρώπου means "human / humanity"

Full twitter thread here!

Photo from the Norwegian play Jesus, the Queen of Heaven, where the Norwegian transgender pioneer  Esben Esther Pirelli Benestad played Jesus. Photo by Fin Serck-Hanssen.

kinda fucked up for you to see a gender non conforming woman (samsus) and automatically make them trans. you get what i mean about how thats just reinforcing gender stereotypes (that cis women are feminine and would never commit genocide even a little while transwomen would do masculine evil things like shoot gun (because they’ve kept their man vibes) or whatever

yeah

I can’t tell if this is like a shitpost or a really poorly worded commentary because I have no idea who you are. Frankly I would normally assume the worst block you, buuuuut since I like talking about it I’d love to explain why Samus Aran is extremely transgender.

Tbh I am still tempted to block you but the terrible grammar, spelling error, and nonsensical nature of the ask almost make it seem like a shitpost

First of all Samus being trans-coded was very core to her character from the very beginning. Regardless of the reasons they did it, the original Metroid was intentionally made and marketed to have people assume she was a man. This isn’t even just because people would see a person in a power suit and assume they were a man, the games manual explicitly refers to Samus with he/him pronouns. The immediate assumption that she’s a man because she’s tall, broad shouldered, badass, and wears a power suit that obscures her feminine features until the big reveal is inherently a trans theme. Taking that away makes her a less compelling character. It’s also continued in that Metroid media has continually joked that a lot of the Galaxy assumes that Samus Aran, the greatest bounty hunter in the Galaxy, is a man.

Secondly there was that one Metroid dev who said in an interview that Samus was transgender. The terminology used was outdated and it was explicitly a transphobic joke, but it’s too late she’s ours now.

Thirdly she is (was) built like one of us. That is, prior to the later zero suit designs trying way too hard to be sexy. Like seriously when I first found this image a few years ago I was the same height and weight as her. I miss the big buff broad shouldered Samus design so much and her later redesigns are honestly kinda pathetic by comparison

Fourth, Samus was raised by the Chozo and trained to become a powerful warrior. Part of what they did to make her strong was body modification via Chozo DNA splicing to make her stronger and more agile than a normal human. This is a sci-fi setting where she was raised by an extremely advanced alien race who could change her very DNA, acting like she couldn’t look like she does and be a trans woman is simply not even an argument.

Now, of course, you could refute all this by saying “but Cordelia, we know what Samus looked like as a kid from Metroid Zero Mission and the manga and she was clearly a little girl not a boy.” Now even without addressing the fact that it’s very possible for people to realize they are transgender as children and that children don’t even really have secondary sex characteristics to make it easy to tell what their gender is, this what Samus actually looked as a child:

The combination of all of this gives us trans women a lot of good reasons to believe she is transgender. But also, literally none of this is necessary for me to headcanon a character as trans. Trans women come in all shapes and sizes with all different stories and not a single thing in Metroid canon even remotely suggests that Samus Aran has to be cisgender. And if you try to say “but Samus has no bulge in canonical zero suit Samus depictions!” you’d have to be intentionally dense. Samus Aran is a chimera with a cocktail of human, Chozo, and Metroid DNA and, again, was raised by a race of super advanced aliens. Not only could they have easily given her bottom surgery, but they could’ve even changed her fucking sex chromosomes if she wanted them to. There is literally nothing in Metroid canon that even remotely gives me a reason not to insist that she’s transgender. To be honest, there is more evidence for her being trans than against.

To anyway anyone who actually read this far, I hope you understand the truth. Nintendo’s redesigns are too afraid to show us, but you and I both know that her cock is huge

Hello! Trans male reader here so just a question + request so you do male reader stuff, and I was wanting to request possibly the boys specifically soap, könig and ghost (maybe gaz) their reactions of finding out the reader is trans aka maybe seeing the scars ? I do hope it's okay to request this

COD MW2— How they would react to you having top surgery (trans man reader)

Warning: use of terms describing fem! body parts (boobs, tits)

König:

- The two of you were training together when it happened and the practice fight between resulted in heavy sweating.

- Naturally, you took your shirt off during the break to cool down and König saw the scars on your chest.

- You asked him what he was looking at and he quickly turned his gaze to the side, not realizing he was just gawking at you.

- “Ah.. sorry. I was just.. ah.” He trailed off into quietness as he felt embarrassed.

- You only chuckled and told him you had top surgery, but he had no clue what that surgery was for.

- It took more explaining that you were a transgender man and that you had the boobie-be-gone surgery to make you feel more comfy in your skin.

- Obviously he was shocked because he didn’t know you were trans to begin with, so expect him to sheepishly ask questions about it— if you were alright with it of course.

- You had no problem talking to him about it since you considered him a good friend, and you trusted him to not make fun of you or shame you.

- König is very supportive of you and he constantly mentions to you how courageous and strong you are. You’re very lucky to have someone like him by your side.

- This man doesn’t have a mean bone in his body when it comes to things like gender and sexuality. Be who you are and he’s happy for you.

- Oh, but if someone decides to be transphobic to you? This man can get very angry, and reassure you afterwards that you’re a man no matter what.

Ghost:

- He’s watching you and the other privates going through training when it happened. Everyone is crawling under barbed wire in the field and it got very muddy.

- After training in the dirt, you peel off your shirt and grab your clean one that’s next to the benches. That’s when Ghost eyes the scars on your chest.

- He doesn’t judge. He has plenty of scars himself, but yours are different. They’re surgical.

- He doesn’t want to pry because he doesn’t actually care, it was simple curiosity.

- You catch him looking at you and you smile.

- “Top surgery. Didn’t like my tits too much so I had ‘em chopped off.”

- He’s not an easy man to surprise, but the way you were so nonchalant about it took him back a little.

- Like König, this man didn’t expect you to be trans but he wasn’t going to delve into your origin story.

- This man simply does not care for those things, he only cared about making sure the people here were trained properly so they don’t die.

- Ah, but he was caught staring. Better play it cool.

- “Get back to training, private. You got another hour on the field.” “Yes, lieutenant.”

- Doesn’t care about what gender or sexuality you are either, he has more important things on his mind.

- He did admire you a little though, that you have the balls to pursue what makes you happy and comfortable with yourself. Good on you, private.

Soap:

- Soap was hitting the showers after some hard training with Ghost and desperately needed to clean the sweat and dirt off.

- But he heard one of the shower heads on and someone washing up. So he wouldn’t be alone then. That’s fine.

- He did what he needed in the shower and when he came out, he saw you looking in the mirror shaving.

- Soap also noticed the scars on your chest when he was looking at your face in the mirror.

- You see him looking at you and you smirk, putting the razor down on the countertop.

- “You wanna know how I got these scars, sergeant?”

- Was that a goddamn joker reference? He had to chuckle at that.

- “Had my boobs hacked off a year ago. Gender affirming surgery if you wanna get technical.”

- Now he was shocked. And confused. Gender affirming? Wait, which gender?

- “So.. you’re a..?” “A man, sergeant.” “.. I knew that.”

- You both share a laugh and joke about it with each other. He was a silly ‘lil guy.

- “I gotta say, your chest looks way better than mine.” He says as he sneaks glances between yours and his. “You gotta tell me your surgeon.”

- “I’ll give you his number, so long as you give me yours.” Damn, you’re a smooth talker too? He might just fall in love.

- “I’ll take your word for it, private.”

_________________

I genuinely believe our boys do not give a flying fadoodle about gender or sexuality. You’re on the battlefield for gods sake who needs to know about stuff like that.

Also SORRY for my delay in getting to requests and other fics. I do have plenty that are in the works but this was the easiest to write down quickly enough because I feel bad for the lack of content.

why mizu is, in fact, not cis

Everyone is very angry at everyone about how to see or not see Mizu’s identity; being unable to shut up, and having fixated on the show a bit, i’m excited to finally join my first to-the-death-tumblr-discourse-battle.

I'm going to use mostly he/him for Mizu, but please read the premise below. Read the colored strings of text 😭

The main argument for Mizu being a woman is that which has as its basis the fact that cross-dressing is for Mizu an external need: for one, it is a need for protection from patriarchal bonds; secondly, it is a need for independence - Akemi’s story is one of independence as well, of feminine independence, and we have more than one woman pursuing such thing; we could go on with an analysis of brothels as a feminine space, but, alas - and thirdly, it is a need of obligation: Mizu needs to maintain the masculine identity in order to attain the object of his vow. 

I find, however, that while the argument stands as perfectly sound (and as canon) it isn’t exhaustive enough of the layered experience of gender in BES.

The trans coding is simply undeniable to me, whether it was intentional or not. I do not mean to say that Mizu is a binary trans man; that would be an approach as reductionist as confirming she is exclusively a woman. However, I find that some behaviours of Mizu’s are coded as dysphoric reactions.

Most of my justifications for this reasoning come from episodes 2, 5 and 8.

In episode 2,

Ringo is vowing to never reveal Mizu’s secret: “I’ll never tell anybody you’re a g-“; and as soon as he’s about to say girl, Mizu is just as ready to slice his throat. Mizu being worried about someone else hearing or witnessing the interaction doesn’t seem completely plausible to me: they’re alone in snowy woods, and, most likely, Mizu wouldn’t have confirmed time and again how readily he’d kill Ringo. 

Then comes episode 5,

which is in my opinion the most layered and the most exhaustive in regards to Mizu’s experience of gender, especially regarding his experience of the feminine. First and foremost, it tells the ultimate teaching: that gender isn’t but a performance, just as the gender roles are portrayed through theatre in the episode. As for the dysphoric reaction, it's the whole thing. Mizu is miserable even when we suppose that the marriage could be a relatively happy time. That's another reason why I suppose the puppet theatre tells Mizu's internal sense of self as well (see paragraph 4).

(And, about gender being performative, see how kabuki theatre was born in the Edo period and how, before being banned from acting, women cross-dressed to play male characters, and men cross-dressed to play female characters. See “professional transvestites” trained to be prostitutes, Kagema being trained from a young age to „act" like members of the other sex; see how by the beginning of the 18th century AFAB sex workers would try to figure out a way to set themselves apart from wakashu, creating an entirely new space for female crossdressers in the adult entertainment sphere; see ukiyo-e representations - chigo monogatari and yukiyo-zoshi literature; stories by Ihara Saikaku that are full of "transgender behaviours" and more)

Back to ep 5:

1. Theme of performance

The theme of performance, which also is the one of Mizu performing femininity for Mikio (in function of the well-being of Mizu’s mother), but being at once unable to suppress masculinity as the only space in which Mizu seems to be comfortable: e.g., it’s a little detail, but Mizu’s only good in the kitchen when cutting vegetables, because comfortable with blades, certainly not with cooking; again Mizu having to perform femininity is when he does makeup to “make-up”, to soften Mikio’s spirit, who feels invalidated by Mizu’s masculinity when it starts to interfere with his pride, and such other details; I even thought of the sword as a symbol for “learned” masculinity: the first time this thought occurred was when it was characterized by sensuality in the scene where the spouses spar: “Unsheathe it. Let me see your blade;” and I interpreted it as masculinity being the only space that allows intimacy as well; then comes the time where Mizu learns he does not need a sword to fight, meaning to me that she can embody masculinity without having to prove it to others. And then comes the reforging of the sword’s meteorite to include “impurities”, and the rite that Mizu performs. I assume that “a sword too pure” is the symbol of, again, learned hypermasculinity to appease patriarchal expectations, and is too pure because it’s Mizu rejecting part of himself, trying to exclude all “impurities”, whether they are being half white, or being half woman. Taigen himself is the one to tell Mizu he can fight without a sword (ep 7, but done in ep 3 or 4 and ep 6 already), and then the situation starts to bear sexual tension, which I directly link to the sensual connotation of the sparring cited earlier up. Possibly, this particular situation could also mean acceptance of Mizu's lack of a native "sword".

2. Gender roles

But a more sound consideration is (i would like to hope so) the one about the whole marriage being told through puppets, and the puppets themselves. While they are different characters, first of all we see an inversion of gender in the roles: at first Mizu is the Ronin because he performs a masculine role of protection, an “active” role; then, Mizu’s role is reversed in function of his marriage. We see Mizu surrendering (forcibly, being manipulated) to femininity as soon as his mother guilt-trips him into marrying, and the ronin puppet assumes a submissive pose, long before the role reversal.

3. A note:

it yet does not seem to me like the role reversal is, so to say, complete: even after the reversal, the narrator tells details about the ronin that are actually details about Mizu, e.g. when the two marry, and despite the positions of the puppets match the ones of the spouses, it is said that the ronin's loyalty is no more turned towards his "path of revenge," (Mizu's) "but to his bride" - in the perspective explained below, perhaps Mizu's own femininity. Also, i find Mizu might perceive Mikio as the bride, and himself as the husband - as an argument it can't stand alone, or it would bare no strength, but I will use it in correlation with the other points made, until now and later, to argue that Mizu thinks of himself as a guy.

4. Performance of Mizu's sides, assimilable to when she has the vision of killing his white side, shortly before facing the four fangs or whatever their name was

This, and one more tiny detail, bring me to think that not only do we talk about external roles, but about Mizu’s self-perception. I'm referring to when it is said that “for the first time in many years, the ronin felt the storm rage inside him.” The storm is a symbol belonging to Mizu (literally it occurs in the first 2 minutes of the episode), and it is explicit that it isn’t something that happens for the first time, but rather returns. By this point, the gender roles were reversed, and yet it seems to me like it isn’t anymore about the marriage itself, but rather about Mizu’s hatred for and slaughtering of his own femininity, and, of course, the experience of betrayal; with his family (especially his mother, see below), and with his femininity, which wasn’t enough to keep him comfortable or Mikio on his side. (...betrayal which is also about mizu himself betraying akemi, i'd add. Mizu is justified here, but it's important to note the parallels between the two timelines i guess?)

5. That random ass baby

There is, at a certain point, a situation of peace, which I think is represented when one of the puppets is holding a blue baby (supposedly a little ronin) in its arms. I want to suppose that the baby represents newborn love between Mizu and Mikio, before it all fell apart. But the love itself is a masculine love, as we see that it is based on masculine exchanges (fighting, doing fieldwork, taming horses, riding together, whatever) and, it seems to me, assimilable to homosexuality between samurai, which was widespread (insert something about Taigen here). Also Mikio wanted to marry a bro lmao. Aside from that, on the level of Mizu’s self-perception, it might represent comfortableness, a sort of congruence, or, rather, a compromise, that Mizu is able to live in, between natural masculinity and performed femininity - opening up to show vulnerability, love fragile as a creature that cannot defend itself, innocent, naive, trusting. 

6. About Mizu’s mother.

The puppet used for Mizu’s mother before the role reversal is the same that is supposedly used for Mizu after, but I latch onto a detail: the pattern on the puppet’s kimono is the same as the (real life) Mother’s kimono (see for example minute 12:30). I support this by noting the more obvious parallel between the blue worn by Mizu and the blue of the Ronin puppet, but at the same time I'm forced to note that after a certain point the mother has her own puppet. In any case, I see the mother and the feminine puppet wearing the same kimono as being about femininity, and about the mother’s betrayal of her child, rather than about Mizu herself. For one, manipulating him into marrying and abandoning the vow. But also we learn (ep 8) that the woman isn’t Mizu’s mother at all. One could discuss the reliability of Fowler’s statement, but I feel there are more clues regarding the mother’s betrayal: the episode starts with the Ronin, who feels the storm rage inside him at the killing of his lord (Mizu’s actual mother, perhaps) by the hands of a clan whose crest was the Phoenix (which I suppose are the white men, and the curse of whiteness for Mizu). I’ve thought about the four white men dealing guns (Fowler), flesh, opium (and I’m not sure what role “Violet” has in this, but I think they're the opium dealer), and thought that if Mizu’s “mother” was a substitute, the opium she smokes could point to Mizu’s potential father, perhaps even at the surrogate mother keeping contact, and at the surrogate’s betrayal at the same time. But it’s also true I watched the show while stoned, so I would dismiss this.

7. Onryo (note: characteristic in kabuki)

When the birth of the vengeful spirit occurs, I see very well how plausible it is to say that, actually, the rage that Mizu feels is feminine rage, and I agree with that. Mizu’s femininity is his rage, it is heavily related to the mother-daughter relationship, despite the fact that at a certain point the mother has her own puppet. At the same time, however, it is to me the result of the slaughtering of the performed femininity needed to respect the obligation (we remember the wedding was also to ensure the “surrogate” mother safety, especially financial, as well as to keep Mizu bound), just as accepting you’re able to fight with any tool puts an end to the compensatory movement by which you’re trying to prove masculinity to an observer (which, say, Taigen does as well, wanting to prove to Mizu he can beat him - plus, Taigen himself is the one to reassure Mizu on the complete unimportance of it, see how I read the sword symbol a few paragraphs earlier).

In this perspective, the "dye washing away from her kimono" to me means two things: that being what he is is inevitable, and that the feminine rage sets in; Mizu tries to make up for being a "demon", but in the end rejects the obligation towards his husband, and towards her mother; the pattern is not the same anymore, and Mizu is somehow more like his own person, returning on the path of vengeance, strengthened by the feminine, as the reforged sword will be strengthened by the very ritualistic yaki-ire.

--

Episode 8,

I feel, speaks instead for itself,  for the dysphoric reaction is to me extremely clear. Reacting that way to being called a Miss is not a cisgender reaction. You’ll tell me: it’s not a dysphoric reaction! It’s a reaction of disgust to being fetishized for being a woman! And that’s plausible, supported by the “you just keep getting better,” with clear sexual implication, except I think that is also a fundamental trans experience and one cannot limit the way they read the scene to an exclusively feminine experience.

In conclusion,

I don’t think it might be all boiled down Mizu being a masc woman, because of the trans coding. Mizu thinks of himself as a guy. If not a guy, not a woman either. You’ll tell me: “Of course she does, because she’s grown up that way; she was forced to sustain the lie to preserve her life! It's a matter of conditioning!” And while it is true that the initial context points towards crossdressing, and not inherent feelings of gender non conformity or transgenderism, I feel that if Mizu really felt like a woman, he wouldn’t have such exaggerated reactions, and I don’t think they come from his temperament either. And it is disproved that conditioning someone to have a different sexuality or gender identity works in any way - I doubt Edo period Japan or a particular protagonist would make an exception. "But Mizu herself tells Mikio she didn't want to be a man, she had to be one!" Yes, because it is true. But it points to crossdressing. If it were aimed to explain the whole of Mizu's experience of gender in her self, it would invalidate the entirety of episode 5.

In any case, even in situations where he couldn’t be discovered, Mizu does not allow feminine terms or titles, or tries as best to stop them from happening; plus, it’s rather obvious how difficult the relationship with his body is. 

While, once again, reading Mizu as a binary trans man is not enough, I feel like reading him as cisgender isn’t, either. As if, in any case, the feminine experience and the transmasculine one didn’t overlap in many aspects, also during the most tumultuous parts of transition, if pursued.

What is funniest above all is that the whole discourse is substantially useless. The layers of the show open to an infinite variety of interpretations, none of them fundamentally wrong. Mizu’s just quite literally Mizu. It’s a queer unlabeled thing and that’s it. If you take the Lacanian concept of the Real as the hole, properly uninteligible, surrounded by the Symbolic, you'll find that "Queer" is exquisitely representative of the Real, and therefore every label (the Symbolic) is reductive of the perceived experience (indeed the Real). The fundamental lesson about gender that you can derive from the show is that gender is a performative construct. What it pushes you to do is deconstruct your principles, especially if you are queer, since we are all entrapped in the modern western white need for strict labelling; that’s where this whole debate comes from, and it is, once again, pointless.

So, instead making fun of other people because of a set of pronouns, perhaps it would be better to imagine that more options can cohabit together, or that there is no need to label at all. Also be careful about accusing others of a complete lack of media literacy - you should thoroughly examine yours first.

Interesting articles i guess:

--

Algoso, Teresa A. "'Thoughts on Hermaphroditism': Miyatake Gaikotsu and the Convergence of the Sexes in Taishō Japan." The Journal of Asian Studies 65, no. 3 (2006): 555–573. Algoso, Teresa A. "Not Suitable as a Man? Conscription, Masculinity, and Hermaphroditism in Early Twentieth-Century Japan." Chap. 11 In Recreating Japanese Men, edited by Sabine Frühstück and Anne Walthall. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011, 241–261. Mostow, Joshua S. “The Gender of Wakashu and the Grammar of Desire.” In Gender and Power in the Japanese Visual Field, edited by Joshua S. Mostow, Norman Bryson, and Maribeth Graybill. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press 2003, 49–70.

taken from this post asking about transgender men in the edo period: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/p6x4jk/comment/h9ttgv4/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

As a final unrelated note, I haven’t seen anyone praise the MASTERFUL sound design 

bye 🪳🪳🪳🪳🪳

Oh, and I had questions, likely unrelated to each other.

1) How do you think transgender Drow are viewed in their society (both transmen and trans women)?

2) Are there any other education paths available to noble women besides priestess/paladin?

These are very interesting questions! I will try to answer, making references both to Lolth-sworn drow culture and to drow societies that do not follow Lolth - because of some fundamental differences between them.

🕷️ Foundations of a Lolth-sworn drow society are heavily woven around male-female axis: drow who is born as a male will be raised as a male and expected to identify as one; drow who is born as a female will be raised as a female and expected to identify as one.

As far as I know, a typical Lolth-sworn drow culture does not really offer a person other options - and does not even allow them.

🕷️ Male-to-female transition (social, legal or physical) would probably be seen as an unthinkable sacrilege: an unworthy jaluk (male) trying to usurp the female's power and higher station. Female-to-male transition, on the other hand, could be perceived as a sacrilege of even worse kind - since it would be connected not to elevating, but to drastically lowering one's social status. For a typical Lolth-sworn drow, ambitious and constantly focused on "climbing the ladder", the very idea would be hard to understand.

In a Lolth-sworn drow society, a drow longing for transition of any kind would likely end up being punished, sacrificed or simply killed after being revealed. The same probably goes for drow who would be discovered using magic or magical items that alter their body and make it look like the one of the opposite sex.

The safest option would probably be to escape and start a new life away from Lolth's influence.

🕷️ Fel'rekt Lafeen is an example of a young male drow who was born female. We do not know much about his background, though - only that he was not happy with the treatment of males in his society (Lolth-sworn, most likely), so he decided to join Bregan D'aerthe and later became one of Jarlaxle's most loyal lieutenants operating in Waterdeep. He is mentioned in Waterdeep - Dragon Heist (5e).

🕷️ Corellon's blessing - according to Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (5e), some elves blessed by Corellon can assume whatever sex they like and this rare ability can sometimes also manifest among drow:

Dark elves find this ability to be terrifying and characterize it as a curse, for it could destabilize their entire society. If Corellon's blessing manifests in a drow, that elf usually flees to the surface world to seek shelter among those dedicated to Corellon.

🕷️ I imagine that in societies that do not follow Lolth - but Eilistraee, for example, or Vhaeraun, or Ghaunadaur - transgender drow need not fear persecution and are treated as equals.

In fact, Vhaeraunan societies often lean towards patriarchy and they oppose Lolth and everything she represents - so I suppose that among followers of Vhaeraun, especially female-to-male transition might be celebrated in some way. It might be perceived as a big f-you to Lolth, especially when concerning a former Lolth-sworn.

🕷️ Professions For Noble Females - in a Lolth-sworn drow society, noble females are typically priestesses.

There are rare cases of female drow wizards of noble houses, but a noble female practicing arcane magic instead of divine one is generally seen as an oddity. In Menzoberranzan, there was a whole noble house once that produced female wizards of considerable power (House Shobalar), but it was ultimately destroyed - as a punishment for teaching their females arcane magic instead of one given by Lolth.

Liriel, daughter of Gromph Baenre, was exceptionally skilled in arcane magic, but still, she was forced to enroll into Arach-Tinilith (academy for priestesses of Lolth).

In House Oblodra, some noble Lolth-sworn females were priestesses and psions, like Matron Mother K'yorl Odran - but in the end, this house was destroyed too.

Matron Mez'Barris Armgo of House Barrison del'Armgo loved battle and she was a formidable warrior... but still, she was also a priestess.

🕷️ So generally, in a Lolth-sworn drow society, the best (and the safest) option for a noble drow female is to finish her obligatory training as a priestess - and then pursue some other career, in addition.

🕷️ In drow societies that do not follow Lolth, no restrictions of such kind apply, most likely.

Among followers of Vhaeraun, almost entire clergy consists of male drow, so noble females are likely encouraged to choose a different career path.

Hope you will find this information useful in some way 🙂

when it comes to trans dragons I literally don't know where to start because I just assign genders to these things based on vibes alone and like half of them end up nonbinary, but I present you with these 6 Beasts because their strong transgender power stood out to me as I scoured through my lair.

names + little lore snippets under the cut! content warning for internalized ableism (in regards to a fantasy illness) in the second to last one.

first we have Magdalene! she was a dream dragon for a long time and I was so happy when I finally got her. she was my avatar dragon for a good while. again I decided she was trans based on vibes alone but also the name of her skin is a SOPHIE reference (rest in peace legend ❤️) so like I couldn't not make her trans. she's a minor goddess of life in the most traditional sense. spring and flowers, that type of deal.

then there's Luci(fer) (yes she named herself that. people who hear her full name get confused when they find out that she's not associated with the deviltown demons.) she's a member of the blastpowder bandits and Monty's right hand. she's perceived as the Normalest of the group but that's mostly her inexpressive fae nature working in her favor for once. she loves bombs and explosions just as much as the rest of them, she just prefers making the bombs and then watching other people use them from the sidelines. she enjoys planning and organizing and just generally writing shit down. the type to always walk around with a notebook and pen in her hands like a little nerd.

Odessa... doesn't have much going for her lore-wise right now but she's in a shitty band with Bremen and Sandwaste called "Vengeful Desert Spirits Calling Your Name in the Night" (the like. 3 people who actually enjoy their music simply refer to them as Desert Spirits.) Odessa here plays the drums! in her enthusiasim she has accidentally launched multiple drumsticks at people (mostly Sandwaste.)

Omen is the world's Wettest Most-Depressedest private investigator. jazz noir music inexplicably starts playing when he's around. he has the ability to spontaneously manifest a glass of whiskey in his hand even though he doesn't drink. utterly incapable of solving any case that isn't some convoluted unsolvable 30 year old triple murder cold-case. weird charged energy with every suspect he talks to. permanent face of disinterest and a fucked right knee. a romantic at heart.

Cessair... is a very unhappy dragon. his mother is a very powerful combat mage who wanted a mini-me and someone to pass her knowledge down to. but Cessair couldn't be her daughter, and they couldn't be her successor. around when they were 15 they started showing the first sings of an illness that would end up rendering any attempts to externalize their magic very, very dangerous. he refuses to give up on magic, though. he thinks doing so would cement him as a failure and a disappointment to his family. they see their limitations as a personal failing and a weakness to be overcome, no matter the means or the cost, and leave their home at 19 in search of said means. he deeply craves community and companionship but his self-loathing and general dissatisfaction with his life make him snappy and standoffish. they will, eventually, find their happy ending, and learn not to push themself so far over their limits. but the road to get there will not be easy.

moving on from that downer, our final dragon(??) is:

One. well the guy this thing killed and stole the body of was trans and the shade doesn't really have gender so. diversity win!

Why being against trans rights as a feminist is bull

Generally I fall pretty neatly into line with the radfem line of thinking about things (anti surrogacy, anti sex industry, pro choice, anti beauty industry etc). And I don't think that radical feminists who disagree with me on this are evil or anything, but I do believe that it shouldn't be a priority and that this whole effort will be remembered badly.

"But the bathrooms-"

Letting trans women into female bathrooms does not increase sexual assault. According to Media Matters, "...the fear is baseless- completely unsupported by years of evidence from states that already have non-discrimination laws on the books." To give examples:

Rhode Island reported "no increase in sex crimes due to 2001 law"

Karen Richards of the Vermont Human Rights commission said she is "not aware" of any problems from a 2001 law

Jim O'Neill said he was "unaware of any sexual assault as the result of the CT gender identity or expression law" in Connecticut

If you search "Debunking the Big Myth about Transgender Inclusive Bathrooms" from Media Matters you can see the other twelve state level examples

There's also a very well written article from Time called "Transgender Bathroom: Advocates Say 'Predator' is a Myth" . They detail several locations like New York City and California which protect trans rights without seeing a spike in sexual assaults, the fact that school officials and police departments have not seen a spike either, and that several organizations dedicated to stopping violence against women all agree that bathroom rights aren't a threat.

Moreover, according to Vox's article "Anti-transgender bathroom hysteria, explained"- all of the incidences commonly cited of men dressing up as women or posing as a woman in order to commit sexual assault happened before a non-discrimination bathroom law was passed. Meaning that these laws don't cause sh*t.

But to add onto another point, there's a very good reason why we cannot simply say that women's bathrooms must be defined by sex alone. Which is that we end up exposing transgender or nonbinary youth to extremely avoidable violence instead.

According to an article from Harvard entitled "transgender teens with restricted bathroom access at higher risk of sexual assault", quote, "Transgender and non-binary teens face greater sexual assault in schools that prevent them from using bathrooms or locker rooms consistent with their gender identity." 36% of trans or nonbinary youth with restricted access had been sexually assaulted in the past year. In no world is that an acceptable number. Not only does restricting bathroom access not solve anything for cis women, it actively inflicts male violence on transgender women.

And even in the outlandish world where this wasn't enough of a reason, it also leads to cis women being policed on their appearance and how feminine they present in order to avoid looking trans. In Las Vegas a woman named Jay was kicked out because they mistook her for trans according to Advocate article 'cis woman mistaken as transgender records being berated in bathroom'. Aimee Toms in Danbury was similarly harassed, as was Jessica Rush in Dallas. There's several videos in the Vox article "Women are getting harassed in bathrooms because of anti-transgender hysteria". And guess what? This sort of policing what a cis woman can look like is only going to get worse as people continue to advocate against trans women in bathrooms.

And women's sports-

Any physical advantage that transgender people have in sports goes away several years after medical transition. According to the NBC article "trans women retain athletic edge after a year of hormone therapy"

(1) "For the Olympic, the elite level, I'd say probably two years is more realistic than one year" - namely, trans people have standard hormone levels if they wait two years after medical transition. "After two years, Roberts told NBC News, 'they were fairly equivalent to cisgender women'".

There were some limitations to the Roberts study, but there's also a 2015 Harper study backing this up.

(3) Joanna Harper, a medical physicist in Portland, already ran a study on this. "...found that trans women ran at least 10 percent slower after beginning hormones. And, relatively speaking, they did no better against cisgender female runners than they previously done against cisgender men".

Namely, as long as there's been a medical transition for several years, it's still a totally fair competition.

But laws which ban transgender women from sports have had the incidental effect of allowing for state-sanctioned genital inspections on minors. This sounds fake, right? But in Ohio Republicans have passed a bill which "...has a verification requirement, if someone is 'accused' or 'suspected' of being trans... she must go through evaluations of her external and internal genitalia, testosterone levels and genetic makeup." And believe it or not, they only had one transgender girl who was an athlete in high school. One! This is according to the Ohio Capital Journal's article "GOP passes bill aiming to root out 'suspected' transgender female athletes with genital inspection."

Similarly, Florida has just passed a ban on transgender students in sports in April 2021, with provisions similar to the Ohio law. "A dispute regarding a student's sex shall be resolved by the student's school or institution by requesting that the student provide a health examination... provides for 'routine sports physical examination' of students' reproductive organs, genetic makeup, or testosterone levels." This is according to Changing America, titled "Florida's new ban on transgender students in sports would allow schools to subject minors to genital inspections."

I don't know about you, but as someone who has enjoyed track, swim team, and basketball all through educational institutions- I don't want the government in my pants.

Beyond the creepy implications of the state demanding invasive inspections on literal children, this also goes back to the point I made on bathrooms above- that when we take spaces away trans people, we take spaces away from any woman or girl who society deems as presenting too 'masculine'.

As feminists we can absolutely support trans rights without compromising our integrity. And not only can we, we should.

Edited August 24, 2023: I wanted to add a section about the provisions of these bills for literal genital inspections. I regret that it wasn't in the original, but I remembered these articles earlier and thought that it was important to add here.

The other thing I did later the same day was take out the part referencing women like Caster Semenya competing in the Olympics and being removed because of high testosterone levels. Someone has kindly pointed out that these are intersex women, which the original article I had read referred to as cis. I feel that intersex women in athletics deserve their own discussion, and I haven't (a) read enough on the issue or (b) learned enough about the intersex community as a whole to take part.

Ciel is Trans Theory

I Need to point this out because. I have a hunch that Ciel is Trans, and fingers crossed I’m right. Honestly, I could be completely off base and this could be as close as Ancient Aliens is to History.

This might be an overreach but here is my case for it, as best as I can:

* Based on previous events and Chapters, Yana has shown that She Likes Playing on the concept of Gender from the Very First Arc. From the Very beginning we are introduced to a woman who is Jack the Ripper, challenging the male murder stereotype on its head, and her lover, a gender ambiguous (Later Confirmed Canonically!!) Trans Reaper Lady. Both unite from their desire, and hatred for the prostitutes who beg for abortions at her clinic. There are Already wombs being ripped out of women and we’ve just started.

* The Fact that Ciel is Dressed extremely effeminately not only for the period, even for EGL clothing standards might point to something as well. But when forced to wear a dress for the sake of a mission, he loses his mind. Although it could be a tween’s worst nightmare, how Madame Red laments to Ciel when dressing him as a girl that she always wanted a daughter feels like something.

* Ciel is always referred to as beautiful, which is not wrong for the period, but there are less masculine terms that people refer to him as.

* Yana herself says that she Over Masculinizes Ciel. Which is an interesting take for his effeminate nature of dress Vs masculine personality?

* Another hot take is that Yana Specifically has instructed in certain live action and anime for the voice actor to be a woman. I’ve seen a lot of talk on this particular conversation but none highlighting this as a clue on our Ciel’s Identity??? How??

* Mey Rin is also have been hidden as a boy with her previous life as a sniper, so this also shows that this is not out of the question either. The same reveal has happened with Doll.

* Ciel does not let anyone get close to his body. This is obviously because traumatic stress behaviors, however, similar flinching could allude to a different reason entirely.

* Our Lad introduces himself as the “Earl Ciel Phantomhive” Earl almost being apart of his first name. He’s already changed his name to hide his past. But Why?

* Let’s pretend that Ciel was in fact, born a boy at birth. If his brother and parents died, even if he was considered a “Spare Child”, (remember the British Phrase an Heir and a Spare). He would still be a legitimate hier due to his brother being unable to claim inheritance (because of his death) and pass on something to him. Even if another family member became a guardian and inherited a majority to raise our ciel, he would still be entitled to Something, and (might) even become Earl. This would Not be the case if Ciel was born a girl.

* Two Cultural similarities Japanese Manga and the Victorian period have in common are the troupe of “women disguising themselves as men”. I put this in quotes because, as Ciel described it, “the old him died in his cage,” pointing to metaphorical metamorphosis, and not simply a disguise for convient’s sake. Although it was common for (transgender men, queer cis women and/or Cis women) to take on a male position / pseudonym in order to establish a title, or a job position (typically in writing, this continued until the 1960’s). Now add on the popular manga/anime that were important in playing with perceptions of gender during Black Butler’s Debut (think Ouran High school host club), and there’s something there.

* The Fact that no one mourned Ciel’s Death was unfortunate, but a critical plot point of the story. Up until now, no one even acknowledged Our Ciel had ever Existed. Not a name, not “twins” nothing. Even though our Lad was an ill child, no one had even acknowledged he was there to begin with. Women and children were rarely recognized in Victorian culture, let alone a “Woman Child”. This culture was challenged somewhat through literature in the early ‘30’s with works from Jane Austen, ‘47 with Charlotte Brontë (who went by a pseudonym) and Lewis Carol’s Alice and the Looking Glass at the end of the century. (introducing a Girl Protag!! Gracious!). As sad as it may be, no one would really mourn an terminally ill girl compared to her family’s murder, unless having accomplished something amazing. It would be seen unfortunately as a lifted burden, and ultimately one less dowery or added expense. The fact that no one even bothered to notice our Ciel’s death or even the toll it might have on his twin is evident enough.

* The most Damning evidence I have for this theory is Lizzy’s reaction to figuring out “Ciel” was not the real “Ciel”. The immediate turn against Ciel. Why wouldn’t she even hear him out? What could have possibly turned her away like that, without a doubt in her mind, even if she had met with the Real Ciel? The fact that her reaction was not confusion but rather an extreme turn against him, she did not even think one minute to give Our Ciel a chance. And the only possible reason (combined with the fact that he was lying about not being his brother) is that if he was Not Cis. Not only would that mean that she was with the sick weaker sibling not heir to the Phantomhive legacy, but Ciel Could never conceive a family with Elizabeth, nor marry her like she would have wanted. And even if she married him, they would never be able to have children of their own (a really big obsession with British Aristocracy- modern day source: royals). All of her dreams would be shattered. And that shattering would bring her to turn instantly.

* The fact that everyone automatically assumed our ciel was real ciel, just based on saying so. Why?

* The fact that sick girls were often dressed like male counterparts to strengthen them during this era, as well as androgynous clothing for children being in fashion (because of less washing headaches and hand-me-downs)

* A smaller, minor detail is how Sebastian says “When lies become truth”. This is pointing towards both their façades but an interesting quote none the less on transitioning.

* I’m pointing to his teeny shoes with the high heels. It’s not that they’re effeminate women’s shoes that are iffy for the period, (which let’s be clear, they are) but. Look at him. Trying his best to be tall adult man. I’m pointing at his shoes.

* I might be missing a lot. Tell me if I am.

Reasons For Why I Am Extremely Wrong:

*Tanaka and Vincent referring to Our Ciel with he/him pronouns, (although I’m not sure on the original Japanese translation on chapter 131)

thank you for answering my ask. i didn't want to make any assumptions nor did i want to harm or offend you or anyone who is queer by sending it.

I myself am Muslim and I have met Muslims who are queer, trans, part of the lgbtq+ but i never really understood their understanding when it came to Islam and homosexuality as few of the Muslims I've met were practicing and most seemed to deny many parts of Islam to justify being queer which didn't make sense. Your response has made me understand it though and I do appreciate it as the concept of homosexuality and Islam is almost 90% discussed by people/scholars who are not queer.

I am by no means trying to turn this into a religious discussion because I am not learned but what you said about a singular sin being a singular did stand out to me. Although I've always known that as a fact, I've never actually took into consideration what it meant in it's entirety, although Islam does have the concept of major sins and minor sins, so wouldn't that have an impact?

But again while I was reading your answer, I found myself nodding because your response was very much logical and made sense to me. You mentioned that everything that is a sin has a particular reasoning behind it and that homosexuality being a sin has no real reasoning behind it and I don't have anything to refute your point with. But I will bring lgbtq+ activists who discuss things like being queer, homosexual, trans, etc to children as children can be influenced easily (btw I'm speaking specifically about people like Jeffery Marsh) into the discussion as something I disagree heavily with.

Many scholars have also discussed story of prophet Lut (AS) which really is the only story where homosexuality is ever mentioned and while I do agree that the homosexuality aspect of the story is focused on more than what is necessary, if the homosexual part wasn't important would it then be put in the Quran. And if homosexuality was not a sin, then shouldn't their be examples of homosexuality in the Quran or hadiths? I don't expect this to have a concrete answer as even I will admit that I can use this "what about" argument for literally everything that is not directly mentioned in the Quran.

The one thing I do disagree with is the transitioning of trans people - not because I don't believe in gender dysphoria or that I disbelieve in people being transgender - but I do believe that the permanent altercation of a person's body is haram because although you stated that perhaps transitioning might be the best option for people who are trans and you compared it to people who are disfigured (as an example) to me it still seems as an act that goes against God's will because doesn't Islam have the concept, that the more difficult the struggle, the better the reward? Forgive me if this is a terrible assertion to make as I am speaking from a heterosexual point of view and my understanding of your struggles will not be the same as actually experiencing your struggles.

At the end of the day we all are Muslim and I am a firm believer that as long as no one purposefully tries to harm Islam and spread misinformation, only God can judge. I do not agree with majority of Muslims who deem it appropriate to condemn people to Hell simply for existing as I do believe that people who are not heterosexual 90% of the time are not making their struggles up, nor are they making false claims. Regardless of my opinion on whether or not homosexuality is a sin, I admire your attitude towards it and I do believe that Allah loves all. Allah is All-loving after all and Allah does not make mistakes nor does He intentionally do things to harm anyone.

Thank you for your perspective and for teaching me something I genuinely did not know. I hope that this ask does not come across as hostile because these are simply my thoughts and I am more than willing to open my mind to different perspectives.

i'm glad you're being very respectful with your disagreements and i'm happy to answer anything as long as it's in good faith. thank you for being so kind :)

i will say that yes you are right that many queer muslims are not practicing and often stray away from islam to justify their queerness, and i've seen it happen from a lot of queer muslims around me. i do believe it's not because their faith is weak or that they purposely are doing it with the intent of malice, but i think it's because a lot of people have trauma when it comes to religion. religious trauma affects many people in the world, even outside of islam. almost every queer muslim i've ever met has been religiously traumatized, and therefore are afraid of islam and the people who practice it out of the concern that they may be harmed again. while islam is beautiful, the people who practice it can harm those who do not follow it properly in their eyes. i personally have religious trauma that my parents gave me over being queer, but i've moved on from it and have accepted myself regardless. unfortunately that is not the case for every muslim, and queer muslims especially are targeted and harmed more and more as of recently. because of that religious trauma, queer muslims are likely to stray away from allah and islam because they associate islam with their mental, emotional, and bodily harm. and i absolutely understand it as well. not everyone will get it, but it's understandable how you will want to stray away from religion when it has only harmed you. i believe that is the biggest factor when queer muslims deny parts of their islam in order to "justify" being queer.

you are right in that islam does have major sins and minor sins. of course, i am not a scholar so anyone could correct me if i'm wrong, but while there are major sins and minor sins, i still believe that sins are singular. to me, a major sin would affect like... a persons own moral judgement about their actions, if that makes sense? like a major sin would weigh down on someone's chest more than a minor sin would, and would therefore make the person want to repent even more. while all sins count the same, some have more of a guilt to them that may affect a person and their relationship with allah. me eating gelatin isn't going to be as heavy of a sin on my shoulders as, for example god forbid, me stealing from orphans, right? they're both sins and equal in count, but not equal in weight. if that makes sense? that's how i view it. a major sin affects a person more personally and affects their relationship with their deen and their relationship with allah, rather than count as more or multiple sins on their shoulder. you are, of course, allowed to disagree with me, this is just how i view it. alhamdulillah god gave us all our own minds to think and make decisions and beliefs and values for ourselves.

i personally don't know who jeffrey marsh is, but i do understand your concern about children. the thing is, children can be queer too 🤷‍♂️ i found myself being attracted to the same sex as young as 3 years old. i, of course, did not realize there was a term for this until i was 11 where i fully came out as queer, but i felt horribly repressed and did not know what those feelings were until i was told that they were normal to have. so i do believe that at least exposing children to the fact that "hey, queer people exist and that's okay :)" is... okay 👍 yk? and of course, exposing children to stuff that is sexual and inappropriate is wrong, no matter if it's heterosexual or homosexual, but i don't believe any queer person is advocating to harm any children by telling children about basic queer education. there IS a lot of queer discourse over this within the lgbtq+ community, and discussions about whether or not children should be involved are still happening to this day. you can feel free to have your own opinions, but you must respect others beliefs as long as they aren't harming anyone. personally, i think it's okay to expose kids to queer media and reality, as long as they are not forced to. kids are naturally curious 🤷‍♂️ let them explore. if more queer media was available when i was little, i would've for sure have come out as queer when i was muchhh younger even. and 11 was pretty young anyway lol. the thing is, being queer isn't inherently sexual. there are different types of queerness and a lot of it isn't sexual at all. there's romantic love, platonic love, aesthetic love, etc etc etc. implying that being queer is solely sexual only harms the community more. i'm asexual (as a general term), which means i do not want to have sex. ever. i just look for romantic relationships instead. there are different types of queer love and not all of them are sexual. is sex a big part of queer history and liberation? yeah. but is being queer just about sex sex and more sex? absolutely not. being queer is about accepting yourself for who you are. and why not show kids that? why not allow kids to explore and accept themselves for who they are as well? the moment people realize that the queer community isn't inherently sexual and that queerness is for everyone to feel accepted in, that's when we become more and more liberated. and the thing is, you don't see heterosexuals get the same problem with children though. heterosexuals always get to kiss in public, hold hands, get married. they dominate the whole world. no one has ever been discriminated against for being a heterosexual. heterosexuals see a boy baby and a girl baby play together and be like "oh my god they're boyfriend and girlfriend lol!" ... like... is that not forcing children into romantic situations and possibly implying sexual stuff too?? how is it fair that heterosexuals get to "force" their children into being heterosexual but god forbid a homosexual holds hands with their partner in public while minding their own business, yk? no one is forcing children to do anything. we are just trying to expose the reality of what we are facing to the world so they can realize we are normal and can accept us. no one chooses to be queer or trans. no one chooses to live a life of pain and struggle and oppression. we feel love the same way everyone else feels love. do heterosexuals get to choose who they fall in love with? no. love isn't a choice. love just happens. you can't force and choose someone to love someone else. love is unconditional and free.

as i said before, homosexuality was never mentioned in the qur'an. the word used in the qur'an does not mean homosexuality, it was talking about the indecent and horrific acts of rape, pedophilia, premarital sex, infidelity, etc that the people of sayedna lut (as) were doing. and while we've already talked about how homosexuality is not a sin, i do want to mention that the swana region has a very rich queer history to it! i personally am not very knowledgeable about this but i'm sure if i ask the right people, if you want me to, i can give you resources to learn about queer history around the islamic countries. before colonization and western ideals had been spread through the land, swana was a very queer place. so while homosexuality was never mentioned in the qur'an or in the hadiths or whatever else, queer people have been existing for thousands and thousands of years. we have always existed and will continue to. i'm not sure if this story is true but i believe prophet muhammad had an experience with some trans or "femenine men" during his time? in any case, i think looking more into queer history would be great to learn more about how islam and queerness are related to each other.

your concern over trans people transitioning is understandable. while i've already explained it before, i think the best way to think about it is like. trans people are often suicidal. the percentage of trans minors who commit suicide each year is genuinely horrific. if transitioning is the only thing that can help them become healthy again, then allah will allow it. allah wants the best for us and wants us to be happy and healthy. being trans is a health and science related issue. i don't really know how to explain it to you since you are not trans yourself, but please try to understand that you honestly might never actually understand what it's like. being trans is a type of experience that differs for everyone, and if you aren't trans yourself, you may never understand what it's like to feel the need to transition. transitioning is hard, it's long, the process is incredibly expensive. no one is doing it for leisure. people do it for their health and to become healthy again. isn't it haram to not eat pig if you're starving and on deaths door? didn't allah say it's haram for you to not eat or drink something, even if previously told not to, if it'll save your life? didn't allah say that you can do anything to your body and break any rule as long as it's for your health so you survive? being trans is like that. often, transitioning is something that is for health, not for leisure. i can't explain what dysphoria feels like, but it's miserable. it's always being afraid of calls because you are afraid of speak with your voice because it sounds wrong to you. it's wanting to dig your nails into your skin and tear off your flesh because you hate it you hate it you hate it. it's wanting to grab a knife and chop off parts of your body. it's wanting to scream and sob and rot. it's wanting to wear extremely unsafe tight clothing to try to look the way you want to. it's wanting to vomit every time someone calls you the wrong gender. it's the horrific feeling of utter dread hearing your deadname from people you love. it's the urge to just end it all. it'd be so nice to just end it all. if no one will give me what i need, the best option is to end it all. it's horrible and awful and there is nothing to fix it. it only gets worse and worse in most cases, to the point where people start harming themselves and many trans youth end up killing themselves. is it not haram to forbid people from getting treatment? no matter how much that changes them? isn't it all in the name of health and safety? yes, allah said that the harder the challenge, the more rewards you get, but allah did not make us to suffer. allah is already challenging us by making us trans in the first place. that challenge is lifelong, even if we transition. discrimination is still a challenge and still kills people every day. allah loves us and wants the best for us. i don't expect you to completely understand, since you aren't trans yourself, but this is how much it affects us. transition is necessary and it MUST be available for people to receive. and even if you still don't agree... so what? who are you to judge and decide who and who doesn't get to do what they want with their own body? everyone owns their body and ONLY their own body. no one should judge or condemn anyone else for doing what they want with their own body as long as it's not harming anyone else.

we are all muslim, and we all must support each other, no matter how different our views are, because allah loves us all and wants the best for us. thank you for asking, this is a great discussion to have :)

Im back<333

SF gang + reader who is the tallest so they ask him for help with lots of things.. like a lot of things..

And then Larry and Ash secretly ask him to beat Travis's ass, which he says no at first.., Until Travis makes fun of him for being 1. Trans and 2. Gay. (I wanna see u write a fight tbh)

~☆

You’re always on the run with helping out your friend due to their height. You’re literally the giraffe in the group and that comes with having your own daily job to do EVERY DAY!

Helping out your short ass friends!

Sal, the shortest out of the bunch needs help the most. He always needs your assistance when he can’t reach an object. He sometimes doesn’t even want to ask for your help because you always help him the most and he feels bad…but also kinda embarrassed…He doesn’t want to seem like a burden to you but you just brush it off and help him anyway!

Larry, he is pretty damn tall but you took over that position to the point where he finds himself asking you for some assistance. He doesn’t ask you a lot since he still is considered tall but when he finds himself in a situation where he genuinely can’t reach the thing that he wants he calls for you! However, he can get lazy and will still ask for your help to get something down for him when he can very obviously get it down himself.

Ash. she’s at average height for her age as a young girl so it’s understandable that she may call you down to help her. She jokes playfully about your height but never in a rude way, she just finds it funny how you two tease with each other just for funsies.

Todd, he is basic for his height but he still needs some help here and there. He won’t ways ask you for help since he can simply just get himself something to stand on but when he doesn’t have anything near, he goes to you for help! He finds you very useful and a very helpful person. Thats what he likes about you.

When Travis ends up coming into the picture with his rude tendencies it starts to become a more big of a job with Larry and Ash telling you that you should beat the crap out of him. You obviously don’t just stand by and watch your friends get called names and what not so you open your mouth and say something smart. But that’s when Travis ends up saying something that presses a bit too much on the buttons.

Travis is known for his bad mouth. He’s prone to say something that he knows that will get someone pissed off. Looks like you were the lucky winner for both sides. One—his insult on you being Transgender and Gay. Two—winning the fight.

As soon as those words left Travis’s filthy mouth you swung at him and popped him right in the mouth, knocking him off his feet and onto the school floor. This got the attention of all the students in the halls and caused a loud ruckus as you were practically beating the crap out of Travis, directing harsh punches to his face. If a teacher hadn’t been in close range you would’ve given the boy another black eye. Of course the culprits behind the egging on (Aka:Larry and Ash) were cheering you from the crowd as Todd and Sal were frantic for you.

You got some OSS for a good few days but your friends were there for you, giving you the work that you wouldn’t be able to do at school and taking notes down for you for any upcoming tests or assignments. Sal was worried for you the most because he doesn’t believe in violence, he actually felt bad for Travis since he had to get some stitches here and there from what he heard.

Other than that, let’s just say that Travis kept his mouth shut for a good while. Keep in mind that just because you let the tension air out for a while—it doesn’t exactly mean that the tension won’t be there when you come back around to start more stuff.

What’s Kazooie’s deal. Please tell me about them.

thank you so much for asking he's one of my favoritest guys in the world ok so

oldies who have been here since the lovecore swag showdown and perhaps those who were here for the deep sea fish tournament may remember the oc i put into the lovecore showdown, amedeo. for those of who don't, the basic rundown is amedeo is a gamer who is so obsessed with being a perfect friend and getting people to love him he gets manipulated and turned into a demon and ends up killing one of his friends before hitting his redemption arc.

for those of you who were here last time and paying attention, you may also remember the oc i put in the doomed by the narrative tournament, eden. she is a normalcore girl who ends up discovering her world is a video game and she is simply an npc. and now she's actively falling into a spiral of helplessness as she tries to help the player escape reality while never giving a fuck about her well being or whether or not she can be considered a real person.

both of these ocs are from the same story. other members of the cast include: the guy amedeo killed who now haunts their electronics and gets a sick robot body, a demon from the monster realm who is the first monster to set foot in the human world in a good while and ruins the world by refusing to do his job as player 1, an assassin who is also the lead/drummer of his band and got paid like 3 bucks to go kill the last guy and he was just fine with it, player 2 of the game who is in a death spiral and WILL delete as much of the game as they can if they don't finally escape, a tv head robot monster guy who is part of the aforementioned band and can't be normal about his crush on the assassin so he just starts mind controlling people in an attempt to kill him, amedeo again i cannot stress enough how much of a freak he is i love him. all of these characters end up involved in complicated plotlines revolving around the center of the story, the gamer club that most characters are part of. they turn into demons, get killed by demons, face the complex morality of being a person, face the complex morality of being a bunch of code in a video game, and more.

and then there's kazooie.

kazooie is a 24-27 year old transgender aroace man who runs the gamer club. he is a solid 5'3. his main hobby is gaming. he acts a little bit like a prick but he's always making sure the members of his club are having a great time. he named himself kazooie because he is autistic and his first fixation was on banjo kazooie. he lost his leg around his tweens and he does not feel very strongly about it, it's just a thing that happened to him.

the most exciting thing that ever happens to him in this entire fucked up convoluted story, is the assassin can't find his original target but kazooie was right there so he figured he'd just kill kazooie and call it good, which kazooie then got out of by talking fast enough about music for the assassin to start rambling about his band and want to be friends instead.

that's it.

kazooie's most important trait for the plot is that he runs the gamer club so he is involved with a lot of the plot but also everything just barely misses him by a couple inches and he mainly just has a normal day while his friends are out here experiencing the most bullshit buckwild experiences possible. and i Love Him. he's everything to me. he is so sweet and lovely and full of mischief and he's so silly and he loves his role and tries so hard to make the best of everything. he is just some guy and its what everyone needs so bad. in the middle of all the chaos, kazooie is always there scheduling club meetings so everyone has a moment to breathe and play some games together. he is so fucking normal.

also he's amedeo platonic partner/bestie/roommamte. ok here's some art of him

all above art by me

all above art by hershelchocolateart

can you maybe tell us about the history of trans healthcare? I'm writing a trans character in an old west setting and don't know exactly what would be available to her

So this is a really cool question.

There have been (what we would today call) transgender and gender-non-conforming people as far back as we have records that can describe them. Depending on where in the world a person was and what culture they belonged to, being trans or gender-non-conforming may have been something lived openly, or it may have been something more hidden.

This makes it difficult to cover all of trans history in one tumblr post, so I'll focus on 2 things- trans history during the western expansion (the time between 1803 and 1893 across what is now the western USA, often referred to as the "old west" "wild west" or "frontier"), and trans healthcare access as it is recorded in the USA.

So first let's talk a little about trans people on the frontier.

[Trans Woman of the Frontier: Mrs. Nash]

Simply put, there were a lot of them. Or, at least, there were a lot more of them living on the frontier than there were on the east coast. Many accounts tend to be of what we today would call trans men. Earlier, historians often brushed their existence off as a practicality- If a woman wanted a decent-paying job on the range, of course they would change their name, wear men's clothing, and act as a man.

But this doesn't explain the fact that many of them lived their personal lives as men too, often taking wives and continuing to live lives as men even after being arrested multiple times for cross dressing, or after the conclusion of their career. Look up "Harry Allen" if you want a real man's man on the frontier.

In fact, today one of the reasons historians think there were more trans people out west was because news of these arrests often made it back to the east coast. Closeted trans people reading these (often sensationalized) stories were essentially promised a life and future on the frontier with people like them- a life and future they could move and restart easily if they happened to be, you know, arrested for transness.

It also doesn't explain the trans women. While there are fewer records of trans women on the frontier, they did exist. And since women could typically hide more easily assuming they had an understanding husband (or beard), that kind of makes sense. Look up "Mrs. Nash" who worked as a laundress and took 3 husbands over her lifetime. She was only outed as trans upon her death.

Long story short, it would be very historically accurate to have a trans person on the frontier, and while it might have been reasonable to assume they could make a life there, officially transness wasn't particularly well accepted by the establishment.

Trans healthcare on the frontier was unfortunately not really a thing beyond what today we would call social transition- the adoption of new clothing, a new name, and new speech patterns.

This was because the first medical transition care wouldn't occur until 1918 in Germany and wouldn't move to the US until the 1940s, half a century after the frontier was declared closed.

In 1922 the first successful gender-affirming surgery was performed. It was an orchiectomy (removal of the testes) on a woman named Dora Richter in Germany.

In 1931 Dora completed her transition with several more successful surgeries. This was also the year Lili Elbe (of The Danish Girl fame) passed away from infection related to a gender affirming surgery (why did they decide to tell her story instead of Dora's?? Dora literally worked in trans healthcare for most of her career??).

Anyway. In the 1940's Dr. Alfred Kinsey began his study of human sexuality and gender in Indiana, USA. He was the first person to use the term "transsexual", which gave a name to the experience of someone who's gender did not align with their sex assigned at birth.

Hormone therapy in the US was introduced by Dr. Henry Benjamin sometime in the 1950s, along with the first US citizens travelling to Europe to complete gender affirming surgeries. Dr. Benjamin published the first papers on hormone therapy in 1967, prompting the openings of about 40 "gender clinics" throughout the US. Unfortunately, many of these clinics provided gender-affirming care in name only- the larger ones (like the Johns Hopkins Gender Identity Clinic) getting over 100 applications per year for surgical interventions, but providing only about 5-7 per year after a rigorous process of proving one's transgender status.

By the late 1960's and early 1970's, many US trans people were choosing to circumvent the larger medical centers and either going abroad or using smaller specialty clinics that could do surgeries more discreetly and were less interested in the research value of trans people.

In 1979, many of the larger gender clinics shut down after a paper (with very poor methodology) stated that trans people were no better off mentally after transition. This, though awful, sparked Dr. Benjamin to start the organization that would become the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, which publishes the standards by which gender affirming patients are treated today.

After this point, clinics slowly rebuilt. From a low of 2-3 in the mid 1990s to hundreds of clinics open today. The Johns Hopkins' clinic reopened in 2016.

R E F E R E N C E S