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talonabraxas · 2 days

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Sun in Gemini II (5/30 – 6/10 2024) The middle decan of Gemini is called the Hermaphrodite, after a child of Hermes and Aphrodite, who bore the external and internal genitalia of both men and women in their own body.

According to one story of Hermaphrodite, found in Ovid, he was a remarkable beautiful young man of extraordinary gracefulness and easiness of manner. A naiad, or water-spirit named Salamis observed him bathing one day, and jumped into the pool to fondle the youth who was too young to understand or consent to these advances. She tried to have her way with him, either through rape or seduction; yet the boy resisted, and Salmacis cried aloud her wish — to be united with this boy forever. A passing god, hearing her prayer, solemnly knitted them into one being — and Hermaphrodite became a god in themselves, a god of the unified masculine and feminine. They blessed — or cursed? — the spring in such a way that anyone else who bathed there would be similarly transformed.

Other accounts suggest that Hermaphrodite was an androgynous figure from birth. Roman theologians attributed the birth of human hermaphrodites to the influence of Hermaphrodite and their father Hermes’ influence. “Serious” scholars of natural history noted that hermaphroditic births were rare but regarded as significant omens of the future, while satirical authors made hermaphrodites into funny figures worthy of derision. Whether by alchemical change in a pool or divine birth, the Greeks and Romans depicted Hermaphrodite with both female breasts as well as penis and scrotum in naked depictions; I’m not aware of a statue that also shows a vagina — but it’s possible. Despite Ovid’s account connecting Hermaphrodite’s origins to female-on-male sexual assault, this boy-girl deity was highly sensualized and sexualized in Roman fresco and statuary, and was considered to be the patron of marriage. Since they united in themselves both the masculine and feminine, their feast day (the fourth of every month) was considered highly auspicious for weddings in many community around the Roman Mediterranean.

And Hermaphrodite stood in contrast to another figure, far more terrifying to the ancient Romans — that of Magna Mater, the Great Mother Cybele. She had been carried into Rome in procession in the form of a Black Stone that was said to have fallen from heaven — and she was placed in the porch of the temple of Capitoline Jupiter in the heart of the city during the Second Punic War, and spiritually married to Jupiter as the principal god of the Romans, an extra consort to be recognized alongside Juno. Her high priestess and priestesses were not scions of Rome, either, but foreigners from Phrygia in what is now Turkey — and there is symbolic evidence that Cybele had been worshipped there in some form since at least 6000 BCE. Even more than the women priestesses wielding significant power in the cult of the Great Mother, though, were the strange and androgyne priests of Cybele — eunuchs all — who had voluntarily allowed themselves to be castrated in service to the Mother. The Roman Senate, with the same kind of shrill horror that some modern US senators reserve for anti-immigration screeds, forbade any Roman man from joining the cult of Cybele as anything other than an observer.

So, here, in miniature, echoing from twenty-two centuries before our own time, we find some of the same kinds of strange dismay and fear of foreign customs, alchemical-medical recreations of the mortal frame, and ancient powers that do not seem to belong to “the modern rational world” —and yet do. Public officials have no trouble vilifying transgender people, and comedians satirize them, and preachers sermonize about the way they warn us that dire changes are coming. And yet, the presence of transgender people in the world is unnecessarily sexualized, their romance is celebrated (both their actual relationship lives and the fantasies we spin about their lives), and their presence in a community is a remarkable signpost (and perhaps talisman) that points to tolerance, diversity, and healthy community norms.

And maybe we react with such a strange mix of hope, unease, joy, and concern around transgender persons today, for the same reasons the Romans did — they’re proof that Mother Nature can bring forth a far vaster range of possibilities and potentials into the world, than our allegedly rational minds can understand. The Great Mother is truly greater, and more awe-inspiring, than we can conceive — and patriarchy has little choice but to bow down to her revelation.

Maybe that’s one of the key messages of Gemini more generally, and of The Hermaphrodite specifically. We humans want to control a lot of things: the wind, Mother Nature, the structure of sex and gender, what are the acceptable desires of flesh and heart — and Cybele and Hermaphrodite both say, “Terribly sorry, but those are not in your power to rule.”

The Dodeks of Gemini II are Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, and Capricorn — and they also tell this complex story of dualities turning into uncontrollable multiplicities. Libra indicates a balance between two — this exactly equals that. But Scorpio is the many-handed monster of desire, carrying both healing and poison in its stinger. Sagittarius is the human, the divine, the technical, the feral and animalistic, all wrapped up in a strange hybridized package. Capricorn is the fish caught in the moment of chan into a goat — a reminder that evolution is ongoing, for sure; but also suggesting the Egyptian crocodile, 250 million years old and counting, reminding us that there are forms of nature far more enduring and steady than ourselves. --Wanderings in the Labyrinth

Hermaphrodite in Dreams Johfra Bosschart

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ghelgheli · 2 months

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i love your thoughtful posts and your patience in answering questions, was wondering if you had read transgender marxism and if so what did you think of it? ty!

thank you 💖💖

i put off answering this ask specifically to read transgender marxism. i hadn't realized, going in, that it was an anthology of essays rather than a book with a single thesis and thread. having worked through them all i have to say... i was underwhelmed.

a few of the essays (e.g. queer workerism against work and seizing the means) read as restatements, using assorted theoretical widgets, of the rote fact that aspiration toward class consciousness and proletarian revolution demands that we organize with a consciousness of transness. true! moving on.

a few others (trans work employment trajectories, notes from brazil, dialogue on deleuze) felt like re-presentations of known knowns and (sorry!) kind of pedestrian to work thru.

several of the later essays (and especially the afterword, which as far as i could tell misrepresented at least JGP in histories of the transgender child and possibly even metabolic rift) bored me near to tears and were difficult to distinguish from the wordplay of theorizing purely in the realm of ideas. i'm pretty sure i think "‘Why Are We Like This?’: The Primacy of Transsexuality" by xandra metcalfe is just wrong and plays into racialist constructions of the plasticity of the subject while trying to construct an image of liberation.

that said, I had some favourites that i would recommend:

Encounters in Lancaster by JN Hoad. i posted an excerpt of this one recently. the analogies to atomism, the conception of the aleatrix, the image of heterosexuality as the swerving stream that sweeps us up in its currents—i thought it was beautiful and sharp.

The Bridge Between Gender and Organising by Farah Thompson. also posted an excerpt of this one. just a good autobiographical account with clear upshots of one subjectivity of organizing for a Black trans woman

A Queer Marxist Transfeminism: Queer and Trans Social Reproduction by Nat Raha. this is a critical recommendation (i think there is a classic overuse/misapplication of "femme" thru the text) but the concept of "gender labour" (not gendered labour!) and of the transfeminine subject as being relegated to the lowest, informal and unwaged rung of performing this labour in service of gender maintenance is something that will stay with me

i also enjoyed Transgender and Disabled Bodies: Between Pain and the Imaginary by Zoe Belinsky. don't have too much to say about this one. here's an excerpt tho: "The organism creates her own foundation: she continually creates the being of her own species – the condition for creating the ‘I can’. She continually creates her capacity to create that species-being and the ‘I can’. She does this through the collective labour of organisms labouring in common, in order to coordinate themselves as sensory parts in a higher organism. The labourers must move from particularity to generality in order to establish the general horizon of transformative possibilities: the inorganic body – institutions, tools of culture – that support the creative capacity of the human body."

#ask answer #transgender marxism #ty for asking!

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ukrfeminism · 7 months

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Kemi Badenoch believes that “good public servants” must not be “hounded” out of office after the human rights watchdog dropped an investigation into its chairwoman.

Baroness Falkner of Margravine, of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), was the subject of an internal inquiry into allegations about her behaviour by current and former members of staff.

Critics said that the complaints were ideologically motivated because of her position on trans rights. The claims against Falkner were subsequently leaked to Channel 4 News in what her allies said was an attempt to “prejudge” the inquiry.

Badenoch, the minister for women and equalities, was so concerned that she called in an independent legal expert to review the handling of the complaints.

The commission said that on receiving the result of the review it had decided to close the investigation. It admitted to “process failures”.

Falkner, who had been investigated for five months, said: “I am grateful to see an end to this investigation into unsubstantiated claims against me. I am also particularly grateful for the support and encouragement I have received, since the investigation into allegations against me was first disclosed. I have relished public service all my life and continue to do so with vigour and determination.”

A source close to Badenoch said: “Kishwer Falkner has been a courageous chair of the EHRC who has dealt deftly with many contentious issues. Kemi has always been clear that good public servants should not be hounded out of office and she is pleased this process has now concluded.”

The complaints against Falkner were made after the EHRC’s 12 commissioners overruled concerns from its management team and recommended that the government consider creating a legal distinction between people born female and those who transition to become women.

More than 40 complaints were made by 12 current and former members of staff alleging bullying and harassment by Falkner and a toxic workplace. She strongly denied them.

Falkner said: “The organisation has been going through a transformation programme, to take clearer and more measurable action as the country’s regulator of equality law. Our staff are the most important element of achieving this change. I am proud that most have embraced the journey with a clear-eyed focus on the end goal – becoming the trusted equality regulator that serves everyone.

“I remain completely focused on the job I set out to do: advancing equality of opportunity and protecting the human rights of everyone in Britain.”

Behind the story

When Baroness Falkner of Margravine took on the role of chairwoman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, she knew it would not be easy. Trying to play referee in the culture wars over transgender rights has led to relentless criticism by those who have variously branded her “scum” and even a Nazi.

What she had not expected, however, was criticism from within. The investigation into her was marred with controversy from the start, with critics directly linking it to Falkner’s position on trans rights and suggesting it was ideologically motivated. These concerns intensified when a dossier of the allegations was leaked to Channel 4 News.

These included claims that Falkner had described a trans woman as a “bloke in lipstick” at a board meeting. She is also said to have “rolled her eyes” at staff who expressed concerns about the stance being taken by commissioners. Staff said she was “rude” and oversaw an exodus of workers unhappy about the direction of the organisation.

The claims were denied by Falkner, with some in the commission saying that things had been “blown out of all proportion”. The leaking of the dossier, they said, had compromised the inquiry. “There is no way she can get a fair hearing now,” they said.

The investigation was halted but Falkner had become an isolated figure. She took leave and it was said that the commission declined to pay her legal expenses. The end of the investigation represents the end of five months of turmoil for Falkner.

#Articles #trans

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justinspoliticalcorner · 14 days

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Ruth Ben-Ghiat at The New Republic:

“Does fascism intend to restore state authority or subvert it? Is it order or disorder? Can you be conservatives and subversives at the same time?” Six months before the March on Rome in October 1922, when Benito Mussolini was the head of the Fascist Party and its decentralized militia movement, he isolated the contradictions at the heart of fascism that remain fundamental to authoritarianism today. During his 21 years in power, 18 of them as dictator, Il Duce framed fascism as a revolution of reaction against the left, against liberal democracy, and against any group that threatened the survival of white Christian civilization. Carrying out a violent destabilization of society in the name of a return to social order and national tradition, fascism pioneered the autocratic formula in use today of disenfranchising and repressing the many to allow the few to exploit the workforce, women’s bodies, the environment, and the economy.

Trumpism is in this tradition. It started in 2015 as a movement fueled by conservative alarm and white rural rage at a multiracial and progressive America. It continued as an authoritarian presidency envisioned as “a shock to the system” that unleashed waves of hate crimes against nonwhites and non-Christians. It culminated in the January 6 assault on the Capitol, which was a counterrevolutionary operation in the spirit of fascism. Its goal in deploying violence was not just to keep Donald Trump in office, but to prevent the representatives of social and racial progress from taking power.

PROJECT 2025 AS COUNTERREVOLUTION

The fascists believed that you have to destroy to create, and this is what a second Trump administration would do. Project 2025 is a plan for an authoritarian takeover of the United States that goes by a deceptively neutral name. It preserves Trumpism’s original radical intent in its goals to “[d]ismantle the administrative state” and “decentralize and privatize as much as possible,” allowing the American people to “live freely.” “[T]he Trump administration, with the best of intentions, simply got a slow start,” Heritage Foundation head Kevin Roberts told The New York Times in January. “And Heritage and our allies in Project 2025 believe that must never be repeated.” The solution to this “slow start”—code for the restraints imposed by operating in a democracy—is counterrevolution.

The plan promises the abolition of the Department of Education and other federal agencies. The intent here is to destroy the legal and governance cultures of liberal democracy and create new bureaucratic structures, staffed by new politically vetted cadres, to support autocratic rule. So new agencies could appear to manage parents’ and family rights, Christian affairs, and other pillars of the new order. The Department of Health and Human Services is poised to have a central role in governance, given the priorities Trumpism places on policing sexuality, weaponizing motherhood, persecuting transgender people and LGBTQ communities, and criminalizing abortion.

During Trump’s presidency, far-right Roman Catholic attorney Roger Severino headed the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Health and Human Services, transforming it into an office that prioritized the protection of the rights of white Christians and the “natural family.” During his tenure, the department banned the use of the words “fetus” and “transgender” in government communications and made other moves long embraced by evangelical Christians and their far-right allies in politics. In the future, this office could be elevated into an autonomous entity. Appropriating civil rights for white Christians furthers the Trumpist goal of delegitimizing the cause of racial equality while also making Christian nationalism a core value of domestic policy. Doing away with the separation of church and state is the goal of many architects of Trumpism, from Project 2025 contributor Russ Vought to far-right proselytizer Michael Flynn, who uses the idea of “spiritual war” as counterrevolutionary fuel.

Even if the Department of Education is abolished, some other entity would appear to take its place, since it is unlikely that the task of undoing liberal democratic models of pedagogy would be left entirely to individual states. Not everyone will be able to homeschool their children—the preferred extremist option, since it removes children from exposure to the multifaith and multiracial environments of public schools. It is not so far-fetched to imagine the special Bible Trump has been hawking, which includes the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Pledge of Allegiance, as a required text in a Christian nationalist curriculum.

Mussolini kicked off his counterrevolutionary police state in the 1920s with new “public security” laws that justified the arrest of anyone deemed a security threat—meaning anyone who opposed fascism from a liberal democratic or leftist point of view. Trump’s assertion a century later that “people within our country” pose “the greatest threat” to the United States, and his desire to “root [them] out,” could translate into counterterror and counterinsurgency operations. These would require a recasting or expansion of existing federal and state security agencies—for example, if the National Guard is federalized or the promised mass deportations of undocumented immigrants come into being.

[...]

Personalist leaders organize government institutions around their self-preservation. Their private interests and needs shape party politics, legislative action, and national policy, just as their relationships with foreign autocrats influence foreign affairs. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who served as the translator of Vladimir Putin’s views and desires in Europe for a decade, was able to personalize Italy’s foreign policy. He excluded Italian diplomats from meetings with Putin, allowing only his private translator-envoy, Valentino Valentini, to be present. An Italian parliamentary investigation later revealed that Berlusconi would have received a kickback from the profits of a planned Italy-and-Russia-built South Stream pipeline. Trump holds a similarly proprietary vision of governance, which is why classified national security documents ended up in the bathroom of his private residence in Florida. Like most autocrats, Trump sees holding public office as a means of personal enrichment.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat wrote in The New Republic as part of their American Fascism series about the right-wing fascist counterrevolution that is brewing in America, and if Trump wins again, America will be headed down the same path as Hungary, Russia, El Salvador, and Turkey.

See Also:

The New Republic: What American Fascism Would Look Like

#Ruth Ben Ghiat #The New Republic #American Fascism #Donald Trump #Project 2025 #Benito Mussolini #Christian Nationalism #White Privilege #Silvio Berlusconi

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she-toadmask · 3 months

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DEAR TRANSGENDER PEOPLE

ESPECIALLY TRANS SEX WORKERS

PLEASE STOP TAGGING YOUR POSTS WITH TRANSFORMERS

TRANSFORMERS IS A TAG FOR POSTS ABOUT THE MEDIA FRANCHISE STARRING GIANT ALIEN ROBOTS

IT IS NOT A TAG FOR RISQUÉ SELFIES OR ADVERTISING YOUR SERVICES

PLEASE REMOVE THE TRANSFORMERS TAG FROM YOUR POSTS AND CONTINUE POSTING

I WISH YOU THE BEST IN FINDING CUSTOMERS AND REMAINING ON TUMBLR

SINCERELY, A QUEER TRANSFORMERS FAN

#transgender #i love yall but please don't #people are not going to appreciate seeing random mostly-naked humans in the robot tag #i know it's probably bots and this will do nothing but a girl can dream

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mthofferings · 8 months

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nostalgicatsea

See nostalgicatsea’s existing works here and here.

Preferred contact methods: Tumblr: nostalgicatsea Twitter: nostalgicatsea Discord: nostalgicatsea

Preferred organizations: - Médecins San Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) - Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) - Transgender Law Center - Waterkeeper Alliance - World Central Kitchen (See the list of approved organizations here)

Will create works that contain: Tropes/elements: character studies, angst, soulmates, slow burn, mutual or one-sided pining, self-sacrifice, amnesia, time travel, reincarnation, fake relationship, relationship of convenience, hurt/comfort, de-aging, dream world, presumed dead, temporary or permanent death, post-breakup, getting together, getting back together, post-Infinity War to post-Endgame, substance abuse and recovery, grief/mourning, parental/child and mentor/mentee relationships, friendship over the years, Tony’s family issues, dark Steve, pre-serum Steve, Hanahaki, hauntings, betrayal, forgiveness AUs: canon-divergent, mafia/gangster, magic, sports, non-powered, high school or college, supernatural, horror, sci-fi, etc. I love AUs! For writing, I tend to focus on one specific moment or a series of small moments, feelings, and relationships more than action-packed plots.

Will not create works that contain: I’m up for most things except some extreme kinks, incest, adult/minor romantic relationships, and infidelity or partner abuse in a ship (unless you're referencing a canon plot point). I'm fine with infidelity and abuse involving a villain as long as it's not OOC. I don’t have any triggers. If you want me to elaborate on my do-not-wants or have a trope, kink, or plot point that you’re not sure I’ll be okay with, please contact me beforehand. Betaing: A/B/O, D/S, OOC, PWPs, OCs, self-inserts, pure fluff without plot, Darcy-centric fics, Hydra character-centric fics, unbalanced CW plots. I’m not that fond of coffeeshop AUs, but I can help with them Writing: A/B/O, D/S, poly, comedy, complicated plots, crack, 100% pure fluff/domestic plots, kidfic (unless it’s canon), AUs that require a lot of specific knowledge (e.g., historical AUs or military AUs), reality TV AU, zombie AU, animal transformation, unbalanced CW plots, Hydra Steve

-- Fic or Other Writing --

Auction ID: 1145

Will create works for the following relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark - AvAc, MCU, Noir Bruce Banner & Clint Barton & Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark & Thor - MCU Miles Morales & Miles Morales - Earth-42, Spider-Verse (animated films)

Work Description: This fic will probably be 1.5–3k. It’s possible that it may end up longer as has been the case before, but I can’t make any promises. It might take me a while to finish it as I’m slow at writing and RL keeps me busy, so please keep that in mind when bidding. I’m very interested in writing canon-compliant fics or fics set in canon, especially ones that act like snapshots of the characters at a specific time in their lives or a character/relationship study. I do love AUs as well, but I’ll only write AUs for Steve/Tony for this auction. I would appreciate it if you gave me several prompts, both general and specific, to choose from as that will increase the likelihood of the story being finished faster and lessen the likelihood of me getting writer’s block. If you have any questions about what I will and won’t write, don’t hesitate to reach out to me! I’d also like it if you reached out to me before bidding if you’re thinking of forming a pod bid.

Ratings: Gen, Teen

Can pods bid on this auction? Yes - Podbids welcome!

CLICK HERE TO BID ON THIS WORK

-- Beta Service --

Auction ID: 2072

Will create works for the following relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark - Any Universe Bucky Barnes/Sam Wilson - MCU Iron Man fandom any gen - 616, AvAc, MCU Captain America fandom any gen - 616, AvAc, MCU Avengers fandom any gen - 616, AvAc, EMH, MCU Shang-Chi fandom any gen - MCU Black Panther fandom any gen - MCU Black Widow fandom any gen - MCU Ms. Marvel fandom any gen - 616, MCU Spider-Man fandom any gen - Earth-42, Spider-Verse (animated films)

Work Description: I can help with SPaG/copyediting, flow/structure, continuity, and America-picking, and I particularly love discussing characterization, world building, plot, and character development. I love character and relationship studies and contemplative pieces that dive deeply into who the characters are and how they feel, but I also like plots that tackle serious issues or big canon points, complex plots, and plots with multiple layers/levels. I'm also up for cheer reading if you're looking for that instead! Turnaround depends on fic length and my schedule. I’m relatively fast, but if something comes up, I’ll let you know immediately. If you need references from people I betaed for, let me know. Notes on relationships: I’m willing to beta some ships along with gen/platonic relationships for the fandoms listed above. Notes on characters: There are some characters whom I’m not that fond of or interested in. I’m open to betaing almost anything, provided it follows my wants/DNWs, even with characters I’m less keen about/don’t care for, but feel free to contact me if you have questions about this. Notes on universes: For 616 and Ults, I’ll only do an AU or a story that doesn’t require specific knowledge of canon events for me to beta properly. I’ve only watched a handful of AA episodes. I’m open to Noir, AvAc, 3490, EMH, AA, 1872, Bullet Points, and Earth-TRN634 (Civil Warrior) for Steve/Tony as well.

Ratings: Gen, Teen, Mature

Can pods bid on this auction? No - I'd rather not be bid on by pods

CLICK HERE TO BID ON THIS WORK

-- Digital Work --

Auction ID: 3026

Will create works for the following relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark - Any Universe Bucky Barnes/Sam Wilson - MCU Iron Man fandom any gen - 616, AvAc, MCU Captain America fandom any gen - 616, AvAc, MCU Avengers fandom any gen - 616, 1872, AvAc, EMH, MCU Shang-Chi fandom any gen - MCU Black Widow fandom any gen - MCU Black Panther fandom any gen - MCU Spider-Man fandom any gen - Earth-42, Spider-Verse (animated films) Ms. Marvel fandom any gen - 616, MCU

Work Description: I’m offering a mood board for a character(s) or a fic of your choice (no NSFW shots) according to the theme or tone you want. Examples here. I’m up for all gen and most ships for the fandoms listed above with a few exceptions. If you have any questions, please contact me! You’ll get your mood board in 1–3 weeks, depending on whether I need to read a fic or not and how packed my schedule is. If the winning bid reaches $20, I’ll make two mood boards. For every $10 after that, I’ll throw in an extra mood board.

Ratings: Gen, Teen, Mature

Can pods bid on this auction? Yes - Podbids welcome!

CLICK HERE TO BID ON THIS WORK

The auction runs from October 22 (12 AM ET) to October 28 (11:59:59 PM ET). Visit marveltrumpshate.com during Auction Week to view all of our auctions and to place your bids!

#nostalgicatsea #auction: fic #auction: beta #auction: digital #mth 2023

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cipheramnesia · 9 months

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If you want to, can you talk about Titane?

Are you the same person who asked about Thelma, because Titane is similarly a lot to encompass. For one, I should link to Walter Chaw's particularly detailed review, which hits on many of my own feelings.

This movie plays with technology, the human body, and gender. Your mileage may vary but to my eyes it's one of the most beautiful transmasculine movies I've seen. It's not concerned so much with realism as with abstracts, and it present body horror in the unique way many of us in the queer community find it - as alluring, arousing or enticing.

There is probably some overall artistic thesis, perhaps about the expectation of the flesh to conform to the infallibility of machine and metal, or the way in which humans become increasingly a kind of cyborg through our unceasing dependence on technology to maintain functional lives? When the movie is an intersection of a person who has sex with vehicles, a titanium plate in the skull, who commits serial acts of murder, orbits around and within masculinity in ways that include fertility and birth, whose sexuality creates another spiral of questions about attraction between people, there's so much.

It all feels of a piece and I can't quite put it into words. It flirts close to topics painful and close to transness like sexual assault and rejection by family, yet never becomes so crass as to fully exploit them. Being aware several times of sexual assault is enough to evoke the horror. Instead, these instances become places where Titane asserts control and agency, relief and joy intermingle seeing the moment transformed into something else. Much the same, as Titane becomes a stranger's son, we expect at any moment this will be torn away in a cruel revelation. Instead, when this unknowingly adopted father sees Titane's body and form are not his son, he affirms "You are my son."

The culmination of the movie is our protagonist dying while giving birth to a half machine child. The behavior of the protagonist is murderous, deceptive even. The surface readings of this don't translate into a picture of someone I would call almost a work of magic, of art. But to my mind, these are not meant to be read on a surface level. The deaths are in service to his extraction from the life that wants him bound to a socially assigned gender and purpose. They are a reclamation of his body as his own. The pregnancy and subsequent birth are not an act of destruction but a creative act of someone who has fully reclaimed his own body, whose change is in its own way ushering in another step in humanity, perhaps.

I love this movie a lot. There are movies about being transgender, sure, but not so many movies like this which evoke the feeling and spirit of being trans and being queer.

#titane

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 4 months

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By Jennifer Block

Published: Nov 7, 2023

In August, a Missouri law went into effect that limits gender treatment for minors to counseling. Such laws, which have passed in 22 states to date, can be particularly cruel. Minors already on puberty-suppressing drugs or cross-sex hormones are being effectively cut off. Trans adults on Medicaid who’ve been taking hormones for years may find their prescriptions are suddenly unaffordable. And often these laws are tied to overt acts of culture war — like a ban on drag shows in Tennessee.

This wave of legislation is unfortunate for another reason. A lot of fair-minded, thoughtful people may question whether hormones and surgery are appropriate for the growing number of young people who are distressed about their biological sex. But given all the campaigns in red states, many progressives are instead biting their tongues and trusting that doctors know what they’re doing.

The problem is that as more kids identify as transgender than ever before, it’s still worth asking whether “gender affirming care” is the right model for them. Despite the certainty advocates project that this is an open-and-shut case, it wasn’t long ago that this “affirming” approach for children was simply an idea — a hypothesis informed by experience, but an idea nonetheless. Yet in less than a decade, it became standard of care and is now practically gospel in the United States, even as other countries are redirecting services toward psychotherapy and social support.

A natural response on the left to bills restricting or even outlawing gender-related medical treatment is “keep your laws off my body.” As a vocal supporter of abortion access, I’m sympathetic. But it’s a mistake to conflate these two causes. Abortion is a thoroughly vetted, one-time procedure, and denying access to it reduces a woman to an incubator. That’s quite different from a relatively new hormonal protocol in children that can lead to major, irreversible, long-term impacts.

The practice of medicine doesn’t have perfect checks and balances, but it does have a history of proving itself wrong (for the latest episode, see: cold medicine). So when a new approach for children and adolescents involves powerful medications and surgeries, people aren’t necessarily misguided (or “anti-trans”) to voice concerns. Yet journalists, parents, researchers, and clinicians who have raised questions about the evidence have been ensnared in a conversation about identity and rights. Now it seems all we can hear are the loudest and most reactionary voices, echoing in statehouse rotundas.

Loaded terms

For as long as gender roles have existed, there have been people whose inner compass, even at an early age, felt unaligned with their bodies. What’s new today is the ability to medically address that mismatch in adolescence, before puberty has fully had its say.

And since about 2016, the number of young people receiving what are called “puberty blockers” — drugs that suppress the signal to the pituitary to release the hormones that transform tweens into sexually mature adults — has grown. An analysis by health technology company Komodo found that the number of kids between the ages of 6 and 17 in the United States who began suppressing puberty to treat gender-related distress rose every year between 2017 and 2021 and leveled off in 2022. Komodo counted more than 6,000 children in that category in that time span, although that number is likely an undercount because it only represents treatments covered by insurance. Massachusetts is among the top five states, generating 6 percent of claims.

At least 14,700 minors with a gender dysphoria diagnosis began taking prescription estrogen or testosterone from 2017 through 2021, according to Komodo’s analysis — especially testosterone, as female-born teens now outnumber males 3 to 1 in many clinics. And a recent study found that gender-related surgeries, such as breast removal, nearly tripled between 2016 and 2019, including among 12- to 18-year-olds.

Meanwhile, European countries, including those that pioneered early intervention for children with gender dysphoria, have generally limited gender-related surgery to adults.

“Puberty blockers,” “hormone therapy,” and “top surgery” fall under the umbrella of “gender-affirming care.” These are loaded terms, fraught with as much activism and obfuscation as “pro-choice” and “pro-life,” yet they were validated by medical sources like the 2018 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) statement in support of the “gender affirmative care model.”

This document informs clinicians that “many medical interventions can be offered to youth who identify as transgender and gender diverse,” including drugs that suppress pubertal development, cross-sex hormones, and, “on a case-by-case basis,” surgeries. These kids, even before puberty, “know their gender as clearly and as consistently as their developmentally equivalent [cisgender] peers,” the statement says. An approach of “watchful waiting” to see how a young patient’s identity develops is “outdated” and “does not serve the child because critical support is withheld.”

The statement presented the affirmative approach as settled consensus based on evidence. However this past August the AAP — under pressure by several members — announced that it would commission an independent systematic review of the evidence. That’s typically the first step in developing what the National Academy of Medicine calls “trustworthy guidelines,” so that patients and providers can make decisions informed by a thorough, unbiased evaluation of the available research. But the AAP hadn’t done that before releasing its 2018 statement. The AAP did not respond to requests for comment other than to reaffirm its 2018 statement.

Existing systematic reviews have prompted Sweden, Finland, and England to restrict treatments for minors, because the evidence that they are likely to result in more benefit than harm is of low quality. But unlike US states that have taken legislative action, these countries are allowing hormonal treatment in select cases, and they are ensuring that researchers follow the recipients over time so the evidence base gets stronger.

The case for watchful waiting

Not only do red-state gender laws tend to lack the humanity and room for inquiry seen in Europe, I think they also distract progressives from fully absorbing what the people they’re marching with are actually chanting. The argument for early treatment is not just a medical one — it is a metaphysical one. It holds that gender identity is something that exists deep inside a person’s psyche and that this diagnosis, essentially, will be revealed to the clinician, even by young children. That is a radical interpretation of patient-centered care.

When I spoke with the AAP statement’s lead author, Jason Rafferty, a child and adolescent psychiatrist in Providence, he reiterated that this model of care is fundamentally about “affirming and validating the child’s sense of identity from day one through to the end.” Its main principle is that when a patient says, “‘I’m X,’ we operate under the assumption that what they’re telling us is their truth, that the child’s sense of reality and feeling of who they are is the navigational beacon to sort of orient treatment around.”

Joshua Safer, director of the Mt. Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery and a coauthor of the Endocrine Society’s practice guideline — another influential document — told me, “I know that kids who are talking that way when they are 9 years old are overwhelmingly consistent in their thought processes,” and thus, giving such patients puberty blockers “would save them from surgery” down the road.

But when I spoke to the Dutch clinician and researcher Thomas Steensma — who joined the team that pioneered the early treatment model that migrated to the United States — he distanced himself and his colleagues’ practice from the current American iteration. In brief, he said, “That’s not our approach.”

In the Dutch clinics, he said, young patients undergo a “long, focused” process of assessment, and even social transition is not a given. “It’s not necessarily true that a child who feels gender dysphoria or incongruence will grow up with [those feelings],” he explained. “Our approach is to make developmentally informed decisions with the child, with the family,” and through counseling to explore what might help. “Identity is not the strongest force in providing medical treatment” because it becomes more fixed during puberty. “It’s common sense,” he said, that the brain matures with the body, and that one gains greater capacity to “reflect on your body and about your identity.”

In 2016 — while the AAP statement was being drafted and reviewed — Steensma coauthored a review of 10 studies of gender-incongruent and dysphoric youth. Among 317 kids, 85 percent resolved their identity distress “around or after” puberty. The review also found that most dysphoric kids turned out to be same-sex attracted, lending credence to the concern that enthusiastically affirming kids may mean “transing away the gay.” The article made clear that “there is currently no general consensus about the best approach to dealing with the (uncertain) future development of children with gender dysphoria,” even social transition. In its 2015 guidelines, the American Psychological Association also said there was no consensus.

Steensma’s article explains that, in the model of “watchful waiting” — what the AAP derided in its 2018 statement — children are neither discouraged from nonconforming behaviors nor counseled to accept their natal sex (denounced by critics as “reparative” or “conversion” therapy, historically the term used to describe the widely condemned practice of trying to “convert” same-sex attracted adults). Rather, families are encouraged to allow their child to explore their feelings and given counseling “to bear the uncertainty of the child’s psychosexual outcome.” There’s an effort to “find a balance between an accepting and supportive attitude toward gender dysphoria while at the same time protecting the child against any negative reactions and remaining realistic about the chance that [dysphoric] feelings may desist in the future,” wrote the authors.

This is different from what has become the dominant approach in the United States, in which children’s sense of identity is supposed to be accepted as true and real by care providers and medically treated accordingly. Not affirming, by this interpretation, is tantamount to conversion therapy. But in the approach Steensma describes, children are in an unpredictable process of self discovery, and thus care providers must follow closely and exercise caution in treating. “We do think puberty suppression can be a good intervention for adolescents struggling with gender incongruence,” Steensma told me. But “you have to be very careful.” “We say, don’t make certain decisions where you close developmental pathways. Watch and see what happens with the identity.”

These competing approaches — one proactive, one restrained — could have been treated with equivalence by the AAP and other entities as they continued to evaluate the evidence. Instead, tens of thousands of pediatric providers, including the therapists charged with assessing prospective patients, were essentially told to trust their young patients in determining whether to recommend potentially life-altering treatment.

A risk-benefit calculation

In the mid-2000s, Boston Children’s Hospital became a satellite for the Dutch early treatment approach. Pediatric endocrinologist Norman Spack, now retired, told me what motivated him to pitch this to his higher-ups was years of witnessing young adult trans patients struggling. Even with hormones and surgery they couldn’t easily pass as their felt gender, they had little support from family or society to express themselves, and many were fighting addiction, homelessness, and suicidality. Spack wanted to pilot a strategy of early detection, because it was at puberty when “they started to fall apart,” he told me recently. The idea was to catch these patients before “their bodies escaped from that neutral space of pre-puberty.”

Seeing the suffering of a population is often the impetus for a preventive treatment. Obstetricians began using electronic fetal monitors in the 1970s in the hopes of preventing cerebral palsy and stillbirths. Physicians began screening men for prostate antigen in the hopes of catching and curing deadly cancers. These were solid rationales, but what happened was an epidemic of overdiagnosis and overtreatment. Strapping laboring patients to beeping machines initially succeeded in tripling the rate of Cesarean surgeries without any concomitant improvement in infant outcomes (and added harm to their mothers). PSA testing increased the rate of prostate surgeries without an overall survival benefit — and a not insignificant amount of resulting urinary and sexual dysfunction.

Spack told me that the evidence for early intervention was “the many, many years of nontreatment for transgender youth waiting until they were adults to do anything medically for them” and seeing where that led.

But what if he was only seeing a sliver of the population — the minority who continued to feel distress and seek treatment, rather than the bigger picture that included those who may have felt a mismatch in childhood and then realigned during puberty? Imagine only studying cases of emergency Cesareans and drawing policy conclusions based on those births rather than everyone who gave birth in a particular year. I ran that comparison by Gordon Guyatt, a research methodologist at McMaster University and one of the founders of evidence-based medicine. Earlier intervention is a “reasonable hypothesis,” he said, but if the population you’re observing is “a subpopulation that is unrepresentative and you make inferences about the entire population, you’re in trouble.”

Spack said the suicidality among his trans patients, even kids under 12, “was so strong that I felt we had to do something.” And he saw many kids “flourish” with treatment. Research does suggest that LGBTQ youth are at higher risk for depression and suicide, but the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s own systematic evidence review makes clear that it can claim no definitive relationship between hormonal treatment and mental health outcomes, especially in adolescents, and that it’s “impossible” to say what impact hormonal treatment has on suicide. Long-awaited research funded by the National Institutes of Health — Spack was one of the original lead investigators — recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine reported some improvements among 315 youth receiving treatment in university-based gender clinics, but there were also two suicides. “Sometimes you have to bite the bullet, and go with more than a hunch” based on “smaller numbers and not being able to answer all the questions at once,” said Spack.

By 2011, the Dutch had published on the outcomes of a cohort of 70, which seemed reassuring, though the findings had limitations and haven’t been replicated elsewhere. Steensma told me he and his colleagues have never thought of their work as “scientific proof” that their model would work everywhere. “We always have said, ‘This is what we can provide from evidence, but you have to do your own studies.’”

In a new analysis of the mental health outcomes of the first 44 recipients of gender-related puberty suppression at the UK’s Tavistock clinic, roughly a third got better, a third got worse, and a third did neither. The National Health Service has ordered the Tavistock clinic to close after a review found the care “inadequate.”

Like the Dutch, the Boston clinic didn’t take kids at their word without psychological assessment. In fact, the staff used tools the Dutch had designed. Laura Edwards-Leeper, the clinic’s original psychologist, told me that extensive, exploratory talk therapy was historically part of the model. But lately she’s been outspoken about her concerns that “more providers do not value the mental health component, largely because they believe if the young person says they’re trans, they’re trans,” she told me.

The dramatic rise in young people presenting for treatment, especially genetically female teens, and the number of clinics that have sprung up with little to no emphasis on assessment, all make Spack “anxious.” “I run into so many people who tell me they have a child or grandchild or niece who’s trans. And I always say, ‘Well, who made that determination and when?’”

The logic of affirmation

I’ve spent the last year reporting on pediatric gender medicine and policy for The BMJ, one of the oldest medical journals. Like other journalists in this space, I’ve been accused of transphobia, hate, bias, and worse. Some of the rhetoric is extremely hostile, but the underlying logic is apparent: If people need medical treatment to exist in their identity, and kids know who they are, then anything that might impede access is an existential threat. Politicians who simultaneously target pride parades and library books and “groomers” only reinforce that terror and turn up the political heat. That’s even more reason for journalists to keep cooler heads and stay true to our duty: to hold authorities to account.

The most important question is one that the Europeans and Americans seem to be answering differently: What if it’s possible that there are kids who identify as trans who indeed know who they are at very early ages — younger versions of the adult patients who haunted Spack — and there are also kids who identify as trans for a finite period of time? And what if there’s no sure way to tell them apart?

Before he stopped returning my calls and emails, Rafferty acknowledged that children are in a “process of discovery” and may understand themselves one way at the onset of puberty and another way five years later, but that uncertainty shouldn’t preclude medical treatment. “It needs to be an ongoing, flexible, dynamic approach that we understand from the beginning may change over time, and so we need to bring in interventions when they seem their most appropriate from our medical perspective,” he told me. “If we’re wrong, then we need to back up and say, ‘What do we need to do differently?’”

And what if a kid has taken hormones that caused permanent hair growth or vocal changes or damaged their sexual function and came to regret these effects? In a recent Zoom meeting — footage of which has been shared on social media — Marci Bowers, a California gender surgeon and president of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, shared a startling observation: Adult patients who transitioned from male to female couldn’t have orgasms if they had been “blocked” at the earliest signs of puberty and went directly on to estrogen. Bowers told me she was sharing a hypothesis, but that it was “a wake-up call for those who counsel this group of patients.” Safer told me “there’s some discussion about adjusting the timing of some of these treatments” to achieve more optimal function. “If you come to our meetings, that’s what we’re discussing. Nobody is worried about puberty blockers for a year or two.”

Yet data suggest that more than 95 percent of the children who begin puberty blockers continue on to cross-sex hormones. “The most difficult question,” the UK pediatrician Hilary Cass wrote in her interim report of a national review of gender health services, which led to the order to close the Tavistock clinic, “is whether puberty blockers do indeed provide valuable time for children and young people to consider their options, or whether they effectively ‘lock in’ children and young people to a treatment pathway . . . by impeding the usual process of sexual orientation and gender identity development.” In 2020, following a systematic review, the UK’s National Health Service removed language that called the blockers “fully reversible” and replaced it with “little is known about the long-term side effects.”

There is an unknown number of people whose identity shifted and feel they’ve been irreparably harmed by medically transitioning. Corinna Cohn, who was born male, began hormones at 16 and had genital surgery at 19. Now, at age 48, Cohn testifies in support of laws restricting treatments in minors. “The thing that I’m most convinced of right now is that the longer somebody puts off medicalization, the more opportunities they’ll have to really clarify in their mind whether transition is actually good for them,” said Cohn, for whom “transition was a way out of having to deal with puberty. But I’m sort of stuck in a state of arrested development, because I never completed the adjustment to my body as it was becoming an adult body.”

Bowers pointed out that “you can always find someone who is going to regret” and warned me not to “single out transgender care” when one in five people regret their knee surgery, for example. “People have to take some responsibility in making those decisions,” she said.

But how can young people and their families make informed decisions without strong evidence it will make them better? How can children who’ve never experienced sexual intimacy consent to treatment that may limit their ability to have it in the future?

Edwards-Leeper believes some children do benefit from early treatment. “But to the general question of how can a young kid consent to something like this, it is a huge ethical dilemma . . . because honestly, they can’t,” she told me. “The responsibility falls on the parent.”

Rafferty told me patients who live with harms or regrets do not signal a failure of the affirmative care model. If a child or patient doesn’t like the effects of an intervention, or begins to feel different in their identity, then the provider continues to affirm by discontinuing treatment. “They’re not treatment failures if that’s what’s affirming,” he said.

In other words, the logic of affirmation seems to ensure only successful outcomes, circumventing questions of risk and benefit entirely. If parents and providers find this untenable, they are rejecting an argument — not trans people.

[ Via: https://archive.md/guho4 ]

There are no grown-ups in charge. Children are self-diagnosing and self-treating.

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elizabethtaylormakeoversdc · 2 years

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A Dream Come True for Michaela Lee

Michaela Lee pampered herself with her first makeover after years of dreaming of time in girl mode. Now she’s joined the DC Trans Ladies Meetup group and hopes to make it to a soiree next year. “When I arrived, I was nervous having never done this before. Beth is very understanding and made me comfortable,” Michaela Lee said in her online review. “By the time the photo session started, I was so…

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#crossdresser #crossdresser dressing service #georgia #head to toe makeover #makeup artist #Maryland #MTF Transformation #North Carolina #professional photographer #South Carolina #Transgender #Washington DC

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dyke-bars-never-last · 1 year

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...if person A has a “liberty” (one of the four elements of a right), then person A lacks the opposite “duty”. If A has a liberty to sing in the shower, then A does not have a duty not to sing in the shower. Liberties, or privileges, as (Wesley Newcomb) Hohfeld defined them, do not engender duties in third parties...

Gender ideology presents “trans rights” as what Hohfeld would call a privilege or liberty: the right to be left alone to live one’s life, the “right to pee”. There is no correlative duty of performance for a liberty. Yet gender ideology demands a lot more than simple liberty rights. What it demands for transgender people, and most vociferously for transwomen, is “claim rights” —the power to affect other people’s behaviour towards that right, establishing a duty directed at the right holder and making them liable for lack of performance.

Gender ideology goes well beyond promoting the respect of transgender people’s fundamental rights by the state. It demands that the state compel individuals to adapt their behaviour in response to the wishes of transgender people — and to make them liable in case of failure to comply with their demands.

The mechanism to make this possible is the replacement of the evidence of material reality as a guide for our behaviour, with the belief that self-perception is the only element necessary for the cognition of social relationships. The material reality of sex is replaced with the self-perception of one’s gender identity, a set of interrelated beliefs with little or no connection with material reality.

We cannot use the pronouns that reflect the sex we perceive the person to be, but the pronouns, existing or invented, that the person demands we use when we refer to them.

We cannot use our instinct to guide our behaviour, a guide especially important to women, and on which women rely to minimise the risk of sexual violence and preserve their dignity and privacy. We must let others indicate whether our instinct is right or wrong, and let them enter our female spaces on their say-so.

The misrepresentation of trans rights as liberties, rather than claims, is only the first step of gender ideology. The second, and equally important one, is the movement of transforming and subverting social rules into legal rules.

... the law does not make single sex services compulsory, but simply allows them to exist, recognising that social rules make the acknowledgment of the different needs of the female sex advisable. To this extent, law makes the reality of sex a social matter and allows for single sex services to be established without considering them a breach of non discrimination law.

#gender critical #transwomen are men

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flannelepicurean · 1 year

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Saiyan Pride

I started off having a crack fic continuation from this situation, but I started bleep-booping on it this morning and it turned into some fluffiness featuring a transgender reader with three excitable alien roommates, and a "lost in translation" that actually hit me kinda deep when I got into it. So, uh...yeah. I was having some trans feelings today, here you go. 💖

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They really wreaked some havoc when they landed. Or tried to, anyway. Goku and the boys took care of it, or that's what you heard (not from them, though; they tell it a little different). Either way, it's not that hard to believe, no matter which direction you squint at the story.

They're okay roommates, though.

Sure, they come and go at weird hours, and they can get pretty loud. And it's hard to explain the space ships, and the bunker add-ons, but after the first time Nappa grumbles, "Lemme handle this," nobody ever gets a parking ticket at the house again, and they always come through with rent, so you don't ask a whole lot of questions.

It's not clear what they do for a living. Their soft skills leave a lot to be desired. Vegeta can at least dress himself like a halfway normal person, but his skills are granite. Iron. Even Raditz has better customer service game.

But they treat you decently. And when you finally take the plunge, and change your hair, and put on the new outfit you bought, and grab a bag of your old stuff to take to the donation center, you pause for a second in the living room.

And sure enough, Raditz looks up with slight puzzlement and remarks, “Your hair’s different.”

And you shrink a little, and stand up straighter anyway, and explain that there are going to be some…changes. You do your best to explain it, in hopes that it will come out right, and it’s still a little awkward, but you explain to your roommates that you’re transitioning.

They all hop up from the couch immediately, and the atmosphere becomes raucous and excited.

“Whoa, you can DO THAT?!” Raditz squawks.

“Unbelievable!” Vegeta cries. “I didn’t even know you’d been training!”

“What are your new powers?” Nappa demands, and then whirls toward Raditz. “Get the scanner, I wanna see what level–”

You wave your hands and raise your voice and explain that GENDER, it’s a GENDER transition, TRANSGENDER!

They fall silent, eyes wide.

“Trans…?” Vegeta breathes. “TRANSFORM YOUR GENDER?! Not even Kakarot is that powerful!” He places a hand on your shoulder. “You must truly be an astonishing warrior.”

Raditz leans in with a friendly but feral grin and a jubilant, “You wanna spar?”

You back slowly toward the door with promises of pizza in hopes of distraction.

It works.

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“Whoa, you look cool,” Raditz observes. “What’s the flag for?”

You inform your roommates that you’re meeting up with some friends to go to Pride, and find yourself immediately caged by a cluster of keen-eyed Saiyans.

“Wait, what?!” Vegeta inquires. “Where are you going?”

You stammer out an explanation about Pride. Pride Month. You add that there’s a parade.

They exchange glances at lightning speed, and round back to you again.

“THERE’S A WHOLE MONTH?!” Nappa hollers.

“IN WHO YOU ARE, AS YOURSELF?!” Vegeta confirms.

“There’s a parade…about PRIDE?!” Raditz yawps.

You nod, quaking.

Vegeta throws an arm around your shoulders, beaming with lunatic glee. “WAVE YOUR FLAG HIGH AND GET IN THE SHIP! EVERYONE! EVERYBODY GET IN THE SHIP, WE’RE GOING DOWN THERE, RIGHT NOW!”

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They act exactly like aliens. Which…makes sense, really, but still.

Your friends are polite about holding in their laughter. But they also don’t know exactly how to deal with the situation. The Saiyans gawk unabashedly, but with the same bewildered and bewildering reverence they gave you.

One of your friends nudges you and motions to a space a few yards away, where Vegeta stands, craning his neck to ask a towering glamazon, "So, you're telling me they tried to crush your spirit, because of who you are, but you found your way in a hostile world and became both fierce and fabulous?” He rubs his chin and muses, “Your power levels must be off the charts..."

You trade a shrug with your friend because…well…he’s not wrong.

And you’re not really surprised when Nappa declares, with the carnival glee of a spirited child and the full-chested power of an enormous Saiyan warrior, “This…this is the BEST PLACE ON EARTH!” And, looking around at the crowd, the different flags, and the many different folks, the colors and shapes and all the visuals, the feathers and flair, and cargo shorts and clogs, and rainbows, and neon, and leather, and glitter, and tee shirts and jeans, and everything else, you kinda get what he means.

You can’t really explain why he’s right, but for some of the wrong reasons. But his heart’s in the right place, maybe? And you’re having a pretty good time.

————————————————

You look up at a sharp knock on your bedroom door, and open it to find all three of your roommates crowded into the hallway, looking serious. Your stomach and heart take racing elevators in opposite directions.

“Hi,” Raditz says, with some measure of cheer.

You give them a cautious greeting.

“Seems like the transformation’s going well,” Nappa observes, encouragingly.

You pause for a moment, then just smile and offer some thanks. It’s a little complex. A little complicated. They still don’t get it. But they’re really supportive, and that’s nice.

Vegeta adopts a businesslike tone. Informs you, “We very much enjoyed attending the Pride festivities last year, and owe you a debt of gratitude for introducing us to the other warriors.”

You offer a hesitant nod.

He continues, “Some of the individuals at the collective have been training us to join the alliance.” Before you can sort out quite what he means, he motions to Nappa and Raditz. They shuffle around a bit while he explains, “You’ve clearly been training hard, but it’s important to be properly equipped, as well.”

He steps out of the way, giving Nappa room to step forward, and present one of those weird cases they ship stuff in. They maneuver it into your room, and watch while you open it.

“We know this isn’t your final form, but this should be able to handle it, whatever the transformation brings.” Vegeta explains, nodding toward the set of Saiyan battle armor. Just your size.

You nod toward it as well, stunned. And puzzled.

You look back up at your roommates, and find them watching you with a look you’ve never really seen from them before. It’s a bit like that weird, smirky expression they get when they cheat at board games, or catch each other cheating at board games. But the fierceness around the eyebrows is different. And the eyes have a kind of contentment that’s still pretty intense.

They just seem…proud.

So, inevitably, whatever else you may be feeling, you do put forth the critical question.

They nearly ricochet off the walls.

“Of course we’ll go with you!” Vegeta assures.

“ARE YOU GONNA BRING THE FLAG?!” Nappa booms.

Raditz sidles up to you and murmurs, “That’s technically battle armor, it’s not really, y’know, formal. LIke, parade-style. But I think you’d be okay.”

And so you prepare yourself to head to Pride with the Saiyans again.

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astarion-dekarios · 2 years

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Dr. Alan L. Hart’s Unpublished Autobiography

Dr. Alan Hart, celebrated physician and pioneer of the x-ray photography in the detection of tuberculosis, was one of the first transgender men to receive gender confirmation surgery in the United States. Although his will stipulated that his personal papers and photographs be destroyed, earlier in his life he expressed a serious desire to publish an autobiography describing his experience as a trans man and doctor, to the point of writing out a manuscript which he sent, along with letters detailing his experience, to Mary Roberts Rinehart, renowned mystery writer[1]. The manuscript was never published and was probably destroyed, making his account of his experience in the letters the closest thing we have to his autobiography. You can find the digitized copy of the letters in the note below, but I’ve also included a transcription under the cut for accessibility purposes.

[1] A. L. Hart to Mary Roberts Rinehart, 3 August 1921. SC.1958.03, box 21, folder 8, Mary Roberts Rinehart Papers, ULS Archives and Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA. https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt:31735037971201/viewer#page/19/mode/2up

Thermopolis, Wyoming.

August 3, 1921.

Mrs. Mary Roberts Rinehart,

c/o Eaton’s Ranch,

Sheridan, Wyoming.

My dear Mrs. Rinehart:

I should not have the temerity to approach you as I am doing were it not for two things: First, the fact that both you and Dr. Rinehart belong to the medical world – of which I, too, am a part – and second, my conviction that you are as big and liberal-minded as your stories would indicate. So I venture to ask that you will read my letter and consider it.

I was graduated from the Medical School of the University of Oregon (in Portland) in 1917 at the age of 27. Until that time – thru common school, High School. University and professional school – I lived as a woman. Shortly before my graduation I consulted a psychiatrist in Portland, Dr. Gilbert, a physician of established reputation; and with him made a complete study of my case, my individual history and that of my family. This was followed by a complete, careful physical examination. The diagnosis arrived at may be summarized as follows: Complete, congenital and incurable Homosexuality together with a marked modification of the physical organization from the feminine type.

At this stage in my career, life had become so unbearable that I felt myself confronted by only two alternative courses – either to kill myself or refuse to live longer in my misfit role of a woman. I chose the latter, and submitted myself for an exploratory laperotomy for the purpose of establishing definitely and indisputably my proper role, with the result that I left the hospital as a man.

To say the least, the situation in which I now found myself, bristled with difficulties. My family did not know of my operation nor of my transformation; neither did my most intimate friends. I was faced with the problem of making a living and my way in the world alone. It was in war time and my eligibility for the military service was an open question. The legality of the whole procedure was uncertain. The legal phase of the matter was taken up and attended to for me by Judge John B. Cleland of Portland, Oregon. Since I dreaded ridicule and publicity, and feared my friends might feel themselves embarrassed by what I had done, I resolved simply to drop out of their ken, and with that in view, secured an interneship in the City and County Hospital in San Fransisco and went there to take up my duties as soon as I was able to do so.

My work went smoothly and well and things seemed in a fair way to adjust themselves, when by chance I was recognized at a public clinic by a young woman physician who had attended university at the same time I did. She spread the story among her acquaintances in the hospitals of the city, that I had once dressed as a woman and was now posing as a man. This coming to my ears, I went to the Superintendent of our hospital – told him the truth of the case – showed him my documentary proofs and voluntarily resigned. He gave me assurance that he would squelch any further notoriety about the hospital. Imagine my feelings, therefore, only a few days later, to open the Examiner one morning and find a garbled account of the whole thing smeared in broad head-lines across the page. The story was carefully written to convey the impression that I was a rank imposter and had fled before the righteous indignation of the authorities; it had been inspired by the young woman who had recognized me and the heads of the hospital I had just left.

I took my letters and statements and went with them to the editor of the Examiner. He realized, at once, that his paper was being used as an instrument of spite and killed the story in the city and stopped further stuff from going out over the Associated Press.

I was more or less stunned by what had happened. I had been prepared for criticism and ridicule – I was accustomed to them. But it had never occurred to me that people might want to hound and persecute me for my change in role. I had lived as a woman because that was my social standing, and had been made fun of and called ‘half-man, and now when I had faced the situation and righted the grotesquely false position in which I had lived so long, it seemed that the public would damn me because I had once, perforce, worn skirts. I tried to get other hospital work. I went to the men who had been my chiefs and told them the truth and asked their aid in securing another position; to a man they turned me down. I tried to get other sorts of work and failed for the same reason as soon as I gave my name. Then my family employed counsel and instituted proceedings to have my name legally changed; and the medical school from which I had been graduated served notice on us that if we persisted they would rescind my diploma and have me disbarred from practice.

Finally, I made up my mind to ‘face the music’ without any attempt at concealment, so I went back home to the little town where I had been raised and gone to school. That was the hardest thing I ever did. This over, I went down into the woods in Southern Oregon and ran a hospital for the lumbermen and spruce boys until the Influenza had passed and the war was over. In the early Spring of 1918, I came to Montana and located at Huntley, a few miles east of Billings where I practiced until last February. Crops have been very poor in Montana for several years and that made collections very slow; the work was hard and trying, covering as it did a territory seventy miles long. I was anxious to work into X-Ray and diagnosis instead of general country practise, so I came last Spring to Thermopolis to be Roentgenologist and Pathologise in Dr. Hamilton’s hospital here. So far as I know my history is not known to anyone in this part of the country.

To establish the authenticity of my story and give you some side-lights upon it, I am enclosing a number of letters from Dr. Gilbert and others, relative to my predicament. Dr. Gilbert is a man well known in his specialty. He published a detailed medical account of the whole affair in The Jounral of Nervous and Mental Diseases for October, 1920. I should be glad to furnish you with a reprint of this article, at a future time, should you care to see it.

As you will observe in these letters, Dr. Gilbert has always urged me to write and publish my own story. In the height of my trouble in 1918, I wrote a first-draft of an auto-biography – or rather it boiled out from me without let or hindrance. This Spring I have gone over it and re-written it with a view to publication. The manuscript is now in the hands of the copyist. I want to ask you to read it and give me your opinion of it and advise me as to its publication.

I do not wish to sail under false colors, and so I will admit at once that my motives are not altogether altruistic in this. My purpose in writing the book has been serious – and my hope that it might accomplish some good for my fellow-unfortunates, very strong – but there is another side to the matter: It is a grave undertaking to bare one’s whole heart before the world; and it is too much to expect a man to do so without reward. I had neither money nor backing when I embarked upon my career as a man four years ago this month; I have had every inch of the way to fight; I have asked no favors from anyone. But it has been mighty hard work and nerve-racking and I am tired. I have never asked for sympathy nor do I want it; I am still capable of standing on my two legs that have held me up for thirty-one years. But if I can make something out of this book, it will relieve the financial pressure and make life much easier and pleasanter for me. So I admit that my motives are mixed; but whose are not?

I have read many of your stories – you are the only writer I know who can get the right atmosphere for things medical. I have also read your accounts of your trips thru the West and your husband’s articles in the Post. Will you pardon the slang, if I say that these have given me a hunch that you are ‘regular fellows’? And because of this, I have dared to intrude myself upon you. I shall be more than grateful, if you will allow me to send you the manuscript and give me a personal interview before you return East. I want your criticism and advice.

I have made some notations on the letters enclosed to orient them properly in the current of events. These papers I should like to have returned as I value them highly. I have had to throw overboard almost all the associations and friendships and foundations of the first twenty-seven years of my life; the little that is left, I prize.

I shall await a reply from you with eagerness.

Very sincerely yours,

A. L. Hart

THE HOPEWELL HOSPITAL Thermopolis, Wyoming.

A. G. HAMILTON, M. D. CHIEF SURGEON

August 12, 1921.

My dear Mrs. Rinehart:

It is hard for me to tell you what my feelings were when I had read your letter. I had hoped but hardly dared expect courtesy and understanding of this type. I appreciate it with my whole heart.

I understand your hesitation in expressing an opinion as to the feasibility of publication, especially in view of the character of the subject-matter. It will mean a good deal to me to have you read the manuscript. It will go forward to you tomorrow.

As much as I shall value an opinion of yours on this manuscript, I am even more interested to know whether you will think I have any gift for writing. When I was younger I was interested in literature, and wrote a little while I was in college. Then for ten years the writing instinct was entirely submerged. During the past year it has cropped out again. My time is pretty well taken up, but I have been writing in spare hours a sort of journal of a doctor’s life. It seems to me that a physician’s life is richer than most men’s in the elements of both tragedy and comedy; but more than that I want to picture his own individuality – the graduation with high ideals of service in his profession and bounding ambition, the struggle to make a living and pay the bills, the fight to keep his idealism in the face of ungrateful patients and fee-splitting, cut-rate competitors, the flickering down of his desire to serve as he sees the quack’s commercial success, the waning of youth and its enthusiasms and courage under the burden of the mid-day, the occasional flarings of the old ambitions and hopes and the slowly-dawning realization that the heights are for only the few among whose number he is not, the final determination to play out the game as it has been given him and go out of the world a ‘good sport’ if nothing else. The whole thing a sort of resume of the flickering and blazing and dying of the torch of life. Is the idea worth anything, or am I wasting my time trying to write it down?

I shall be obliged to go to Billings in a very short time to attend to some business connected with my property in Montana. If it would not be asking too much, I should like above all things to go down and meet you and Doctor Rinehart, as much as anything else to express my appreciation of your good sportsmanship more fittingly.

I am

Very sincerely yours,

A. L. Hart

#transgender #trans history #queer #Alan L Hart #from the archives #queer history #trans

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