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Gabbie in drag as a priest
First Person Gender

What Drag Has Taught Me

Every time I have gotten the opportunity to do mediocre drag as a beginner, I have had some of the most fun a person can have.

Gabrielle Grace Hogan May 7, 2024 5 Comments
A clip art image of a drill with the words "Untethered Vol 15"
First Person Gender

Untethered: The Designated Girl-Son

I came across the concept of the “designated son” on TikTok.

Nico February 8, 2024 10 Comments
A black and white photo of a trans man that is blurred.
First Person Gender

Transition Is Allowed To Feel Bad Sometimes

Realistically, I understand that if you do something for 11 months, the chance that you’ll feel good for every second of those 11 months is zero.

Max Gross February 1, 2024 7 Comments
three images of CJ Kitten Miller, the author: in two she wears a long purple tulle skirt and is dancing in a studio alone, in the third she is dressed like Jem and the Holograms and playing a concert
First Person Gender

On Gender Fabrication and Femme Embodiment

There are so many things I may reach for to explain how I know I am a femme or an intersex non-binary woman but these words and concepts themselves are devised and constructed. Where do I anchor femmeness and how do I understand it?

CJ Kitten Miller January 28, 2022 8 Comments
A brown-skinned masculine person cutting a femme mermaid out of a net.
First Person Gender Love + Sex

The Trans Body as a Work of Art

Burlesque is my loving manifestation of what all my ancestors deserved—not simply tolerance, but unbridled celebration.

Lawrence Gullo September 7, 2021 10 Comments
Two people baking and forming a heart with the batter. One person's hands surround the other's hands.
First Person Gender

Change Is Magic: On Cooking and Bodies

Science fiction taught me that any sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic. In the kitchen, my girlfriend is a witch.

V. S. Wells August 23, 2021 9 Comments
A photo of a fruit platter with a purple to orange gradient on it.
First Person Gender Love + Sex

The Night I Learned to Be In My Trans Body

My summer hookup with a rich businesswoman in Japan gave me something more valuable than even the room service wagyu steak.

Molly Hensley August 10, 2021 16 Comments
A genderqueer person with a cane walking down the hallway in a h
First Person Gender

Why Discovering Your Trans Identity As A Disabled Person Can Be So Confusing

Society painted me as a burden, and undeserving of autonomy. I have taken that paintbrush and created a beautiful life where being disabled isn’t a bad thing.

antiableist August 3, 2021 5 Comments
A dark-skinned transgender woman looking in the bathroom mirror at school.
First Person Gender

When Thin is a Trans Requirement

Body fat is central to how we perceive gender. So what does that mean if you’re a trans person?

Eli Cugini August 2, 2021 16 Comments
An illustration of a brown person with short black hair holding the hand of a brown person with long black hair, talking to a supernatural creature who is explaining something to them. They’re sitting in a magical forest area.
Gender Poetry and Fiction

Trans Fiction, Trans Imagination: I Will Answer Your Questions, If You Listen Closely

You want to know where you came from, is that it? Do not be embarrassed. Nature did not see motherhood in me, either.

viengsamai July 2, 2021 11 Comments
a purple dildo lies in a bouquet of dead roses
First Person Gender

This Is an Essay About Penises

“I spent years not thinking about my penis — or, at least, thinking about it as little as possible. After I transitioned, my penis became the most important part of my body — at least, to other people.”

Drew Burnett Gregory March 25, 2021 230 Comments
A portrait of the author in the middle, in a yellow shirt that reads "No Justice No Peace" with the Black Panthers logo and a yellow beanie cap. To their left side is a cut out of Kamala Harris from Inauguration Day 2021 and to their right side is a cut out of the slavery abolitionist Sojourner Truth. All three images are connected by pearl necklaces and chain link necklaces, both colored in purple. They are against a purple starry night sky.
First Person Gender

Wrestling With Kamala and Beyond: Reckoning With Blackness, Womanhood, and What Comes Next

I am ready to be fearless. To dream beyond Black womanhood and know that I — Black, queer, and not-quite-sure — am worthy, so worthy of all of the love, affirmation, and power the universe can muster.

shea wesley martin February 23, 2021 15 Comments
A black outline of a body floats in the blue and purple waves of the ocean. The ocean is covered in sparkles, like the stars of a night sky. Everything feels all-encompassing, full, and at peace.
First Person Gender

Gender Fluidity and the Black Atlantic

I always wonder what words my ancestors had for someone like me. In embracing my genderfluid identity, I’ve found great comfort in the deep and wide of the Atlantic — the way the water connects me to kin, named or unknown.

Lazarus February 18, 2021 7 Comments
A magnifying mirror reflected in a wall mounted bathroom mirror
First Person Gender

I Stopped Tweezing in Quarantine and Realized I’m Nonbinary

On the 24th day of quarantine, I turned on all of the lamps in my room and took off all my clothes. Then I stood in front of the mirror and stared.

Rae Nieves November 10, 2020 25 Comments
a black and white photo of a person's chest and thin lines of scars beneath their nipples let behind after top surgery
First Person Gender

When Other People Get to Give Away Their Binders

Getting top surgery with my butch identity is no longer some unattainable fantasy. Now the question firmly rests with me: do I want to go ahead with it or not?

Shoshana Raphael September 29, 2020 28 Comments
First Person Gender

Scenes from a Gender 02: Illustrated Moments of Trans Womanhood

“I have a question!” she exclaims. Stepmom knows where this is going so she tries to head her off, but the child will not be dissuaded. “My question is,” — here it comes — “… are you transgender?” No one knows what to say, me included.

Bishakh Som September 17, 2020 49 Comments
First Person Gender

What Self-Quarantine is Teaching Me About Gender Dysphoria

Three weeks ago I began my Coronavirus self-quarantine. Faced with the reality that I wouldn’t see anyone, I started an experiment. I wasn’t going to shave, paint my nails, or put on makeup — until I wanted to, for myself.

Drew Burnett Gregory April 2, 2020 15 Comments
First Person Gender

Trans Radiance: What’s in a Name?

For this piece, I talked to some trans women about their names and their experiences changing them legally (or choosing not to), as well as a couple of the incredible organizations attempting the make the process more accessible to all of us.

Abbie Jones October 14, 2019 27 Comments
First Person Gender

What We Mean When We Say “Femme”: A Roundtable

We now live in a world where it is totally possible to claim the same word as someone else and completely disagree on what the word means.

Cecelia July 18, 2016 177 Comments
First Person Gender

Skydiving in Two Genders: An Essay on Trans Visibility

“I decide I’ll test the durability of a BB cream by Tarte at thousands of feet in the air, then feel ashamed at worrying so much about how I look, then feel the dread again, that all this might go completely wrong, not because I’ll fall to my death, but because I’ll be reduced to my past.”

Gabrielle Bellot March 31, 2016 19 Comments
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