Results for: be the change
-
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.
-
Everything Is Subject to Change…
I idolized Shane, and the only trans man in the series, Max. I wanted to mirror their everyday existence. I wanted to emulate their cool. I wanted the attraction they seemed to be dripped in. I wanted the clothes they wore, I wanted my jeans to have a hole in the crotch like theirs did.
-
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.
-
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.
-
I’m Tired of Apologizing for My Intersex Trans Body
Within a binary understanding of sex, a binary understanding of gender, or a binary separation between sex and gender, I am impossible.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.”
-
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.
-
The Labyrinth Closet
We’re always coming out. As an: anime fanatic, manga-collecting Pokémon plushie hoarder; as a giddy, youthful ray of sunshine and not just the dense, American Dream-deprived immigrant, prompted over-thinker — I realize I am more than any of these individual rooms at all times.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
The Lunar New Year Coming Out Letter I’ll Never Send To My Mom
I’m not coming out to you as a lesbian, umma, I’m coming out as your daughter. I’m tired of being a stranger to you and I’m tired of tripping over boxes in my living room because you’re incapable of just being vulnerable with me.
-
The Closet Let Me Feel Anything and Everything
Closets suck, generally speaking, but sitting in mine gave me joy. This is a coming out story that doesn’t neatly fit in the queer community, much less my own mind.
-
Relearning How To Dress Myself From The Closet I Came Out Of
I feel the need to do something to the outside of my body to mark the tremendous shift I’ve experienced inside — to somehow match my inner self to my outer self. But I’m not sure who my inner self is anymore.
-
Making a Home in the Closet
I was a newly minted queer and everything I knew about queerness was rooted in coming out. I’d heard about the relief that came with coming out from everybody. If TV was to be believed, I would feel free even as my parents stopped looking me in the eye.
-
Mastering the Art of Coming Out (and Making Lobster Bisque)
“I decided to make lobster bisque for my mom at the same moment I decided to come out to her. Only one of those things went according to plan.”
-
How Leslie Feinberg Changed Our Lives: The Autostraddle Roundtable
“I could feel the power that came from being butch, the paradox of growing up a girl and then becoming the suited partner of a beautiful woman, the torture of being such a social outcast, and the deep craving hunger for being accepted.”
-
Loving the Whole Me: A Bisexual Mom on Coming Out to Her Family
“I sent a short, simple message saying that although I didn’t realize it fully until recently, I was indeed bisexual, that this was an undeniable part of my identity, and I could no longer comfortably hide this fact.
He never responded.”