Results for: be the change
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On Learning to Love My Body: Because Summer Is For Fat Girls, Too
Dipping into my summer wardrobe for the first time reminded me just how far I’ve come in learning to love my body.
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The Army Taught Me That I Can Change My Body (And It Will Still Be Mine)
Here’s the deal: I both like and am my body. I am a girl, ergo I have a girl’s body. It’s neat. You know what I think helped me to be comfortable with my body more than anything else? The US Army.
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TransBlack and Beautiful: Acknowledging My Authentic Revolutionary
“One morning, while I was applying my new lighter makeup, I accidentally put too much banana powder on which created a shroud of ashy yellow veil all around the center of my face. I stopped and stared back at my reflection. I looked absolutely foolish. Here I was relishing in this depigmentation of my beautiful ebony skin that I no longer looked like myself.”
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Badass Blacksmiths: Women’s Work and Transgender Identity
People would look surprised and say, “But…you can’t be a girl. You’re a blacksmith!”
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Leaving It on the Court: When My World Changed, Sports Stayed
My teammates didn’t know that I was ending my run in this men’s league because I had to leave my male identity on the court.
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The Language of Comedy: On Defensiveness and Being Wrong
“LANGUAGE MATTERS. In the same way a racial slur brings back a SLEW of painful memories for me and a reminder of the entire history of those words and what they have meant to people and how they have been used to hurt people. I was wrong and it’s important to accept when you’re wrong.”
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This Is Because I’m A Woman: How Sexual Harassment Invaded My Life (And Some Ways to Respond To It)
“I once had a life where I could go blocks, miles, months without a stranger standing in my way, saying, ‘Hey girl, where you goin’ in such a hurry?’ I want to take my personal space bubble to the shop and have it re-inflated to its original size, but that chapter of my life seems to be done.”
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15 Fears I Faced in 2013, With a Little Help From Autostraddle
I’ve been afraid to do so many things. This year, thanks to Autostraddle, I looked those fears in the eye, took action and started living my life the way I want to live it.
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If Joan Of Arc Can Do It, Why Can’t I?
Ever since I went to a Halloween party at my friend’s church youth group in 6th grade, I’ve been almost inseparable from my Christian identity. But on November 4th, 2012, my heart was all the way down in my toes as I got ready to go to church for the first time as a transgender lesbian.
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Identity Theft: A Trans* Intersex Woman On Traumas and Surgery
“It’s unfortunate, unfair and illogical that intersex people get assigned a gender and a sex and are expected to either stick with them or fix someone else’s mistake with expensive, risky surgery on their genitals.”
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Transitioning While Genderqueer (Despite the Standards of Care)
“It would have been nice to share my entire truth with her, but because of the Standards of Care, I didn’t; I feared my story would be seen as diverging from the typical trans* narrative too much.”
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The Incredibly True Story Of How Cissexism Made My Same-Sex Marriage Legal
Thanks to a simple governmental regulation, my wife and I were able to exploit a legal loophole and obtain a federally recognized marriage.
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Mannequin Desires and Luxurious Liminal Lives
“After being mocked by an older family member and packing my Belle Barbie into a trunk forever, mannequins became my only access point to this latent desire to have nullified genitalia.”
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How Finding My Korean Mother Gave Me the Courage to Transition
“I am an adoptee,” I explained through my tears. “I need to find my parents. I have waited all my life for this moment. I’m supposed to leave tomorrow, but I can’t go without knowing my family is fine. Please help me!”
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Unwritten On The Body
As with the meaning of written text, our bodies float somewhere between the author (ourselves) and the reader (those we encounter).
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“And I Do Mean All My Life”: A Trans* Coming Out Letter
For anyone who’s ever wanted to say it in a letter.
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Leaving a Mark on the American Heartland With My Solo Queer Trans* Woman Roadtrip
“This past year of my transition, 2012, has been one of road travel with many miles revisited across numerous American states… Not the least of my concerns was driving my friend Xene’s unfamiliar Prius. Yet, my larger concern was driving solo as a woman.”
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Trans and Schizophrenic: When Diagnosis Impacts Transition
If he had read my medical records he would have known that my first psychotic break was exacerbated by my fear that I would never be recognized as a woman.
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Ten Things I Wish I’d Known When I Started My Transition
Ten lessons I wish I’d known when I started hormones in February 2011, and why I’m taking an indefinite break from the internet.
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Disowned: When Coming Out Doesn’t Go As Planned
“The truth is that it does bother me that my parents are pretending that I’m dead—probably more than I’ve been willing to admit.”