Our Luggage: A Non-Binary Ode to The Good Place’s Janet
She’s been through too much ambiguity to be, simply, a Good Janet. Rather she is Complicated Janet. Humanity’s Champion Janet. Janet beyond the binary.
trans
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.
“Razor Tongue” Web Series Review: Rain Valdez is Here to Save the Romcom
Valdez is attempting to radically change the industry. She’s also making a compelling case that she should be to 2019 what Julia Roberts was to 1999.
“Transparent” Changed Me (And TV) Forever
“Do you have something to tell us?” my mom joked. It was a joke, because of course I didn’t. “No,” I said with a laugh. And I thought I was telling the truth.
Fear & Freedom: Traveling While Trans
Considering the discomfort my friends and loved ones experience when we travel together, or when I share what I think are unremarkable experiences of microaggressions or discrimination, has helped me understand the degree to which I’ve normalized things that are not normal.
Outfest 2019: The Future of Queer Cinema Is Trans
I’ve lamented that I’m never going to see my stories on screen until I make it happen for myself. Never have I felt that to be less true. There are so many of us out there making work for ourselves, and each other.
Outfest 2019: Michelle Hendley is a F*cking Star in “The More Things Change”
Instead of counting down the days to see if we get three lines on The L Word reboot, we should be counting down the days until Simone gets to turn this short into a full-season show.
PHOTOESSAY: Taking My Chosen Body Outdoors
I decided to meet Syd in Oakland to celebrate my newly healed chest. We hiked out into the Happy Boulders, selected our first climb and immediately took off our shirts. It was glorious, but also terrifying and vulnerable.
Going Outside with Joshua Jennifer Espinoza
Maybe if trans women can redefine what it means to be close to nature we can also redefine what it means to be close to each other.
The Perfect Queer Poem: When You Don’t Feel The Need to Explain Anything to the Straights
It’s June, it’s June, we’re living, it’s June. Do you feel our powers rising with the heat, our stares lengthening with the daylight, our desires coming on like freak lightening?
The L Word’s Lisa The Lesbian-Identified Man: A Trans Symposium
“What do we in want from and for Lisa in 2019? Justice for him, or peace of mind for us? The desire to reach back in time and pull him into our present is natural because we – especially trans people – want to see her character restored in dignity, thus preserving our own dignity.”
Fleabag’s First Season Captures the Trauma of Being a Woman
“When it first came out I loved the show for its humor, for its raw portrayal of depression and grief, and because, like any rational person, I’m deeply in love with Phoebe Waller-Bridge. But it wasn’t until about a year into my transition that the show started consuming my thoughts.”
You’re Just You: An Accidental Love Letter to Los Angeles
“Towards the end of the night you fall and tear the skin on your knee. But you pop back up and keep skating. You’re relieved. Now that you’ve fallen once you know you’ll be okay.”
“Sex Education” Taught Me How to Masturbate
“I wanted to be single so I could explore my sexuality. Instead I was exploring other people’s.”
Trans Day of Visibility: An Autostraddle Community Photo Gallery
Almost 100 amazing humans sent pictures for our #TransDayOfVisibility Community Gallery! Get in here and celebrate our lives!
Mirrors
“I had dreamt about my new sister that very night. An almost spiritual connection. Perhaps my mother could have sensed, then, that I felt the same as her; that I would grow to feel the same. That I had inherited that bond, that tether; that we shared that, too. But how could she have known? How could she understand that her son could ever carry that weight?”
You Don’t Always Transition Once
Transitioning is stigmatized as betraying our assigned gender. Sometimes, though, it takes two betrayals to get where we need to be.
Like the Other Kids
On top of how hard it is to be transgender in a cissexist world, it’s also really hard to be a child. It can be hard to have two moms in a heterosexist world. It can be hard to have a transgender mom. Put that all together, and I’m just one giant ball of anxiety who is frequently at a loss for the perfect way to help my child navigate the world.
Shapeshifters: Bespoke Binders Put Fun on Your Chest
What Shapeshifters has done here is made binders where the point of them goes beyond the normal utilitarian point of a binder. And honestly? We deserve that!
The Multifaceted Masculinity of the Dream Daddy Comics
“I can simply rest in this strange and beautiful world of homosexual daddies with expansive definitions of what it means to be masculine; given how raw and terrible I feel as I continue to come out as trans, continue to lift up the rocks within myself and peer under them, this is what I need.”