I first considered the possibility that I might be transgender during a foggy church morning in 2014. Somewhere between the third and sixth time I had to sit down during services, an idea sparked into my head – what if I’m actually a woman? Like most trans women, I grappled with that question at the time. I was slowly distancing myself from my LGBT community, fearing that the movement was incapable of addressing serious questions…
I take a seat at a neighborhood dive my best friend and I have never been to. I told her on the way there that we should have an exit strategy. She asked me why I’m so afraid. I consider my perspective as a trans woman versus hers as a cis woman. I explain, abstractly, how self-abnegation of one’s gender identity may lead to vulnerability, that the ethos of transmisogyny leached into me like a…
There’s one thing you should know about trans women if you don’t already. Because we weren’t raised as girls, we have a lot of catching up to do after transition. On top of this, many of us have issues socializing with cis women at the beginning, and cis women have issues with us. My solution to this problem was to watch a lot of TV to figure out how to be a woman. Shonda Rhimes’…
I learned about Meredith Talusan's fascinating life and trajectory through none other than the wonderful world of Twitter. Not only are we both Comparative Literature nerds, but we also are deeply involved in thinking about selfhood and all that it entails.
Tell me a little about yourself. You have such a rich history, both personally and educationally. Considering your background, what drew you to the visual arts as well as literature?
Milo Scanlon's previous work for The Toast can be found here.
"[Against Me's "Paralytic States"] is about a transgender person dealing with addiction and dysphoria and killing themselves in a hotel bathtub. Obviously I'm not dead in a hotel bathtub, but all the experiences of existing that way, being in that hotel room, are very much real to me, that's a life that I've lived."--Laura Jane Grace
Elizabeth Mills' previous work for The Toast can be found here.
When I was eighteen years old, after a year of happiness and firsts and fumbles and pain, I broke up with my girlfriend. That moment was a catalyst – the lit match to the gasoline, the first pebble of the avalanche, the final crack in a foundation poured out wrong to begin with. Over the course of the next eight years,
Avery Edison's previous work for The Toast can be found here.
I powered through my copy of ADAM in one sitting, a testament to both Ariel Schrag's enthralling writing and the emotional resonance of the story. ADAM is about a guy named, well, Adam. He's in high school, his sister is in college, and during the summer he goes to visit her in New York. She's queer, and her friends are all queer.
The Toast's previous coverage of trans* issues can be found here.
It was my best friend, Anna, who I told first. That kind of friendship you have when you’re eleven – where you see each other all day at school, then rush straight to the telephone to call when you get home. ‘Do you ever feel like you were born into the wrong body?’ It was a genuine question – I
In the final pages of Leslie Feinberg’s Stone Butch Blues, Jess Goldberg has a dream: “I felt my whole life coming full circle. Growing up so different, coming out as a butch, passing as a man, and then back to the same question that had shaped my life: woman or man?” This question shaped Feinberg’s life urgently, but what is striking about Feinberg’s life—and work—is how she always reached for greater complexity
The Toast's previous coverage of trans* issues can be found here. This post was brought to you by "a fervent believer in the matriarchy."
It’s the dipping point of a late July sunset, and my roommate (and hetero life-mate) Seth and I are walking to meet some friends at a bar. We are both wearing wonderful snapback hats and Seth’s hat has large, O’Keeffe-worthy flowers splashed all over it and mine
Brook Shelley's previous work for The Toast can be found here. Welcome to lesbian trans womanhood. I know, we aren't supposed to say that. Welcome anyway. Let's assume you know two things: that you are a woman, and that you like other women. Good. That's a fine place to start. Follow along, and we will get you from this humble beginning, to being a real-live dater. Take a deep breath. Ready? 1. First, lower…
The Toast's previous coverage of trans* issues can be found here.
Actual Reasons People Have Told Me I Am Not A Real Man
1.) I enjoy musical theater. (Someone should probably call Hugh Jackman and inform him that he is female.)
2.) I want to kiss other men. (Wanting to kiss women and people of other genders as well is irrelevant. The only people who want to kiss men are women.
To my elementary school teachers: I'm sorry for crying all the time. I cried so much that, in second year, my school report read that I "burst into tears at the first sign of trouble". It's because I was going through childhood totally confused, of course, but it can't have been fun for you to deal with as educators.
I'm also sorry that when our school portraits were delivered, I scrawled
My stepmom leaned across the dining room table and told me this urgently, as if she was offering up incontrovertible evidence that I couldn’t possibly be transgender.
It was a fair enough assertion. From the moment I was born – the first girl in a close-knit family of male cousins – I effortlessly fell into the preformed mold
Recently in Phoenix, Arizona, a woman was arrested for walking down the street, engaging other pedestrians in conversation. This was a blatant case of profiling, because police accused the woman, a transgender woman of color, of soliciting sex work. For those who don't know, transgender means a person's experienced gender identity and their assigned sex at birth are incongruous. I was assigned female at birth, but from a young age I felt that was
