Posts Tagged: trans
Protect Trans Kids
Yall’s president decided to rescind protections for transgender students that allowed them to use restrooms corresponding to their gender identity setting the tone for how his administration is going to handle LGBTQIA issues over the next four years. As organizers, activists, and advocates, we knew on November 8th that the next four years was going to be filled with actions and protests to protect the constitutional rights of traditionally oppressed and marginalized communities that are being threatened. From interrupting confirmation hearings, nationwide marches, and holding elected representatives accountable at townhalls (when they actually show up), we have been vocalizing our distaste and concern of a discriminatory agenda from the White House. This agenda’s next target is the trans community, and we have to prepare ourselves to stand against this…. Read more »
(Re)doing Gender: Trans Men and the Reproduction of Toxic Masculinity
With a growing awareness of trans existence and experiences, feminist spaces are gradually making more explicit efforts to include trans people. Historically, considering the reduction of trans narratives to men in dresses co-opting women’s experiences or butch lesbians with internalized misogyny motivating trans identity, revision is needed to move towards true trans affirmation. This hostility has primarily been dispensed by trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs) who position trans women as indistinguishable from men and thus part of the collective patriarchal oppressor. However, trans men have not been excluded with the same vehemence. While trans women are virtually disposable, trans men are clung to with the ludicrous belief that their stakes in womanhood are more legitimate than a woman’s simply by… Read more »
Slurs Ain’t Cute
The first time I had ever heard the phrase “bitch” I was no older than seven years old. It was a rainy day in Michigan and my mom refused to let a white man over into our lane while driving. This infuriated him, and caused him to roll down his window. Along with a racial slur, the man leaned out of his car and the veins in his neck popped as he called my beautiful and beloved mother, a bitch. Tears formed in her eyes as she rolled up her window quickly, looked at me sternly, and said “Kristina. You are to NEVER repeat those words that you just heard.” The first time I was ever actually called a bitch was in 7th grade math class. After declining to date a… Read more »
Miss(Cis) Expectations: Pregnancy & Trans Identities
It’s the first week of classes and I’ve already had to defend my decision not to carry children twice. It happens at least once every year, either from friends, family or well-meaning acquaintances, my insistence that I will never carry is met with disturbed, pity-filled consolations – pity because some assume I am infertile or believe my queerness has jaded my perceptions of pregnancy, and shameful disbelief that I fail to follow my “maternal instincts.” This pity typically morphs into anger or twenty-minute tirades filled with alternative options, as if I have never watched a Laci Green video, or as if my decision is not well-informed and just came overnight. These interactions demonstrate concern at best from commentators, but for me, they demonstrate disrespect towards my identity and autonomy. My first memory… Read more »
Breaking: Bisexual Femme Actually Needs Birth Control
I started going to the gynecologist at the age of 17. My mom saw it as a rite of passage. I was a young woman, in my first serious relationship, and suffering with typical high school acne. In her eyes, of course I was going to get on the pill. Never mind the fact that the first time I asked my mom what sex was she claimed she had “never heard of it.” Never mind the fact that when I say the word “nipple” my mom tenses up to this day. We were going to do things the right way. The progressive way. Kristina was going to take ownership of her reproductive health, and get on birth control. I consistently went to the gynecologist for the next couple of years…. Read more »
