Gender is Mutable

We've seen this many times, somebody says or does something that is racist, homophobic, transphobic, or anti-semetic in some way and the truth of that gets pointed out to them. However, rather than apologizing and learning from it, they double down in defense with "I have a ... friend" defense.

My company hosts an annual Women in Tech Experience, a multi-day event with talks, teaching, and other learning opportunities from all regions of the company. As part of that experience, I was asked to do a lightning talk on my experience where people helped with my dreams. Now, obviously, I did not talk about this in the context of career dreams, but much more personally and from the lens of an environment of inclusion. Now that the event is past, I wanted to share the text of my speech, with the names of the guilty redacted. 😊 I was born a little less than a year before the Stonewall Riots, a watershed moment in the development of LGBTQ+ rights. But that was just the beginning of what is still a significant battle for equality almost 52 years later. As I speak here today, across 33 States there are more than 100 pieces of legislation aimed at curtailing trans rights or suppressing our very existence. I live in a world where my right to personal dignity, to be treated with respect, t

  I chose a strong term, violence, for a very good reason...

Every year, on March 31st, we celebrate the lives and achievements of trans people around the world. It's a day for those of us who are visible to tell our stories and, more importantly, to be visible for those who cannot be.

Trans health care is a difficult at the best of times, many Doctors are unaware of the general standards of care ( WPATH ) and how to apply them and so quite often just avoid addressing it. So when it comes to healthcare, trans people often turn to clinics known to be trans supportive.

  Yesterday I made the third significant step in my transition and now I wait.

The other day, in a discussion, a member of the group I was with commented, "We're so lucky to have Jo here, she can give us the male perspective." Sigh.

I'm sure there's a fairly decent chance that you've seen that meme, the one with Archie Bunker and George Jefferson laughing it up and lamenting the fact that we can't make jokes like we used to. Well, keep lamenting as I, for one, have no desire to return to those times.

I had a moment the other day, one that I seldom recall ever encountering in the past and that was, quite simply, a moment of belonging.

I tweeted the other day “one of the things that feels really good about being out is that I feel like I can finally react to things from friends and family like I always wanted to.” I don’t think I can overstate the sense of emotional happiness that stems from that simple truth.

I am in love with the new M1 Macs! The reason? Voice therapy. Okay, it's not the only reason, these are really, really, good computers, but for the context of this blog, it's voice. 😄

As I have started to more formally direct my transition, having come out professionally at work and personally through a few different channels, I have also begun the process of updating my name across the vastness that is the Internet...

We talk about bringing your whole self to work, a lot, especially in my company and I have spent a lot of my past not doing that at all. That is over.

Today marks the 6 month point on HRT which, for me, is a pretty significant way point on my journey.

So, what a very strange year that was...