Being Me

I see a lot of blog posts that have something to the effect of "I saw a trans person from afar" or similar and I have to say, I find it troubling.

We're past spoiler moments now right? Well, maybe not, but suffice to say the last line of the Barbie movie landed on me like a ton of bricks and today was the day that I had that moment.  Okay spoilers ahead, you have been warned!

I got a comment on a Facebook post last night that is quite gross.

Way too many cis women are either complicit with or not paying attention to who is the real target of all of this transphobia.

I saw a post, today, that suggests we're overly conflating gender-variance with being transgender. Respectfully, I have to disagree. 

If you’re using “transwomen” to talk about trans women, then I will absolutely assume you’re being transphobic.

I keep seeing this, especially in the crossdressing community, and it's wrong. Trans, and transgender, in the context of our gender is an adjective and, as such, compounding this with woman is othering.

The expression "identifies as" gets used a lot when talking about trans and non-binary people. It's also used by a lot of bigots to denigrate the trans experience. It's an expression that I would like to see fade away.

This question made the rounds on Twitter recently and it's a powerful and deeply interesting one I think. However, before I dive into how it feels for me, I want to be clear: dysphoria is not a requirement for being trans.

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

I was very deeply honoured and, I will admit, not a little frightened to be asked to share my story for #IWD2021. This was a work event, and so I can't share the video replay on here, but I can share the text of what I had to say today.

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.

HRT can do many wondrous things for me, from helping to shape the body I want, to helping me feel at peace with myself. Unfortunately, it cannot change my voice...

I was looking forward to tomorrow, finally my first appointment to see a doctor to discuss HRT and, well, it's by phone. 😞

I sometimes sit and wonder where life's journey has taken me and where it might be taking me next.

On Sunday, I hit the send button on an email that I've waited my whole life to send. It was scary, but important, but not yet the really big email, just the first step.

On December 6th, the Toronto Star published an article, Defending human rights the goal of journalism , and in it they claim to fight for a world with equal rights and equal dignity, then it begs why they would then laud giving a voice to hate...

Marvel has released their first comic featuring a transgender hero, Rebekah, as a part of their Hero project featuring everyday people making a real difference.

In what, I think, is a major signal of change comes from a great article in the Chicago Tribune: Boys are wearing U.S. Women’s National Team jerseys and that feels like progress . It is progress, huge progress I think, in starting to tear down the gender barriers that society has long put up. I'm not a soccer fan, but I think it's high time that a female sporting event was attracting as much attention as this one.