gender identity Archives

gender identity

trans

A close up image shows two light brown hands clasped together. One person wears a white shirt has short, unpolished nails. The other person wears a light blue sweatshirt and has slightly longer unpolished nails and black line tattoos on their fingers and palm.

love + sex

How to Have Sex With a Transmasculine Partner

Transmasc people have our own unique desires and boundaries in bed, just like everyone else.

Quinn Rhodes —

Jun 12, 2023

gender identity

trans

The silhouettes of two women are visible on a hill during sunset. They both have long, dark hair, wear backpacks and jeans, and hold metal cups in their hands. They sit on the ground and face each other. The woman on the left wears a red jacket and the woman on the right wears a blue jacket.

relationships

When One of Us Transitioned, Our Relationship Changed for the Better

By the time the lockdown lifted, she (Lucy) had kicked a life-long nail biting habit, and I (Summer) had come out as transgender.

Summer Tao —

Feb 6, 2023

gender identity

trans

first person

Finding and Losing My Worth as a Trans Woman

Something had to change, because I’d never be free, be myself, if I kept it up. I decided to take the biggest risk yet, and started transitioning again.

miralazine —

Apr 28, 2022

af+ personal essay

gender identity

This is a collage work of art. The base is a shiny, golden background of slightly crumpled looking paper. On top is a collage of flowers and green growing plants. From these plants emerge the figures of three Black women. One is in black and white and is wearing a white, fluffy cotillion gown, another has braided hair and is looking away and is in color, a third is smaller, and is glancing downward contemplatively. Written in the background are the words: "she runs her gender, not the other way around" with an eye underneath those words

af+

By Fighting Gender Expectations, My Mother Made Room for Me to Be Myself

“I faced the difficult truth that, despite it getting me through so much, “Black womanhood” alone simply can not capture the essence of my soul, and it does not always…

Amari Gaiter —

Feb 23, 2022

alcohol

gender identity

three images of nicole drinking various beverages. nicole is a white human who has their natural dark brown hair in one photo and their bleach blond hair in the other two. they always wear glasses. the photos show them drinking tea from a cauldron mug, drinking coffee from a small mug, and drinking a can of diet dr. pepper. the photos shift from winter to summer to spring from left to right

first person

15 Things I Drank in My Year of Not Drinking

Tasting notes: This one is real, like a hallucination. You can feel it, see it, and it leaves very little evidence of its passing through your body. Lingers barely on…

Nico —

Dec 30, 2021

gender identity

trans

An illustration of different body parts, including eyes, lips, ears, nose, hands, waist, hair, and fingers.

first person

This is My Body, and I Decide Its Meaning

As a person with polycystic ovarian syndrome, my journey to self-acceptance as a non-binary, healthy individual has been long and winding.

A’liya Spinner —

Oct 27, 2021

gender identity

genderqueer

Illustrated silhouettes of the figures of six people from the torso up, in shades of purple, white and green.

gender

A Gender by Any Other Name: What Does the Term Genderqueer Mean to Us in 2021?

“I feel like people started enacting these borders around it and categorizing it, and that felt so bad and wrong, and the antithesis of everything that it should be. Then,…

Archie —

Jun 24, 2021

covid-19

gender identity

A magnifying mirror reflected in a wall mounted bathroom mirror

first person

I Stopped Tweezing in Quarantine and Realized I’m Nonbinary

On the 24th day of quarantine, I turned on all of the lamps in my room and took off all my clothes. Then I stood in front of the mirror…

Rae Nieves —

Nov 10, 2020

butch

for them

a black and white photo of a person's chest and thin lines of scars beneath their nipples let behind after top surgery

first person

When Other People Get to Give Away Their Binders

Getting top surgery with my butch identity is no longer some unattainable fantasy. Now the question firmly rests with me: do I want to go ahead with it or not?

Shoshana Raphael —

Sep 29, 2020

gender identity

the speakeasy

A short-haired dyke sits on a mud spattered floor with one leg folded under them and the other extended. They smile an easy grin into the camera and place a hand on their extended knee. Behind them a blue graphic ribbon runs behind them and across another mud covered person sitting behind them.

first person

Mud Wrestling Showed Me How To Want

Our thighs slapped against the tarp as we threw each other across the floor. Our eyes and ears were painted in mud like two casts of the human form. The…

Lillian Kalish —

Sep 9, 2020

gender identity

trans

money + work

How Do You Plan for Transition in a Pandemic-Related Economic Depression? Financial Advisors Have Some Thoughts

The COVID-19 quarantine, which now, perhaps, connotes to be known as a period of extended doldrums for gender transitioning adults across America, has produced its share of coping mechanisms.Autostraddle caught…

Winter Breedlove —

Jun 16, 2020

covid-19

gender identity

gender

You Need Help: Gender Feels in Quarantine

Your rawness and tenderness is a primal signal that you are alive. It’s exhausting and there’s no way to turn it off. Let yourself breathe through this, and trust that…

Adrian —

May 14, 2020