#[ and we wish the best for the trans folks! we're making through the wonders and horrors with ours trans swag and we'll be all okay ♡ ]

[alldarkling]

HAPPY TDOV DAY, BY THE WAY! Please do know that even though the concept of gender doesn't apply to such paranatural beings like Antiphisto themself, and Antiphisto will never conform to gender roles, they DO very much support trans folks and will not hesitate to pull cruel tricks and / or murder transph*bes for them... ♡

[uncle-fruity]

I was literally JUST thinking about this! Wondering how many "women crossdressing for better opportunities" were really just trans men who were trying to live their best manly lives. And, frankly, I don't care what the cis have to say on this one, because they couldn't clock a closeted trans man if their life depended on it.

I'm not saying that there were no cis women at all who did this, but like... queer people have always been erased from history and art, forced to live in the margins, our existences explained away, forced to use code with each other so we can find each other in a world full of people who want to abuse and murder us. So idk I'm a little suspicious of cis women waving their hands and writing off any trans person who makes a claim that they see Obviously Trans Experiences in "women" who historically "crossdressed," by saying we can't apply modern standards to people. No shit, Susan, but if the guy says he always wishes he was a boy, grows up lamenting that he was "born a girl," and jumps through hoops daily to perform masculinity -- sometimes at relative personal risk -- well... he was probably trans.

Idk I think cis people need to be very wary of talking down to queer people when we see our experiences in historical figures. We haven't had the luxury of living openly as ourselves throughout history. Trans people have always existed, but we haven't always been included in history books. When we have, it's usually misgendered, with the trans thing sort of written off as a funny quirk, a minor personality trait. Dismissing a trans person's perspective about a historical figure's potential transness is uhhhh not a great look. Telling queer people to shut up about seeing ourselves in figures we will almost never be able to definitively prove are our own (aside from our intimate understanding of what it feels like to be trans) is just another way to silence and erase queer people.

The erasure from previous centuries is prime ammunition to gaslight trans people into believing we don't know what we're talking about and that we can't prove it because those people never explicitly said they were trans. But this isn't just a bunch of trans guys grasping at straws for representation. We are informed, primary resources on what being trans looks and feels like. Queer people have always had to secretly find each other, including in history. So, idk, miss me with that "you can't prove it" shit. Maybe if you cis folks didn't literally murder and abuse us, there'd be more explicit examples of transness.

u know when there's an article or something abt a historical person and everyone is like "don't try to apply modern gender labels to her, this was clearly a woman who cross-dressed for better opportunities/education/safety!" and I'm like sure that tracks, there's been countless women in history who were women but dressed as men in order to get an education/fight in a war and so on

and then I read the contemporary sources on this person and it's full of "he threatened to shoot anyone who called him a woman" and "petitioned the local government to legally consider him a man, on the grounds of 'I live as a man anyway'" and "he always said he should have been born a man and it was only by misfortune that he was born a woman"

like... babes, I do agree with not applying modern labels to historical people, but this does not sound like someone who just cross-dressed for better opportunities

[pretentiousbrownie]

Coming Out Through Proxy?

Note: this is super long!

Without context the rest of this post is going to be long and confusing, but I figured a couple folks may appreciate this; I take part in an online RP that operates like a community forum/board for a fictional town. After an extended hiatus, I began to rewrite my characters to better suit the experiences I can relate to in life, so here was a public announcement of sorts that I posted:

Hey neighbors,

It's certainly been a while since I've posted in an unofficial capacity outside of our typical municipal reports, addresses, and press releases, but I am here to speak candidly with you as just myself:

After serving the town in many capacities for several years now, and having had the incredible privilege to sit on City Council for the latter part of them, I am officially stepping down and retiring from my position. While it's been a true pleasure serving the community for this time, both my partner and I agree that life in the Council and life in the Bureau no longer suit our vision for the future. We have been talking about life goals, plans and new avenues we both wish to explore going forward, and we believe this is the best path for us.

I will cherish the friends made and bonds forged while working with the community, but the time has come for both myself and my partner to take a leap of faith into the unknown and explore all life can offer.

This brings me to my second most notable announcement; my partner and myself have made the decision to enter into an official domestic partnership. We are going to be hosting a dinner in the coming weeks where many of our closest friends will hear the details directly from us, but to make a long story a bit shorter, with our home nearing completion and our lives beginning to take a new direction, we felt the time was right to take this next step.

On a more personal note (my partner has permitted me to say this, I promise I would not be so careless to out him without consent), he has recently come out as trans and wishes to use the pronouns he/him. He will no longer be using his previous name - instead he will be known as Lua Devens. Having come out some time ago myself, I am incredibly happy that Lua was finally able to find the comfort and trust to present his true self to me, our friends, and our families, and I hope you'll join me in wishing him all the best going forward.

Anyway, before I get too carried away and write a whole novel here, I just want to end on a note of gratitude; you have all been an incredible part of our lives for as long as we can remember. It's been a real treat and privilege working with and for this community, and I'd like to think my time spent in service to Lower Duck Pond has helped make it a better home for all of us.

So, with all of that said and done, take care and have a wonderful day. We hope to see you all very soon.

Sam.

P.S. I forgot to mention, but Lua is also stepping down from his role at the Bureau and will remain on in a purely advisory position now. We will both be exploring new avenues in more ways than one, and we're very excited to see where our careers and futures will take us. Ciao!

So yeah, one of my characters is canonically a trans man and has finally the right time, place, and support to publicly come out. Even though this is fictional writing in a fairly supportive community, this is a pretty big deal to me.

I say this in confidence knowing most of you are mutuals I do not know outside of Tumblr or are very close friends that I trust, but I am bi and my gender identity, while still largely masculine, wavers on a spectrum, and it's not something I've discussed with many people in my life. It's not something I'm very open about and that process of coming out to many of the people in my life may not happen for a very long time, but writing about my character(s) coming out on a public forum and actually hearing a ton of support from the community was surprisingly validating. I mean, positive affirmations from a diverse online community of well over 140,000 members is almost shocking in this day and age. It makes the idea of coming out far less daunting, and it makes me feel like it's something I can come to terms with, with many people in my life, even if it may not happen for some time.

So yeah, just a little thing from me

:)