#In general our older trans ppl is iconic

[midnight1404]

There a lot of queer icons in Argentina but my favs one as a trans person that also identifies as transvestite is Lohanna Berkins, feminist and trans activist and Diana Sacayán, trans and indigenous activist (her murder also was the first one in being fairly judged in the justice.)

They both were big warriors for social justice to any marginalized group, i love them so much.

I would actually love to hear more about more local queer symbols! Ideally from the queer community outside of North America, please share some queer symbols that are specific to your region!

[fluffynexu]

marriage and birthrate in the empire

like with many cultures and societies, the empire has its customs and norms when it comes to things like marriage.

for the vast majority of ppl in the empire, sith or imperial, monogamy is the most common type of marriage seen. and within monogamous unions the couple can be of any combo of gender or sex.

for simplicity’s sake the color code is as followed: RED, female BLUE, male PURPLE, trans/nb/intersex

those in higher castes have more stipulations, considerations, and thought put into their partners rather than those in lower castes who can casually hook up with whoever they want.

another type of marriage that is seen, though not very commonly, are polygamous marriages.

with a poly marriage there is the head of house (crown icon) and the spouses/consorts (no crown).

these unions are typically only seen among sith families with prestige and history, but it’s not completely unheard of for some imperials to have them as well.

a monogamous marriage can turn into a poly one. if the head of house is like “hey, there’s this person i met... and i kinda like them? maybe if you vibe with them, i can bring them into our union?” and their spouse says “cool beans.” then yea, more spouses lol.

within a poly union, all children must be of the head of house’s bloodline. and the children produced with the first spouse (grey box) become the household heir(s)... usually.

and while all of the spouses/consorts may be married to the head of house, any/all parties can engage in whatever intimate activities they want with each other. the only “unacceptable” thing would be to produce any children that does not involve the head of house.

so you could have two husbands or wives that are way more into each other than the head of house. and it’s all seen as totally cool and fine. such attitudes however are more common among the sith than with humans.

now speaking of heirs.

for those in the upper castes, having An Heir of some sort is important and kind of a big deal. it’s part of the reason why getting juuust the right marriage partner is so important. it’ll usually be a thing the families discuss and negotiate over months or even years.

it’s serious business... lol.

but regardless of type of marriage (monogamous or poly), there is the one getting married (crown) and the one being married off (no crown).

those that are married off take the family name of their spouse and all resulting children of the union have that family name.

with the children you’ll either have an heir or a chosen heir.

in the GREEN circle up above you have an example of a plain, regular heir. that is to say, the firstborn.

in the ORANGE circle you have a chosen heir. not the firstborn.

there could be a myriad of reasons on why the family decided on a chosen heir over a regular one. maybe the oldest kid is a dumbass and fucks up. maybe they died before getting married. maybe the kid didn’t want that responsibility. etc.

again, as we move down the caste ladder, the less and less important all these inter-familial details become.

most “common” folk simply hook up with whoever they like, have kids, and their kids go off and do the same. they may not even take on their spouses name depending on how much they care about that.

just on a side note, if the married couple isn’t capable of producing children by themselves modern medicine and technology can help. or if the option exist, they could go the old school, natural route.

for example, among same sex sith couples (PINK rectangles) they will look for and hook up with other couples and... help each other out.

these unions don’t happen too often since they’re only there to make the babies and go on their way lol. though, the two families could stay connected and friendly if they wish.

now this is a lot of pomp and circumstance to get some babies! and you’d be right lol.

bringing in some REAL LIFE FACTS lol, but here’s how things went down and are going down for ppl irl on earth.

you see everywhere on the planet, before the advent of industrialization, you had populations like this.

all the babies. so many babies. but not too many old folk. 

and it’s obvious why. no birth control, lack of modern medicine, famine, diseases, wars, etc etc etc. a lot of ppl died before getting ripe and old.

nowadays, or at least among the Wealthy Industrialized~ nations, it looks something like this.

also a couple of real graphs just to show how drastically things have changed.

a lot less babies!

this is attributed to a LOT of things. full super in depth research here if anyone wants: https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate

but in short... yea. birth control, women being educated and being allowed to work means they don’t have to just pump out kids. (which is GOOD btw). and the fact we have a lot more food and access to medicine means more ppl are living longer.

this ofc, is leading to Actual problems tho. bc if you don’t have enough New Ppl to replace the Old Ppl... yea, there will be some societal issues. now, i’m so nOT an expert but imho countries like the US could off set this by... immigration. by letting other ppl into the country to make up for a declining birthrate... but i digress!

within the empire you could have something like this during wartime where you’d have a portion of your adult population go off to fight and probably die.

but the IDEAL is this:

a perfect square of population if you will lol.

as older generations age out and die off, you have newer generation to fill their roles and keep the imperial dream going.

now unlike some modern countries irl that do a terrible job of trying to incentivize young adults into having kids (we all know who lol), the empire aids and supports parents 110%.

paid leave (for both), govt run daycares and schools so that when the kids are old enough to go to those the parents can focus back on their work. either tax breaks or monthly allowances from the govt to help pay for the kids. and usually, extended familial support is more common in the empire. so the question for most ppl in the empire isn’t “do you want to have kids?” but rather “when are you having kids?”

if however someone just vehemently opposes the idea of being a parent, there is no down side. the empire will not force parenthood on ppl since that’s a terrible idea for everyone involved.

that’s basically it... a more informal and jumbled post i know lol.

a few side notes?

teen pregnancy isn’t really a thing. if it happens the attitude is “you’re basically a child so no, you’re not gonna have baby.” (abortion is seen as a health service)

when imperials join the military at 20 (the legal adult age in the empire) everyone, regardless of sex, gets a birth control implant. bc having a lot of young adults close together... ppl are bound to get horny and you don’t wanna have the possibility of anyone having kids in inopportune circumstances so yea. they can have the implant removed whenever their mandatory service is done and get straight to making babies if they want lol.

children born out of wedlock def exist. very frowned upon in upper castes. not really a big deal with lower castes.

can you adopt kids. yes. and unlike rl where you have to pay lots of money, you don’t really pay anything. but the govt will require a lot of forms and check ups and visits and etc etc.

can adopted children become house heirs? yes. if that is the wish of their parent.

god the drama and tropes there must be in their media... “well your father is a lesser consort, so how bout you stfu!” “D:<”

are there “pure love” marriages in upper castes? yes. but a lot of drama revolve around those depending on who is the one being married off.

also, sith can and have been totally disowned if they decide to marry someone without their family’s approval. (this is serious business for them! lol)

y’all are free to send me questions or comments or whatever.

[problemon]

give us the trans lore bro...

Earl and lana in unison: down with cis

Also having read through this to spell check… I now realise that me writing these characters is just a combination of “this is me” and “I WISH this was me”. I decided to leave in my commentary purely because I think the art and the author is always interesting to see but for the love of god…. @ cis ppl me being somewhat open about my trans experience doesn’t give you the right the ask invasive questions. 

Anyway

Earl came out when he was 6. For the first four years of his life his dad was around, Gumbald was still around, Bonnibel was still a closeted lesbian, and so it was very much expected that Earl and Liam would be cishets.

Why yes… Both Liam AND Earl are trans. I mean… None of the Lemongrabs have “male” psychical characteristics and they all identity as male so… ALL human Lemongrabs should be trans. Fella cannonically has no junk. Translate that to a human context: epic transgenderisms.

Anyway (2!)

But after bio dad left Earl and Liam started doing various… Early (ha) onset dysphoria things and showing a clear preference for male clothing and such. By this point Bonnibel was out and started engaging with her local lgbt+ community, (which is how she met Marceline) and started befriending adult trans people who’d come over and see Earl being like:

Earl: I am playing my favourite game. I am re enacting the war of the roses with my brother. I am playing the Earl of Leicester who is also my favourite historical figure. You have to use his title and he for me or I bite you.

Bonnie’s friends and Earl’s whole family who know what being trans is and that this kind of other gender role playing is typical of trans children: 🤔hm…

(I also used to do this lol)

So Aunt Lolly took them to see a doctor as Bonnibel was way too busy and also had complicated feelings about the whole thing. Doctor asked them a bunch of questions, interviewed lolly and was like “I diagnose them with boy”.

Earl’s mothers kinda grieved for a while and were like “we don’t have daughters anymore 😔” so Lolly kinda… Took over as their main caregiver for a while while Bonnie buried herself in work. So Lolly was the one who chose their names and they’ve always had a close relationship. Earl’s name comes from his fave historical figure and he loves his name a lot (me too fam) while Liam belongs to that group of trans people who just… Saw a name on a box and were like “lol that’s me now.” Liam’s name comes from a fucking doll advert he saw aged 5 in a newspaper. (You laugh but my name backstory is no better. I also know a trans girl who named herself after a pun like a true icon. YES I’m trans YES my name backstory is fucking funny as fuck. WE EXIST)

Anyway Bonnie snapped out of her cis grieving, Earl and Liam moved schools and as teens were put on blockers and hormones with no problems and now we’re here!

The one family member who doesn’t know about his trans status is Earl’s biological father, who sends him letters every few years asking for money like “my dear daughter I am once again asking for your financial support as I have lost all my money on the stock market” which Earl finds really funny.

Earl hasn’t had a hysterectomy so he still has hormone injections and Dr Minerva provides his needles (our boy self injects) so… Finn and his family know he’s trans and they’re fine with it.

As Earl + Liam never went through “female” puberty they haven’t needed to undergo top surgery and such. Though I imagine Liam underwent bottom surgery at 16 due to extreme dysphoria while Earlie never does.

Anyway that’s them. On the whole they’ve had a pretty good time.

…Lana did NOT have a good time.

Lana came out age 14 when she wasn’t ready to. She clocked she was trans age 13 and went through a very difficult questioning phase but eventually decided she was a girl.

Bit of background: The advtime episode “The Eyes” shows LSP celebrating a Quinceañera party. In particular she seems to be celebrating a Mexican Quinceañera as she has a bouquet of white flowers (these are apparently left on the altar as an offering to Mary), a tiara, and is dancing with her father- which my albeit brief research tells me are typical features of a Mexican Quinceañera, and as LSP is thus implied to be a Mexican girl I think human LSP should similarly be Mexican. Now a Quinceañera is a rite of passage ceremony and party girls have when they turn 15, and you can imagine what it feels like to know you’re a girl but that you’re never going to have one of these, and that you’re going to be denied this affirmation of your womanhood. And as Lana really really really wanted to have a Quinceañera she forced herself to come out so she could have one.

Her family were initially quite upset. Her parents were supportive but how best to put this… I mean like “supportive”. Like LGBT people know what I mean when your family is fine with you being queer until you talk about it too much or correct them too much and they… Just don’t. Anyway Lana has a solid case of that going on. So her parents are nice enough but also… Could be a lil better. And having that experience of very conditional and flimsy support was uck traumatic.

Moving on:

She transitioned a lot later in life so poor girl lived with bad dysphoria for a long while and still has low self esteem about herself bcos of it. She has very bad voice dysphoria so she overly emphasises her speech (me me I do this! This is also why I would rather die than record myself speaking lmao) so she also has a kind of… Valley girl way of speaking, though she slips into a more comfortable voice when she’s around people she feels safe with.

And thanks to trans healthcare™️ she didn’t get on E till like… 16. (Wish this was me lol…) But she’s a lot more comfortable and happy now so it’s all good.  Lana’s probably… on the fence about genital surgery. I know this is a taboo topic but anyway, binary trans people who don’t get srs for whatever reason are so so valid and powerful and it’s funny how “are you gonna get the surgery” is the one thing people want to know about trans people until we start talking about it on our own terms lol. 

In terms of other stuff, Earl’s more or less private about his trans status. Very few people know and that’s just what he’s comfortable with. Plus he’s been living as male from a very early age and BARELY remembers anything before it, so for most of his life being trans didn’t form a huge part of his identity. But I imagine that changes as he grows older and starts dating Lana and has kids and is generally… Put in more situations where Not Being Cis changes things quite significantly. For Lana it’s a much bigger part of her identity and always has been. Like she includes trans themes in her literary work and would go to pride and meetings. 

Cis ppl can interact but please stay in your lane…