#queer tomboys exist

[lgbtqtext]

[brick-van-dyke]

This, plus I'd argue that it often leads to being treated as trans women as well and being subjected to parts of transmisogyny, it's why I don't really think the whole TME and TMA thing really works very well in actually identifying transphobia because of how often we're all grouped together as either "lying men pretending to be women" or "lying men pretending to be women and lying about being female to male transgenders", or just "you don't look like either so you must be a male" or some other brand of transphobia and intersexism as well mixed in.

Tbh actually I think that's kind of the point. There's so much intersexism and sexism in general that goes into the whole idea behind "all those who don't conform to gender roles and are their assigned sex are automatically trans women" in terms of grouping us all together as a monolithic entity. "You can't be a happy trans man, so you must be a trans woman" and "it's only when you're unhappy that you're a trans man who's a victim that we must save". Like that in and of itself is kind of the point with transphobia. We can't exist because we undermine the idea that "the issue of transness is trans women so trans men and intersex people are all trans women by default, unless they are sad or traumatised in any sort of way because then they're victims of trans women". It's only ever one or the other, and that always changes he idenity you're perceived as because the only "real" ftm in existence are "victims" they have been able to label as 'detrans victims of the transgender cult". If you're not, you don't exist; you're not supposed to exist. So you "must" be a trans woman, that's the "only" explanation for your being here. So they treat you as that because anything else is a lie.

A lot of the times I've been called transphobic bs on the street or online, or treated like shit in an institutional setting like a hospital, it typically starts off with assuming I'm a pre-transition trans woman and start treating me with either microagressions meant towards trans women or explicitly start calling me things like "a creepy man pretending to have a girl's name", and then when I say I'm a trans man they either deny the fact I'm a trans man or insist that's another word for "trans woman" because that ruins their transmisogynistic world view of "all trans women look like men" and "trans men don't exist" or "are broken women so they can't look like men", and I don't look like a frail, broken down victim to them, so I "must be" the former.

"Trans men benifit from invisibility", actually we suffer from the intentional erasure of our identities, history, and culture. An erasure, that is violently enforced through the constant assault, rape, and community isolation that we have to endure silently (because if we speak up we are further punished, further pushed out of communities, and silenced harder).

[imstillalexcomic]

Last night I sat down to write the text post to accompany this comic, but I began spiraling. There were so many things that I wanted to say that before I was even halfway through it was already three pages long.

I’m just going to truncate my thoughts.

It wasn’t the questions that bothered me, it was that I wasn’t believed.

It was that they doubled down and told me that I was “repressed”.

It was that me saying their words hurt me was apparently the wrong thing to say, and I was attacked for doing so.

It was that they told me they didn’t mean to hurt me when I knew that and already said so in my initial text to them.

It was that they told me that they were “going out of their way” for me.

One – trans tomboys exist and just because I might not want the same things you do, that doesn’t mean that my experience is invalid.

Two – I am not your charity case trans person that you need to “go out of your way” for.

Three – I thought I was your friend. In my mind, when you help a friend you’re not “going out of your way”, you help because you genuinely want to and don’t even think about whether or not it’s an inconvenience.

Four – no matter what, I still consider you a friend and though I need some time, I hope some day we can share our journeys with each other again.

#trans#transgender#gender#genderqueer#queer#LGBT#LGBTQ#HRT#comics#webcomics#ImStillAlex#hormonereplacementtherapy

[transfemme-shelterdog]

Any other transmascs also struggle very hard with accepting your transness because you were constantly told "you'll regret it because you'll become unattractive and aggressive, they'll cut your boobs off and you'll go bald"? As in, adults you thought you could trust and even actual medical professionals refusing to help you access gender-affirming care, because you were "such a pretty, bright young girl"?

And then coming to online queer spaces for support, only to see constant "men are so ugly, masculinity is hideous, men are all inherently violent and evil" sentiment anywhere you went? Next to "trans men become evil on T, FtM surgery results are gross and unrealistic with a 99% regret rate, trans men ruin their female bodies by transitioning"? Anyone else constantly terrified that they will become their abusive alcoholic father because, apparently, that's just what testosterone does?

Anyone else develop an eating disorder to "pass better" because you weren't offered any other option, even though they existed? Anyone else told they were just a confused tomboy who would grow into her femininity, that "every girl hates being a girl sometimes"? Anyone else try detransitioning multiple times in hopes that everyone was right, only to end up attempting suicide each time? Only to be told I am privileged and an oppressor any time I try to discuss the struggles I've faced? Told trans men actually have it EASIER accessing medical care, have ALMOST NONEXISTENT abuse and assault rates, suicide rates, self-injury rates (all statistics pulled from thin air)?

I feel like I'm not really allowed to say "I am impacted by the misogynistic idea that Females™ are only worthy if they're conventionally attractive, typically in ways unique to my trans experience" without people accusing me of being a liar or a derailer or a misogynist or a transphobe or a meninist. Or, you know, being accused of being HYSTERICAL and DELUSIONAL... by self-declared feminists...

.

[thehmn]

I’m intersex and I’m very hesitant to make this post because it could very quickly turn into a shitshow if I don’t word my thoughts correctly, but I’ve noticed a small, slowly growing trend and I think it’s important to talk about this before it gets out of hand.

I’ve seen a couple of posts with a lot of likes and reblogs where trans people accuse intersex people of being transphobic when they want hormonal treatment or surgery for themselves to look more female or male. It’s never about forced surgery on intersex children, but specifically about adult intersex people who want treatment for themselves. In these posts people see it as subconscious transphobia because they think this mindset is supporting the gender binary and harms trans and nonbinary people who technically get intersex bodies once they start to transition with hormones and surgeries. In their eyes not only are intersex people who use hormones/surgery to visually get out of the intersex sphere abandoning trans people, they’re also working agains nonbinary people who use intersex people as proof that there are more than two sexes which justify the existence of more than two genders.

The fact that there are a lot of similarities between trans and intersex people should be obvious. Both groups are saddled with bodies that doesn’t necessarily represent their gender and both can experience severe body dysmorphia, but at the end of the day the biggest difference is that the bodies of intersex people change on their own.

If you’re trans, imagine if you were assigned your preferred gender at birth and was perfectly content and happy in your gender experience when you suddenly hit puberty and start developing sex characteristics that goes against your gender and suddenly people around you start telling you you’re not actually the gender you think you are. Basically, imagine the way you felt before you came out/transitioned, except reversed.

I can for the life of me not understand why a trans person who thinks hormones and surgeries are acceptable for trans people can’t extend that mindset to intersex people.

It’s an ongoing debate among intersex people wether we belong in queer spaces and I can see both sides. A lot of intersex people consider themselves cishet people with a birth deformity who aren’t any more queer than people with dwarfism. Other intersex people feel more at home in queer spaces because there’s generally more acceptance of people who fall outside the norm.

But at the same time, in my experience, you get a lot of the same questions in both spaces. Both queer and cishet people often assume intersex means nonbinary, and I’ve been asked more than once how intersex people can call themselves cis or trans when their bodies fall outside the two majority sexes, forgetting that it’s all about what gender you were assigned at birth.

This leads to situations where you’ll meet trans men with functioning penises and trans women with natural breasts. A child might be born with something that looks like a vagina with a big clitoris and be assigned female but once they hit puberty the big clitoris becomes a small penis.

And even if they’re trans and start developing sex characteristics more in line with their true gender they might not be ready for it yet. As a teenager you become a target if you stand out so if you’re a trans girl living as a boy and you suddenly develop breasts that can be horrifying.

I personally experienced a much milder version of this. As a child I was perfectly content with people calling me a girl but I also felt like a different kind of girl. Not in a “not like the other girls” or tomboy way. More like a girl with something else in the mix. It was a very physical feeling because I was naturally stronger and more boyish looking than other girls and I didn’t really feel like I fit in with either boys or girls but at the same time it didn’t bother me when I was grouped in with the girls during school activities. I’d play around with makeup in my room, giving myself a beard and chest hair without wanting to be a man. It just felt like the right mix. Then I hit puberty for real and developed breasts and hips but also a full beard and chest hair. Despite all the times I had done it to myself I was mortified. This wasn’t something I could take off. I stood out wether I wanted to or not. Shaving left me with stubble. People looked. People commented on it. And my breasts didn’t grow super big and a lot of my body fat sat on my stomach like on a man, which meant if I didn’t wear a very flattering bra and feminine clothes I was sometimes mistaken for a chubby guy with manboobs. I was NOT ready for that. I was already struggling to fit in at a new school so this was like a social death sentence, not to mention I wasn’t sure about my own gender yet. It was something I should be allowed to work out on my own in peace when I was ready for it without people constantly asking what I, a child, had in my pants.

So hormones was a gift that allowed me to “transition” when I was ready for it at a later age. I’m off those hormones now and live as a “woman with something extra” like I always knew I was, but the things I had to go through as a child makes me very sympathetic to intersex people who does not feel that way and just want to be a man or woman with nothing extra because that’s their gender and like everyone else they want their gender and gender expression to align.

I don’t think it’s fair to expect people to be a martyr for other people. Most intersex people think trans rights are important but that doesn’t necessarily mean they belong in that debate. I know a lot of trans people who think women’s rights are important but feel no obligation to help the cause by sharing their experience of what it was like living as one gender and then another and how much respect and dignity they gained or lost after they transitioned.

So while I understand the natural instinct of wanting intersex people be part of a lager cause I also think it’s unfair to call intersex people who want to look like their preferred gender transphobic.

I really hope I made myself understood and that this isn’t an angry post. I just saw this “intersex people are transphobic for taking hormones” opinion with little to no understanding of the intersex experience and I’m hoping to shed a bit of light on that ❤️

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #7283:

Not to stereotype, but fandoms really love to forget bisexual fanboys exist. Or when gnc female characters roll around. Or when it comes to fanfiction and fanart of those same characters.

What's the point of saying bisexual men have a "queer" taste in women (and men) if you're gonna ignore that in the same breath?

Yes, there is nothing wrong with straight fanboys finding fit and/or tomboy-ish female characters attractive. And yes, being gnc does not mean a character is LGBT.

The hypocrisy is still there.

[tou-dai]

Probably gonna piss a lot of people off on the

"Be gay do crimes" website but like

Some of us - trans, intersex, and queer - are not attracted to equally queer people.

As in: some of us don't want to be in t4t relationships.

As in: some of us want to be in what are "essentially" straight relationships.

As in: some of us want to be with someone who compliments us, may even be in some opposition, but aren't within the SAME EXACT community

Bc that's just how attraction is.

And it isn't a choice. It isn't self hate.

Like. I'm not sure how many of you realize what you're saying is harmful or exclusionary in a way that it doesn't need to be.

Lastly: as someone who is at the intersection of many existences?

I STILL have to educate a mf -- whether they're within my demographic or not.

I STILL have to explain things -- about my basic likes and desires -- that should be normal. Would be normal if other mf could just, yk. Be fucking normal about trans men like me.

Trans men like me being "was a tomboy, then stud lesbian, now trans man with same desires etc"

That goes for the people I'm interested in platonically or romantically.

Shit is exhausting.

[lastoneout]

Something I somehow didn't see coming about accepting that I'm butch and bigender, is that now that I understand dysphoria as it exists within me...I don't think I can to back.

I got rid of most of my "girl" clothes, aside from stuff that reads and androgynous/or has utility/actually fits comfortably like my girl shorts(men's shorts are very hit or miss for me) but I decided to keep a couple of pairs of jeans as well as a few shirts in case I ever need to go stealth and I figured like, because I'm bigender and still very in touch with being a woman I would be able to go cis girlmode without much trouble.

But now that I'm sitting here thinking about how I don't know if it's safe for me to go out dressed as myself, suddenly the thought of having to dress in only women's clothes legit makes me feel sick. Like I want to cry. I thought I'd be good with the tomboy-adjacent girl clothes if I need them but I'm not. I never want to wear them again.

Just like damn that post about how you can be trans without dysphoria but a lot of people don't realize their even feeling dysphoria in the first place because if it's been the background radiation of your entire life you learn to tune it out? OP was not kidding. Now that I've ripped the trans bandaid off the adhesive has worn off, I can't re-apply it, I don't think I can go back.

It seems obvious, but I really didn't expect it, just because I figured that my dysphoria was basically non-existent and thus I could just dress however especially bcs I still ID with being a woman, just woman + man, but nah. It's done.

Can't help but feel resentful due to our current government and social climate, I'm finally happy with who I am, and I genuinely LIKE being seen as queer in whatever way the person looking decides is correct, but that will paint a target on my back and taint the joy with fear. Like I wish I had figured this out sooner. Having to do even just the pretty low stakes transition + accepting and understanding myself NOW is rough.

[genderkoolaid]

is it weird to feel like i was still treated/classed as a faggot before even knowing i was a boy (i'm transmasc)? i was never called a dyke or derisively called a lesbian or any of that. but i was a tomboy, always was. and i was always heavily derided for crying or "being a crybaby," derided by boy and tomboy friends if i ever liked any Girly Things with comments like "that's so gay (derogatory)", and being masculine but still interested in boys was regarded as this weird and disgusting thing. it's like being a tomboy and, for at least for a part of my life that being accepted, i had this expectation of masculinity placed on me that led to me being castigated by my peers for stepping outside it.

there were still expectations placed on me for "being a girl" and i was punished for not doing that correctly and i experienced heaps of misogyny, but there are so many instances in my life where i was specifically punished for being a tomboy who wasn't masculine in the right way but instead in a gay way. i never felt targeted by anti-lesbian sentiment but always felt very heavily targeted by anti-gay man sentiment. but despite desiring my whole life to be a boy i didn't truly know and accept that i was one until i was 18 and didn't start living as a man until i was 20

idk man my experience with gender growing up was always so weird and confusing and people's assumptions about what i Must Have Experienced based on agab and identity are always incorrect and it's just so incredibly alienating.

I've heard things very similar to this from a lot of trans(+) people. I myself have been out since I was very young and spent the majority of my life openly (gender)queer which definitely shaped how I experienced gender socialization.

This is the problem with using socialization as a Gender Binary 2: Its Inclusive Now! While there are broad trends, people can have such wildly different relationships with gender. Some trans people have always felt targeted based on their assigned sex, some people have always felt targeted based on their gender identity, some people have felt both.

The thing about the patriarchy is that it's a liar and you should never trust anything it says. The patriarchy claims to be a strict gendersex binary for control purposes, but it also must grapple with the existence of queers (gays, trannys, intersex folks) whose existence proves that what it claims to be natural is constructed. Because the ways in which misogyny and transphobia actually function are not tied down by any logic other than "stay in control." Demonizing queer&trans+ people for being "monstrous" for blurring the boundaries between (cishet) men and (cishet) women is like, alongside misogyny, a core part of how gender oppression works. Whenever people expect us to have the exact same experiences as cis people, whether based on gender identity or agab or socialization, they are trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

[variousqueerthings]

what's interesting is that portrait of a lady on fire felt so mindful of its attitude towards queerness and womanhood and queer womanhood and above it all: the act of watching and the power structures thereof

and then going back to watch tomboy and expecting the same was fuckn tonal whiplash in how voyeuristic and totally unaware of its position in a structure of films about objectifying and terrorising gender non-conforming bodies it was

it does make me a little more wary of sciamma films (although tomboy is now 11 years ago) than I would have said I was after portrait, when I thought I could go back and trust her telling of other stories/assumed she had that same eye for queer characters generally. granted the difference can be put down to literally becoming a better, more aware film-maker, but one cannot say if it's not partially because the characters of portrait aren't gender non-conforming

[lesbianutena]

one thing i am so grateful for in utena is that it refuses to demonize gender nonconformity or butchness… so many stories with a character like utena would present her wearing the rose bride gown at the end as a Positive Good because “Let Women Be Feminine!!!! and wear dresses and makeup and skirts!!!!!! #girlboss!!! 👛👗🎀🛍💄”

it is rare to find media that includes masculine women/gnc people to begin with, but it feels like stories which present our existence with any nuance beyond “just a phase” or “toxic masculinity” or “man hater” are all but nonexistent.

and yet the first arc culminates in utena trying to conform, trying to be normal, trying to be feminine — not because some teacher dress-coded her with a written rulebook, not because she realized that her gender-nonconformity was ~a phase~, but because she was manipulated in a much subtler and damaging way. she was told over and over again that she could never be good enough as a “prince”, that she could never have agency or fall in love with a woman or try to protect the people she cares about, because she’s a “girl”. and that arc resolves thanks so much to the love of other queer women: wakaba loves her enough to call her out when in any other story she would be giving her the “makeover”. juri gives utena her sword from one gnc person to another when in any other story she’d be the mean bullying lesbian who’s #notlikeothergirls. and instead of becoming the image of a good straight gender conforming woman, utena uses that queer love to reclaim her true self.

i love utena because she’s not a good, palatable gnc person. she’s not the palatable tomboy that’s gender-conforming in every way that matters and especially not a Gross Yucky Lesbian. she presents masculine. she acts in ways that are scolded (and admired!) for being too “boyish”. utena self-refers using masculine pronouns. she’s called “girl-boy” in a way that felt very true to my own experience growing up. she wants to be a prince, not a princess, and eventually she abandons those gender roles completely. she falls in love with a woman and loves her enough choose her, and enough for her to save herself. i just love utena.

[leikeliscomet]

A Brief Look at Stem(me) History

Wanted to know more about Black lesbian identities and I couldn't find a lot on Tumblr or Twitter so I did some research on stem/stemme myself. I'm not involved in queer discourse like that but I've noticed stemme being compared with futch both positively an negatively. The term "futch" is a mash up of butch and femme and the OG Futch Scale was posted 17th February 2011. In 2015, it got posted to Tumblr and became a meme, then an accidental "guide" on lesbian identity. Regardless of stances pro-futch or anti-futch I wanted to find info on stem/stemme as a Black lesbian identity for gender and gender expression. The modern definition of a stem/stemme is a Black lesbian whose gender expression and mannerisms fall between stud and femme. I've managed to find definitions not only supporting this but also definitions predating the futch scale, both pre and post meme version:

"Stem – A person whose gender expression falls somewhere between a stud and a femme.  (See also ‘Femme’ and ‘Stud’.)" Stud is defined as "An African-American and/or Latina masculine lesbian.  Also known as ‘butch’ or ‘aggressive’." (John Jay College of Criminal Justice LGBTQ+ Terminology, Eli R. Green, 2003-2004)

"Stemm A stemm is a gay/lesbian female who dresses like a guy, and dresses like a girl. Person 1: Look at that girl, she looks like a dude with all those guy clothes on, she has to be a stud Person 2: Well she was wearing girly clothes yesterday, so I thought she was a femm Person 3: Actually she's a stemm, she's wears boy clothes sometimes, and girl clothes other times" (Urban Dictionary definition of Stemm by user JenniferHill, November 8th 2009)

"A lesbian, who identifies as a Stemme, retains traits from both Femme and Stud/ Butch lesbians. Stemmes are in the center of the lesbian spectrum of classification and identities. Therefore, it is considered natural or common for Stemme lesbians to share the same behaviors as women of two diverse identity groups. Often times, the Stemme identity is viewed as the “transitional” stage of lesbianism, when a lesbian woman goes from being a Femme to a Stud/ Butch, or (on rear occasions) from a Stud/ Butch to a Femme... *In this blog the characteristic and behavioral difference between a Femme and a Stud is conjoined. The way a Femme or a Stud dresses is not the only way she can be identified. They can also be distinguished by their attitudes, actions and the way they interact with other people. A Stemme is the in-between identity of a Stud and Femme. She is apart of both groups and her identity is subject to change at anytime. A Stemme identity is often referred to as the transitional stage; however, some lesbian women remain a Stemme because they enjoy representing male and female dominance." (Lesbian Identity: Stemme, Nell S., 6th Nov 2009)

"'one who could switch up one day, she could be a femme and other occasions dress like she has a li’l hood, li’l ghetto inside her; a stemme –  part femme part stud a tomboy'" (STORY OF INTEREST: Lesbian Speaks Out, Dominica News Online, April 12th 2010)

"Stemmes presented themselves one day as femme and another day as stud; as such, they were visibly unrecognisable unless they divulged their gender identity. Stemmes expose the amorphous nature of gender identity and are invisible – silenced, ostracised or prescribed a gender identity. Many participants refused to recognise that stemmes existed and instead described them as confused. As Shane (age 22) admitted: ‘Sometimes they [studs and femmes] think that we’re confused. We don’t know what we want to be.’ Stemmes show that personal identity claims were often at odds with community perceptions of identity." (Good gay females and babies' daddies: Black lesbian community norms and the acceptability of pregnancy, Sarah J. Reed, Robin Lin Miller, Maria T. Valenti & Tina M. Timm, 21st April 2011)

"Stem, described as a cross between or combination of stud and femme, is a label that was used to refer to a lesbian that presented both masculine and feminine traits and characteristics. Short Dawg said, 'A stem, for me, is a little mixture of a lot of different things. One day you can be super feminine, and the next day you can be not so feminine.'" (Labelling, Butch, Femme Dyke Or Lipstick, Aren't All Lesbians The Same?: An Exploration Of Labels And "Looks" Among Lesbians In The U.S. South, Danielle Kerr, 2013)

Videos

Who has it harder in the world of lesbians? [studs? stems? or fems?}, iRoqStarStemme, 10th Jan 2011

WTH is a STEM??, AmbersCloset, 1st Feb 2013

The Black Lesbian Handbook: The Stem, Channel 4, 9th Feb 2015

There's a lot more I found and I'll post each article and video separately because they all go into more detail but tl;dr;

Stem(me) is an identity coined by Black lesbian spaces

Stem(me) mainly follows stud/femme dynamics rather than butch/femme (but can reference it)

Stem(me) predates the futch scale meme

Stem(me) is defined by clothing but also behaviours, so it can be a form of Black gender expression or gender itself

[trans-bastard-dude]

oh great i saw something that made me mad, buckle up it’s rant time.

Transmedicalism is dumb. the idea that we have to tie shit to medical bs is dumb. you don’t need gender dysphoria to be trans, that’s fucking stupid

“but you’re making trans people look bad” we already look bad. being trans is a form of being queer. lgbt were called queer as a slur at the start, queer fucking means WEIRD. we are, in the society as it stands, fucking weirdos. own it. be the weird bastard you were born to be

“but being trans has lead to me suffering so much it must be a medical thing!” nah. you suffer because your situation is utter ass. i do not need to fit into your silly ass box to be trans, i’m me and me trans. you’re dysphoria and situation being terrible doesn’t mean everyone else’s should be.

the idea that dysphoria is needed to be trans is also dumb because like… cis people get it to. let’s say for example that a woman gets a double mastectomy due to cancer, she might feel like shit after and feel better after getting breast implants, that’s a form of gender dysphoria, but she ain’t trans is she?

and it only takes certain types of dysphoria and euphoria into account, like what about the tran gals who feel the most like women when they’re being tomboys? it’s all just so… STUPID

like come ON, why do i need to suffer to be? i suffer enough, let me be me. if you class your existence by your suffering, you will die a broken person. i do not need to suffer to be a man.

if you follow my page and are a trans med, truscum, whatever the fuck you call yourselves, leave and don’t let the door hit you on your way out.

may this post become a blocklist for all those who are sane as i am.

[dianels]

Willow 2022 In Memoriam (for now)

Willow 2022 is no longer available for legal viewing in any format, anywhere. We hope it will be resurrected at some point, somehow, but TPTB at Disney have given us no concrete reason or timeline to expect its return. (Jon Kasdan, the show runner, has tweeted cryptic messages but is not in a position to make key decisions, nor to share details.)

First and foremost, I grieve for kids who now will not have the chance to stumble upon this wonderful show with a diverse/queer cast on a platform with the reach of Disney+. I can’t express in words how much I appreciated being able to watch this show with my enby 11-yo kid. Of course I also regret losing the opportunity to build the fandom over time with new viewers, as the Princess Bride did after a lackluster box-office opening in 1987, and I feel so angry on behalf of the creatives who poured their efforts and craft into this project. But I grieve even more the potentially life-saving representation that young people might have benefited from, and I fear for the chilling effect Disney’s decision might have on greenlighting queer/diverse projects aimed at younger audiences in the foreseeable future.

On a personal note: Actor Erin Kellyman has mentioned in interviews that playing the role of Jade Claymore helped her work on childhood issues, and I feel similarly about what watching the show has done for me. I was raised in central Kansas in the 1970s and 80s, a gender-non-normative “tomboy” lacking any mainstream queer representation. I don’t recall even learning the words “gay” and “lesbian” in the queer context until high school, and of course when I did, they were corrupted by ridicule and shame. Fortunately, I had a very strong sense of self and managed to survive and to thrive as a lesbian as soon as I went elsewhere for college.

I grew up as a fan of all the Lucasfilm franchises (including the original movie Willow, released in 1988). While I identified with both Leia and Han to a degree (and shipped them), something always felt off. There was something lacking in that magical Lucasfilm world. It was not just overt queer and diverse representation; it’s also the case, for example, that the entire original Star Wars trilogy does not pass the Bechdel-Wallace test. The original Indiana Jones trilogy barely does. (Criteria: there must be at least two named women who talk to each another about something besides a man.) Willow 1988 is the rare exception in early Lucasfilm that satisfies the Bechdel-Wallace test without our having to squint. As a fan of the original Willow, I found that Willow 2022 matched its spirit brilliantly and expanded its potential in such interesting directions.

I can’t begin to say how much it would have meant to me growing up to have had Willow 2022 within the Lucasfilm universe, for all these reasons. I really believe that a series like this would have changed the whole trajectory of my life - I am turning 50 soon - even when I count myself so very lucky to have had a supportive family and a strong sense of self. I am grateful that the first season of Willow 2022 exists at all, and it truly has propelled me to do a lot of important healing work around the childhood trauma of growing up queer at a time and place that was totally lacking in positive mainstream representation.

But it’s not enough: Willow 2022 should be made available for legal viewing in some form as soon as possible to keep saving lives and changing lives for the better.

[king-k-ripple]

Some LGBT+ Animals I Painted to Prove Queerness Exists in Nature

These animals have the color palettes of the flags their sexualities genders or gender expressions are based on.

Literal Otter (the term otter refers to a gay man who is small and thin but also hairy):

Gay Male Penguin (gay male penguin couples often adopt baby penguins)

Transgender Clownfish (male clownfish can turn into female clownfish)

Literal Bear (the term bear refers to a gay man who is big (fat or muscular) and hairy):

Twink Ruff (male ruffs have their equivalent of twinks known as satellite males who are less masculine than traditional male ruffs, but aren’t exactly feminine either)

Femboy Ruff (yes, male ruffs also have their equivalent of femboys known as faeder male ruffs, ones that look similar to female ruffs but have just enough in their physical characteristics to be distinguishable from their female counterparts (I guess “Astolfo level” feminine if that makes sense)):

Tomboy Lion (female lions sometimes grow manes just like male lions)

Black Caiman (not sure if this animal is queer, but I wanted to represent queer activists of color as symbol of appreciation, as they significantly helped shape the LGBT+ rights movement we have to this day)

Asexual New Mexico Whiptail Lizard (they reproduce asexually) and Intersex Hyena (birthing hyenas have “pseudo penises” instead of vaginas)

Bisexual Bonobo and Lesbian Dolphin (they engage in same-sex intercourse)