#the man is queer

[project-zorthania]

*kicks down your door* Did you know they made Basim queer in AC Mirage? No, I'm not joking, hear me out for a sec-

As you may know, there are various side quests that you can complete in and around Baghdad as Basim.

One side quest in particular requires you to speak to a writer named Al-Jahiz who tasks Basim to locate and return 6 lost books to the House of Wisdom.

The final book located at the central palace "Al-Sikkit" is written by a historical poet named Abu Nuwas who was famously known for writing poetry exploring themes of homosexuality.

If you hover over the book in your inventory, Basim has this to say about its contents.

you're kidding me.

[the-trans-man-with-no-plan]

one time i was in an olive garden bathroom and my packer fell out of my shorts and this ten year old boy just looked at me with absolute terror and without thinking i said "that's what happens when you don't eat your vegetables" later i saw him eating salad at a speed no human should be capable of

[morbidcrow24]

crazy how people assume trans guys dont know if we had short naturally coloured hair and a basic style we'd "pass better." "you want tips on how to pass? no more fun piercings, jewelry, anything feminine, dyed hair, nail polish or nice things for you!" thanks but I choose joy and whimsy x

[mygaythoughtsblog]

Dionisio (@ThisIsDionisio)

[queerism1969]

[shermangiftbasket]

heres a comp of all the kissing I caught at tboy wrestling 😗

[yellowyarn]

Actually, the "F" on my passport is for faggot, not female.

[killjerry]

When will Gen Z stop feeling threatened by ftms for identifying with the lesbian community, calling themselves lesbians, calling themselves male lesbians, ftm lesbians, lesboys, etc. Go to a lesbian bar please.

Gender and sexuality is weird. Telling ftm lesbians to "identify as nonbinary" is weird. Some people just aren't nonbinary, they're ftm and lesbians. Who are you to tell someone how they experience their gender and sexuality?

Lots of people make the argument that "identifying as contradictory labels invalidates everyone." Other people's identities are not invalidating your own. Your validation doesn't depend on how other people who don't know you exist. There is no wrong way to identify or express your gender.

[genderqueerdykes]

from Original Plumbing, a publication for and by transmasculine people.

What's your favorite part of being a transsexual?

"While I often wish I was born a bio boy and didn't have to go through all of this, it's more often that I find it a blessing to have lived and experienced both sides of life, sex and gender and get to play in-between. To have been a girl, a woman, a lesbian, a dyke, a tomboy, a 'questioning', a boy, and now a queer man is pretty amazing and fucking hot!"

[our-ftm-experience]

any transition guide that tells you to 'slim down' or lose weight in order to pass is full of shit. you do not need to lose weight to pass. let me say this again. you do not need to lose weight in order to pass.

your masculinity can and will be recognized without needing to lose weight.

[boytransmission]

I kept mishearing a lyric from Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” and this is what it said to me

Top surgery fund!!!!!!!!

[gobs-stuff]

kintsukuroi, "to repair with gold"; understanding the piece is more beautiful for having been broken

a personal piece i used my body as reference 😵‍💫

[paintedhyenadogs]

Reminder that T doesn't make you more violent.

Reminder demonizing masculinity isn't good, for anybody.

Reminder that excluding trans mascs and trans men out of your discussions of trans issues is bad, actually.

Reminder that you shouldn't expect trans men to be "man but better", not bc of their identity as a man, but because of their classification as a human being and a complex being capable of both good and evil.

Reminder that bioessentialism is bad. Always.

[gor3sigil]

Before starting T, when I socially transitionned, I was surrounded by radical feminists who saw masculinity as gross and inherently evil, something to avoid, something to make fun of, something to destroy. The other transmascs in my friend group, sometimes, told me that they didn’t knew if they really were non-binary or if they just were scared shitless of saying “I am a man”. Because they saw this as a betrayal to their younger self who had been SAd and abused.

I saw many of my masc friends and trans men around me hate themselves, not outing themselves as men because it would imply so so much, it was like opening the Pandora Box. Even when we were just together, talking about our masculinity was always coated with bits like “I know we’re the privileged ones but…”, “I don’t want to sound like I have it bad but…”, “Women obviously have it worse, but last time…” and we were talking about terrible traumas we experienced while taking all the precautions in the world in the case the walls were a crowd of people in disguise waiting to get us if we didn’t downplay the violence we faced, or like crying and being upset and being traumatized and afraid and scared and to say it out loud would make us throw up the needles we were forced to swallow every second of every day living in our skin.

Most of us weren’t on T yet, some of us were catcalled every day and harassed in the streets or in abusive relationships nobody seemed to care to help them get out of because they were “strong enough” to do it by themselves.

I was using the gender swap face app and cried for ours when I saw my father looking back at me through the screen. The idea of transforming, of shedding into a body that would deprive me of love, tenderness, and safety, was absolutely terrifying. I knew I couldn’t stay in this body any longer because it wasn’t mine, but I also knew that if I was going to look like my dad, my brother, my abusers, it would be so much worse.

5 years later and I’m almost 2 years on T, and almost 2 months post top surgery.

I ditched my previous group of friends. I was bullied out of my local trans community. But let me tell you how free I am.

I was scared that T would break my singing voice: it made it sound more alive than ever.

I was scared that T would make me less attractive: it made me find myself hot for the first time in my life.

I was scared that T would make me gain weight: it did. But the weight I put on is not the weight I used to put on by binging and eating my body until I forgot that it even existed. It’s the weight of my body belonging to me, little by little. The wolf hunger for life.

I won’t tell you the same story I see everywhere, the one that goes “I started going to the gym 8 times a week, I put on some muscles, I started a diet and now I look like an action film actor”, in fact if you took pictures of me from 5 years ago vs now I’d just have more acne, I’d have longer hair and still look like I don’t know what to do with myself when I take selfies.

But the sparkle in my eyes, my smile, tell the whole story way better than this long ass stream of words could ever.

I want to say some things that I wish someone told me before starting medically transitionning.

It’s okay to take your time. It’s your body, it’s your journey, if you don’t feel comfortable taking full doses and want to go slow, the only voice you need to listen to is your own. Do what feels right.

If you feel overwhelmed, it’s okay to take a break, it’s okay to ask for support.

Trans people are holy. Everyone is. You didn’t lose your angel wings when you came out because you want to be masculine. You are not excluded from the joy of existence, from being proud of yourself, from being sad, from being scared, from being angry. The emotions and feelings you allowed yourself to feel while processing what you experienced when you grew up as a girl and was seen as a woman are still as valid as before. Nobody can take that from you. If someone tries to, don’t let them.

It’s perfectly normal to grieve some things you were and had before you started to transition, like your high soprano voice or even your chest. Hatching is painful. You can find comfort in things that don’t feel right, so making the decision to change can be incredibly scary and weird and you deserve to be heard and supported through this. Wanting top surgery doesn’t make the surgery less intense, less terrifying, less painful to recover from. When it becomes too much you have the right to take a break and take some deep breaths before going on.

You don’t have to have a radical, 180° change for your transition to be acceptable or valid or worthy of praise. Look at how far you’ve come already. It doesn’t have to show, you’re not made to be a spectacle, you’re human and it is your journey.

Oh, and last thing, you know when some people say “Oh this trans person has to grow out of the cringy phase where you think that you can write essays about being trans or transitionning or just their experience because it’s weird” ? If you ever hear this or see this online, remember all the people whose writing you read and, even if they were not professional writers, helped you more than any theorists did ? If you want to write, do it. It won’t be a waste. It can help people. Or it won’t, and even then, if it helped you, that’s enough.

Love every of my trans siblings, take care of yourselves. You deserve the world.

[mygaythoughtsblog]

Ronney Rebelle (@saucyrio) & Martin Schmidt (@smith93marty)

[queerism1969]