Image-Based Abuse and Trans Communities
What is image-based abuse? A recent study from the American Sunlight Project found that about 1 in 6 congresswomen have been the victims of sexually explicit “deepfakes.” Deepfakes are AI-generated images that appear real, and are often difficult to differentiate...
A short guide to feeling your feelings by someone who is not always good at feeling their feelings
At least once a day I tell someone that rumor has it feeling your feelings is good for you. I’ve read probably hundreds of books that assert that fact. I’ve experienced it myself. And yet, actually feeling my feelings is hard. Often it sucks. Sometimes it’s absolutely...
The power of writing shit down
“It is so important and necessary to document, period. If we don’t know where we’ve come from, we won’t have the full knowledge to take us where we need to go." - Qween Jean, in conversation with Raquel Willis (Revolution is Love: A Year of Black Trans Liberation). ...
Speculative Fiction as Medicine
Post election all I wanted to do was read and sleep. Not news reading or nonfiction reading or anything like that. At a minimum I wanted to escape and at best I hoped for medicine. I asked AI to recommend speculative fiction with LGBTQ themes. The first one I picked...
Making mistakes when we care for others and what to do about it
I’ve been writing versions of this over and over for months. To face the many challenges in our world today: climate disasters, violence, fascism, scarcity, and more, we are called to embrace community and connection. Mutual aid asks us to get to know the people...
The perfect trans educator does not exist
When I canvassed for the Human Rights Campaign in 2018, people would stop on the street to ask me questions about queer and trans identities. Sometimes they would tell me they “didn’t care what I did in the bedroom.” One woman put her hands over my head and prayed to...