Parenting Your Inner Child
I can’t tell you how many times my therapist would tell me that I needed to take care of my Inner Child. “I don’t understand what you mean,” I’d say. She’d retort, “Just like you did with your son!” (She thought I was an excellent parent. I wasn’t at all sure about...
Control and the Language of Freedom
For many survivors who live with violent and manipulative people, any inch of freedom is a privilege one had to earn. This control can limit survivors’ physical activities in the most obvious ways: From how trans and nonbinary survivors can present or publically...
Wearing a Mask Forever: What Happens When the Pandemic Ends and Your Reactions to it Don’t
I am fully vaccinated with a healthy immune system, but in spite of what the CDC says, I still wear a mask in indoor public spaces. This is one of many habits I learned in the pandemic that I am having trouble letting go of, now that it may be drawing towards an end....
Trans Murders: Examining the Politics of Death
What if we’ve been wrong to focus so much on the murders of trans people? In a nutshell, that’s the question Laurel Westbrook asks – and answers – in their new book Unlivable Lives: Violence and Identity in Transgender Activism (University of California Press, 2021)....
Finding Gender Euphoria and Healing Through Riotous Hair Colors and Growling Clippers
Perhaps like many trans and nonbinary survivors who felt dysphoric and triggered in their younger bodies, I grew up hating my long mane of curly hair. One of the first things I did upon leaving the house that haunted me was shave it all off at 3AM with tasteless music...
Healing through Harm Reduction
A paradox at the center of healing is that sometimes the way that survivors soothe their pain can also harm them. For example, substance use provides an escape from pain, but can harm bodily systems like the liver, areas of life like relationships; and pose dangers...