Fuck Hate, Spread Love, Love Yourself

Here’s a little information about Testosterone! ✨ Testosterone is the cornerstone of testosterone-based gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT), which uses synthetic testosterone. No singular gender identity is required for testosterone-based GAHT. But generally speaking, it is commonly prescribed to trans men, and trans masculine, non-binary, and intersex folks.

Trans wlw can use any pronouns.

Trans wlw can be Gender Non Conforming.

Trans wlw can use terms like femme, butch, stud or chapstick to describe themselves.

Trans wlw don't have to "pass" to be wlw.

Trans wlw can be poc, fat, neurodivergent or have disabilities.

Trans wlw are worthy of love, respect and belong in the wlw community.

None of these matters are up for debate.

How many times have supposedly safe spaces turned out to be toxic, full of pick mes, and DOWNRIGHT DANGEROUS to some of us?

Let the cishet men wear skirts, you dont need to be able to visibly sort people into boxes. Requesting we stop allowing gender expression to blossom because you want to let your assumptions guide who you interact with instead of investigating.

"but ash, investigating can get us killed" yes im FIRMLY aware of that. Im not trauma dumping on this post but damn if i havent been in some situations where ive been put in danger trying to see if someones safe (they werent)

You probably have seen this flag around if you're active in online queer spaces.

I've seen many people, especially gen z on Tik Tok/Instagram call it a "furry pride flag" or even worse, a "beastiality/zoophilia flag"

Please, STOP.

This is the BEAR BROTHERHOOD FLAG.

This flag was created in 1992. It's older than me, and older than most of you on this app. It represents bears, an identity that belongs to gay men and their community, just like butch and femme belong to lesbians. However gay men identifiers usually describe a body type more than a way of presenting.

Bear describes a gay male who is usually chubby with a strong build and very hairy.

It has nothing to do with being attracted to animals.

Those are the two otter flags.

Otter is also a gay male term that describes a body type.

It has also nothing to do with being attracted to animals.

A quick reminder: Your vote is your voice. Don’t throw it away.

I know that it can feel like “politics” is this abstract, far away thing. But the decisions politicans make affect your everyday life in a profound way - especially when you’re lgbt+ (and/or part of other marginalized groups, like people of color or people with disabilities). Think about marriage rights, access to health care for trans people etc. - all those things are poltical issues that affect your safety and well-being.

- Learn about the voting process (Are you allowed to vote? When and how do you need to register to vote?)

- Keep up with upcoming elections (What are they about? Who are the parties/people you can vote for?)

- Read about the stances of the parties/people you can vote for, and think about your own stances (Don’t blindly believe that whoever your parents or friends vote for is a good choice. They may have very different priorities than you do, especially if they’re all straight/cis!)

With all my love,

(Image description: Valentino Vecchietti's design of an intersex inclusive Progress pride flag, overlaid with white and black text that reads "The future of pride is radically inclusive".)

"Intersex columnist and media personality Valentino Vecchietti designed the new rendition of the rainbow Pride flag. The flag was officially unviled by the advocacy group Intersex Equality Rights UK in late May, but has since spread virally on social media.

The proposed design builds on Daniel Quasar’s instantly iconic 2018 Progress Pride flag, which added a five-striped chevron to the left side of the flag representing LGBTQ+ people of color and the trans community. (Quasar’s design, in turn, was an update to the city of Philadelphia’s 2017 Pride flag, which added black and brown stripes above the six rainbow stripes.)

In Vecchietti’s rendition, a purple circle superimposed over a yellow triangle has been added to the chevron on the left half of Quasar’s design — an homage to the popular 2013 intersex flag designed by Australian bioethecist and researcher Morgan Carpenter.

The intersex community uses the colors of purple and yellow as an intentional counterpoint to blue and pink, which have traditionally been seen as binary, gendered colors.

There’s a deeper meaning behind the circle, too. In a 2020 video for Intersex Peer Support Australia, Carpenter explains that the symbol of the circle is “about being unbroken, about being whole,” adding that “it symbolizes the right to make our own decisions about our own bodies.”

It's really starting to feel like the whole 'rape isn't that bad' shit because people want to prove trans woman are more oppressed. Rape and murder statistics shouldn't be compared on which is worse, they should both be worked on equally :/ idk

Yeah, I get the sense it’s less that folks don’t view rape as being “as bad” as other forms of violence, and more that they don’t know it happens at all.

Invisibility is genuinely one of the biggest problems we face as a group, and it ties into everything; including acknowledgement of the violence we face, and even the studies that do exist around us specifically.

Folks who don’t talk about those statistics, or don’t factor them into their arguments, are definitely guilty of not listening to us or educating themselves on our experiences- but they aren’t guilty of actual rape apologism unless that’s what they’re doing.

That said, I went through the 2015 U.S. Transgender Study and pulled some of the statistics for sexual assault:

[The graph is measuring lifetime sexual assault by gender identity. 51% of trans men have experiences sexual assault in their lifetime, compared to 37% of trans women, with AFAB nonbinary folks experiencing the most at 58%.]

[The graph is measuring lifetime sexual assault among trans men by race/ethnicity. 71% American Indians have experienced sexual assault, which is the highest number; compared to 47% overall, and 52% of white people.]

There’s some other categories trans men & AFAB nonbinary people have higher rates of discrimination or violence in:

AFAB trans people in general are most likely to be denied HRT (32% of trans men, 36% of AFAB nonbinary folks).

Trans men (57%) are most likely to be denied surgery coverage, with the next highest being trans women (54%).

Trans men (42%) are also most likely to have negative experiences with healthcare providers, with trans women as the next highest (36%).

Trans men (31%) are most likely to avoid care out of fear, versus the next highest- trans women (22%).

Trans men (54%) have the highest rate of suicide attempts with the next highest being trans women (40%).

Nb folks (71%) and trans men (62%) were more likely to report having never or only sometimes been treated with respect by law enforcement than trans women (51%).

Trans men (52%) are more likely to experience problems with airport security than trans women (31%).

Trans men (75%) are more likely to avoid public restrooms than trans women (53%) and nonbinary folks (53%).

Obviously this doesn’t mean trans women don’t face “as much” oppression, or that we shouldn’t care about their oppression as much as- and in fact more than- we currently do.

1. “I feel like these numbers might be skewed” or “I find some of these hard to believe”

The 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey is linked in the post as the source for all of these statistics. It was published by the National Center for Transgender Equality, conducted as an anonymous online survey (available in English and Spanish), and included 27,715 respondents from “all fifty states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and U.S. military bases overseas”. All of this information (and much more) is available in the first few pages of the PDF.

If you don’t think these numbers match up with your expectations, ask yourself why that is. Think critically about what you did expect, and why- and then ask why you felt you should make that claim in the tags of this post rather than seeking out the “correct” information yourself. How much does it have to do with the exact expectation I was challenging in this post?

2. “I don’t like that this is framed as a competition”

Neither do I! In fact, I chose my words carefully in this post to challenge the idea that this needs to be any kind of competition at all. My point was, explicitly, to bring attention to issues that are often ignored- and ignored because people assume that transmascs cannot struggle “more” than any other trans group.

I went out of my way to clarify that none of this means anything about “who suffers the most” or “who needs the most support”. I went out of my way to make it clear that I was just drawing attention to some problems that deserve more attention, without pitting any group against any others.

So ask yourself- why did you think it was a competition? Why do you view a neutral, unrelated explanation of struggles unique to trans men & AFAB nonbinary people as a “challenge” to trans women?

[Alt: A reply to this post that reads “anon is literally transmisogynistic” END]

[Alt: A reply to this post that reads “trans men will make oppression a competition to get mad at trans women for talking about their oppression and then say trans women are the ones making it a competition. men are men, TME’s are TME’s </3” END]

This post never said trans women are the ones turning it into a competition. The original post specifically said that trans women’s struggles are just as important.

The problem isn’t trans women or trans men, it’s specifically people who refuse to let us speak about our own experiences without us prefacing it with “I know everyone else has it worse than I do” or constantly remind us how ‘privileged’ we are when we don’t make any disclaimer

The point of showing these statistics is to debunk the scarily prevalent thought that transmascs aren’t as oppressed as other trans people

It’s a thought that people of every gender minority hold, even other trans men!

If statistics about the struggles and oppression trans men face make you uncomfortable, that’s okay! But sometimes you need to think about why it makes you uncomfortable.

Suffering is not a competition.

the gay community did the same thing to bisexuals, just blatantly chased them the fuck out, and all these years later bisexuals are doing like twice as poorly as gays in every possible statistic.

Why? Intra-community biphobia!

This week we are talking about Queerplatonic Relationships, aka QPRs!

[ID: Two images with light yellow backgrounds, black text, and the TAAAP logo in the upper right corner. Both images show graphics of people engaging in various activities, such as dancing and talking. The first reads “Queerplatonic Relationships. Queerplatonic relationships purposefully blur the lines of commonly accepted relationship dynamics. They don’t fit into the categories of what is traditionally considered to be a friendship or a romantic relationship. Every queerplatonic relationship is defined by those participating in it, and therefore may look different, but they often include some level of commitment.” 

Interview With Jamison Green. Originally posted on Youtube, by Dr. Lindsey Doe.

TRANSCRIPT: [Jamison Green sitting on a couch, being interviewed by Dr. Doe. He is wearing a suit shirt and a black jacket, and has a grey beard.] JAMISON: When I first transitioned, I thought I was going to go get a sex change, then go home and mow my lawn. I did not ever imagine that my life would change at all, because already people- at least half the time, sometimes more- thought I was male. And so, I figured nothing was going to change, I would just feel more comfortable in my body. I realised that there were all these other people out there who were living in fear and shame, because of their differences. And I thought, that is not right. And so I said to them, I’m going to start using my full name in public, and I’m going to start talking about who we are. Don’t be afraid to change in all kinds of ways. Your self can change. [Jamison and the interviewer high-five.] INTERVIEWER: I’m impressed by what you’ve done. JAMISON: Thank you. END TRANSCRIPT.

Jamison Green was born in 1948. He came out as a trans man the late 1980s and made his transition public, for the benefit of others. He has been an activist since then, and led the FTM community after Lou Sullivan’s death.

His contributions to trans rights have been largely erased by mainstream narratives around trans history.