Her Majesty

Do you know what its like to be trans?

[Comic description: A comic about being trans. Long descriptions follow.

1. A light-skinned trans woman with shoulder-length brown hair stands at her bathroom sink wearing a T-shirt with a fish on it, draped so that her left shoulder hangs out. The text reads, ‘Let me teach you, what its like to be trans.’ 2. A blister pack of unlabelled pills sits next to this are two prescription bottles, one of Estrodial and one of Spironolactone, the latter of which is on its side with pills spilling out. The text reads, ‘What it’s like to spend years of waiting / For the right people to tick the box to tick the box to say your sick enough to get treatment. / Treatment to be you.’ 3. The woman brushes her teeth while looking at a tablet propped up by the sink. The text reads, ‘Do you know what its like to be a prop for political power? / To know they Dont actually care?’ The word ‘actually’ is underlined. 4. The woman sticks her tongue out in concentration as she works on the clasps of a bra behind her back. The text reads, ‘Do you know what it’s like? Do wait years for your body to change?’ 5. The woman starts shaving her cheeks and chin, which are covered in cream. The text reads, ‘What its like to work (emphasis) so (end emphasis) hard to overcome every toxic gender norm?’ 6. The woman touches her own shoulders with an unhappy expression. The text reads, ‘To take stock at the damage puberty has done?’ 7. A bottle of nail polish lies on its side dripping onto the counter. Polish has been splashed against the wall. The woman’s hands are visible in the sink, with just her right thumbnail painted. The text reads, ‘Do you know what its like? / To paint your nails only to see how disgusting your hands make you feel?’ 8. The woman bends over the sink, with her eyes shut and tears streaming down her face. The text says, ‘What its like, To do your makeup wrong / and see every feature you hate (emphasis) highlighted (end emphasis)?’

9. Fully dressed with a bag on her shoulder, the woman stands in her doorway with the door open and light streaming in. The text reads, ‘Do you Know what Its like to go outside? / When all it takes is one person to think that you are large enough danger to childrens lives to end yours.’ 10. The door is closed. A single point of light streams in from the peep hole and hits the woman’s head. She has one hand on the door and is looking down at the doorknob with a sad expression. Her bag lies on the ground beside her. The text says, ‘It paralyzes you.’

If you really need to talk about how guilty you are, how much you suck for being white, how you need to make more of an effort, go make your own post. Several Black trans women have used this post's tags and reblogs to speak about their own experiences being ignored in these spaces. When you fill this blog's reblogs and tags up with your "sorry for being white and sorry for ignoring them," you are covering up and speaking over their experiences in order to try and feel better about yourself. You are still prioritizing yourself in a conversation that is explicitly not about you.

I try not to overreact but being surrounded in a room of white trans girls who might carelessly take any given action out of annoyance or disinterest with me will kill me

All it takes is a few words, I know all too well how fragile these things are

Everyday the bits of home I managed to hold onto seeps out of me and more until I hear myself unable to speak my own language properly

I search a top to bottom for a face of melanin and see not one

A new white girl gets added to my inner circle and I sigh

I only manage to speak my language for laughs because I can't imagine being taken seriously in it thanks to the Internet

Being racist is always so much more difficult than calling it out

Begging to find someone like me used to get the chains around my neck pulled tighter

Now that those chains have fallen loose I find it's my options themselves that have become restricted