Pozonii

Marsha P. Johnson never called herself a trans woman--she called herself a drag queen, or a transvestite--yet we recognize the impact she had as part of trans history. Of trans women's history. There is so much effort to re-imagine her influence as being the one who "threw the first brick" at Stonewall and less effort to remember her as one of the co-founders of STAR, an org dedicated to the protection of sex working transvestites. (Which took influence from both queer orgs and revolutionary orgs like the Black Panthers). Whether it's a lack of terminology or her transness was not under such a narrow definition (the P. in her name stands for "pay it no mind" because when people asked if she was a man or woman she told them to mind their business, and said "I think of myself as me.")--she is part of trans history because drag history, transvestite history, female impersonator history, gnc history is trans history whether the participants would consider themselves trans women or not. It's transfeminine history.

Stormé DeLarverie, the person whose violent arrest sparked the Stonewall uprising, is described as a drag king, and as such, every publication--including queer coverage of her involvement--lump her in with cis women's history and never also transmasculine, despite the fact that while she didn't identify as anything to those who knew her, she preferred to be assumed to be a Black man. That's transmasculine history. That's lesbian history. These two histories are not mutually exclusive, yet we act like they are.

Leslie Feinberg described hirself as a trans woman--zie was trans and a woman. Queer coverage tries to decide whether that makes Feinberg a cis woman or a trans man. Neither. Leslie has influenced transmasculine history and transfeminine history, and has been part of women's history with hir feminism. Leslie was a pivotal voice in trans movements, and focused much of hir work on the overlap with "female" identity. Leslie has arguably moved the needle more for trans women than trans men due to hir focus on women, but those are not separate categories--victory for trans people of any type is a win for us all. Transmasculine history is not wholly separate from "women's" history.

Emi Koyama is responsible for popularizing the word "transfeminist" and was (and still is) a deeply influential voice in the trans and transfeminist movements. Emi is also intersex, and her identity has been used to discredit her status as a "real" trans woman. Her influence is in intersex history and trans history and women's history. These communities are not non-overlapping--Emi occupies all three!

Kate Bornstein has been one of the most influential trans theorists since the 90s, yet her work has been largely erased as time goes on. Her focus on nonbinary identity and attempts to break us out of a binary seems to be the cause of the strife. A writer, speaker, poet, whose work focuses on the overlap of many trans identities and the empowerment of the individual to find the language that suits them ought to be the single most talked-about style of transfeminism...and it isn't. Her name is fading from people's reading lists.

Riki Anne Wilchins created one of the most influential groups fighting against the exclusion of trans people from pride--and other queer events--alongside Denise Norris: Transexual Menace. She created the term genderqueer. She has written countless influential pieces about trans life and those of us who exist even in the margins of trans identity--and she wrote often about the overlap with nonconforming cis people, whether they later come out or not. She even founded GenderPAC.

Nonbinary people, intersex people, gnc people, genderweird--those who never had the language and those who didn't use it for whatever reason--are part of TRANS history. We do no one any favors to assign labels to people who didn't use them to legitimize their already-legitimate existence in our minds as part of the movement. And we do no favors to narrow our eyes and block the door until the folks who bled, cried, fought, and died for us--the trans community--call themselves what we prefer to hear.

The murder of Brandon Teena galvanized countless trans women. Trans men were some of the first to issue fundraisers for Miss Major when she first fell ill. There are so many trans people who do not see separate niche groups but recognize the collective under this big umbrella of transness--we desperately need for those groups to not be in the minority. Trans is a collective, not a club.

And what does trans men? Anyone who doesn't fit the cis narrative of gender.

Quotes from trans folks about what transgender means to them:

Our last post isn't moving

We had to spend many days in a hotel room after grandpa tried to force a haircut on our daughter because she is trans, she needs a new haircut to fix what he did to her.

On top of that weather has been shit, we keep getting blackouts and low voltage, our connection has been unreliable, we also have had our water supply cut alongside many other people in the neighborhood, the water company swears supply will be up shortly but we've been like this for over a week.

The blackouts spoiled our food and insulin, we need help getting insulin while we file for a refill with their healthcare.

We also want help being safe at home, grandpa is willing to go visit his siblings in back on his home town, don't see it as helping a transphobic man, more like helping a trans family feel safe for a while.

Our trans son has missed his last two weekly T shots, it is pride month, he shouldn't be depressed and spiraling due to dysphoria, please, help him.

And the mold is coming back full force due to the constant rains and humidity.

My partner is recovering from an ankle injury after his dad pulled his cane from him during an argument and my mother in law's sciatica and disc pain has been horrible, she needs to go to her doctor.

Im ashamed to say we're still unemployed, we do have a new student but our connection has been so unreliable i can't be sure to give a proper class if this continues.

Please consider helping us, maybe check the stuff we need on throne like some phones or the Ensure suplements, or the cart so we can carry water easier.

And my healthcare renewal notice came in, I need $138 to keep my healthcare please 🙇

Really, anything helps please please PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

$100/$800

Paypal kofi throne

We haven't made any of our goals this month, our son missed two weeks of HRT, we're still trapped with an aggressive transphobe, i lost my healthcare, and the water shortage keeps going.

I need my medication more than ever, we need to get water today and we have 5 days to pay $500 of rent.

Check our throne please, we could really use some diapers, the little shopping cart so we can carry water home with less effort, and please, we need a phone, if we had a phone I could have until midnight to make our payments instead of walking to the bank, it's easier for our chronic pain.

Please, anything helps!!!

Our last post isn't moving

We had to spend many days in a hotel room after grandpa tried to force a haircut on our daughter because she is trans, she needs a new haircut to fix what he did to her.

On top of that weather has been shit, we keep getting blackouts and low voltage, our connection has been unreliable, we also have had our water supply cut alongside many other people in the neighborhood, the water company swears supply will be up shortly but we've been like this for over a week.

The blackouts spoiled our food and insulin, we need help getting insulin while we file for a refill with their healthcare.

We also want help being safe at home, grandpa is willing to go visit his siblings in back on his home town, don't see it as helping a transphobic man, more like helping a trans family feel safe for a while.

Our trans son has missed his last two weekly T shots, it is pride month, he shouldn't be depressed and spiraling due to dysphoria, please, help him.

And the mold is coming back full force due to the constant rains and humidity.

My partner is recovering from an ankle injury after his dad pulled his cane from him during an argument and my mother in law's sciatica and disc pain has been horrible, she needs to go to her doctor.

Im ashamed to say we're still unemployed, we do have a new student but our connection has been so unreliable i can't be sure to give a proper class if this continues.

Please consider helping us, maybe check the stuff we need on throne like some phones or the Ensure suplements, or the cart so we can carry water easier.

And my healthcare renewal notice came in, I need $138 to keep my healthcare please 🙇

Really, anything helps please please PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

$100/$800

Paypal kofi throne

We haven't made any of our goals this month, our son missed two weeks of HRT, we're still trapped with an aggressive transphobe, i lost my healthcare, and the water shortage keeps going.

I need my medication more than ever, we need to get water today and we have 5 days to pay $500 of rent.

Check our throne please, we could really use some diapers, the little shopping cart so we can carry water home with less effort, and please, we need a phone, if we had a phone I could have until midnight to make our payments instead of walking to the bank, it's easier for our chronic pain.

Please, anything helps!!!

Guess what, folks! It's summer! And it's gonna be a hot one, because they all are, recently :(

Did you know you can lose about a liter of water, a gram of sodium, and 300mg potassium in an hour of profuse sweating? If you're working outside in the heat, or even just existing in a very hot and humid environment, you're gonna want to replace the electrolytes you're losing, and you're gonna have to be purposeful about it.

But electrolyte drink mixes, while convenient, are surprisingly expensive for what they are. So I'm going to give you a top secret recipe that you can whip up for literal pennies that will replace what you're losing in sweat.

1 liter of water

1/2 tsp table salt (about 1g of sodium)

1/8 tsp potassium chloride salt substitute (about 350mg potassium. NuSalt is a popular brand, it's sold near the salt at the grocery store. If you don't have this, replace 6oz (180ml) of the water with orange juice or eat something high in potassium, like a banana, each hour you're sweating)

6-8 tsp of granulated sugar (you do actually need this and not a no calorie alternative- sugar helps speed up the absorption of electrolytes in the gut. You can omit if using orange juice for your potassium source, though!)

Lemon or lime juice for flavor, optional

Mix together and drink 1 liter for each hour you're profusely sweating. Adjust your intake so that your pee is light yellow.

If you want to make this mix ahead of time, put 1x the recipe of salt, sugar, and potassium, along with unsweetened Kool Aid powder or crystalized lemon or lime juice, in a small baggie. I do not recommend putting multiple servings worth in a baggie, as the ingredients settle differently and you might not get the right ratio.

NOTE: like any electrolyte drink, it works better if you sip it instead of chugging. If you chug it, you end up pooping out a lot of your electrolytes, even with the sugar.