Happy Pride. Stay safe. Take your hormones. Hydrate. Do you identify as trans, non-binary, or a cis ally? Let me know in the comments how your experience of queer culture has evolved over the last five years.
Historically, there has been "LGB without the T" infighting—an ugly, misguided attempt by some gay and lesbian folks to gain mainstream acceptance by throwing trans people under the bus. You see it in the rhetoric of "drop the T" and in the insistence that trans athletes are a threat to women’s sports. mature shemale gallery
The good news? Those voices are the minority. The vast majority of the LGBTQ+ community understands that our liberation is intertwined. You cannot protect gay marriage while allowing trans medical care to be outlawed. Bigots don't distinguish between a lesbian in a suit and a trans man in a binder. We are living in a moment of hyper-visibility for the trans community. On one hand, we have "Pose," Elliot Page, and trans influencers with millions of followers. On the other, we have record numbers of anti-trans bills in legislatures, bans on drag (which targets trans expression), and health care restrictions. Happy Pride
These are not the same thing. A trans woman who loves men might identify as straight. A non-binary person who loves women might identify as lesbian. However, because trans people face similar types of oppression (discrimination, violence, and family rejection) as the LGB community, we have historically banded together for survival. Hydrate
Trans culture has its own lexicon (egg cracking, passing, clocking, T4T). It has its own rituals, like the "gender reveal party" (the ironic, trans-owned version, not the forest-fire-starting kind). It has specific art forms, from the dysphoria-laced poetry of Alok Vaid-Menon to the joyful photography of Zackary Drucker.