Trans Positivity Interviews
Noah’s Interview
What has been a joyful moment in your trans journey?
One joyful moment in my transition was the first time I got a haircut that felt like me. I was fourteen years old and decided to cut my hair “boy short” for the first time at the end of middle school. Even though in typical transgender fashion the haircut didn’t come out to the exact style I wanted, the joy of the new length overpowered any stipulations I had. Cutting my hair was the first big jump I made in my transition: it felt like jumping off of a cliff. I had no idea what was on the other side. But as soon as I made the leap, the fear was accompanied by a joy I had never known before. My mom tells the story that I ran around the house in bliss when we got home from the haircut.
What is your favorite thing about being trans?
My favorite thing about being trans is being in community with other trans folks. Finding trans friends and trans family has been the most meaningful thing in my young adulthood, and has opened me up to greater understanding about myself and the world around me. This community is so loving, so bright, so brave, and so powerful. When I am at my worst and when I am at my best, I am held.
Who is someone in your life who is supportive of you and your transness? What do they do to support you?
“My parents are a big support to me and my transness. They are both fierce advocates for me and have been since I came out when I was fifteen. With their help, I was able to get surgery, change my name legally, and change my sex all before I went to college and became an adult. Their support means the world to me, not only in terms of their love and kindness but in their commitment to stand up against the systems and places that can be so oppressive to trans youth (healthcare, government offices, school, insurance, etc). “
Jo’s Interview
What has been a joyful moment in your trans journey?
I think the first time I verbalized using entirely different pronouns from the ones I was assigned at birth. I was talking to a professor and I used pronouns that felt and feel trans to me. I almost cried talking to him because I was like, “this is something that was inside that is finally showing itself and verbalizing itself” in a way that didn’t even feel purposeful, it just felt innate.
What is your favorite thing about being trans?
I think the freedom of expression. Bodily expression. It feels like an autonomy that doesn’t exist for cis people. It feels like a lack of formal attention to gendered barriers in expression.
Who is someone in your life who is supportive of you and your transness? What do they do to support you?
My friend Noah has been one of the most supportive if not the most supportive person in my life throughout my journey with my transness. I would say they are the most loving, caring, but also forgiving figure in my life, as far as them saying, “you don’t have to fit these certain boxes of what we’ve been told it means to be trans and you don’t have to look or act a certain way to be trans. You can just be, to be trans.”
Ollie’s Interview
What has been a joyful moment in your trans journey?
One of the most joyful moments of my trans journey was the moment in which I saw my chest for the first time after surgery. Not just the first time I saw my chest but the first time I saw my chest in nature. That was a really beautiful moment for me because I really felt much more connected to the universe and to myself. Another moment that was really joyful was the day that I started T. I remember I was sitting in a restaurant with some of my close friends after I left the doctor and I did one of those videos, those “My name is Ollie and this is my voice one day on T” videos, and I just remember that being one of the most exciting moments that I had waited for for a really long time.
What is your favorite thing about being trans?
I think a lot about this quote that says something like “The joy of being trans is in the art of self creation.” And I feel very lucky to be able to create myself in the way that I see myself and be wholly (holy) who I am.
Who is someone in your life who is supportive of you and your transness? What do they do to support you?
I think my friends. Having meaningful conversations about gender, expression, and identity with the people that I love and the people that I’m close with have been some of the most affirming experiences that I’ve had.
Violet’s Interview
What has been a joyful moment in your trans journey?
I didn’t really have a good answer to this until literally last night. I went out with some friends to a frat party. Which is normally so not my scene because I normally feel so out of place there being a trans woman. But last night I got all dolled up, got into the party no problem, didn’t get clocked at the door thank god, and I had a good time hanging out with people. It kind of felt like I was just one of the girls for the first time ever. It was so scary though.
What is your favorite thing about being trans?
See this is a tough question because being trans does kind of suck all the time. But I guess a good thing (which is still kind of partially a bad thing) is that it has really forced me to be myself, in a way, in which I’m not forcing myself to live up to other people’s standards because I kind of just can’t. It’s not even possible for me. Not only does it let me be my own person, it makes me be my own person.
Who is someone in your life who is supportive of you and your transness? What do they do to support you?
My darling girlfriend, Gracie. They’re really sweet and supportive. They’ve always been with me for the past three years helping me out with transition things and always being really nice about my constant dysphoria and insecurities.
An’s Interview
What has been a joyful moment in your trans journey?
I think recently when I was at Bravetrails, getting to mentor younger trans people who I really saw a lot of myself in was really rewarding. I feel like I’ve had a lot of people like that in my life, trans people I look up to who have mentored me, so it felt good to give back and be a part of that lifecycle. Especially my Asian campers who said that they identified with me and we got to talk about being trans and Asian. That was really cool for me.
What is your favorite thing about being trans?
I feel like there’s a lot of things that I appreciate that cis people take for granted. Like, not even liking my body but even just feeling comfortable in it is something that I had to work really hard for, and that’s something a lot of cis people don’t even pay attention to. And my relationships: a lot of my circle is trans and that is really awesome. A lot of my close friends are trans, my partner is trans, so I feel those are really special relationships I wouldn’t be able to have if I was cis. Trans media and trans art is so cool, and I love getting to participate in that.
Who is someone in your life who is supportive of you and your transness? What do they do to support you?
Definitely all my friends. I don’t really keep transphobes in my life for logistical reasons. Having a trans partner is really awesome and really special. Amy, my cis roommate who puts in so much effort to understand trans people. Like she’s watching Alex Bertie. She’s watching Miles McKenna. She’s like, number one ally. She really puts in the work and it shows. She knows what an egg is. She’s literally in the community and she’s the most cisgender person ever. But she is such an ally.
Elya’s Interview
What has been a joyful moment in your trans journey?
This summer, I worked for the second time at a summer program for high school students which has, over the years I have been involved in the program, been incredibly influential in my gender. This specific moment I’m thinking about was having a conversation about gender with a friend of mine who is ten years older than me, but I feel like we have very similar relationships to our genders. It was really cool to feel like my experiences and my understanding of myself so reflected in someone else, and to see myself externalized in that way. Being able to connect with someone in that way and on that level, and through that being able to offer insight to this other person was really powerful. This person is older than me, has transitioned more than me (whatever that means). In many ways it felt like the dynamic was set up to be a mentor/mentee relationship, but it actually felt very reciprocal. Even though there were things they externalized in a way I hadn’t, they were still really present in both of us.
What is your favorite thing about being trans?
I feel like I’m struggling to separate what is good about being trans and what is good about knowing that I am trans. I just started student teaching and I have to be professional in my dress. I finally have professional clothing that I feel really good about and that is so cool and exciting. It feels so bizarre to be like, “oh it’s possible for clothing to feel really good and exciting.” And it makes sense to be the clothes I’m wearing, and makes me feel more comfortable rather than less comfortable. So I don’t know if that’s my favorite thing about being trans as much as it’s a good thing about having figured it out.
Who is someone in your life who is supportive of you and your transness? What do they do to support you?
It’s interesting because I mostly only talk to trans people. So in that sense, they’re all supportive of me. I also have my mentor teacher, who is very much a cis straight woman (like so very much). That’s been an interesting experience because at the school that I’m in, even though it is the least trans place I’ve been in in a long time, it's the place where I feel the most trans in the sense that there aren’t other trans people, I’m out very explicitly as trans. I’m using they/them pronouns, using Mx (kind of, allegedly), and the school messed up my name everywhere (of course). So I’m like, really doing it. But my mentor teacher has been very lovely and since day one has been like, “Let’s do this, I support you, I’ll fight my coworkers if they’re mean to you.” I am so bad at correcting people and she is so good at it. She’s very aggressively supportive even though she only knows the DEI training 101 information about transgenderism. It doesn’t feel powerful in the way that having community with trans people feels powerful, but also it would feel way worse if she was weird about it.