Coming out is hard, and coming out as trans is even harder. As trans folks, we have to do it in a way pretty much nobody else ever does.
This week on #StainedGlassWoman, we're looking at the rhetoric of How To Come Out Anywhere, so you can feel a little more confident when you invite the people you love into a deeper relationship with you.
@2d My stuff isn't aimed at minors, I should say--it's not that they can't be used by minors where appropriate, just that there are many fewer resources for folks figuring their stuff out later on.
We really need to educate people on statistical reasoning and mixed methods research...A RANT THREAD (1/?)
Okay, so, cards on the table, I am published as a mixed methods, social science researcher and have helped co-author multiple reports on LGBTQIA+ public mental health and community experiences. Let's just say, I ain't no amateur on this topic.
So, something that drives me nuts in conversations about trans healthcare and especially trans youth gender-affirming care is that people don't understand basic statistical reasoning.
One of the parts of this that clicked for me today on why so many arguments frustrate me is that people don't actually understand how sampling works and how we reason from a specific sample in a study....
One of the critiques that often comes up about trans healthcare, especially for trans youth healthcare, is that most studies are on small sample sizes.
Most people take this to mean they are not generalizable, rigorous, or robust results because often we are thinking something like: "It was a study of 100 people but there are 8 billion people on the planet, that's such a small portion that there could be huge biases." This is good reasoning in most cases. If we want to claim something is helpful, effective, safe, or true of 8 billion people, you need to up that sample size big time.
But that's not the frame for trans healthcare. The frame is "trans people," which is probably somewhere in the ballpark of 0.5% - 2% of the global population depending on study and definitions. So, we're already down to a population of 80 million.
Now, let's get more specific. Most studies aren't generalizing to global trans populations but specific country or regional populations that are going to share more cultural, material, and social conditions. So, for example, US population is 300 million, so our trans population we're generalizing to is 3 million. The thing is, we know how distribution curves work in populations and at 3 million people, you actually only need a few thousand to be able to accurately generalize to 99.7% of that (depending on a range of factors, could be even lower or higher).
Now, let's focus in more: most studies aren't making claims about even the whole trans population or even the whole trans youth population: they are making claims about trans youth served at a specific clinic or health system.
Have you filed a snitch report yet with the Utah site?
"Apparently Utah's solution to people feeling unsafe in restrooms is to encourage folks to take photos of & focus extreme attention on the private parts of others who are taking care of a biological need to eliminate waste?" https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/utah-auditor-slams-legislature-for #Trans#Flood#Slam
"Rowling seems to have strayed outside the mainstream consensus that says opposition to trans rights is perfectly acceptable (no one objected to Rowling lobbying for trans women to be banned from women’s bathrooms), but only if cloaked in a guise of reasonable concerns and polite-seeming language. When hostility, anger, and hate is expressed openly, it transgresses this boundary."
Great piece. Really liked this segment that captures the heart of it.
A woman gains nothing when JK Rowling is gratuitously cruel to random trans women on the internet. It doesn’t gain a woman equal pay, opportunities in sport, protection from sexual violence or protection from misogyny. In fact, many women would say their experience of misogyny has increased markedly at the hands of Rowling fanboys. She is hurting real people, people who just want to live their lives in peace in order to claim some hollow victory by destroying all around her.
One year ago I stepped outside as Nora for the first time, to attend a small local parade. I was so nervous and uncertain, just a few months into my surprise gender journey.
This year I returned to the parade so much more confident in the person I’m becoming. Now I’m practically reveling in the uncertainty of the future, because whatever happens, I get to meet it as my true self.
We're working for a world where our organisation doesn't need to exist, but for now we're very much needed. If you're not already signed up as a monthly donor, you can join our group of monthly donors by going to the link in our bio, finding the 'support TransActual' section, clicking 'donate to TransActual' and clicking the donate button at the top.
Can hear my cousins husband chatter with his little kids as they feed and water the pigs a ways off from my camper, through my open window. They all knew me as Deadname.
Anyways, the 6yo is telling dad about how Lucía showed them a garter snake and a blue tailed skink living under a board, and how I told them to look but don't try to catch the lizard because it will easily lose it's tail, and this leaves them vulnerable. I hear them all talking about Lucía and "she", and it's so nice that they are doing this even when I'm not around, not visible or visually within earshot.
@TheOtterDragon I'm super happy they listened to me about not catching it. Lots of lizards don't drop their tail if you yell too loud (hyperbole), but this one does.
Help #trans people. We're doing an educational video and need the help of a #voice actor. Must do American accent of some sort, and ideally an older person. If you are willing to help, please #volunteer by pinging us here. #transrightsarehumanrights#video
@trans_rescue are you looking for professional voice actors or would someone who is just experienced with public speaking and willing to give a try work?
“I want to tell you a story. The words I want to say have not been created yet. I can only show it to you by how I dress, the way I flatten my chest. I'll give you an indication of what to call me.”
0/10 do NOT recommend two days in a row of hour long electrolysis sessions.
.
.
I don't think I have the stones to do this once a week for a year or more. 😜 (#trans humor)
@WrenArcher yeah, i used to do 2-hour sessions once a week, and it got to the point that i was depressed and discombulated for almost a third of the week. I switched up to every other week, which was easier and tuen eventually had to go to once a month because i just couldn't. If it gets too rough, definitely suggest pacing yourself because it will make it more manageable.
Either that, or find one of the places that provides numbing shots and does several hours at a time. My insurance threatened to not cover my care if I did that since technically the shot would be out of network, but i've known folks who do that out of pocket and say it's so much better and absolutely worth it.
Anyway, solidarity in the zappy stab sisterhood 😖🫂✊️
It does get more tolerable over time. And it helps if your electrolysis technician understands that managing your pain/tolerance is the highest priority, followed closely by not damaging your collagen and keeping your skin healthy.
#Trans girls go through an awkward phase. We all do. It takes us a while to come in to our own... like a really long time.
But if you're lucky...
if you're lucky enough to have a trans woman in your life who let's you in and trusts you, it's an amazing thing to see and be part of as we become beautiful.
“Trans people aren’t a threat to anyone; hate born by ignorance is. All trans (including non binary) people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, no matter who we are and where we are at with our medical and social transition. Look beyond the hype and fear-mongering in the press. Become the representation you want to see yourself.” Fox Fisher
If the same people go after trans rights, gay + lesbian rights and women's rights, and if these people are always traditionalists working in the cause of a strictly defined social conservatism, then isn't the problem that a patriarchy wants to control the sexual lives and gender expressions of others, to restrict personal freedoms and to create incarcerating and incarcerated lives?
So today, I will have a teeny, tiny needle jabbed into my face a couple hundred times. With each stab it will have an electric current turned on to kill a hair follicle.
Yes... A single hair follicle. One hair follicle at a time, for an hour.
I am not looking forward to this at all. Not all trans women/transfemme people get electrolysis on their face but I am.
<sarcasm font>Let me tell ya folks... being #trans isn't all rainbows and unicorns 24/7 like you might think. </sarcasm font>
@WrenArcher@EmilyGB2023 A basic lidocaine cream is often available over-the-counter. I find Ibuprofen helps too. Also, if you're asked if you have a preference on the method, I suggest asking for thermolysis rather than blended, as it tends to be less taxing on the nervous system overall in my experience.
I did thermolysis. It's fast and the least painful, but a larger % of the hairs have to be redone (not many, though).
And with the numbing cream, about half the hairs I didn't feel, about 2/3ds of what I did feel the plucking them out hurt more than the thermolysis, and the rest the thermolysis was a bit worse than the hair pull. (Keep in mind the hair pull is also numbed, so it's not as bad as you'd think).
I also started with my jaw line, and like a tattoo the less fat the more the zap, you know?
