I altered my body during transition to feel safe. I altered my body to exist in a world in a way that allows me to move and connect with people. I altered my body because the world is not ready for a man without a flat chest or a man without a deep voice and an angled jaw. I however have always known my body to be enough- and it still is. Without surgery, I could never have worn a bathing suit in public or existed in a locker room- not ever. I could never safely be in a men's room honestly. It was not the surgery though, it was the subtle things like a hair-line or facial hair. It's the things that when a person looks at you make them look away with their assumptions intact. |
Dana and I met at the Michigan Women's Music Festival, a beautiful and controversial "women's only" feminist gathering that occurs each August. He camped next to me and my partner at the time and, by an odd chance, we all happened to live in Philly. A friendship quickly ensued and our partnership developed out of that over the course of the next couple of years. We continued to attend the festival together and found that community to be an important space for us both. It was an annual respite from feeling targeted as queers and as women and also served as a joyful and freeing space. We had friends who we only saw there, watched children grow from year to year, and both relished the functionality of existing in a cooperative, feminist community. |
