One year on testosterone
I don't know if cis people understand how serious trans people are being when we say that gender-affirming healthcare saves lives. I might still be alive today if I hadn't been able to start testosterone, but I don't think I'd want to be.
The single letter that would erase my transness
If I die waiting for top surgery, forget burial – just drop my body on the steps of 10 Downing Street.
Building self-compassion as I become a trans adult
My future self reminds me that I already have all of his strength and grace and courage within me. I just need to breathe and remember how fucking badass I already am.
I'm not the only person in the room with pronouns
"I'm Quinn, my pronouns are he/him." I practice until it's second nature, until I can say it as though the idea that my transness might make people uncomfortable, angry, or even violent has never occurred to me.
My biggest achievement in 2022 was surviving
It's cliché to say 'it gets better' - and twelve months ago I wouldn't have believed that if you said it to me. But if the biggest thing you did in 2022 was just surviving, I see you. Me too.
Why do I write like I'm running out of time?
I worry that if I am not talking, tweeting, writing about what trans people are experiencing right now, there are cis people who won't know how bad it is.
Happy International Men's Day: do I have to feel guilty now?
I don't get to just sit back and tell myself that my transness absolves me from working to dismantle the cisheteropatriarchy, but I also don't have to feel guilty about being a man.
I finally recognise myself when I look in the mirror
I used to wrap my arms around myself as though I was trying to physically hold myself together. Now I put my hands in my pockets and hold my head high.
'I, Joan' is a celebration of trans love and trans power
The audacity of loving yourself without cis people’s permission can get you killed, but there is so much power in loving yourself.
Dear Quinn: why is the term ‘identifies as’ a problem?
I do not ‘identify as’ a man; I am a man. Those two little words, as innocent as they may seem, can sometimes feel like an attack on my masculinity.
