Saturday Highlights at Queerly Trans? (May 21, 2022)

Because your editor went and fell asleep before he could write and publish the Friday Highlights 😱

Due to a freak hail storm that had covered his entire backyard in little Styrofoam bits that he had spent a significant portion of the previous night cleaning up, your editor was very low on sleep yesterday. After another very long day of preparing his house to sell, he passed out sound asleep without writing and publishing his Friday Highlights for Queerly Trans. He is horrified, embarrassed, and very sorry!

Thus, this week, we have our special Saturday Highlights edition at Queerly Trans, because we still have a full week of fantastic stories that we absolutely must bring to your attention ASAP! Upset that you had to wait a whole extra day for the our Queerly Trans weekly highlights? Be sure to subscribe to Queerly Trans, so that you get all of our writings quicker!

Before we get to the list of fabulous writings we have to offer, both of your Queerly Trans editors want to share this call to action for our next Writer’s Showcase. Writers, we want you to write about your favorite Queer Trans representation and post a link in the comments of the article below by May 31, so that KP_the_writer can promote your work! Readers, prepare to be amazed by the coming articles about our favorite Queer Trans literature and media!

This week’s writings at Queerly Trans:

Jymi Cliche shares more of his incredible life story in the powerful writing “The Journey from Then to When”. Follow him on his experiences witnessing a gang war involving his close artistic friends. Learn about some of the medical challenges he faced that were unique to his intersex experience. Then, follow his journey from a marriage born in a psyche ward to building a separate life with another set of partners in a happier polyamorous constellation.

“Add in the fact that I was hanging out with criminals who were literally at war with other gangs all over Boston, and I was drowning in legitimate paranoia which drove me to madness. I had two full-blown psychosis breakdowns where I thought I was the Godchild, sent to save the world, and I was petrified that I’d fail.”

Jenny Starr✨ is guaranteed to make you laugh with an adorable poem about the spork invasion called “Kewler Kutlery”. We know you will enjoy this witty metaphor for her trans feminine experience! Like much good comedy, there are some subtle serious undertones here that you may find on a closer read.

“I wondered aloud, where do you now live? The silverware drawer doesn’t have any give.

There’s a place for the forks, all pointing and free. A spot for the spoons as pretty as can be.”

Yours truly has also offered a glimpse into the bizarre lengths he has gone to in order to escape misgendering during his transition in “The Weird Shit This Trans Man Has Done to Avoid Misgendering”. Have you ever done anything this strange to affirm your own gender?

“First, I was going to buy the ladder and bring it to my car. As I was carrying it through the store, I kept remembering questions about paint that I’d been meaning to ask employees. As I stopped to ask people these questions, I quickly noticed that carrying a 6-foot ladder automatically made people read me as a man.”

In a post called “A Loss for the Queer Community”, Jymi Cliche returned later in the week to share a heartfelt eulogy for a queer activist who he deeply admired: Urvashi Vaid.

“Urvashi was a powerful human rights activist, feminist, and author of at least a couple of non-fiction books. They were some of the only books I could find on queer culture when I was studying it in the mid-90s.”

Queerly Trans Readers and Writers:

Have you read a queer trans writing on Medium that really touched you? Something that you want to share with our community? Feel free to leave a link to it in the comments, so that I can feature it in the next, ahem, Queerly Trans Friday Highlights!

This week’s nominations for the Queerly Trans Reader’s Showcase

Sieran Lane nominated the absolutely beautiful, tender, and heartbreaking poem “The Hollow Still Rattles” by Alistair J. Kraft. I was so glad ze drew my attention to it!

“days in the kitchen making lemongrass jam, planning a garden we know we won’t manage to save from squirrels, sitting quietly together with our books, you sketching, long legs crossed at the ankle, my fingers scribbling wild thoughts, spinning webs, looking up only to share a soft smile”

For my own Reading Showcase nomination, I wanted to offer you with one of my favorites from Kitty Whitemore, a heartwarming piece called “Imagine If Things Were Different For Transgender People”. It is a writing that is sweet but also heartbreaking in the simple asks that have often gone unanswered. I’m hopeful though that all of these dreams can come true.

“No need for a Transgender Day of Visibility because we would be seen. There will be no need for a Transgender Day of Remembrance because no one would kill out of hate or ignorance. No one would target transgender people. In my imagined future, hating transgender people would be akin to hating someone for being left-handed; ludicrous.”

This piece from 💜 Victoria Quinn 💜 called “Officially Coming Out Transgender: Results” gives me hope that we’re going to get there, so I’m going to leave you with this as a final reading recommendation:

“…my brother, who took to my name and pronouns immediately. He also had my favorite question of the night; asking if he should refer to me as his sister. Talk about gender euphoria.”

Did all of this magnificence inspire you to want to become a writer for Queerly Trans? If so, check out our guidelines here:

That’s it for this week! Don’t forget to follow and subscribe to Queerly Trans, so that you never miss any of our wonderful stories, poems, and artwork, especially if a certain editor is late sharing this information due to a Styrofoam storm making a royal mess of his backyard! 🤦‍♂️

Editors: KP_the_writer, Logan Silkwood

Writers: Ayven Alexander, Kai Arden, locke besse, Jymi Cliche, Justice Faye Dazzle, Nova Grace, Jaz Joyner, Emma Holiday, Alistair J. Kraft, Sieran Lane, Mx. Marie Chase Lewis (Fae/They), Stephenie Magister, Michelle Paquette, Amber Poe, Jenny Starr✨, Kai Stowers, 💜 Victoria Quinn 💜, Kristy Westaway, Anabelle Weissinger, Kitty Whitemore