the inner workings of a quagga

ryansallans:

For the past two years I have consulted with an organization in the development of online healthcare learning modules for medical staff working with the LGBTQI community. We have just reached the module on “Disorders of Sex Development” and I found an invaluable guide for helping to craft a module that is specific to our learning audience.

I know on tumblr there is much debate, rhetoric and musings regarding sex and so I thought the below section (page 33) from the guidelines might be interesting:

“A lot of unintended harm happens when people assume a Y chromosome makes a person a boy or man, and the lack of a Y chromosome makes a person a girl or woman. One physician educator had the challenging experience of trying to calm a 23-year old patient who had just been told by a resident that she was “really a man” because he had diagnosed her as having a Y chromosome and Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome.

It is true that in typical male development, the SRY gene on the tip of the Y chromosome helps to send the embryo down the masculine pathway. But more than the SRY is needed for sex determination and differentiation; for example, women with CAIS have the SRY gene, but lack androgen receptors. In terms of hormone effects on their bodies (including their brains), women with CAIS have had much less “masculinization” than the average 46,XX woman, because their cells do not respond to androgens.

Moreover, the SRY gene can be translocated onto an X chromosome (so that a 46,XX person may develop along a typical masculine pathway), and many of the genes involved in sex differentiation lie on the autosomes, not on the chromosomes (including WT-1 on 11, SOX9 on 17, and SF-1 on 9). Genes involved in sex differentiation can code for atypical proteins and thus intermediate level of function. For these reasons, some professionals now prefer the term “molecular sex” to “chromosomal sex” or “genetic sex.” “Molecular sex” seems to better capture the complexity.

And beyond the genes, a person’s sex development can be significantly influenced by environmental factors (including the maternal uterine environment in which the fetus developed).

So it is simply incorrect to think that you can tell a person’s sex just by looking at whether he or she has a Y chromosome.”

SOURCE:

CLINICAL GUIDELINES FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF DISORDERS OF SEX

DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDHOOD

Consortium on the Management of Disorders of Sex Development

Published August 16, 2006

First Edition

Copyright © 2006 Intersex Society of North America

ISBN: 0-9773201-1-1

awastrelmescalined:

things irrelevant to gender identity:

• your genitalia
• how you dress
• your mannerisms
• your interests and hobbies
• with whom you associate yourself
• your attitude
• your romantic and/or sexual preferences (or lack thereof)
• your personal values
• your gender presentation
• et cetera

things relevant to gender identity:

• gender identity

Aaah omg I just noticed that my arm hair is getting darker and thicker. Like all the new ones more on the inside of my arms are brown, not blonde. Aaaaaah

My voice has been cracking all day omg I hope it’s for serious not just me losing my voice lmao

cocksucking-accent:

(AKA “I should be doing homework but this really needs to be said and I didn’t stick it in my proposal because it felt like whining and I couldn’t find a proper place to put it but this has got to be out there somewhere.”)

It does. It really does.

It starts the very first time you realize you aren’t “normal,” and you turn to your first person and tell then that maybe, you know, if it’d be ok… Maybe they wouldn’t mind calling you Sam instead of Samantha? Or Joan instead of Joe? Or could they just use your initials, maybe? If it’s not too much trouble? And this person (whoever they are) thinks it’s a game. And they laugh, or they snicker, or they ask you why you would do such a thing. Because Joan is a girl name, and you’re not a girl. Why would you want to be one? So you apologize and laugh it off, but inside you’re not smiling.

And it happens again a couple of years later, when you find your way to the internet and make yourself an account in a kiddy forum and say you’re a boy. Your little display picture is a male anime character or another. And you grow to really like this community, until one day someone finds you out for one way or another. Maybe you were careless and let a friend see the site over your shoulder, and they joined. Maybe you started IMing with someone from the forum and they saw your display photo on your IM system, and it’s of a girl. Maybe you decided to go to a meet-up and everyone realizes you were lying. Because of course you are not who you say you are. So you apologize and laugh it off, and say you were just roleplaying. Or it was a joint account with a friend, and they left. Or you clicked the wrong gender when signing up and didn’t realize until people thought you were that gender and you kept it going because it was funny. But of course you can’t go back to the site now.

Again when you start dressing more androgynous, and when someone genders you the way you feel inside, your friends laugh and assure these people that you are not what you look like. That you really do have a dick. Would this stranger want to see it? ‘Cause they’ll pull it out for you if they have to. Hahaha, isn’t it funny that this person thought you were a girl? And you laugh and you apologize to this other person for looking misleading, but inside you are kicking yourself.

And then you come out. Hesitantly at first. You come out to a couple of close friends, and you say you may be genderqueer, and you don’t really know where you stand, but would they mind calling you “they?” And could they just call you Alex, or Cory, or Logan, which are all gender-neutral? And they say that maybe, I mean, it’s really hard, they’ve always known you as Alice and it’s going to be so super-hard to keep those pronouns straight. Hahahaha get it? Straight? Because you’re not straight if you want to be called Alex. You’re obviously gay or bi or something because straight people don’t switch genders. And you say it’s ok and you know it will take time and you don’t correct them even when they misgender you through the years and they call you the wrong thing in front of new friends or in front of your partners. And you apologize for picking such difficult pronouns and for putting them through this and asking them to switch over.

You apologize when you throw the gender ratios off in class and if only you were a girl you could be divided by gender and both groups would have the same amount of people. But, I mean. You don’t mind being with the girls, right? You understand them! Here, ehm, Rob. We promise we still think of you as a guy. But it will be so much easier if you just do us this favor and let us put you in the girls’ group. And you apologize for putting them through this.

You apologize for holding up the line at a gay club because the bouncers are convinced that your ID is a fake. And when you get out at the end of the night and they’re still there, you ask them why they thought it was fake, since it’s brand-spanking-new and you just got it, with the right name and gender, this past month. And they ask you if you’re trans. Oh, you are? Well, that explains it. It just didn’t look right, you know. The font is too thin.

You apologize when you wear a dress and grow your hair out and wear make-up and they still call you Andrew because it’s so hard for them because you will always be “he” to them.

You apologize for going into the right bathroom.

You apologize for mentioning that not all men have deep voices.

You apologize for knowing about periods.

You apologize for having a period.

You apologize for not having a period.

You apologize for being tall.

You apologize for being short.

You apologize for passing.

You apologize for being read.

You apologize for fucking existing and taking up space that you have no right to because you’re a filthy trans person and should just let cis people go ahead and walk all over you.

You apologize for wanting the same rights everybody else has.

And then? Then you have to apologize for not speaking up, because it’s not like cis people could have guessed that you were having issues with housing, or with pronouns, or with the bathroom, or with surgery, or with anything at all. Because you should be both unnoticed and a banner child. Because you should let everybody know you are here in case you make them uncomfortable, or in case they do something that’s fucked up and that screws you over. Because it’s not like you were supposed to see that. If they had only known you were there, they wouldn’t have done it. But oh my gods stop talking you’re always talking about how hard you have it why aren’t you just thankful about the stuff we’ve given you.

So you apologize for being.

jonahime:

TOM JUST TOLD ME ABOUT HIS JUNK GETTING BIGGER. HELP

cackles

jonah thinks my legs are getting a little bit hairier?

i think they might be right

For the first time in my life, I ate a whole burger in one sitting

Thanks testosterone lmao

Anonymous asked: You are always good enough. You deserve your pronouns. You're a lovely person.

aw gee thanks anon ;v; 

is it too early to be assuming it’s T that’s making my skin so oily and awful 

hint: it’s this guy

qquagga:

transcreature:

[TW warning: anti-trans bigotry and violence]
The following is a piece I wrote for a zine, QUAC , about the topic of Queer Violence

Queer People Not My People

I expected to lose a lot transitioning from a gay identified boy to a trans woman. I’ve lost family, once-called “best friends”, and the ability to find a man on A4A for some anonymous one night stands. What I didn’t expect was the loss of queer communities as a safe space for me. I once idolized queer spaces, now I always enter them in trepidation, even the ones I’ve helped build and maintain. I write this piece still reeling at how much anger I felt last night, still picking out the tear-dried clumps of mascara from my eyes. It’s the slow realization that I am often the only trans woman in the room, and that queer people love throw around my identity as part of their little acronym, but would rather not hear from me.

Read More

read the shit out of this