I actually hesitated to come out as a trans man because I worried about what it would mean for all my hard work as a feminist. Eventually I realized that NOT to come out, once I'd finally realized I was trans, would be much more harming to myself and any further work I might do. Continuing to perform femininity would actually hurt my stance as a feminist much more. Women - AFAB or AMAB - who hate men simply for being men - whether those men are AMAB or AFAB - are just as bad as men who hate women simply for being women. If anything, they're a tool of the patriarchy, not a weapon against it.

As a trans person, I’m now supposed to hate Dave Chapelle. That’s because, during his special The Closer, he said the words “I’m team TERF”. It’s because he defended JK Rowling. It’s because, I guess, a trans woman killed herself when she got abused on Twitter for defending him. …

As a member of Toastmasters International, I was asked to give an “icebreaker” speech of four to six minutes at my local club. The following is the speech that I wrote and delivered. Hi! I’m Sascz, which is short for Alexander, my legal name. I’m super nervous about giving this…

I am so sorry to read about Brian's death. I knew Brian very slightly from when I bought an item from his store and we had a very short correspondence. I was really rooting for him. The world is slightly less shiny now.

It's kind of funny (except not): even when people know I'm trans, they respond to me as if I'm male (unless they utterly reject my transition). I.e. all the same things you're talking about, primarily BEING LISTENED TO. And I feel so guilty because there are so few women in (compared to men, that is), and especially in my field (Information Security), and I have to say that I hesitated about transitioning to male just for that reason. I felt I was betraying women. These days, I just try to promote women, as you are doing, but I worry that it's not enough.

That's great to hear! Feel free to ask me any questions you might have.

When I began transitioning, and especially when I started taking testosterone, I expected some things to change. But there were some things that I thought I knew about myself that are no longer true, and that’s been the weirdest part of transitioning to male (or, rather, masc…I consider myself nonbinary…

Today I realized that my hair is almost long enough to ponytail again. I cut my long tuft of hair off soon after I started my job. Up until then, I’d worn it shaved on the sides and back (which I still do), but in a long tuft on top…

It happened again just recently: a group of people I’d tried to embrace as peers let me know that I was unacceptable. I stepped back, angry but also deeply shamed, trying to figure out where I’d gone wrong. This has been happening to me literally since I was a toddler…