Wait, what’s binding? In short, binding is the practice of compressing one’s chest to have a flatter and traditionally masculine appearance. It’s considered standard practice amongst the transgender community, similar to packing and tucking, since it is a non-medical alternative to alleviating gender dysphoria. If you want to know more about binding basics, read this post instead.
More than any other season, summer presents additional challenges. Binding should never be painful, but you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who would call binding physically comfortable. The issues that make binding unpleasant year-round intensify with heat, which is why extra caution is advised during the summer.
No matter what, remember the golden rule of binding: Always listen to your body. If you feel pain or begin to feel light-headed, stop binding immediately and take a solid break. A properly sized binder should feel like a tight hug, it should never cause you pain.
Consider how your preferred binding method will combine with summer heat.
Full-length and tank-style binders are notoriously hotter since they compress the entire torso compared to half-length and racerback binders. More guys experiment with K-tape during the summer, as it is cooler than half-binders and can be easily used for swimming. In contrast, traditional binders aren’t always swim-safe and can deteriorate over time due to excess water exposure. However, remember you should NEVER use ACE bandages, duct tape, or other non-recommended items to bind.
Try Sports Bras and Compression Tops
If your emotional health and gender dysphoria permit it, try binding with sports bras or compression tops instead of traditional binders. These garments are easier on the body and will prevent heat exhaustion with looser compression than your regular binder. Even if you don’t generally use sports bras, it’s best practice to carry an emergency one during the summer to change into if you have to take off your binder. Binding is a tool that many transgender people use, but it’s not a requirement – the practice of binding (or the lack thereof) doesn’t define your gender. Taking care of yourself and your body is gender-affirming care in its own right.
I want to note here that while I advise my fellow trans peers to take off their binders when it’s hot, it isn’t always feasible. If you are an adult and worried about a transgender youth binding during the summer, do not force them to take off their binder. Offer them spaces to cool off instead. Even if you are a PE instructor or coach, it’s no less appropriate to ask a transgender youth to remove their binder than to ask a cisgender girl to remove her bra. Binders are essentially underwear and allow transmasculine individuals the ability to survive despite gender dysphoria.
Take (extra) Breaks throughout the day
If you bind regularly, you’re likely no stranger to “binder breaks.” It’s best practice to give yourself breaks throughout the day via stretching and limiting binding to eight hours per day. Make these breaks more frequent during warm weather and stay mindful of your physical health while outside.
Material matters!
If you’re prone to sweating (which increases with HRT usage), remember that material matters. A moisture-wicking fabric will keep you drier than non-breathable fabrics. Linen, muscle tees, jerseys, and button-down shirts are summer staples since they conceal curves better than other fabrics. Some individuals wear a tank undershirt under their binder to soak excess moisture. Regarding overshirts, remember that white colors reflect heat – so if you dress emo or goth, be prepared for intense heat. While most folks worry about their binder possibly showing, don’t forget that cisgender people are largely clueless – few cis folks know what binders are, so they’re quick to assume your binder is an undershirt or accessory.
Powders exist – so use them!
Whether you sweat a lot or experience skin irritation, there are numerous powders available on the market that prevent chafing. Just consider purchasing talc-free if you have a family history of ovarian or similar cancers. Similarly, you can also apply regular antiperspirant deodorant under your binder to decrease sweat and odor, although this won’t lower chafing as powders would.
Hydrate, Hydrate, hydrate
Drink more water. Make an effort to drink water when outside in the heat, since hydration both reduces overheating and prevents skin irritation.
Juices and sodas are great in a pinch, but water is best when you’re sweating a ton. Relatedly, commit to at least one salty meal a day to replenish the sodium lost from sweat.
Keep it clean!
Wash your binder. This is basic advice in general, but you should wash your binder at least once or twice a week regardless – and more often when you’re sweaty, like during the summer. Binders are essentially underwear and compress heat and moisture. With the added effects of HRT causing increased sweat and acne, don’t add to the mix with an unwashed binder.
Cool off (When you can)
If you’re able to, consider taking a cold shower partway throughout the day – at the very least, stay in air conditioning and other cool spaces. If you’re outside a lot and unable to access air conditioning, look into cool packs – you can purchase them online and slide them under your binder for immediate heat relief. Another technique is wetting a cloth with cold water and wrapping it around your neck.
Binding, or the practice of compressing one’s chest to have a flatter and traditionally masculine appearance, is a pretty standard practice amongst the trans community, similar to packing and tucking. Anyone can bind – even if you’re not transgender, there might be moments when it’s beneficial, like if you’re cisgender but engage in cosplay or drag.
In the transmasculine community, binding is one of the first steps in transitioning. Being assigned female at birth, breast tissue naturally forms during natal puberty and creates distress from gender dysphoria unless preventative measures are taken, like puberty blockers. When trans men begin testosterone through prescribed hormone replacement therapy, breast tissue no longer forms – but HRT cannot reverse tissue already created.* Since few transgender people have the fortune to have supportive parents and the ability to access puberty blockers as youth, binding is the norm.
*Technically, testosterone-based hormone replacement therapy CAN impact breast tissue, but it cannot get rid of it entirely. It’s all extremely anecdotal, but you might experience breast tissue shrink in size. More commonly, HRT affects the composition of breast tissue and makes it less firm, similar to breast tissue cisgender men have. However, these changes are rarely enough to override the need for binding.
Q: DO I HAVE TO BIND? A: Nope! While binding is common, it is not a requirement to be transgender, and there are many reasons transmasculine folks may choose not to bind, such as having a chest too large for traditional binders, disability, or comfort. Generally, you should talk with your doctor before binding if you have asthma, scoliosis, lupus, COPD, arthritis, Hypermobility Joint Disorder, GERD/IBS/IBD, migraines, TMJD, or fibromyalgia.
Q: HOW OLD DO I HAVE TO BE TO BIND? A: Anyone who has breast tissue is old enough to bind, although this statement might make people queasy. American youth are entering puberty earlier than ever, so it’s reasonable to say that if breast tissue is causing them significant discomfort, they should have access to binding. While binding can have long-term consequences, preventing kids from binding safely will only make them more likely to DIY, which can be dangerous. On the other end of the spectrum, there’s no upper age cap for binding.
Q: WAIT, DID YOU SAY THERE ARE LONG-TERM CONSEQUENCES TO BINDING? A: Yes, but those consequences come with caveats. Long-term binding can impact the density of your breast tissue, which can potentially limit your options for chest surgery later. However, these effects (which are common at 10+ years of binding) do not bar you from chest surgery – and it’s worth stating that the average transmasculine person gets chest surgery way before this deadline.
There are plenty of anti-trans parents who will rant on how chest binding will impact children’s bone development during puberty, so youth shouldn’t be allowed to bind. While it is a possibility, there isn’t research to back up this claim: there is little long-term research on transgender people as a whole, and even less on minors. Chest binding, when done safely, isn’t dangerous – a binder should feel like a relatively tight hug and should never cause pain. You should also never wear two or more binders, since the added compression can cause a lot of pain. Exceeding safety recommendations puts you at actual risk of developing skeletal issues, and as mentioned above, barring safe binders from youth pushes them to resort to DIY methods with higher risk.
Always get the right size.
Yes, a smaller binder will give you a flatter chest – but the right size vastly minimizes your risk of common side effects. Keep in mind that cisgender men don’t have completely flat chests, and everyone has some breast tissue. Don’t strive for a perfectly flat chest.
DON’T KNOW YOUR BINDER SIZE? FOLLOW THESE STEPS.
Wrap a tape measure around the fullest part of your chest. This is the part that comes out the farthest from your body. Do this while you are dressed.
Write down the measurement. You might want to measure more than once to check it.
Wrap the tape measure around your chest, right under your breasts. This is where the crease is.
Write down the measurement.
Add the measurements together and divide by 2. This is your chest size.
Put the end of the tape at the outside edge of one of your shoulders. Measure across your body to the outside edge of your other shoulder. Make sure you are standing up straight. Avoid tensing up, hunching your shoulders, or wrapping the measuring tape around your shoulders.
Write down the number you get. This is your shoulder size.
If your shoulder measurement is 1.5 inches bigger than the shoulder measurements listed for your chest size… Buy a larger size, usually the next size up.
If your shoulder measurement is smaller than the shoulder measurements for your chest size… Buy the size that matches your chest measurement.
If you have a larger chest or broad shoulders… Consider a tank binder. This might be the most comfortable style for you.
If you buy a binder that is smaller than your measurements… Return it for one that fits. The effect on your chest is probably not enough to notice, and the wrong size puts pressure on your back and ribs.
Wearing the correct binder size MATTERS. Over time, using the incorrect size can restrict breathing, irritate the skin, break skin around the edges of the binder, cause overheating, and bruise/fracture the ribs.
TYPES OF BINDERS
Full-Length Tank As one of the two main classics, the full-length or tank binder has a long panel of compression and can be tucked into your pants. They compress more than just the chest – they also flatten the hips and stomach, which is why these are the most common binders used by cisgender men.
Full-lengths are best suited for individuals with large chests or folks who want additional compression around the stomach and hips. Newer tank binders are made to look like casual shirts, which is a benefit you won’t find with other binder styles. On the other hand, I’ve been told that the more a binder resembles a regular tank top, the less compression it offers. They’re also far less comfortable – from personal experience, full-tanks are hotter and irritating to wear, and I was never able to get the hang of tucking them in, so it would always roll back up.
Half-Length The other classic binder is the half-length, which is identical to the full-length, other than the lack of material. These stop above the ribs, so they’re cooler and allow for a greater range of motion.
Half-lengths are ideal for individuals with smaller chests compared to full-length, but they can work for folks with larger chests if you’re okay with less compression. They offer better breathability, so they’re more comfortable for all-day use and sports. On the other hand, half-lengths are the most well-known – people will know you’re wearing a chest binder unless you cover it up with a shirt.
Racerback The racerback binder came into style within the last decade, offering even more range of motion than the half-tank. They’re identical to the traditional half-tank other than the back support design resembling the same ‘x’ pattern that racerback sports bras use. The same pros and cons apply to these as half-tanks, but their strap design is easier to conceal for folks who don’t want to possibly out themselves for wearing a binder.
Strapless Strapless binders are the most commonly portrayed in film when depicting transmasculine characters, but they’re far from the most commonly worn by actual transgender people.
These are often the cheapest since they’re made in mass production for cosplay, but they offer significantly less compression and support than other binder styles. You have to be precise with strapless measurements, too, since the wrong size could mean the binder falling off. These are also difficult to find by major binder brands due to their association.
I’ll also note that strapless binders like these are considered less safe than other styles – they’re created for cosplay purposes and worn for a day or two at a time, not regular long-term binding. They’re easy to access, but always use with caution.
Pullover & Zipper These aren’t binder styles themselves, but refer to another aspect of all of the above types. A pullover binder will be pulled over your head, similar to a t-shirt, whereas a zipper binder uses a zipper, clasps, or hooks to put the binder around your chest.
Both are good options! Pullover binders are more commonly produced by binder brands since they’re associated with better compression, but they’re difficult to put on in the beginning when you’re new to binding. Zipper binders are common for strapless and cosplay binders, but they’re a better option if you struggle to get pullovers on. However, always opt for zipper binders that attach in the center of your chest or back – zipper binders that attach on just one side will cause uneven compression that can harm your body over time.
Kinetic Tape Kinesiology tape, or K-tape, is a thin elastic tape that uses adhesive, and it’s become fairly popular for binding amongst smaller chested individuals. You should NEVER use other forms of tape to bind, such as duct tape, since K-tape is made specifically for athletic purposes and provides a range of motion and breathability that other tape does not. Duct tape is especially dangerous since it constricts your breathing after application.
K-tape struggles to provide the same level of binding as traditional binders, but many folks find it empowering since it gives a more natural look compared to binders. You can even safely sleep and shower with it since the tape is relatively waterproof and takes a few days to naturally lose its grip.
If you have the funds, there are a number of K-tapes now produced with chest binding in mind – like Trans Tape. While the function is the same, I’ve heard that the quality of Trans Tape is significantly better, BUT regular K-tape is pretty accessible since anyone can purchase it in their local Walmart.
Despite this, kinetic tape isn’t for everyone. The compression level isn’t feasible for many, but more often, it’s the adhesive. Kinetic tapes, regardless of brand, can cause significant irritation to the skin even if you don’t have any adhesive allergies. Later on, I’ll be talking about the importance of binder hygiene, and the same applies here. K-tape is used in a sweaty and hot part of the body that creates a LOT of friction. While I was pleased with the compression K-tape provided me, the tape chafed me pretty badly, and I *don’t* have any adhesive allergies.
Sports Bra A good sports bra can provide a decent level of compression, so it’s a great alternative to regular binding to give your body breaks. In essence, sports bras are similar to racerback binders. Unlike binders, you can find sports bras sold pretty much anywhere, so they’re more accessible.
Unlike the above binding options, sports bras are the ONLY style that I would okay “double-binding.” Since sports bras offer less compression than actual binders, the compression level achieved from double-layering won’t cause significant harm, like if you layered traditional binders.
Keep it clean!
Binders are underwear. Seriously, they can get gross – they’re directly compressing your body and creating hot and humid spaces. Regardless of season, binders should be washed at least weekly, but you should move to every three days if it’s summer or you’re a naturally sweaty person. Even if the binder doesn’t smell too bad, poor binder hygiene causes rashes, skin irritation, acne, fungal infections, and other conditions.
Each binder manufacturer will provide specific instructions on how to best care for your binder. Follow their advice to prolong the life of your binder! However, if you lost the instructions, these are the most common suggestions.
Wash your binder in cold water on a delicate cycle, OR wash it by hand in the sink with laundry detergent and warm water. Avoid hot water and putting your binder in the dryer.
Hang the binder up to dry.
Keep your binder on a hanger when you are not wearing it. This helps it keep its shape.
Have more than one binder, if possible. This allows you to wash and dry them regularly.
Stay flexible and give your body breaks.
Listen to your body – what works for your friend won’t inherently work for you. The following are general guidelines, but always listen to your own body first. If you’re in pain, stop.
Keep binding for eight hours at a time and never bind more than twelve consecutive hours. This can be difficult to navigate if you’re in public often, but it’s best practice to have off days when you do not bind.
Take at least one day completely free of binding per week, and take more break days if you can manage.
Never sleep in your binder. Breathing becomes more shallow while you’re unconscious, so binding while asleep poses an increased risk.
Take precautions if binding while working out or swimming. There are binders available to purchase to use while swimming, since chlorine exposure can shorten traditional binders’ lifespans, and exercise binders that provide greater mobility. If these aren’t options for you, your dedicated workout or swimming binder should be at least one size larger than what you typically wear.
Stay hydrated and keep cool when binding, especially during summer months. Even if you feel fine, it’s pretty easy to develop heat stroke – from personal experience, I got heat exhaustion once while on a summer field trip because I thought it was a myth.
Never use any material to bind that was not listed here. Do not use duct tape, plastic wrap, belts, or ACE bandages. These constrict as you breathe, which can bruise you or potentially suffocate you.
Consider wearing a cotton undershirt or tank top under your binder if your skin is prone to irritation. Binders won’t help any existing skin conditions. An undershirt or the use of body powder also helps during warm weather to limit excess sweating.
Learn exercises and stretches to ease pain in your back, shoulders, and chest. Try stretching every few hours while binding.
Looking for binder suggestions?
The following prices are based on the current price at the time this article was published. Verify with the merchant before buying.
Wait! I want a new binder, but there are too many options! Yeah, and there are plenty of binder brands that I don’t cover below – if you hear good things about a binder company from friends or those you trust, go for it and don’t let my lack of review stop you. Otherwise…
Generally overwhelmed and just need a good quality binder? Get GC2B.
Unable to find a binder size that fits? Get Origami Customs.
Have severe dysphoria and need high compression? Get Underworks.
Looking for something special to be proud of? Get ShapeShifters.
Can’t deal with sensory overload? Get GenderBender or Amor Sensory.
GC2B @ gc2b.co / $42 USD Founded in 2015 as a trans-operated binding brand, GC2B is the premier binder today. After using an Underworks binder, I found GC2B much more comfortable in comparison – although it provided slightly less compression. There’s talk that GC2B binders have gone downhill in quality after they changed textile suppliers, but I’m still a strong supporter of the brand as a whole.
GC2B has a bit of everything, including K-tape. They specialize in everyday binders, so you’ll find a variety of nude binders designed to be concealed under shirts. Before GC2B, binders were only available in white, black, and a limited number of “nude” binders – but the binder color matters significantly if you’re wanting to wear a white shirt. Their binder utilizes both the front and back panels to provide medium compression.
FLAVNT @ flavnt.com / $55 USD This streetwear brand has a larger range of nude binders than GC2B and has a pretty good selection of pride apparel. Their binders are all pullover style and offer medium compression via the front panel. Tired of hideous rainbow merch from retailers like Target and Walmart? Try FLAVNT.
For Them @ forthem.com / $55-$64 USD This brand specializes in underwear, including binders. For Them produces two types, one labeled “MAX” to offer high compression and “All-Day” that prioritizes comfort.
The MAX binder will provide compression similar to other brands, but the All-Day line is unique: it’s made with sensory issues in mind. It won’t make you as flat as other binders, but it’s super comfortable.
Peecock Products @ peecockproducts.com / $31-$34 USD Based out of Singapore, Peecock has been producing chest binders since 2010 and also has one of the best quality of entry-level prosthetic packers out there. Zippers, pullovers, v-necks, swimming binders, you name it – Peecock probably has what you’re looking for. However, their binders won’t be as comfortable or sensory-friendly as GC2B.
TomboyX @ tomboyx.com / $49 USD Although TomboyX caters to femme-identified people, they have a decent binder selection since a large chunk of their customer base is butch. Their selling point is their adjustable binder, which uses straps to allow the user to modify the level of compression. On the other hand, TomboyX binders have lighter compression compared to other brands.
UNTAG @ untag.com / $61-$69 USD Preferred by folks living overseas, UNTAG has a diverse binder selection that offers lower shipping rates compared to some American brands. In addition to the regular selection of binders, UNTAG also offers binders specifically made to exercise and unique designs like lace.
Urbody @ urbody.co / $45-$55 USD These binders were created to further expand binding beyond masculine-identified folks, so they generally offer less compression than other binders. Despite that, Urbody binders are preferred with folks with compression or sensory issues since the lack of compression means increased comfort.
Underworks @ underworks.com / $32-$38 USD As the oldest brand on this list, Underworks is a classic alongside T-Kingdom – they’ve been around since 1997. Originally, their target audience was cisgender men who wanted to compress their torsos, but they transitioned to make an array of trans-friendly binders since Underworks was the easiest place to purchase online.
If you’re looking for high compression, Underworks is for you. Seriously, their compression is INTENSE – but this means their binders can also be uncomfortable. The material is also rougher than brands like GC2B and Origami.
GenderBender @ genderbenderllc.com / $49-$59 USD These guys are relatively new, but they have a great selection that makes them distinct from other brands, like their own brand of K-tape, pride-themed binders, and plus-sized binding swimwear. Their company is disability-centered, so their products are made with various disabilities in mind, like sensory issues, anxiety, adhesive allergies, and the like.
Origami Customs @ origamicustoms.com / $64 USD In addition to the regular selection of binders, Origami Customs is unique because they can and will make custom binders on order. If you are too large for other binder companies, Origami Customs should be your go-to. Without them, people would be barred from binding due to weight or breast size – but Origami Customs can provide anyone with a binder.
Origami Customs also has ready-to-order binders, but I wouldn’t really recommend them if you don’t require a custom size.
Shapeshifters @ shapeshifters.co / $85-$115 USD Most binders are boring since they cater to everyday wear and stealth. Not Shapeshifters binders – they don’t actually have any nude binders unless you’re ordering from their “Make Your Own Binder” sewing kit. Shapeshifters specialize in fashionable designs, offering a refreshing alternative to bland options and asking, ‘Why can’t binders be fun too?!’
However, Shapeshifters is pricier than other brands, so I wouldn’t recommend them as your first binder unless you have money to burn.
Amor Sensory @ amorsensory.com / $79 USD Similar to GenderBender, Amor Sensory is a disability-first binder brand that centers on Autistic experiences. Binding can be a sensory nightmare, so Amor’s binders are sewn with those issues in mind. Even though they cost a bit more, Amor Sensory binders offer trustworthy moderate compression like mainstream brands.
Reddit and Online Spaces @ r/ftm / FREE to ∞ If you don’t mind used binders, check out virtual spaces like r/ftm – they host recurring spaces to allow guys to buy, sell, and trade items and you’ll likely find a used or free binder faster than the binder programs I suggest below. You can find these types of spaces on any forum, including Facebook groups and trans-related Discord servers.
I can’t afford a binder, what should I do?
Fret not, because there’s still options out there! Before continuing with my suggestions, read my last point on binder brands – in my experience, you’ll get a binder faster from online spaces like r/ftm when there’s availability. The companies and organizations I list below give binders as donations, which means they have limited resources and funding and MASSIVE waitlists.
Generally speaking, the larger the organization, the longer the waitlist. My very first binder was a donation from Point of Pride, but I had to wait nine months on their waitlist before it was shipped. These resources are national, but if possible, you should check with any local LGBTQIA+ organization in your area to see if they have a binder program. CenterLink hosts a (incomplete) directory of LGBTQIA+ nonprofits throughout the country, so start there if you don’t know where to begin.
Keep in mind that the following programs are active at the time this article was published. In my experience, binder programs tend to be unstable since they rely on donation funding – so some might be no longer active by the time you’re reading, or there might some missing that you expected to see.
Point of Pride @ pointofpride.org With a variety of funds, Point of Pride has given nearly $4 million dollars to financial aid programs to benefit transgender folks.
They were created in 2016 by Point 5cc, a trans clothing and apparel company to become the first and largest international chest binder donation program. Check out their website for details on their binder program, femme shapewear and gaff program, electrolysis support fund, HRT access fund, trans surgery fund, and Thrive fund. Their binder program is open to all, regardless of age or where they live in the world.
Trans Essentials @ ftmessentials.com Similar to Transguy Supply, Trans Essentials is an online megastore for trans needs. They sell binders, tucking tape, packers, gaffs, dilators, STPs, books, buttons, etc. They also operate Early to Bed for adult goods.
TE provides free Underworks binders to individuals ages 24 and under anywhere in the United States, shipped out on a quarterly basis.
TOMSCOUT @ tomscout.com The Freedom Binder Program provides binders to “storytellers,” determining eligibility based on your personal story and need for a binder.
Make sure to read all of TOMSCOUT’s rules before applying, since missing one will automatically disqualify you. There is no upper age cap, but applicants must be at least sixteen to qualify. Additionally, you’ll have to cover the shipping costs of the binder once you’ve been selected.
The Queer Trans Project @ queertransproject.org Based out of Florida, QTP is a Black-led organization that donates binders, packers, and packing underwear to individuals in need.
QTP has high demand, but they cover a lot of needs – including flight assistance to help transgender folks flee hostile states like Florida for safer havens.
Black Trans Men Inc @ blacktransmen.org The Brother 2 Brother Binder Grant allows Black Trans Men Inc to give free binders to low-income transgender men of color throughout the US.
To qualify, you must be at least sixteen years old, identify as transmasculine, demonstrate financial hardship, and identify as Black. There are no upper age cut-offs for their program. If you don’t identify as Black, they can still help if you reach out by referring you to other applicable programs.
Health Care Advocates International @ hcaillc.com Healthcare access isn’t equal to everyone, which is something marginalized people know well. HACI believes every patient deserves their best chance at a health life.
You must be at least eighteen years olds to qualify for HACI binders. Individuals must be in the United States or Puerto Rico to receive a binder from their services.
Thriving Transmen of Color @ thrivingtransmenofcolor.org TTMOC is a national grassroot nonprofit with chapters in Virginia, Georgia, District of Columbia, California, Florida, Illinois, and Nevada. Like Black Trans Men Inc, TTMOC centers on uplifting Black and Brown transgender individuals.
TTMOC binders are provided based on eligibility and are reserved only for transmasculine individuals who cannot afford to purchase their own binder. Applicants must be following TTMOC on social media and have attended at least one virtual or in-person event to qualify.
Phoenix Transition Program @ phoenixtransitionprogram.org PTP offers direct assistance to transgender folks in need, such as their binder program, care packages, utilities assistance, opening businesses, and crises.
To qualify, you must be at least eighteen years old and live in the United States. Other programs beyond binder assistance are functioning, but are limited based on time of year.
In a devastating update, the United States Supreme Court voted along party lines to uphold Tennessee’s unethical blanket ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors. United States v. Skrmetti was decided 6-3 and has potentially severe consequences for adult care as well.
Their logic is derived from stating that the current ban on gender-affirming care for minors is based on gender dysphoria and not sex, so it cannot be classified as sex-based discrimination – the same logic used by the Trump administration when removing LGBTQIA+ protections under Title IX. Of course, this logic is flawed: at this moment, the Court views transgender identity as a mental health issue, but they are choosing to ignore that other aspects of Tennessee’s laws (as well as other states across the country) wish to prosecute transgender people for sex crimes based on sex assigned at birth. In her coverage of the topic, Erin Reed wrote, “The Tennessee law, Justice Sotomayor and the dissent argue, explicitly classifies on the basis of sex—so overtly that the majority’s attempt to sidestep that reality reads as disingenuous. The statute itself declares that one purpose of the ban is to ‘encourage minors to appreciate their sex,’ and yet the majority still concludes it does not constitute sex-based classification.” This argument also fails to consider that while gender dysphoria is currently classified as a mental disorder, it is the required diagnosis for medically necessary treatment for transgender individuals. The World Health Organization and other experts on mental and physical health have declassified transgender identity itself as a mental illness since our distress is caused by the dysphoria or disconnect between internal gender and outward expression. As NPR wrote, “[The] Supreme Court decision was a big win for Tennessee and 24 other states, but there are many questions that remain unanswered.”
Permitting states to ban gender-affirming care, the medically necessary and most effective treatment for gender dysphoria, to treat transgender people in distress is as nonsensical and inhumane as banning other medications like insulin for the treatment of diabetes or banning the prescription of albuterol for asthma.
The current ruling is also dangerous, since it seems to permit states to ban transgender healthcare entirely – not just for minors. The conservative Court is not arguing that states have a right to ‘protect children from medical treatments’ like gender-affirming care; they are arguing that states have a right to ban gender-affirming care entirely.
“Today’s Supreme Court decision is a devastating blow to transgender youth and the families who love them, but it will not break our resolve. Families may now have to make the heartbreaking choice to leave their state or split their families, or take on extensive financial burdens, to ensure that their kids can access medically necessary care.
“This Court chose to allow politicians to interfere in medical decisions that should be made by doctors, patients, and families—a cruel betrayal of the children who needed them to stand up for justice when it mattered most.
“As parents, advocates, and community leaders, we know that our fight doesn’t end in courtrooms—it lives in our communities, our hearts, and our unwavering commitment to each other. Still, we will not be deterred. We will support families forced to make impossible choices, fund legal challenges, and build a movement so powerful that no politician can ignore us. Together, we will turn this pain into power and keep fighting until every transgender person in America can live with dignity, safety, and the freedom to be who they are.”
Erin Reed also reported that “Though the majority avoided that outcome, three justices—Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Amy Coney Barrett—wrote separately to express that they would have gone further, explicitly denying transgender people equal protection under the law.” While the Court’s decision does not affect transgender individuals living in states that protect gender-affirming care, it further divides the country. Gleeful legislators are banning the most effective treatment for transgender people, the most proven deterrent that lowers the suicide rate amongst the trans community – depending on where you live, you may not be able to legally obtain medically necessary healthcare that has been the gold standard throughout the world for decades and you can be prosecuted for traveling elsewhere to receive such care.
While the decision is terrifying, the war for transgender rights isn’t over. United States v. Skrmetti specifically targets gender-affirming care for minors, and while legislators have talked about expanding healthcare bans to adults, no laws have actually been written. It also isn’t the end for transgender minors either – social justice advocates will continue to fight the Supreme Court for equal rights, despite this loss. If the GOP can stack the Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, there is always hope for a better future. Chase Strangio from the ACLU stated, “Though this is a painful setback, it does not mean that transgender people and our allies are left with no options to defend our freedom, our health care, or our lives. The Court left undisturbed Supreme Court and lower court precedent that other examples of discrimination against transgender people are unlawful. We are as determined as ever to fight for the dignity and equality of every transgender person, and we will continue to do so with defiant strength, a restless resolve, and a lasting commitment to our families, our communities, and the freedom we all deserve.”
In addition to this news, I wanted to give context that other news sources aren’t covering. United States v. Skrmetti rose to the Supreme Court on whether gender-affirming care bans on transgender minors are constitutional – Tennessee lawmakers defended the law by citing bogus claims that gender-affirming care is unsafe and experimental.
Secondly, these legislators have not met actual transgender youth who have experienced the supposed woes of being forced into medical procedures. If you are under the age of 18, it is incredibly difficult to access gender-affirming medical care due to the international requirements established by WPATH. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health is just as legitimate as a health institution as the World Health Organization, and has produced credible research for decades supporting gender-affirming care. The recent accusations that scientific bodies like WPATH and WHO are untrustworthy because they do not side with GOP pseudoscience are created solely to bring harm. The WPATH itself has made an official statement denouncing Trump’s pseudo-research.
Even in the most liberal states, it is a grueling process for minors to get gender-affirming medical care.
After coming out, that transgender minor must socially transition – this means they have picked another name they are going by, pronouns, hairstyle, clothing, hobbies, and other aspects of gender. They have gone through the trouble of picking a name that fits their gender identity and have told others, likely begun outwardly expressing their gender without medical intervention, and have changed minor forms that don’t require legal orders, like email addresses, school assignment rosters, and social media accounts.
That transgender minor must now engage with regular counseling and get a diagnosis for gender dysphoria – which they can only do after establishing their transgender identity is long-standing and not a phase for that provider. It is at this point that the minor must have the full support of all their legal guardians, since minors cannot easily access therapy, and definitely cannot engage with medical care without their parents’ explicit consent.
Assuming the minor has completed every step above completely and has identified as transgender for an extended time, they MIGHT be eligible for medical care. WPATH only allows puberty blockers to be prescribed to minors who have reached Tanner stage two, or in other words, shown visible signs of puberty beginning as their sex assigned at birth. The minor must also prove that they are capable of making informed decisions, further establish that their gender identity is not a phase, and not the consequence of a mental disorder other than gender dysphoria.
After the youth has been on puberty blockers for a sufficient amount of time, they may be moved to hormone replacement therapy – which means estrogen or testosterone will be prescribed instead of puberty blockers to commence puberty.
If the transgender minor is unsure whether they may want biological children one day, they MIGHT be eligible for reproductive services such as sperm or egg freezing. However, these reproductive services aren’t common since most transgender people are told from the beginning that transition will likely make them unable to have biological children.
If the minor is assigned female at birth, they MIGHT be eligible for top surgery if they did not engage with puberty blockers fast enough to prevent breast growth and have been on HRT for a minimum of twelve months. However, this itself is even more rare than minors accessing medical gender-affirming care entirely, and the vast majority of surgeons will require their patients to wait until age eighteen.
Transgender minors are not able to freely access other surgical procedures. While technically possible, medical providers are not willing to perform these procedures before the age of eighteen. If someone tries to argue about whatever conspiracy they believe, force them to pull details like their office number and credentials. If they are unable or unwilling to call that provider’s office and obtain at least verbal proof, they are lying.
As mentioned before, the Supreme Court ruling affects more than just minors – the logic embraced paves a route for states to ban gender-affirming care entirely because they deem it as ‘experimental.’ The reason gender-affirming care for minors is seen as so experimental is because research is more mixed regarding puberty blockers compared to HRT, but puberty blockers are never intended as the end result for gender-affirming care. Puberty blockers are used as a means to pause natal puberty and give minors time to establish their gender identity as more than a phase before continuing with non-reversible side effects of HRT. While hormone replacement therapy has non-reversible side effects, it is extremely effective and has exceedingly low regret rates, and thus has substantial positive results compared to puberty blockers. Yet again, for minors, puberty blockers are an integral part of the process for them to receive care.
Trump’s original ban in 2017 affected me directly: at the time, I had just graduated from high school and was struggling to survive living with my anti-transgender parents. When my ideal college plans fell through due to financial constraints, I turned to the military. Before that first ban, transgender people were allowed to openly serve due to the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and were given medical coverage through guaranteed health benefits for all soldiers. But for some reason, I kept feeling something was wrong in my gut, so I never signed the dotted line, and I lived with relatives that summer with the plan that I would enlist in the fall. Three days before my 18th birthday, Donald Trump made his infamous tweets stating transgender people would be banned from service. I ended up attending community college and getting involved with my local queer scene, pursuing higher education through FAFSA.
The original ban hinged on the premise that transgender soldiers were too costly for the military. Trump and his cronies lamented that gender-affirming care, like hormone replacement therapy and surgery, was causing the budget to skyrocket and was a massive burden for the military to handle – but people were quick to point out how flawed that logic was.
Very few individuals want to serve in the United States military just for the joy of it. No, the armed forces are notoriously known for their campaigns in American high schools, convincing teenagers that enlistment is their best way to pay for college. The military has always relied on using its benefits as a means to drive enlistment – transgender people seeking healthcare coverage isn’t much different than other young people joining to pay for college. That’s why the military has the insane budget it’s been given by Congress; the armed forces continue to take up most of the federal budget. Further, it’s been well proven that gender-affirming care was overall insignificant to the military budget and absolutely not worth banning potentially combat-ready soldiers from service. If money were that much of an issue, Donald Trump wouldn’t be having a personal parade for his birthday to “honor” the Army’s coinciding 250th anniversary.
Since both bans are enforced via executive order, the current ban will inevitably be erased once Donald Trump is removed from power. Executive orders are incredibly flimsy, but they’re a favorite tool amongst unpopular presidents to enforce rules that can’t be made into laws through Congress.
Trump’s second ban is darker. Rather than arguing that transgender service members are too expensive to keep, Trump argued that transgender individuals are simply just dishonorable by nature and thus unfit to serve.In his own words, “the Armed Forces have been afflicted with radical gender ideology to appease activists unconcerned with the requirements of military service like physical and mental health, selflessness, and unit cohesion… Consistent with the military mission and longstanding DoD policy, expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service. Beyond the hormonal and surgical medical interventions involved, adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life. A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.”
The current ban on transgender service members is based on the understanding that transgender identity alone makes us dishonorable, untruthful, undisciplined, and otherwise unfit to adhere to the military’s moral code. That’s terrifying logic meant to dehumanize transgender people – but the good news is that it’s easier to fight in court. Sarah Warbelow stated in a Human Rights Campaign press release, “This discriminatory ban is a threat to our national security, wastes years of training and financial investments, and is unconstitutional.”
“The assertion that transgender service members like myself are inherently untrustworthy or lack honor is an insult to all who have dedicated their lives to defending this country,” said Commander Emily Shilling. “…I have been selected for promotion and ranked number one in my community for merit. Not because of my identity, our boards are deliberately blind to such things, but because my performance and leadership set me apart. What greater proof of merit is required? This ban is not about readiness or cohesion, and it is certainly not about merit. It is about exclusion and betrayal, purposely targeting those of us who volunteered to serve, simply for having the courage and integrity to live our truth.”
It’s already been sued by multiple agencies, but it has not made its way to the Supreme Court. Depending on how it is worded to the Court, it could be an easy win or a devastating lost – assuming they take the approach that gender identity is no more fair to discriminate against than other identity markers like biological sex, race, or ethnicity, it would be easy to argue that the current ban segregates transgender people from the rest of society.
Currently, transgender people are not allowed to serve in the armed forces if they have ever had a diagnosis identifying them as transgender or having gender dysphoria – which is a prerequisite requirement for health insurance to cover gender-affirming care like hormone replacement therapy or surgery, and it’s required in some states to legally change one’s gender marker on official documents. Anyone who has any form of “gender-affirming care,” as determined by the Trump administration, is barred from service – so like under his first ban, transgender soldiers are being dishonorably discharged in droves based on his political agenda. Further, the new ban is also requiring the military to screen both incoming recruits and trained members for ‘signs’ of gender dysphoria – which means the current transgender military ban also invites an anti-trans witch hunt similar to the days during the Lavender Scare. It took years for Biden to reverse the previous dishonorable discharges accrued from the first ban, and thus former service members were given a black mark for employment, education, healthcare, etc.
Military service can be controversial, especially in activist circles. It’s ultimately its own industry, and it thrives off how American capitalism forces marginalized youth to join in order to protect their futures, even if it means going to war overseas for political interests. Regardless, it cannot be overstated how important access to military service is to general human rights: the armed forces were among the first places desegregated, and it was exposure to others that began to change the public’s mindset on civil rights. Even today, the military serves as an eye-opener – most conservatives who love the idea of the military have never served, but the military has served an integral role in mixing the most closed-minded with other perspectives.
Last week was the final deadline for transgender service members to identify themselves and voluntarily leave – now, the Trump administration will begin enforcing involuntary separations. Similar to Trump’s previous attempts to force federal workers to quit, there are still a large number of individuals refusing to leave their posts. It’s a calculated move – if they’re dishonorably discharged, they have a much better court case. However, it’s not always feasible since refusing to leave now means they could potentially have to pay thousands of dollars back to the United States government if they’re involuntarily separated.
The decision thus far by the Supreme Court also doesn’t eliminate the lawsuit already progressing that incited Settle’s pause. The battle isn’t lost yet. The GOP changed their attack from financial to ‘ethics,’ but that doesn’t mean they have a better chance of defending it in court. Previously, the argument that transgender people were too expensive to keep didn’t make sense, considering the United States has the most over-budget military in the world and specifically uses advertised benefits to attract recruits. The claim that transgender people are unfit to serve because we lack honor is a moral-based argument – it makes just as little sense as banning atheists or Muslims because they lack the same religious ‘moral code’ as traditional Christians, to ban women from service because they’re ‘less rational’ than men, or to ban Black and Brown Americans because they’re ‘morally inferior.’
These arguments never hold up in court. It’s easy to feel defeated, but we have to persist.
Movies are an important part of culture – for some, film provides a simple stress release and a means to entertain ourselves; for others, it is another teaching tool that allows us to critique society through art. Movies also influence us, inspiring us to be creative – and they hold the potential to feed propaganda, too. Despite its relatively short history compared to other art forms, film has become incredibly integrated into daily life: you won’t find a person who doesn’t like movies to some degree, whether they’re action-packed time-wasters or thoughtful stories that reveal new insights through their narratives. Each person who watches a film will take away a different message, which is why movies are a great format when books or traditional art fail.
Throughout my work, I’ve put together many lists like this. While everyone is capable of theoretically learning about other cultures and perspectives, most are unlikely to. Unless it’s directly in their face, few go out of their way when they could watch the latest release from Marvel or Disney. I’ve spent plenty of time trying to make digestible recommendations to get folks interested in transgender media. To celebrate Pride, here are the most popular movies mentioned when looking for trans-specific films.
Nearly every movie on this list is categorized as “indie” – transgender stories aren’t seen as compelling or profitable enough for big producers yet. 3 Generations centers on a transgender boy as he navigates coming out to his family. Notably, this film has bad reviews, but it always gets suggested when you search the internet for transmasculine films due to the extreme lack of them. If you’re looking for something trans to watch, go for it – but there are better movies on this list. 3 Generations falls short because of it focuses too much on the cisgender family members. It holds a lot of potential for telling a great story but flubs portraying gender identity. Critics generally agree that the film had good intentions but forces too many compromises for the transgender main character to appeal to the cisgender adults around him.
Content Warning / Available on… Roku Channel, PLEX, The CW, Peacock, YouTube, Google Movies, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Fandango
A much better movie about transgender people dealing with family, 52 Tuesdays explores the relationship between a transgender man and his teenage daughter after he comes out. The daughter is limited to only see him on Tuesday evenings for the next year (hence the film title) and the drama that always comes with transition. The main gripe comes from it being released in 2013, right before transgender people were thrown into the media spotlight, so there’s lots of problematic reviews attempting to explain transness.
Content Warning / Available on… Kanopy, YouTube, Google Movies, Amazon Prime, Fandango, Apple TV
Marina is a Chilean transgender woman who, after her boyfriend dies suddenly from a brain aneurysm, has to deal with his family as they harass her. Death is a complicated process, and she’s strung through the wringer as they take away everything from her. The movie even won an Oscar in 2018 – it’s bittersweet and manages to relate well to real trans issues. Chilean activists credit the film as a major help in advancing a gender identity law in 2018 that finally allowed transgender Chileans to change their legal gender.
Content Warning / Available on… Peacock, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Movies, Apple TV, Fandango, Netflix*
Adam (2019)
Transmasc* | 73% RT | Comedy | NR | 1h 35m
Based on the novel Adam, the movie follows cisgender teenager Adam while he lives with his older sister – who is involved in New York City’s LGBTQIA+ scene. Adam eventually develops a crush on a lesbian girl who assumes Adam is a transgender man. Adam goes with it, lying about his sex assigned at birth and gender identity. The premise is overused, and the lesbian girl comes out as bisexual by the end of the movie after Adam reveals he’s actually cisgender. Adam still tells an interesting story, but it has a lot of potentially problematic issues. Sexuality is fluid and complicated, but the movie normalizes cis men’s fantasies about turning lesbians; lesbians are attracted to women, but Adam fuels lesbian attraction to transgender men; and of course, any movie that associates transgender people with lying should be taken with a grain of salt.
On the other hand, the movie is directed by a transgender man (Rhys Ernst), who made slight changes to the original book due to criticism. For what it’s worth, Adam does show how folks’ minds can be opened once they engage with other communities.
Content Warning | Available on… Tubi, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Roku Channel, YouTube, Google Movies, Fandango, Apple TV
Another recommendation due to the lack of actual transmasculine films, Albert Nobbs is interpreted as transgender… ish. Albert is a butler in 1800s Ireland who has lived as a man for thirty years to work despite societal restrictions. It’s difficult to decide whether Albert is a cisgender woman trying to survive in a male society or if Albert is a transgender man existing in the few routes possible to him, like IRL figures like Albert Cashier. While most folks involved in the film likely lean into the former interpretation, I believe the movie is significantly more interesting if you view Albert as a very early transgender man. However, the 1800s is a brutal time to be alive – disease and abuse are rampant, and Albert does eventually die by the end.
Content Warning | Available on… YouTube, Google Movies, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Fandango
Alice Júnior (2019)
Transfemme | Comedy Drama | NR | 1h 27m
This movie is so small that it doesn’t have a Rotten Tomatoes score – but the three critics that have reviewed it have had positive things to say. Alice is a transgender girl who makes YouTube videos, forced to move out to the conservative Brazilian countryside and attend a Catholic school. It’s a coming-of-age story about Alice getting her first kiss despite bullying and harassment.
Content Warning / Available on… Kanopy, Amazon Prime, Apple TV
Another Oscar-winner, All About My Mother is considered a classic among transgender films. After her son is killed in a car accident, Manuela recouncils with her ex-partner Lola – a transgender woman who never knew she had a son with Manuela. Along the journey, she meets other folks in the trans and sex work community. It’s messy, just like real life, and explores motherhood, HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, and topics that scare traditional Hollywood away.
Content Warning / Available on… Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Movies, Apple TV, Fandango
As We Like It / Jie Da Huan Xi (2021)
Transmasc* | NR | Romantic Drama | 1h 47m
As a Taiwanese retelling of Shakespeare’s As You Like It, the film explores Orlando and Rosalind’s love – but every single role is played by a woman to play on the historical reality that women were banned from the theater during Shakespeare’s time. It’s mild and a good watch if you’re seeking something more interesting than the classic Shakespeare version. It’s up to you to interpret the characters as transgender men in straight relationships or lesbians defying traditional gender roles.
Content Warning / Currently unavailable to stream in the United States
This Taiwanese film is based on the real life of Parinya Charoenphol, a self-identified kathoey who participated in professional boxing to help pay for her gender affirmation surgery. Despite its age, the movie manages to be a decent representation – it’s packed full of action, and transgender stories are rare in the sports movie genre.
Transfemme | 89% RT | Romance, Comedy, & Drama | R | 1h 35m
Honestly, I’ve heard a lot of good things about Boy Meets Girl – and it’s a fantastic alternative to those tired of sob stories, tragic tales, and dramas. Ricky, a transgender woman, works as barista in a small Kentuckian town with big dreams of moving to NYC to become a fashion designer. Unlike most movies, Boy Meets Girl uses an actual transgender woman (Michelle Hendley) to star in the lead role.
Content Warning / Available on… Hulu, Roku Channel, Tubi, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Fandango
Boys Don’t Cry (1999)
Transmasc | 91% RT | Historical Drama | R | 1h 58m
There isn’t a more “classic” transmasc film than Boys Don’t Cry – due to the lack of representation and visibility in media, it’s essentially our Brokeback Mountain. It was released in 1999 and portrays the real and tragic murder of Brandon Teena, a victim to an anti-trans hate crime in rural Nebraska.
If you’re looking for a light-hearted movie to watch, do not watch Boys Don’t Cry. Honestly, don’t watch it unless you’re really ready for it. Among transmasc forums, watching it seen as a rite of passage – but it’s a traumatic and gruesome film that brings gravity to trans hate crimes. Beyond that, it’s important to remember this film takes some pretty large liberties from reality: both of his murderers are alive in prison today, and the negligent sheriff Charles Laux was kept until retirement instead of fired for gross misconduct – although Laux did pass away in 2021 (good riddance). There’s also fair criticism in Hilary Swank’s portrayal of Brandon Teena as a cisgender woman. Lastly, I have a personal gripe that Boys Don’t Cry is the transmasculine community’s centerpiece film, but Brandon Teena was kind of… not a great guy. IRL Brandon should absolutely be alive today, but he had a lot of flaws and adored toxic masculinity, which isn’t something young trans guys should be looking up to. Take him with a grain of salt and hope for better stories in the future.
Looking for a more accurate telling of Brandon Teena’s story? The Brandon Teena Story was released a year before Boys Don’t Cry as a crime documentary.
Content Warning / Available on… YouTube, Amazon Prime, Google Movies, Fandango, Hulu*
Breakfast on Pluto (2005)
Transfemme | 58% RT | Comedy Thriller | R | 2h 15 m
Kitten is forced to balance life during one of Ireland’s most dangerous periods in recent history – transgender people don’t stop existing during major events, and she finds herself constantly surrounded by conflict due to The Troubles. Between her troubled youth, joining a punk rock band, and getting involved in sex work, Kitten struggles through external and internal turmoil while searching for her biological mother. Breakfast on Pluto is one of those films that critics hate but audiences love – so it’s got its own cult following.
Content Warning / Available on… Pluto, Roku Channel, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Movies, Apple TV, Fandango
There are definitely better and worse movies out there, but By Hook or By Crook makes the list due to having a transmasculine main character. Shy is a transgender man who leaves for San Francisco and meets Valentine along the way – the two commit various petty crimes to make ends meet, so my main qualm with the film is similar to Boys Don’t Cry as transmasculine representation. I’m sure Shy is a complex character, but most transmasculine characters focus too heavily on toxic masculinity and fuel anti-trans stereotypes about transgender people being liars and criminals.
Troy suddenly takes his transgender son Joe out into the Montana wilderness to make their way to Canada – without telling Joe’s mother, largely due to her not being supportive of their son’s gender identity. Joe has a rough relationship with both of his parents, since his mother actively preaches against his transgender identity, and his father hasn’t been the most present due to prison and drug addiction. As expected, Joe’s mother reports to the police and has a search out for her missing child – and Troy’s drug addiction eventually catches up to him while on the trail. Compared to the last movie, criticslove Cowboys but audiences are mixed due to the film having a pretty slow pace at times.
Content Warning / Available on… Tubi, Roku Channel, Philo, Amazon Prime, Google Movies, Apple TV, Fandango
Ron Woodroof works with transgender woman Rayon after discovering he has AIDS during the 1980s. The health industry is against treating AIDS due to anti-gay politics, and thus Ron is forced to source medication from alternative sources to stay alive. Together, Ron and Rayon distribute treatment to others also failed by the mainstream health establishment.
Dallas Buyers Club is genuinely a good film, and it’s based on the real events Ron Woodroof experienced when creating the Dallas Buyers Club – a front he used to supply medication and supplements relieving AZT symptoms and AIDS.
Content Warning / Available on… YouTube, Amazon Prime, Google Movies, Apple TV, Fandango
Death and Bowling (2021)
Transmasc | Sport-ish Drama | NR | 1h 4m
A relatively short movie, Death and Bowling follows a transgender man who is made the captain of his local lesbian bowling league after the former captain passes away. If you’re seeking something sport-adjacent, it might be a good watch – assuming you can find somewhere to stream it.
Hollywood has never portrayed transgender people fairly – and it likely take decades before we’re accurately and positively represented. Disclosure is a COVID-era documentary that details transgender portrayals in mainstream media and its affects on public opinion on transgender rights. Since it was produced by Netflix, you’ll only be able to stream it via their service.
Sonny is a bisexual man married to both a cisgender woman (Angie) and a transgender woman (Liz) who struggles to maintain control of an escalating situation when he attempts a Brooklyn bank robbery. He draws national media attention and the ire of the FBI, and Dog Day Afternoon shows an accurate portrayal of what Sonny and Liz’s relationship would have been like with a lot of heart. The film doesn’t shy away from portraying anti-transgender harassment and discrimination, and there’s a substantial point in that while Sonny is a criminal, he truly loves Liz and his love for her (and his own bisexuality) aren’t what make him bad.
Content Warning / Available on… Hulu, Paramount+, fuboTV, Sling, Roku Channel, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Movies, Apple TV, Fandango
There are very few full-length Native American transgender films. Drunktown’s Finest was directed and performed by Native American artists and tells three separate stories that collide together – one of which focuses on transgender woman Felixia. Reservations are underfunded hellscapes drained of resources and disconnected from the rest of the country, and the three main characters are all seeking something beyond their Navajo town.
Content Warning / Available on… YouTube, Amazon Prime, Google Movies, Apple TV, Fandango
I wouldn’t actually recommend Ed Wood if you’re wanting a real transgender movie, but it’s still on this list. It portrays the real life of Ed Wood, the American filmmaker behind numerous pulp films between the 1950s to 1970s – including Glen or Glenda, the central film Wood is trying to create in Ed Wood. Glen or Glenda was one of America’s very first movies with transgender representation, which is why Glend(a) is depicted as a transvestite and also why Ed Wood was awarded Worst Director of All Time at the 1980 Golden Turkey Awards. Ed Wood was directed by Tim Burton, who was fascinated by the exploitation culture dominating 1950s Hollywood.
Content Warning / Available on… Amazon Prime, Google Movies, Apple TV, Fandango
Emilia, a Mexican cartel boss, transitions as a transgender woman to finally live as herself with the help of doctors, lawyers, and other experts. Even though it’s difficult to leave her past life behind, Emilia manages to and even creates a nonprofit for victims of cartel violence – but it all comes crashing down when Emilia’s ex-wife finds new love and separates her from her children.
Critics enjoy Emilia Pérez, and it’s based on an opera libretto. It even features an actual transgender actress in the lead role – but audiences have absolutely trashed its ratings. Most of the hate reviews relate to it being a musical, since the public is seemingly exhausted of live-action musical movies, BUT Emilia Pérez has also been criticized for being poor representation of the transgender community as well as Latin America. There’s a heavy focus on the necessity of gender-affirming surgery, and of course – the movie centers on a transgender woman being a high-profile criminal, aggressive, and ultimately a liar despite it being released in 2024.
Two-Spirit / Transfemme | Dramatic Fantasy | R | 1h 37m
After a devasting earthquake hits Oaxaca, Mexico, a fashion designer joins a community muxes for research. The earthquake has a profound emotional impact on the community, and the film follows them process these emotions while fighting for legal recognition as a third gender in Mexico.
Content Warning / Available on… YouTube, Google Movies, Apple TV
This is an artsy movie, born out of Japan’s New Wave era and combines arthouse and experimental cinema with the documentary genre. Funeral Parade of Roses follows Eddie, a transgender woman, as she navigates the queer scene in Tokyo. It takes direct inspiration from the Greek classic Oedipus, where Eddie eventually murders her mother and unknowingly sleeps with her father.
After his release from prison, Enrique returns home to find his wife having an affair and a new daughter – Vanessa has come out as a transgender woman and is transitioning despite Enrique’s lack of acceptance. The film focuses heavily on Enrique and Vanessa’s relationship as he struggles coming to terms with cisnormative ideas and toxic masculinity. It’s based on the Bronx neighborhood of the same name, and Gun Hill Road is notable for being one of the first films to have a transgender actor portray a transgender role.
Content Warning / Available on… Tubi, YouTube, Google Movies, Amazon Prime, Fandango
I included Hedwig and the Angry Inch on this list, but Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything!, and similar films get an honorary spot here. Hedwig isn’t actually trans, and honestly, the premise is pretty problematic – but the film is based on the campy rock musical released in 1998. Hedwig is a gay man born in East Germany, persuaded to have a sex reassignment surgery to travel to the United States as her boyfriend Luther’s wife. Her surgery is botched, Luther leaves her for a man, and the Berlin Wall falls to combine East Germany with West Germany. Driven by the allure of stardom, Hedwig goes on a journey to become a musical sensation despite trials, copyright infringement, and general misery.
Is Hedwig transgender? I’d argue possibly more so than the lead characters in Priscilla and To Wong Foo, but these films barely pass by as queer camp classics. It’s important to remember that Hedwig all hinges on the premise that Hedwig was forcibly given a botched sex reassignment surgery – she eventually accepts her identity as a woman, but that’s a pretty harmful trope to perpetuate since anti-transgender activists foam at the idea of transgender people being persuaded into bodily mutilation.
Content Warning / Available on… Amazon Prime, Google Movies, Fandango
After huffing a magic can of aerosol, Trinity discovers she can speak with the dead – and Holy Trinity is an hour and half comedic fever dream as she grapples with this power. Alongside her, Trinity is joined by nonbinary lead character Baby, who follows her alternative sexuality and spirituality journey.
Andrea is the eldest child of a dysfunctional Italian family during the 1970s who bonds with a Romani girl and his mother Clara eventually after coming out as transgender. Things have to break before they get better, which includes Andrea’s family. Andrea, Clara, and Sara all feel like outsiders to the rest of the world – whether they’re trapped in a body they don’t identify with, a loveless marriage, or a hostile world.
Content Warning… Tubi, Freevee, YouTube, PLEX, Amazon Prime, Fandango, Google Movies
Lingua Franca (2019)
Transfemme | 87% RT | Romantic Drama | NR | 1h 35m
Olivia is pursuing a marriage-based green card to avoid ICE deportation while taking care of Olga, a Russian-Jewish woman living in Brooklyn in the early stages of dementia. Lingua Franca is Isabel Sandoval’s third feature film, and she stars as the lead character in addition to directing, writing, and producing the movie. It’s pretty well-liked, and it’s a solid choice if you’re wanting to support a transgender creative.
Content Warning / Available on… Tubi*, Netflix*, Amazon Prime
Major! (2015)
Transfemme | Documentary | NR | 1h 35m
While most people are aware of Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, less know about Miss Major Griffin-Gracy – a formerly incarcerated transgender woman of color who has fighting for transgender rights for over 40 years, including during Stonewall. Major! is a documentary film giving insight to her life thus far and the campaigns she has been a part of. Miss Major survived Attica State Prison, sex work, and a lifetime of anti-LGBTQIA+ discrimination, and her story is one of the few from the frontlines of Stonewall.
Nonbinary actor Lío Mehiel plays Feña, a young transgender man attempting to rekindle former relationships with his father, estranged half-sister, and straight ex-boyfriend. After coming out and transitioning, Feña has lost a lot of people in his life – within 24 short hours, he’s sept through the extremes of human emotion as people finally re-enter his life.
Content Warning / Available on… Amazon Prime, Netflix*, Google Movies, Fandango, Apple TV
Ludovic is unapologetically herself, and My Life in Pink is her journey in getting her family and community to accept her identity as a transgender girl. She might just be seven years old, but she knows she’s a girl – her parents struggle adjusting to this new knowledge as they try to impress their new neighbors. The film has a lot of funny moments as well as tough ones: Ludo attempts suicide during the film after being assaulted and she’s ostracized by her community, but her parents accept her gender identity by the end of the movie despite her age and it being the 1990s.
Content Warning / Available on… YouTube, Amazon Prime, fubo, Google Movies, Apple TV
After being framed for the queen’s murder, Ballister Boldheart goes into hiding and meets Nimona who takes interest to Ballister for his “villainous” deed. The two have to find evidence to clear Ballister’s name, but he’s led to believe that Nimona is an ancient monster from historical legends. The film is about friendship and acceptance of one’s self – Nimona has lived their entire life feeling like they can’t fit in anywhere due to their magical shapeshifting powers. Nimona is implied to be nonbinary and genderfluid, even though the film uses predominantly feminine pronouns to refer to them.
Ruth Applewood shocks her wife after celebrating their 25th marriage anniversary with her plans to transition into a woman in the rural Midwest. Her transition drives the family apart, but they eventually find their way back to each other after months of conflict and harassment.
I want to write an additional note that while the film has a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and pretty good audience reviews, the inspiration behind Normal is problematic. In an HBO interview, writer and director Jane Anderson said she hadn’t sourced any actual transgender people when creating the book or movie, and based the premise of the film by viewing transition the “ultimate betrayal” of love. The film wouldn’t hold up well if created today, especially with that mindset.
Based off Virginia Woolf’s novel, Orlando follows an androgynous nobleman who transforms into a woman. The story begins in the early 1600s until the present day (1992) due to Queen Elizabeth I’s magical wish for her to not fade, wither, or grow old. Virginia Woolf was queer herself, and Orlando has inspired many others with different takes on the story – including the 2023 documentary Orlando, My Political Biography, which has gotten even better reviews than the original as it combines Woolf’s story with a modern understanding of transgender identity.
Content Warning / Available on… YouTube, Google Movies, Amazon Prime, Fandango, Apple TV
Paris Is Burning is one of the LGBTQIA+ community’s most classic films, giving an inside look at NYC’s ballroom culture during the late 1980s. It was the Golden Age of New York’s underground scene for queer and transgender people of color – and without ballroom culture, we wouldn’t have modern drag today. There’s a touch of how many transgender people identified more safely as just gay drag performers, but it also capitalizes on how social these events were in a time LGBTQIA+ people were forced underground due to the AIDS epidemic.
Of course, I feel inclined to note Paris Is Burning has its own controversies: while the film is integral to queer history, it can also have flaws. The Black and Brown performers in the film were generally exploited and the profit made wasn’t distributed well – which is why multiple performers in the movie later took director Jennie Livingston to court. Others have pointed out that Livingston, at the end of the day, was a cisgender white woman. Without her, Paris Is Burning may have never existed, but she still took advantage of a vulnerable community for her own gain.
Enjoy Paris Is Burning but want something more contemporary? Kiki was released in 2016 and is regarded by critics as a sequel to the original documentary – although there are notable differences, such as Kiki‘s focus on youth, activism, and the realities of living in NYC’s underground scene.
Content Warning / Available on… Max, Hulu, Roku Channel, YouTube, Amazon Prime, Fandango, Apple TV
I’ve tried to watch Romeos a few times, but I can never make it very far into the film before switching to something more enjoyable – it’s a German romantic comedy drama from the early 2010s, and there’s just something about it that I can’t fall in love with. Despite that, I’d still recommend it if you’re looking for something pretty cheesy or if you’re looking for a gay romance featuring a transgender man – Romeos is remarkable in the fact it’s one of the very few movies out there that is both transmasc and MLM.
Content Warning / Available on… YouTube, Amazon Prime, Fandango, Google Movies, Apple TV
After leaving his rural hometown to move to Auckland, Caz starts anew as he transitions as a transgender man. Years later, he returns to Rūrangi and has to face all of the people he abandoned when he left for the big city – include his father, childhood best friend, and ex-boyfriend.
Transfemme | 89% RT | Biographical Drama | R | 1h 52m
Based on the real relationship between Barry Winchell and Calpernia Addams, Soldier’s Girl is a drama about Barry’s murder – he was murdered in 1999 by his fellow soldiers for dating a transgender woman (Addams), and his death played a big role in Don’t Ask Don’t Tell discussions. Calpernia is a showgirl in Nashville where Barry is stationed, and Barry becomes subject to harassment and violence when his jealous roommate Justin Fisher spreads rumors about Barry and Calpernia’s relationship.
Content Warning / Available on… Tubi, Crackle, Roku Channel, Amazon Prime
Ren is an aspiring writer who accompanies her parents and younger sister to a beach resort and Something You Said Last Night follows her trying to navigate the resort, relationship with her loving but overbearing parents, and desire to be independent.
Content Warning / Available on… Pluto, Tubi, Sling, Xumo, Roku Channel, Plex, Fandango, Amazon Prime, Peacock, Google Movies, Apple TV
Robert Eads was a real transgender man who died of ovarian cancer due to doctors wrongly believing his life wasn’t worth potential harm to their reputations. The film’s title comes from the Southern Comfort Conference, a real major transgender conference that was considered the largest in the United States from 1991 to 2019 – Robert’s ultimate goal was to live long enough to attend. He transitioned later in life, so the movie touches on many of the tough relationships older transgender people have with their parents, children, and even grandchildren – but Robert has always been content living with his chosen family, including his transgender girlfriend Lola.
During the early months of the COVID pandemic in Brooklyn, Bahlul joins his uncle Terry as he recovers from a broken leg. Stress Positions is narrated by Karla, a bisexual/lesbian transgender woman living in the same building. Critics are generally impressed by the film, but it has a lower score by audiences – likely due in part to America’s exhaustion of thinking of the pandemic.
Content Warning / Available… Hulu, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Movies, Apple TV, Fandango
Leo, a transgender man, goes on an unplanned weekend trip with his best friend Eleanor. It’s their first time spending time together since Leo has transitioned, and Leo has been looking for a break from all of his auditions, acting classes, jobs, and situationships. Spending time with Eleanor begs the question: can bad sex and good friends mix?
Content Warning / Available on… Tubi, Amazon Prime, Google Movies, Fandango, Apple TV
I often group Tangerine with Gun Hill Road – both are great films, but they have hard moments due to how well they portray reality for transgender women in tough situations. Sin-Dee and Alexandra are transgender sex workers who find out their pimp has been cheating with a cisgender woman. They eventually get the attention of Razmik, an Armenian cab driver and chaser who leaves his family on Christmas Eve to meet them across town. Between the two films, I enjoy Tangerine more – but both have their moments.
Content Warning / Available on… Max, YouTube, fubo, Sling, Amazon Prime, Google Movies, Fandango, Redbox, Apple TV
Magdalena emerges from the Cruces River after being left for dead many years ago. She returns to her family’s dairy farm to find her husband Enrique (who understandably has a heart attack upon seeing his dead wife), daughter Cecilia, and grandchildren. Due to pollution, fish are dying at an astronomical rate and the environment is collapsing in The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future‘s arthouse style.
Content Warning / Available on… Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Movies, Apple TV, Fandango
Fergus is a member of the Irish Republican Army during the later years of the Troubles who kidnaps a Black British soldier as collateral for an imprisoned IRA member they want released. He eventually finds himself in London and meets meets Dil, a transgender woman he falls in love with. Unlike Breakfast on Pluto, Fergus plays an active role in the Troubles – he’s expected to assassinate a prominent British judge, and the Troubles were messy.
Content Warning / Available on… Amazon Prime, Google Movies, Apple TV, Fandango
Based on the real life of Lili Elbe, one of the earliest individuals to ever receive bottom surgery, as she sheds the masculine gender roles she’s been forced to endure throughout her life. After years of being unable to be “cured” of being transgender through psychotherapy and other pseudo-conversion tools, she’s recommended a new but controversial surgery. Lili is the first person Dr. Kurt Warnekros has performed the surgery on, and like, real life, Lili dies after complications from the second round of surgery.
The Danish Girl was one of the first big movies to feature a transgender lead character in mainstream media – the film won multiple accolades, including an Oscar. However, it was also criticized for having a cisgender man play Lili’s role: Redmayne’s portrayal of Lili was one of the first big discussions on the importance of having transgender people play transgender stories.
Content Warning / Available on… Amazon Prime, Netflix*, Google Movies, Fandango, Apple TV
Frustrated by his father controlling his life, Joe escapes to the woods with his best friend Patrick and a new companion named Biaggio, who just happened to tag along for their adventure. They build a house out in the woods while the rest of the world fears Patrick and Joe have gone missing, and things go awry when Joe invites Patrick’s crush out to their hidden home. Biaggio is implied to be agender, and while they don’t use the term outright, Biaggio is confident in their nonbinary identity.
Content Warning / Available on… Paramount, Roku Channel, YouTube, Amazon Prime, Google Movies, Apple TV, Fandango
Following How to Survive a Plague, David France produced The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson to chronicle the suspicious death of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries co-founder Marsha P. Johnson, one of the most prominent figures in the Stonewall Riots and gay liberation movement along with Sylvia Rivera. When Marsha died in 1992, police ruled it as a suicide despite evidence suggesting foul play – the film re-examines the events leading up to police finding Marsha’s body floating in the Hudson River.
Decades after its initial release, the Wachowski sisters who wrote and directed The Matrix franchise have stated the films are an allegory for transgender identity – which makes sense if you take in account the Wachowskis came out as transgender women in 2012 and 2016. Like Fight Club, The Matrix is adored by cisgender straight men for a lot of the wrong reasons, but the film has a lot of heart that made into a classic. The red pill has been likened to real red estrogen pills, and the Matrix’s sense of disconnect is meant to portray gender dysphoria. In the Wachowski’s original script, Switch was meant to be a woman in the Matrix and a man in the real world – but the idea was scrapped since “the corporate world wasn’t ready.”
If you’re looking for a transgender story, I would recommend other movies on this list before The Matrix – but it should stay on your radar if you’re up for critiquing a sci-fi classic with a modern transgender lens.
Content Warning / Available on… Peacock, Sling, YouTube, Google Movies, Fandango, Amazon Prime, Apple TV
While on this list, The Silence of the Lambs is NOT a movie to celebrate or inspire pride – but it’s important when discussing transgender history and visibility in film. Even though Buffalo Bill explicitly states he is not transgender, transgender identity is central to the film and the movie plays a major role in how transgender people were portrayed as psychopaths in mainstream media until recently. Bill is a serial killer who purposely targets women to assemble a flesh suit for himself – since he is routinely kills women to be a woman, it’s hard to separate Buffalo Bill from transness. The Silence of the Lambs did fantastically well both critically and commercially by using these references of Buffalo Bill as transgender, but LGBTQIA+ activism being a minor issue during the time period meant there wasn’t enough backlash to really force the question. The film’s success encouraged a new era of mocking transgender people – and it incited fear that transgender people are deranged and violent freaks.
Even if the public wasn’t ready to really separate Buffalo Bill from transness, The Silence of the Lambs did create a minor turning point in transgender cinema: unlike previous films that use “transgender psychopaths” like Psycho and Dressed to Kill, The Silence of the Lambs did go to incredible efforts to state Buffalo Bill is not transgender – but of course, that doesn’t matter too much if they’re still profiting off the public’s belief that he is.
Content Warning / Available on… Max, Hulu, YouTube, Sling, Roku Channel, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Fandango, Google Movies
Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker follow Black and Latina transgender women who work as sex workers in NYC’s Meatpacking District during the 1980s and 1990s in an area referred to as “The Stroll” prior to its gentrification. It provides another viewpoint of what transgender people were experiencing in NYC to other films like Paris Is Burning.
Content Warning / Available on… Max, Hulu, YouTube, Sling, Roku Channel
J is thirteen years old and lives in Chicago and has been recently told they have to “pick” a gender due to the effects of long-term puberty blockers decreasing bone density. There’s some truth to this – puberty blockers do decrease bone density and can become a clinical concern for those on them for a long period of time, which is why they’re used for transgender youth prior to moving to traditional HRT. However, this isn’t really something J would be concerned about at thirteen – transgender youth are generally expected to be on puberty blockers until sixteen, and bone density concerns are easily addressed with the medical care that accompanies puberty blockers being prescribed.
Disregarding this technicality, They is… okay. There aren’t many films that feature nonbinary stories, which is why it didn’t get forgotten about completely.
Content Warning / Available on… Crackle, Google Movies, Fandango, fubo, Amazon Prime, Apple TV
Again: there are not many nonbinary films out there. This will change in the next decade or so; I remember ten years ago when there were about one or two transmasculine films out there but a wealth of short films. Nonbinary media is currently in a similar boat, so I feel confident in predicting there’ll be a good variety to pick from in time.
They / Them is a slasher set at a conversion camp for LGBTQIA+ youth, focusing on nonbinary Jordan who is constantly harassed by camp staff like the other campers, and the new camp nurse Molly who disagrees with the camp’s mission. It has a good premise, since it hinges on the disgust and rage LGBTQIA+ people have for despicable “conversion camps” like the one in the film – but it bombed due to its clumsy formatting and predictable ending.
Filmmakers have always been clumsy when portraying transgender people, and they were definitely clumsy in Laure/Mickaël’s character as a transgender kid. It’s unclear whether Laure/Mickaël is meant to be nonbinary, transmascline, or a lesbian girl, since the film ends with them presenting with their female birth name after being harassed for the entire movie for presenting as a boy. It reminds me a transmasculine version of My Life in Pink if it had a worse ending that left the main character “fixed” as cisgender. It’s considered a noteworthy film when discussing trans media, but it wouldn’t stand if released today.
One week before her bottom surgery, Bree receives a call from seventeen-year-old Toby from a NYC jail claiming to be her son. Bree’s therapist forces her to make contact with Toby in order to proceed with her surgery. Thus, she flies out to find Toby, who ran away from his stepfather’s home, and finds out his mother died years ago via suicide. She convinces Toby she is a Christian missionary and plans to bring him back to his stepfather while on a country-wide road trip – and the two inevitably bond along the way.
Content Warning / Available on… Starz, YouTube, Hulu, fubo, Sling, Roku Channel, Amazon Prime, Philo, Google Movies, Fandango, Apple TV
Transmitzvah (2024)
Transfemme | Comedy | R | 1h 42m
Rubén (aka Mumy Singer) embraces her female identity and rejects her planned Bar Mitzvah. Years later, she returns home after tragedy strikes the family as a famous Yiddish singing sensation, and Transmitzvah is their family coming to terms with who they are, together.
There aren’t many films that feature transgender people pursuing parenthood after transition – and Two 4 One is one of them. Adam is a transgender man who has a one-night stand with his ex-girlfriend to help artificially inseminate her with an at-home pregnancy kit. An accident causes them both to become pregnant, and the film follows Adam grapple with being pregnant and his sense of being a man.
Content Warning Unavailable / Available on… Tubi, Amazon Prime, Fandango, YouTube, Google Movies
Link impulsively runs away with his younger brother Travis from his abusive home in a run-down Canadian trailer park to find his mother, who he recently discovered was alive after believing for years she was dead. They meet Pasmay, a Mi’kmaq pow wow dancer who becomes interested in Link when they meet at a grocery store. The three of them go on a journey to find Link and Travis’ mother, and the boys rediscover their Indigenous heritage along with way.
Last week, I posted about five of the most common myths spread about transgender people. Misinformation sells – media has always benefited from spreading fake news, but current politics have heightened its spread. Here’s five more common myths spread about transgender people.
Myth #6: Transgender women are a threat to women’s spaces.
That’s a broad generalization that isn’t backed by any research. Transgender women are no more a threat to women than cisgender lesbians “threaten” fragile heterosexuality. Due to stereotypes and stigma, most transgender women already enter spaces rather timidly because they don’t want to push that narrative. Women’s bathrooms? Transgender women are just there to do their business and be on their way like any other woman. Domestic and sexual violence shelters? Maybe it sounds unbelievable, but transgender women are actually harassed more often than their cisgender counterparts – and they’re just looking for safe resources when at those centers.
At its core, this myth relies on the belief that transgender women are predators. Homophobes have labeled LGBTQIA+ people as dangerous for decades despite more accurate allegations against stereotypically conservative professions like law enforcement and religious officials. The myth centers transgender women as inherently masculine, often taking it a step further to imply that masculinity is always dangerous and transgender women are unable to lose this status due to being assigned male at birth. It also works on the flip side, since individuals who advocate for this myth don’t view transgender men as threats – due to being assigned female at birth, transgender men are unable to hold the same predatory status and are therefore welcomed in women’s spaces. It asserts that biological sex and mythical masculine-born energy dictate one’s ability to harm others.
Two comics from Assigned Male on the topic, by Sophie Labelle
Myth #7: All gender-affirming care is medical. All transgender people seek surgery, and children are being pushed into getting serious operations.
“Gender-affirming care” refers to any service that benefits transgender people, especially if that service helps to affirm our chosen gender identity. Medical services like hormone replacement therapy and surgery are classified as such, but so do non-medical services like binders, gaffs, haircuts, clothing style, pronouns, names, etc. There is not a single transgender person out there who engages with medical gender-affirming care before being well-acquainted with non-medical services. Before the normalization of informed consent, it was legally required to socially transition to access HRT – but it is still required for some transgender Americans who have insurance coverage that dictates letter approval as a prerequisite for HRT. Beyond HRT, individuals have to prove they’ve been on HRT for several years in addition to being socially transitioned to have surgical procedures, and many states require certain surgeries, usage of HRT, or documentation to allow transgender folks to legally change their gender documents.
Many transgender people do seek surgical procedures (often referred to as top or bottom surgery), but there is no single “one-size-fits-all” surgery for us. Not all transgender people can undergo or afford surgery, especially if they are disabled, live in a hostile or rural area, or have medical coverage that purposely doesn’t include transgender care. Lastly, not all transgender people want surgery, and that doesn’t make them less transgender. Anyone who identifies as a gender identity other than the one assigned to them at birth qualifies as transgender, but the label does not require folks to feel a certain way about their body. Most often, transgender people forgo bottom/genital surgeries since they have high complication rates and can have less-than-satisfactory results. And as mentioned above, it takes a lot of work to access these surgeries compared to other aspects of gender-affirming care.
Regarding any stories on minors being pushed into serious transgender procedures, I would kindly ask you to reconsider the validity of their publishers. It is already difficult enough for transgender adults to access surgeries or for transgender minors to be prescribed puberty blockers. The possibility of a transgender minor accessing surgery before age 18 is nearly zero. Minors have numerous barriers to gender-affirming care in addition to the ones transgender adults face – even the international WPATH guidelines require minors to have multiple healthcare providers recommend services. The only trans-related surgery minors can have feasible access to is transmasculine top surgery, since any other procedure would be paused until the individual turns 18. And I say feasible because transgender minors cannot reliably access top surgery since it’s extremely barred.
Myth #8: Transgender people are mentally ill.
In my previous post, I wrote about how cisgender people struggle to understand transgender experiences. Since they have never had to think critically about their relationship with either gender identity or sexuality, cisgender people come to the assumption that rebelling against their natural worldview means transgender people must hate their bodies, since anything else wouldn’t make sense. This assumption fueled and twisted research on transgender identity for decades – and it accompanied many other problematic ideas.
For reference, during these early years, you would also be labeled as mentally ill if you were a woman who cried too much, refused to be a servant to her husband, or stood firm that women ought to be equal to men. Queer individuals were also considered mentally ill, as were anyone else that failed to conform. Calling transgender people mentally ill purely based on their identity is as faulty as saying women still experience hysteria because they’re unwed.
Today, it’s a bit complicated: transgender identity itself was internationally removed as a mental illness in 2018 via the World Health Organization, and the current psychiatric diagnosis is gender dysphoria. The disconnect between one’s biological sex and internal gender identity is the only part of transgender identity classified as a mental illness today. There’s still stigma with that association, but mental illness does not hold any inherent goodness or badness to it. Before the classification change, transgender identity itself was labeled as illness, whereas today only the distress experienced from being misgendered, unaffirmed, and otherwise not respected as ourselves is classified as illness, and that distress can be a lot.
By making that move, the World Health Organization, American Psychiatric Association, and DSM also links gender-affirming care as a cure for gender dysphoria as a mental disorder: it has been well-documented that gender-affirming care eliminates gender dysphoria, and such care is internationally recommended as the best practice for transgender patients. Once a transgender person is affirmed as their gender, they generally experience little distress due to their sex assigned at birth – and that lack of distress qualifies as a lack of illness.
There is one more reason why gender dysphoria is still classified as a mental illness, and it essentially boils down to capitalism. Due to the American health insurance industry, individuals must have a diagnosis that qualifies care as “medically necessary” for companies to cover services. Without any diagnosis, American corporations would be quick to deny transgender Americans access to gender-affirming care unless they were willing to pay out-of-pocket, which is why WHO, the APA, and the DSM left gender dysphoria in the DSM rather than removing it entirely. However, it is predicted this might change – the field of psychology is leaning into classifying gender dysphoria as a medical condition rather than a psychiatric one, similar to how obesity was classified as predominantly a medical issue. This would remove some of the leftover stigma of being a “mental disorder” and allow transgender individuals to continue accessing gender-affirming care via health insurance coverage, since it would be diagnosed by a medical professional. The only potential issue with this route is that few medical professionals are adequately trained on transgender issues, similar to their lack of training on mental health as a whole. Unless folks live in a region with plentiful trans-friendly and knowledgeable providers, they may be further limited since doctors are generally unwilling to diagnose if they feel unconfident.
Myth #9: There are only two genders/sexes.
Gender is real, but it’s still a social construct. Social constructs are ideas that affect us as humans because of their perceived importance, but have little to no impact naturally.
The two comparisons I commonly use as alternative social constructs are money and race, since they are, in fact, social constructs. Without money, you wouldn’t be able to convince someone to build you housing or be paid for work, so money is real, but it doesn’t have any natural value since you’re not going to commonly find wild animals trading currency. Race matters because it identifies groups of people with each other (for better and worse), but it doesn’t have any natural meaning since, again, you’re not going to find animals identifying based on fur patterns, skin textures, or any other feature.
Gender roles, expression, and identity are all socially real but lack actual natural value. Western society traditionally emphasizes two genders, but that’s just one among thousands that have existed across human history. Other societies have held three or more genders for centuries, and western society is rapidly moving to a three gender system as nonbinary identities become socially accepted and legally recognized.
Stating there are only two sexes is more accurate than claiming there are only two genders, but it’s still not fully true. Frankly, it’s over simplistic: sex is complicated, which is why we’re taught there are two sexes while early in our educational journeys, but that view expands if you continue to learn about biology. Biological sex is composed of chromosomes, gonads, hormone levels, internal genitalia, external genitalia, and a mess of “secondary sex characteristics” like body hair distribution, breast tissue, vocal pitch, body fat, bone structure, muscle mass, etc. Most people align with one end of the sex spectrum, but intersex people can be born anywhere along it – and there are countless ways intersex conditions are expressed, meaning there are vastly more than just two sexes if you account for each possible intersex condition.
Myth #10: All transgender people are a little gay, and it’s at least a little bit gay to be attracted to a transgender person.
Statistically, transgender people are more likely to identify as queer compared to cisgender people – but that’s more attributed to the fact transgender people have already critically thought about their relationship with gender, so they’ve very likely thought about their sexuality. While cisgender heterosexual people hate to consider it, most people float somewhere along the straight-gay binary – but unless they have taken the time to reflect on their sexuality, few identify as queer when it is more convenient to be straight.
The other half of this myth is a lot to get into. Attraction is complicated, and sexual anatomy matters in some relationships – but I’ve always been of the opinion that gender and identity labels need to matter more. If you are a woman dating a transgender man, you are in a straight relationship; you can be bisexual and date him, but you’re not in a lesbian relationship. Stating otherwise demeans that partner of his gender for your own comfort – and people being obsessed with the comfort of previous sexuality labels is the most common I’ve come across. Hearing your partner call themselves a lesbian while they’re dating you as a man hurts, even if they don’t think it’s harmful, since it devalues your gender. A cisgender man dating a transgender man is a gay relationship, and it’s messed up how many times I’ve come across men who say transgender people are the nice little stepping stone between being gay and straight.
A cisgender woman dating a transgender woman is a lesbian relationship, and a cisgender man dating a transgender woman is a straight one. Doing mental gymnastics with this to defend your sexuality puts transgender people in danger – it is predominantly transgender women who are assaulted and murdered because straight men cannot bear being thought of as gay after being with a transgender woman, leveraging trans panic when brought to court – although it does happen the other way around, such as in the murder of Brandon Teena.
On one hand, labels shouldn’t have to matter that much – it’s why so many people just refer to themselves as queer since it avoids getting into a whole mess of other labels. But if your identity as a lesbian, gay man, or straight person matters that dearly to you, realize that our gender identity matters just as much to us as transgender people.
I was 14 when I realized I was transgender, back in the year 2014. Not much later, to my dismay, Caitlyn Jenner came out to the world – her novel identity fascinated the world, and that extended to my hometown in rural America. Suddenly, peers at school were talking about what they supposedly knew about transgender people, and my parents, who wouldn’t know I identified as trans for another year.
I’m well-versed in trans misinformation. Frankly, most transgender people are: it comes with being a marginalized person, expected to educate every single person you meet with unwavering patience. I don’t fault folks who get exhausted and frustrated after years of educating their friends, family, and strangers – that exhaustion led to the rise of Buzzfeed-like “Dear Cis People,” “100 Questions for White People,” and similar articles, videos, and posts during the 2010s that tried to rephrase that expectation. I always wondered when I would become frustrated and exhausted, likely to lash out like a stereotypical “blue-hair liberal.” Yet, eleven years later, I haven’t gotten to that point even though I’ve spent a decade in activism and educating cisgender people throughout those years. I can still manage patience, under one condition: I do not educate for bad faith. Many individuals purposely spread disinformation and “want to ask questions” to trans folks with the express purpose of being the Devil’s advocate. Those individuals are not open to actually learning and come with an agenda to demean or “convert” trans people. You cannot change them in one conversation, and they are not worth the effort. Anyone actually interested in understanding transness, that is not coming from a place of hatred, is worth teaching – even if they stumble on their journey.
Today, there’s more disinformation online than misinformation. There is a semantic difference: misinformation is false info spread, regardless of whether the person sharing knows if it’s true or not, while disinformation is purposely shared with knowledge that the info is false. All disinformation is misinformation, but disinformation is more nefarious. A family relative who shares a misleading post on Facebook about transgender people might not know its facts are wrong – that’s misinformation. If that relative knows that the post is incorrect, it becomes disinformation. There’s another conversation to be had on how to correct people with misinformation, since people hate being told they’re wrong and take corrections as a personal attack. Misinformation wasn’t that big of a deal ten years ago when flat-earthers and autism moms against vaccines were laughingstocks.
Misinformation is a big deal, and I don’t mean to be an alarmist. It truly holds the potential to cost human lives. We are more familiar with current events, such as the effects of misinformation about the COVID vaccine pushing more Americans to forgo the vaccination, leading to more immunocompromised people dying and more healthy Americans suffering from “long COVID.” Or, when Russia hacked American media during the past election cycles to spread disinformation and seat Republican candidates better suited to their interests.
Even before the 20th century, transgender people have always been around. If you look hard enough, you can find traces of gender-diverse people spanning centuries and Roman emperoress Elagabalus. Transness was only recently documented, and it’s only entered the public subconscious and mainstream in the past couple of decades. People claim the same about how many queer people exist today compared to fifty years ago, or how autism is supposedly on the rise. When identities are no longer criminalized and it becomes okay for people to publicly identify themselves, people incorrectly assume there’s an “explosion” of people suddenly queer, autistic, or transgender. The same belief was held on a sudden rise years ago of people identifying as left-handed or folks being diabetic. There was never a real increase, but there was a perceived explosion of left-handed individuals because they weren’t being burned at the stake for writing differently, and people were able to survive diabetes with the discovery of synthetic insulin, creating a “spike” of diabetic people.
This myth is fairly easy to dispute, for now. In some countries, information is regulated: when governments censor topics in published books, movies, and content on the internet, it’s easy to convince people that transgender people don’t exist. We are not at that point yet in the United States, but the GOP does want to move towards that future, evidenced by forced removals of transgender people mentioned in history, research, and educational curricula. Thus, trans history matters.
Myth #2: Transgender regret is common.
Compared to other medical procedures, transgender services like hormone replacement therapy and surgery actually have astonishingly low regret rates. Every surgery has a regret rate, whether it’s from complications, lack of satisfaction, or another reason entirely. The average knee surgery has a regret rate upwards of 30%, breast implants maintain a regret rate of up to 47%, and successful pregnancies have a regret rate around 17%.
The reason transgender people have an astonishingly low regret rate is because of these hoops, but it also deters people from getting care when it could benefit them. Trans regret only gets media coverage because detransitioners become viral on the internet from their sob stories. It’s unfortunate when it actually happens, but stories from detransitioned folks of how they were tricked are made up: even in “fast” informed-consent, you have a barrage of questions to answer from doctors to access prescriptions, changes take weeks to show even minor things, and you have people with you throughout the process to check in. Despite this reality, the belief that medical professionals are diabolically trying to force people to be transgender gets clicks.
Another way to think about trans regret and medical care is to compare it to other services. All procedures have risks and there can always be complications. Those risks are not worth denying the service as a whole. It’d be impossible to fathom a world where cancer treatments are banned because a small percentage of people have negative experiences on a life-saving treatment; the same should be applied to transgender procedures since they are documented as life-saving, too.
Myth #3: Transgender people want to trick cisgender people.
This myth has numerous layers, but at its core, it’s the insecure and paranoid belief that transgender people want to trick cisgender folks into having sex or that transgender people get some joy out of “tricking” people into perceiving us as our affirmed gender. Transgender people want to be respected as their authentic selves, but we don’t get joy from “tricking” others like our identity is a prank.
Trans people tricking poor cisgender folks into having sex is a real problem – and it’s been used as the punchline trope in comedy for decades. It even has legal recognition in most states, referred to as “trans panic defenses,” where cisgender people accused of murdering a transgender person can legally claim they were so angry, upset, or shocked that someone was transgender that they just had to assault them. The legal procedure comes from the underlying fragility of cisgender people’s sexuality, since there’s nothing worse than being thought of as flirting (or worse) with a transgender person, and gives cis judges and juries a reason to excuse anti-transgender hate crimes.
Disclosure is the process of telling a person that you’re transgender, and it’s a very personal decision that comes with inherent safety risks. Every trans person knows there is some risk in telling someone new, ranging from a new possible ally to a barrage of insults to even being hate-crimed. Some people prefer being out because they feel safe to do so, while others remain stealth – but not because they’re hoping to trick someone.
The transgender community advises sexually active folks to have that tough conversation with a prospective partner before you’re in the bedroom. Each person is different: a transgender woman who has had bottom surgery might not need to disclose her transgender status during a one-night stand because there’s nothing actually distinguishing her from other women compared to the safety risk of telling a stranger that you’re trans; a transgender man might feel inclined to tell a women he’s been seeing that he’s trans because aspects of his transness could affect their potential future together.
Cisgender people get frustrated about disclosure: they feel entitled to know whether someone is transgender. Some cis folks believe they “always know” when someone is trans, too. Yes, it is ideal for transgender people to be open about their identities, but cisgender people cannot be entitled to that knowledge as long as we exist in a society that is dangerous to live in. In comparison, there are so many other things you might want to know when having a one-night stand or going on a date with someone, like whether they’re infertile, if they have a stable job, if they have a disability, or already have children. But we all understand we are not entitled to automatically get that knowledge, and it completely upends how humans socially interact with each other via the social script.
On the other end of the spectrum, there is a community of cisgender folks who want to have sex with trans individuals because they fetishize us as a kink. Chasers (or “admirers,” as they call themselves) actively seek us out for sex. Any porn website will have a transgender category. Trans-specific dating apps exist purely for chasers’ convenience. We do not need to “trick” cisgender people into having sex with us. Should transgender people like chasers? That’s another topic for a different post – the ultimate point is no, we don’t trick cisgender people.
Because of the above, there is actually a subsection of the transgender community that identifies as T4T, or “trans for trans.” These trans folks only date other transgender people – but unlike chasers, they do so because they feel safer and better understood by other transgender people. We don’t have to explain our transness or the complications of gender theory to another transgender person to feel heard; we don’t have to fear that they might believe we’re going to hell for being trans or go into a violent rage because of who we are.
Myth #4: Transgender people are sexually aroused by their bodies. / Transgender people hate their bodies.
I combined two common myths for this one because both relate to how cisgender people fail to empathize with trans experiences. The first part, or the belief that all transgender people get turned on by their bodies, relates to Freudian-era pseudoscience and confusing transvestites with transgender people.
There are individuals who are sexually aroused by their bodies: the scientific terms are autogynephilia and autoandrophilia. But unlike transvestites, transgender people do not transition because they seek sexual pleasure. Generally, transvestites just stop at crossdressing (aka not continuing transition by seeking hormones or surgery) because they don’t actually want to identify as another gender. Yet transvestites were infinitely more interesting to research during the early years of sexology, so research papers were written for years with this base assumption that transgender people transition out of kink.
Are transgender people allowed to be sexually aroused by their bodies? Cisgender people are allowed to feel confident or sexy when looking at themselves in the mirror. It would be hypocritical to say transgender people do not deserve that same right. To feel comfortable in our bodies, that includes having the capacity to feel sexual in them, too. But that’s more a philosophical question outside of the realm of this myth.
The second part, or that transgender people must hate their bodies, also dates back to early research on transgender people. Cisgender people have always struggled to grasp what causes a person to want to be a different gender – very few cis people think critically about their relationship with their sex assigned at birth, so gender isn’t something they’ve really considered. To rebel against their natural worldview, they believe transgender people must hate their bodies – anything else wouldn’t make sense.
These assumptions permeated the very beginning of transgender researchers, and even trans-friendly providers held these stereotypes. It became quickly obvious that to transition socially, medically, or legally, transgender people had to adhere to these stereotypes since cisgender people held the power to prescribe medicine or affirm legal changes that transgender folks did not. To allow trans people to transition, doctors wanted them to fit their rigid boxes of what they believed transness to be – and that always included the stereotype that transgender people absolutely hate their biological bodies.
Today, there’s a decent understanding within the scientific community that transgender identity does not come from a hatred of one’s body but rather a disconnect between one’s internal versus outward gender. That disconnect can include feelings of hatred, but it doesn’t have to. The term “gender dysphoria” refers to that disconnect, ranging in feeling just uncomfortable to more extreme disgust or hatred. There is also a community of individuals promoting the idea that gender euphoria is just as important as gender dysphoria when discussing the need for transition – transgender people should not be expected to hate themselves. To be happy and fulfilled people, we need to be allowed to feel content in our bodies.
Myth #5: Transgender people want to dominate in sports, prisons, schools, etc.
We aren’t asking for unlimited access to dominate sports, we want the right to play fairly as ourselves. Until the past year or so, transgender people have been playing small roles within sports without issue: most leagues have written rules on how transgender people may participate, which usually requires two to three years of documented hormone replacement therapy. HRT is the key factor on supposed “advantages,” since hormones dictate muscle growth, strength, and stamina in all human bodies. A transgender woman who has been on prescribed estrogen for five years has no biological advantage over a cisgender woman – and quite frankly, cisgender women do hold an advantage if they compete with naturally high testosterone or a hormone disorder. Other aspects of transition, like surgery or legal status, have zero bearing on competitive performance.
For emphasis, transgender people have been officially allowed to compete in the Olympics since 2004. The exact rules have varied, but the general consensus to be allowed to participate is hormone replacement therapy. And the standards used by the Olympics are used in countless other sports and minor leagues.
Some folks might still get up in arms about other “advantages” transgender may have, but none of them warrant barring a group of people from fair play. A transgender woman who is six foot might have an advantage at basketball, but so does a cisgender woman who is also six foot. It’s those small advantages that drive people to play sports based on what they’re good at. It’s the nature of competition and sports. Getting up in arms about bone structure or child socialization is just as nonsensical as barring people based on race, ethnicity, disability, and even class.
This myth is more ludicrous in school settings. It’s difficult to argue against the benefits of school sports: they provide exercise while giving youth crucial team building skills while they socialize in a structured setting. But due to the stigma transgender people automatically get from participating in sports, very few of us do – and even fewer participate in school sports. Even in the most liberal states, transgender students still have to adhere to established protocols, which almost always relate to documented hormone replacement therapy. Out of the thousands of students that participate in school sports each here, only one or two of them identify as transgender. If they’re playing by the rules, it’s hardly fair to ban them based on identity alone.
Lastly, transgender people don’t go to prison to use taxpayer dollars for gender-affirming care. It’s way easier to transition beyond prison, and the dangers transgender people are exposed to in prison are never worth it: compared to cisgender adults, transgender people are roughly 10 times more likely to be assaulted by both fellow prisoners and prison staff. Most transgender people are forcibly detransitioned while incarcerated, so the reality is closer to transgender people asking if they can access or continue medical care while incarcerated.
Most people have never considered the difference between “gender” and “sexuality” – unless you’re questioning or identifying as LGBTQIA+, there’s little reason for folks to give it a second thought. However, understanding these two concepts is key when discussing many oppressions, like sexism, heterosexism, and cissexism, and helps make you a better ally to transgender folks.
What is Gender Identity?
In the simplest sense, gender identity (or just “gender”) is who you ARE or how you view yourself. Everyone has a gender identity, even if it is the same one as they were assigned at birth. You might identify as a boy, a woman, as genderqueer, agender, or nonbinary – but you still identify as something. GLSEN breaks up gender even further into three parts: gender expression, gender attribution, and sex assigned at birth.
Gender expression refers to how you display your gender or lack thereof. It’s a combination of hairstyles, fashion choices, behaviors, and habits that reflect your inner gender identity. Most people choose expressions that match their gender, such as dressing masculinely as a man or femininely as a woman, but expression doesn’t dictate gender. Women can have masculine expressions, men can be feminine, and nonbinary people can be androgynous or have a gendered expression. Expression is also the pronouns you state you use to match your gender and titles like mister, miss, and mx.
Gender attribution is how your gender is perceived by others, for better and worse. Gender very rarely occurs in an isolated bubble, and due to being a social concept, gender is both real and fake: people take aspects of your gender expression and sex to make quick assumptions about your inner gender. Attribution is most annoying when those assumptions are wrong, resulting in misgendering and deadnaming, but it’s one of many natural instincts people have when meeting individuals. When attribution goes well, it has positive benefits – being affirmed as your gender is a spectacular feeling as a transgender person, just like being misgendered is a miserable experience. Attribution is the pronoun and gender that others assume you are, such as a man, woman, nonbinary person, or other identity. Like expression, gender attribution does not dictate your gender identity. Other people assuming you are nonbinary does not make your gender identity nonbinary. However, it does often have an impact on your mental well-being and how you visualize your gender/passing ability.
Sex assigned at birth (SAAB) refers to the label medical professionals gave you upon birth, such as male, female, or intersex. SAAB is a “historical term,” unlike “sex,” which is used as a whole. Sex accounts for your current biology, but most aspects of biological sex are malleable, despite what anti-transgender activists claim. SAAB refers strictly to the sex you were perceived at birth, reflecting a part of your personal history but not necessarily reality. After high school, biology becomes complicated: science well-establishes sex is more than just a male/female binary and biological sex is instead composed of chromosomes, gonads, phenotype, and behavior. Modern science allows three-quarters of biological sex to be changed. SAAB refers ONLY to the state you were at birth and accounts for gender identity since SAAB determines whether you identify as cisgender or transgender. And like gender expression and gender attribution, SAAB does not dictate your gender identity – although all three parts can influence your overall gender.
The most common examples of gender identity are man and woman, although plenty of others exist. Technically, “cisgender” and “transgender” are descriptors of gender identity – everyone is either cisgender or transgender based on whether they identify as the gender assigned to them at birth. Cisgender means “same,” referencing folks who identify as the same gender they were assumed as at birth. Transgender means “different,” referencing those who identify as a gender identity other than the one assigned to them at birth.
Where do nonbinary folks fit in? Nonbinary is an identity associated with anyone who falls outside of the male/female gender binary. Currently, most nonbinary individuals are classified as transgender since they weren’t labeled as nonbinary growing up. Eventually, as more people are raised as nonbinary or without traditional gender, there will be folks who were raised as nonbinary and still identify as such – those people will be both nonbinary and cisgender. There are a few people today who fall within those categories, but it’s relatively rare.
What is Sexual Orientation?
If gender is how you view yourself, sexual orientation is who you’re attracted to. For most folks, it’s pretty straightforward – and like gender identity, everyone has a sexual orientation. Individuals who are attracted to the “opposite” gender as themselves are straight or heterosexual, like a man who is attracted to women. Those who identify as gay or homosexual are attracted to people who are the same gender as themselves. Queer, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, and other labels often reflect folks who don’t fit within that strict straight/gay binary – such as people who are attracted to one or more genders, or none at all.
Attraction can be further broken down: most people are familiar with romantic and sexual attraction, but it’s valuable to learn the inner workings of sexuality and attraction to better understand queerness and asexuality.
Romantic attraction happens when you want to be romantic with another person, like feeling the desire to date, kiss, hold hands, etc.
Sexual attraction is the desire you feel to be sexual with another person, like wanting to have any type of sex with someone.
Platonic attraction happens when you feel an emotional magnetism to someone, like feeling the desire to know someone better or become their friend.
Aesthetic attraction comes from appreciating someone’s look or fashion, like when you admire someone’s style but don’t necessarily want to date them.
Sensual attraction is the desire to hug or cuddle someone in a non-sexual tactile way.
Intellectual attraction is an attraction caused by wanting to engage or debate someone in conversation.
It’s perfectly normal to experience multiple types of attraction, and it’s also normal not to experience attraction. Most people experience a number of attractions all the time – many friends feel platonic, aesthetic, and intellectual attraction without romantic or sexual attraction; some folks might feel all forms of attraction when they’re in love with someone.
The key point is that gender identity is YOU, while sexual orientation pertains more to who you’re attracted to. As mentioned before, everyone has both a gender identity and sexual orientation – even if you don’t think about it very often, you still have labels like gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, religion, class, etc. A straight man has a straight sexual orientation and a masculine gender identity, just as an asexual nonbinary person has an ace sexuality and nonbinary gender. Gender and sexuality matter to some folks and not others, just like how other identity labels matter more to some individuals ,like race and class. Gender and sexuality are also pretty fluid – you’re allowed to experiment and explore these identities, so what you find works now may not be what you identify as in ten years, and that’s alright!
Extra Credit: Historical Gender & Sexuality
I think it’s also worth noting that our modern definitions for gender identity and sexual orientation are reversed from what they used to be just 50 years ago. During the post-WWII sexology renaissance, there was a lot of research into gender and sexuality in the United States and Europe. However, this research was heavily dominated by straight white men inspired by pseudoscientists like Sigmund Freud and didn’t account very well into humanistic or people-first approaches. Many of these early researchers supported gender-affirming care, but they still fundamentally believed sex and gender were combined – in their view, LGBTQIA+ people existed due to anomalies and disorders of “regular” functioning.
This resulted in papers that documented folks who were assigned male at birth and identified as women (known as transgender women today) as “transgender/transsexual men,” and folks assigned female at birth and identified as male (known as transgender men now) as “transgender/transsexual women.” The distinction between gender and sex didn’t become widespread in academic settings until feminist scholarship found its roots during the 1970s, so these men used labels based on biological sex. Further, they applied sexuality based on this understanding: an individual assigned male at birth, identified as a woman, and was attracted to men would be classified as a gay/homosexual transgender man since, according to their standards, the individual was attracted to the same sex as themselves. Today, that same individual would be classified as a straight transgender woman. These differences can become confusing very quickly, but they’re important to remember if you delve deeper into transgender history or the history of gender.
The presidential election of 1800 put former Vice President Thomas Jefferson into power under the Democratic-Republican Party against the Federalists. It marked the first shift of political power between two major parties – accomplished without the bloodshed and violence typically associated with such moves in European monarchies. Jefferson’s party valued free markets, individual liberty, freedom of religion, and the separation of church and state due to the influence of the French Revolution. Jefferson’s party filled the void as the dominant party while the Federalist Party collapsed, despite its mixed views on slavery. They also led the United States to war again against the United Kingdom through the War of 1812, even though it ended in a draw with the Treaty of Ghent.
All-Time Prosecution Highs
The Jeffersonian Era gave rise to an increase of sodomy-related persecutions, such as the case against John W. Morse in 1816. The National Advocate wrote about the New York case, “Amongt the civil prosecutions at this circuit were to [sic] of uncommon importance, and which had excited a good deal of interest in some parts of the country. The one was the case of John W. Morse vs. Roger Adsit; a slander suit on the charge of sodomy. Verdict for the plaintiff 600 dollars.” More sodomy cases come up in court reports, even if they failed to make it into published newspapers like Morse – there are six cases between the years of 1802 to 1807 in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, New York, and North Carolina.
What exactly is sodomy? Also known as buggery, it comes up a lot when referencing queer history as well as modern politics. Derived from the ancient Greek word Σόδομα or sódoma and the Hebrew word sədom based on the biblical city of Sodom, sodomy is any human sexual activity that does not intend to create children. Essentially, sodomy is all sex that is not penis-in-vagina intercourse.
Within queer history, sodomy cases are some of our best-documented records of LGBTQIA+ people existing in centuries past. While dominant writers refused to include queer people in history textbooks, we still managed to be recorded in court documents. In the early years, sodomy laws related more often to criminalizing beastility than same-sex activity – but these laws evolved to their current status today. The criminalization of sodomy still exists throughout much of the world, and today’s version of sodomy generally penalizes only same-sex activity rather than non-procreative heterosexual sex – although individuals are pushing for sodomy’s stricter definition based on hyper-religious beliefs like traditional Catholicism.
Today, same-sex activity is overwhelmingly legal throughout most of the world – the only countries that have sodomy laws are centralized in Africa and the Middle East. As of 2025, 12 of the 61 countries that criminalize sodomy use the death penalty as punishment: Brunei, Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Uganda, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar, Somalia, and the United Arab Emirates.
The United States utilized the sodomy laws imported from Europe to criminalize same-sex activity – and our victory in the Revolutionary War did not change these laws, leaving them largely in place for years to come. South Carolina was the last state to repeal the death penalty for sodomy in 1873, but it remained a criminal offense until Lawrence v. Texas in 2003. John Geddes Lawrence Jr. and Tyron Garner were arrested in a Texas apartment and charged with a misdemeanor – which Lambda Legal used to take their case to the Supreme Court on the basis that consenting adults have legal privacy in their homes. When the Court sided with Lawrence and Lambda Legal, all sodomy laws in the United States were immediately nullified and same-sex activity became legal – a major step in American queer rights.
Between the years of 1776 to 1861, countless children’s books and magazines were published in the South featuring atypical gender behavior, especially remarkable for the period. Most of these publications aimed to instruct youth about how to correctly adhere to their gender assigned at birth, as Jen Manion writes, “There were an abundance of publications aimed at instructing children on all manner of subjects from politics to cleanliness to morality. No realm of life was spared such scrutiny. Children were told how to behave with family, at school, and on the playground… Not surprisingly then, children’s literature provides a rich window into the malleability of gender, including the ways and reasons that children claimed gender identities, expressions, and activities for themselves.”
Some of the most notable examples come from the mid-19th century: Lucy Nelson and Billy Bedlow were children’s stories published in 1831 and 1832, following the adventures of two genderbending youth written by Eliza Leslie as they saw the errors of their ways by failing to adhere to traditional gender roles. Other accounts aren’t as cruel – McGloughlin Bros.’ The Tom-Boy Who Was Changed Into a Real Boy centers on a tomboyish girl who becomes a boy after years of engaging in male behavior, eventually becoming a sailor after his transition. The story is meant to be a light-hearted cautionary tale, it tells a more hopeful existence as a gender-variant individual where the protagonist wasn’t forced to give up their identity to conform.
Native Americans in Jefferson’s America
One of President Thomas Jefferson’s crowning achievements while in office was the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, expanding the American empire further west of the Mississippi River that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark would explore from 1804 onwards. While Jefferson respected Native Americans as individuals, he and his political allies viewed Indigenous cultures as inferior and worthy of American conquest.
This expansion and numerous expeditions created more encounters between American colonizers and Native Americans. Jefferson commissioned Lewis and Clark to record as much detail as possible while traveling Louisiana – first and foremost meant to establish an American presence further west and deter European powers, and secondly to make positive trade relations with Native American nations in the west while documenting Louisiana’s geography.
Lewis and Clark’s expedition journals were edited by Nicholas Biddle, a Pennsylvania senator who served as the final president of the Second Bank of the United States. Biddle’s diary notes in theOriginal Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expeditions reported Minitaree people who accepted gender-variant people within their tribe, “Among Minitarees if a boy shows any symptoms of effeminacy or girlish inclinations he is put among the girls, dressed in their way, brought up with them, & sometimes married to men. They submit as women to all the duties of a wife. I have seen them – the French call them Birdashes.”
Claude E. Schaeffer gives a detailed account of the acceptance of gender-diverse individuals that explorers encountered among the Kutenai of western Montana in 1811. Referred to as Madame Boisvert, this individual had been previously married to a Canadian servant of David Thompson – while Madame Boisvert had been unusual in their youth, they were surprised when Madame Boisvert returned as a man, claiming to their relatives, “I’m a man now. We Indians did not believe the white people possessed such power from the supernaturals. I can tell you that they do, greater power than we have. They changed my sex while I was with them. No Indian is able to do that.” Changing their name to Kauxuma Nupika, he sought a wife despite being assigned female at birth and joined Kutenai men in warfare – where he was later discovered as still biologically female by his brother. Changing his name again to Qanqon Kdmek Klatda, he was later purposely exposed by his brother – leading the entire camp to deny Qanqon of his masculine identity. Schaeffer’s entire account refers to Qanqon with the (modernly offensive) outdated term berdache.
Schaeffer’s account of Qanqon illustrates the evolving dynamic between Native Americans attempting to appeal to white colonizers – two-spirit and gender-diverse identities were accepted and celebrated in historical Native cultures, but continued European and American contact alongside Christian conversion imported transphobia. Schaeffer published his findings based on collected oral legends in 1966 – meaning Qanqon’s story likely warped through several generations. In the legends, he is depicted as brutal, nonsensical, and “bereft of her senses.” His brother is valiant for exposing Qanqon’s biology, and Qanqon himself deserves his punishment after years of beating women in camp.
Drawing by George Catlin (1796 – 1872) among the Sac and Fox Nation, depicting a ceremonial dance to celebrate the two-spirit person.
The Adventures of Lucy Brewer
The Female Marine, also known as The Adventures of Lucy Brewer/Louisa Barker, was published in Boston in 1815 – a series of pamphlets documenting the life of Lucy Brewer. While the story is published as an autobiography, some believe it was actually written by Nathanial Hill Wright. Regardless of its authorship, it takes inspiration from real accounts of gender-variant individuals like Hannah Snell.
Escaping a life of prostitution, Brewer fought as a marine under the name of George Baker during the War of 1812. The entire story is told in three parts, aimed to guide its young audience to avoid the mistakes she made – although it portrays her gender-bending adventures in a generally positive light, given it allows Brewer to fight for her country and travel the country. Brewer’s experiences also show an early conflict between gender roles and gender identity, since her ability to conform to traditional male roles illustrates that Brewer is capable of performing gender beyond biology.
The Adventures of Lucy Brewer, (Alias) Louisa Baker
Knowledge Check
True or False: The purpose of early gender-bending children’s stories in Antebellum America was to teach Southern youth that being transgender and nonbinary was okay. –
Fill in the Blank: During expeditions into Louisiana, American colonizers came into contact with _____, a gender-variant person among the Kutenai people. –
True or False: Sodomy is currently criminalized in the United States. –
The Adventures of Lucy Brewer follow a young woman who fought in the War of 1812 as a male _____. a. Doctor b. Soldier c. Marine d. None of the Above –
The Supreme Court ruling that overturned sodomy laws in the United States was _____. a. United States v. Marcum b. Obergefell v. Hodges c. Bostock v. Clayton County d. Lawrence v. Texas
ANSWER KEY
1. FALSE / 2. QANQON / 3. FALSE / 4. C / 5. D
Further Reading
DISCLAIMER: While the links below work at the time this article was originally published, they may not forever – especially when government officials are intentionally purging official-reviewed research and censoring mainstream media.
Immediately after the victory of the young United States of America against Britain, leaders attempted a short-lived government under the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. Anxious about the tyranny that Britain held over colonists, the confederated government was purposely weak with little authority and even lesser power to enforce regulation. It didn’t take long for issues to arise, leading to the confederated government being thrown out in favor of the republic and Constitution in 1788.
There is very little queer or transgender US history written within these five years. The confederation was chaotic – after securing victory in the American Revolution, leaders were given the task to create a government for the people that would not lead to tyranny and completely separate from the monarchy-style governments that controlled Europe. In their hesitance to give the federal government power, the purposely-neutered American confederation could largely not govern individual states – leading to a spike in civil unrest during this period as seen in the Pennsylvania Mutiny, Shays’ Rebellion, the Paper Money Riot, and Doctors Mob Riot.
Two of the most notable cases of civil unrest are Shays’ Rebellion and the Pennsylvania Mutiny since both aimed to ultimately overthrow the young confederated government. In 1783, the Continental Army threatened Congress situated in Philadelphia due to outstanding military debts. The Congress of the Confederation lacked any control of the military outside times of war, so the refusal of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania to halt the army’s protest forced Congress to leave Philadelphia and determine a new national capital. In 1786, Daniel Shays allegedly motivated his peers in Massachusetts over the debt crisis between farmers and merchants. Shays ultimately failed in their attempt to seize weaponry housed in the federal Springfield Armory – although his historical portrayal compared to the military members in Pennsylvania highlights the distortion of history. When the Continental Army won in Philadelphia, recounts are kind to their involvement; modern scholarship suggests that Shay was intentionally scapegoated to deflect from the corruption within Massachusetts that led to the unrest.
While there is not much queer history recorded during this era, that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to learn – history is a fantastic teacher to those willing to be students. Why are American conservatives seemingly more willing to overthrow democracy compared to the left? Why are general Americans still not ready for a large-scale overthrow?
Conservatives are emboldened and genuinely believe they are righteous. While a minority of those who attacked the capitol believed they could have died, the majority likely believed that they had nothing to legitimately fear. Traditional conservatives align themselves with law enforcement and idolize the military – so it came as a surprise when security treated them as criminals as they ransacked D.C. MAGA conservatives associate with the further right, which begins to demonize law enforcement (and why Nazis also use the term ACAB). The crowd on January 6th was likely mixed with both types, with MAGA conservatives fueling mob mentality into inciting others into extreme action.
The American left has overwhelming more in common with the general public, especially in terms of rebellion. They assume that the system, including both law enforcement and the military, is a tool to be used against them. Before positive change can be wrought or for the international community to intervene, protestors have to die for their cause. For that to occur, protestors must be willing to die for their cause – which means they must feel so desperate or hopeless that even death is better than living under their current conditions. It is at that point that the general public can be moved to great action; and while the majority of the American public disapproves of the Trump administration, they have not been impacted enough yet to act. However, Americans are rapidly climbing towards that path – the actions of Luigi Mangione were done because Mangione became disillusioned and desperate by the current political and healthcare system to put his life at risk, and the response by many Americans celebrating his actions further proves this.
Knowledge Check
True or False: Examples of transgender history during the American Revolution include Thomas(sine) Hall, Joseph Davis, and Anne Hutchinson. –
The first government of the United States was a _____. a. Republic b. Oligarchy c. Confederation d. Autocracy –
True or False: The riots on January 6th, 2020 were an attempted coup or overthrow of the government.
ANSWER KEY
FALSE / 2. C / 3. TRUE
Further Reading
DISCLAIMER: While the links below work at the time this article was originally published, they may not forever – especially when government officials are intentionally purging official reviewed research and censoring mainstream media.
