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The Healing Journey: Transition was about unbecoming everything that wasn’t really me, so I could be the me I was always meant to be.

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I’ve heard many self-help teachers, philosophers, and psychologists describe healing as the process of undoing the layers of social conditioning placed upon us by society, and returning to our authentic selves. For me, transition was that process. When cisgender people talk about authenticity, shedding shame, low self-esteem, imposter syndrome, masking, and the many ways we change ourselves to fit into the outer world, they are describing a process of realignment with the self. People still struggle to understand trans people’s experiences, but the truth is I think many people can understand. They just don’t realise it. Trans people are pushed out of their social conditioning, some forced to forfeit safety, personal relationships, and even love to embody their truth. I was born into a world that gendered me incorrectly. My body didn’t align with who I was on the inside, to the point of excruciating discomfort that I endured until I simply couldn’t keep it up any longer. Perh...
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No Man’s Land: Losing a Sense of Belonging as a Transmasculine Non-Binary Person

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  My aesthetic has changed, as has the way the world reads me. When you transition, the world quietly reorganises you. When you’re non-binary, you quite literally live in the middle ground, forced to choose a side in a binary world. Yet you don’t choose, the world chooses for you. For some, this can feel affirming in terms of social position. I’ve realised just how much more alienated I feel. For 30 years of my life, the world gendered me as a woman. In my late twenties, I realised I was non-binary. In my adult life, I built my home, my friendships, and my sense of belonging within the lesbian community. It was where I felt understood and where I didn’t have to explain myself. People are often surprised when they see photographs of me before my transition. The image I’m sharing is me at 30, out as non-binary then, just as I am now. My medical transition was simply about becoming comfortable in my skin. I tend to separate that understanding from my sense of identity. But I...
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