Becoming Jude: Blogs

  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...