Pax Ahimsa Gethen | queer • black • trans • vegan • atheist | blogger • photographer | social justice • gender & animal liberation

My stories on Medium

13 min readApr 6, 2016

As I’ve seen some other writers doing this — here is an archive of the stories I’ve published on Medium, which I will attempt to keep updated (newest on top). This list contains only stories I originated, with the exception of a few substantive replies to others. Prior to September 2017, many of my posts were imported from my blog, the funcrunch files. Most of my stories focus on social justice, particularly transgender issues.

September 2024

Respect For Our Names Should Be Unconditional

His name was Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah

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Redefining Work

The fallacy of equating working, making money, and earning a living

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August 2024

Be Like Biles, Not Like Lyles

Health and responsibility at the Olympic Games

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June 2024

A Proposal for Justice on Juneteenth

From “day off” to day of reparations

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Tennessee and the Legacy of Lynching

Thoughts in advance of Juneteenth

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May 2024

Managing Black Anxiety

A call for compassion this Mental Health Awareness Month

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April 2024

Welcome TransTech Members!

As a Black trans blogger and long-time member of the Medium Partner Program, I want to welcome new Medium members…

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March 2024

Breaking Binary Boundaries

The genderqueer comedians challenging nonbinary stereotypes

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February 2024

I’m the Only Black Resident of Disney Dreamlight Valley

And I doubt that will change anytime soon

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Why Billy Joel’s New Deepfake Video Makes Me Sad

It’s just a fantasy. It’s not the real thing.

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January 2024

My Mac Memories

Celebrating the 40th birthday of the Apple Macintosh

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December 2023

Ode to Indie Games

Reviewing my most-played, most-loved games of the year

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Commemorating Black Brilliance on Wikipedia

Remembering Black artists who passed in 2023

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My Black Transition: Ten Years On

How gender transition opened my eyes to injustice

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November 2023

Thoughts on the Death of Kissinger

Whenever a controversial public figure dies, debate ensues over whether it is appropriate for people to openly…

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On Ad Blockers, Paywalls, and Entitlement

Questioning the demand for unlimited free content

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October 2023

House Speaker Election Continues America’s Slide Into Theocracy

Mike Johnson encapsulates the Christian bigotry of today’s Republican Party

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Children and War Crimes

A pacifist view on international conflict

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In Praise of Plain Food

An ode to oatmeal and other outcasts

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August 2023

Bleeding Cows for Profit

A vegan objection to “cultivated meat”

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Ten Years in Transition: Living Up to My Name

Striving to embody my values of peace and nonviolence

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Visibility and Resistance on Wikipedia in Fifteen Photos

Representing marginalized communities with my contributions to Wikimedia Commons

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A Single Bullet

Lives are precious. Guns end them.

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Honoring the Trans Legacy of San Francisco

August is Transgender History Month

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July 2023

The Truth About Trans Women

Countering transphobic talking points

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American Apartheid

In 2023, Black people remain second-class citizens

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Agender Awareness

In recognition of International Non-Binary People’s Day

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Frequent Frenching for Fun

Reflections on one year of studying French on Duolingo

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America: Love It Or Leave It?

Fourth of July reflections on that question

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June 2023

Marching Against Rainbow Militarism

Toward a more radical Pride movement for San Francisco

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Cisgender Definitions

No, “cis” is not a slur.

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For Feathered Friends

Respect for all birds, not just the fancy ones

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May 2023

Cross Words for Trying Times

Daily word games boost my brain and spirits

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This Is The Face of a Sexual Predator.

Today, a civil jury found that former president Donald Trump sexually abused advice columnist E Jean Carroll. They…

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Mass Shootings Might Be Beyond the Reach of the Law

Legislation is not enough to stem the tide of gun violence in the U.S.

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When Will Black Lives Matter in America?

Irrational fear of brown skin rationalizes our oppression

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April 2023

Gun Control Will Not Fix Gun Culture

We need to proselytize peace.

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Guns, Racism, and Respectability Politics

Reflections on the shooting of Ralph Yarl

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Black Lives Do Not Matter to American Cops

This week, news emerged of a large number of blatantly racist text messages exchanged by police officers in Antioch…

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A Trans Girl Playing Sports Is Not An “Emergency”

Seriously, elected officials, don’t you have better uses of your time than this?

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March 2023

Celebrate Trans Visibility at the TransTech Summit

The 2023 TransTech Summit is online March 31 — April 3.

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Trans Takeover at Creating Change

Reflections on the 2023 Creating Change Conference, part four

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Trans Athletes and Fairness to Women

Reflections on the 2023 Creating Change Conference, part three

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Accessibility, Ableism, and Accommodations

Reflections on the 2023 Creating Change Conference, part two

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Mixed-Race and Rootless

Reflections on the 2023 Creating Change Conference, part one

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February 2023

Life Sucks, But At Least There's Tea

The perfect cup that gets me out of bed in the morning Like many people, I suffer from clinical depression and anxiety…

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Police Are the Mass Killers We Should Be Worried About

Two months into the year 2023, mass shootings continue to be everyday occurrences in the United States, with no end in…

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Atheism Explained

One atheist’s perspective on the nature of deity

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January 2023

Is Pacifism a Privilege?

Why I believe that killing is never the answer to oppression

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Gun Safety Is An Oxymoron

For everyone’s safety, we must rid the world of firearms.

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T+9: Are We Male Yet?

Reflections on nine years of testosterone therapy

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December 2022

I Mask When Asked

But mask fatigue is very real.

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Attacking Drag Queens Will Not Save Your Children

Confronting those who scapegoat the LGBTQ community

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November 2022

Yes, ALL White People

And yes all men too, while we’re at it.

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Even a Dead Democrat Beats a Green Candidate

According to Pennsylvania voters.

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October 2022

Why Your Next Event Should Be Vegan

Vegan meals are more inclusive, not less.

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September 2022

Christians and “Nones”: Action vs Affiliation

This week, the Pew Research Center released a study showing that Christians might become a minority group in the United…

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Killing Kiwi Farms Won’t Stop Transphobia

But here’s what will.

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June 2022

Vegan for Their Health, Not Mine

Thoughts from a long-term vegan

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Keep Police Out of Pride

Uniformed officers have no place in our parade.

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May 2022

Progressive Catholics, Please Explain Yourselves

I genuinely want to understand why you stay with an oppressive institution.

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Pregnant People: A Trans View on Abortion Rights Messaging

This week, a wave of fear and anger swept across the country when we learned that the U.S. Supreme Court intends to…

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Cisgender Affirming Surgeries

The gender binary hurts everyone, but is breaking bones a cure?

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April 2022

Traveling While Trans: Does “X” Mark the Spot?

Having a non-binary gender option is great, but I doubt I’ll be switching.

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March 2022

My Sex Chromosomes are Irrelevant

And why I’m done arguing on this point

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The Attempted Genocide of Transgender Americans

And why it won’t succeed

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October 2021

Yes, Gender is a Fact

But here’s what that actually means.

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September 2021

Does Bisexuality Exclude Trans People?

Examining preferences and identity on Celebrate Bisexuality Day

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May 2021

Trans Girls are Girls, and Trans Women are Women. Period.

Even Caitlyn Jenner.

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November 2020

My Vote of No Confidence

This week I cast my ballot, as I have in every U.S. general election and nearly every mid-term since I first became…

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July 2020

Trans Visibility Exposes Cis Fragility

This is not the story I planned to write today.

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Resistance to Going Vegan: Excuses and Responses

If you love animals, why are you still eating them?

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June 2020

Don’t Defund, Dismantle.

Ending white supremacy will require radical action.

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Menstruation Does Not Define Me

Gender and sex cannot be reduced to reproductive organs.

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May 2020

Two Months in Lockdown

Staying sane in San Francisco

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April 2020

Stop Blaming the Victims of Zoombombing

Locks are for honest people, not assholes.

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Of gods, atheists, and comfort in crisis

They say there are no atheists in foxholes.

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February 2020

Celebrities, Cows, and Connecting Oppressions

Joaquin Phoenix shines a spotlight on connections that marginalized vegans have been making for decades.

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December 2019

At Birth: Who I Was vs Who I Am

No, Trans People Are Not Normal

Indeed, we are extraordinary.

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November 2019

Carrying Our Genders In Our Wallets

My non-binary identity cannot be reduced to a single letter on a piece of plastic.

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October 2019

Cis People Are Literally Dying To Reveal Babies’ Genitals

Cisgender people are taking their efforts to enforce the gender binary to new heights. Desperate to ensure friends and…

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August 2019

Promoting broad disclosure of pronouns

Your gender identity is your business, but pronouns are not identity.

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July 2019

Grasping at Straws

Our dining choices do have consequences

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June 2019

Trans Heat Wave Diary

Dressing for distress

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On Animals, Gender, Race, and Optics

Is stage-crashing ever effective animal rights activism?

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Queer Attraction

Beauty beyond binaries

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April 2019

Deadnaming and Reclaiming

For trans people, names can be a source of joy… and pain

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Eyeballs Have No Gender

Trans-affirming medical care is good for your health

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January 2019

Ally is a Verb

Cishet people: Center queer and trans folks, not yourselves.

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Running for the Birds

Finding motivation when you don’t get a “runner’s high”

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T+5

Reflections on five years of testosterone therapy

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December 2018

Bandersnatch and the Paxman

Thoughts on gaming, naming, and interactive media

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San Francisco Is Failing Its Residents

My homeless neighbors are dying on the streets

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November 2018

My Gender Is Not Binary, and Neither Are My Politics

A paradox of progressive posturing

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October 2018

Want to Support Queer and Trans People? Fix Your Churches.

Protecting our rights and dignity at a more fundamental level than “getting out the vote”

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Transmasculine musings in the #MeToo era

How trans and cis targets of sexual abuse can support each other

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September 2018

Let’s celebrate bisexuality, minus the identity policing

Your sexual orientation, and chosen label for it, is your business.

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Of puppets, headcanons, and gay agendas

Are Bert and Ernie really a couple?

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This 9/11, the terrorists I fear are at home

Like millions of others around the globe remembering 9/11, I recall exactly where I was when it happened. I was living…

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What it takes to be president

Hint: It’s not experience, intelligence, or morals

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Radical empathy

Against the needless killing of our fellow beings

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August 2018

Ten years a Wikipedian

Ten years ago today, I made my first edit on Wikipedia. I still remember what it was without even having to look it up…

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Back of the pack

Twenty years of barely-competitive racing

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Five years in transition

Does it get better?

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Pose: Thoughts on gender, race, and identity

Last week, I finished watching the premiere season of Pose, the new FX series that explores the lives of queer and…

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Is protest photography endangering activists?

Since acquiring my first professional camera in 2007, I have always preferred shooting events. While concert…

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July 2018

Boy juice

A trans male history of blood, hormones, and the U.S. medical establishment

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Security theater in pink and blue

The hazards of flying while trans

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Humans belong together. Immigrants are not “aliens”.

Rallying for immigrant rights and basic human decency

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June 2018

Pride, politics, and protest

How I spent 2018 Pride weekend in San Francisco

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May 2018

Breasts, beards, and binaries

Gender dysphoria is robbing me of sunlight

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Vegan activism: Confronting connections between human and animal oppression

Last Friday, I attended a talk entitled “Last Night a Pigeon Changed My Life: Considering the Inescapable Connections…

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April 2018

My adventures in animal rights activism

Maybe being a lonely vegan isn’t so bad after all…

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Becoming a black man in America

The year was 2013. My discomfort with my assigned sex had reached a peak, and I began posting on my personal blog and…

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The music of the resistance

Singing joyfully in the face of oppression

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Trans life in 2018: Visibility into action

On March 31, I attended the annual Trans Day of Visibility celebration in San Francisco. The theme for this year’s…

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March 2018

Marching for (some) lives

On March 24 I attended March For Our Lives in San Francisco, one of several hundred events that took place that day to…

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Trans women of color speak on the politics of visibility

Yesterday in San Francisco I attended a discussion on the politics of transgender visibility. Produced by Aria Sa’id…

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Reclaiming and remembering queer space

This past Saturday, LGBT activists, friends, neighbors, and elected officials gathered in San Francisco’s Polk Gulch…

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Vegan ruminations

Reflections on the 2018 Conscious Eating Conference

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Nation of immigrants

Last Wednesday, February 28, I attended a protest of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in San…

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February 2018

Dare to disarm

Envisioning a gun-free future for our species

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Show up for black and brown trans women

Yesterday I attended a rally and press conference for Tanesh Nutall, a Transgender Law Center client who was…

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Is there slavery in your vegan chocolate?

This Valentine’s Day, many vegans will enjoy what they might think is “cruelty-free” chocolate: Made without milk or…

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January 2018

Animals are not “meats”

There’s a butcher shop not far from where I live that has angered me every time I’ve walked by it. Not just because…

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Documenting the resistance

A year of protest photos from the Left Coast

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When a dog whistle becomes a siren

Trump’s racism isn’t new. It’s the White House response that’s cause for alarm.

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Dairy: White Lies

Lactose “intolerance” is actually the normal human condition.

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Fire and Fury: A review from the margins

Rarely do I anticipate a book enough to pre-order it. But last week I read the lengthy excerpt of Fire and Fury: Inside…

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Duolingo and my history of lazy Spanish practice

Language learning and the limits of gamification

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December 2017

So you’re going vegan for New Year’s

Some advice and reality checks

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Sobering up to sexual harassment realities

Don’t blame alcohol for wandering hands

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November 2017

Conflicted thoughts on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving used to be one of my favorite holidays, primarily because of the food. I’m not talking about turkeys; I…

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Trans resistance and resilience

Being vocal and visible despite the violence

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To see and be seen clearly

A trans perspective on treatment for gender dysphoria

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System working as intended

As we approach the sad anniversary of President Donald Trump’s election victory, Refuse Fascism has begun holding daily…

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October 2017

White House Arrest

I’m leaning heavily toward being a prison abolitionist, but if the entire Trump/Pence Administration were to be thrown…

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Respecting trans lives on Wikipedia

Continuing in my efforts to improve the coverage of marginalized people on Wikipedia, I started two new biographies of…

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Validation, not victory, for non-binary Californians

On October 15, 2017, California governor Jerry Brown signed into law Senate Bill No. 179, enacting the Gender…

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Assimilation or extermination

The lies of the “LGBTQ” president

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Celebrating our sisters

Trans women of color on Wikipedia

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Victim and survivor

Stalked by a trans-antagonistic sociopath

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September 2017

Freedom to oppress: Berkeley’s civil war

Scene: Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley, 1993. I had recently started my first full-time job, working in Sproul Hall, and was…

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This week in woke Wikipedia

Last December, Bloomberg Businessweek asked the question, “Is Wikipedia Woke”? The article noted that the online…

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Bigotry, not madness

I don’ t appreciate the author of the piece I’m replying to stating that “we” deserve Trump, as if all Americans are…

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June 2017

Bigoted vegans piss on Pride month

This week, Mercy for Animals featured me in their article, 13 LGBTQ Vegans You Need to Follow. I had already found and…

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October 2016

Some good news for non-binary folks

Here in the state of California, a couple of positive legal developments emerged recently that are of particular…

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July 2016

Dear Melania: Please don’t teach your kid to hit people

This is an open letter to Melania Trump, husband of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

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The LGBTQ and The Donald

Note/reminder: I am affiliated with no political party and endorse no presidential candidate at this time.

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June 2016

Gender and gaming: The Sims bulldozes binaries

In a climate of relentless cissexism and transphobia, it’s great to share some good news for trans and non-binary…

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April 2016

California voters: Check your affiliations

This election season is too much. The other day I got a robo-call from Donald Trump. As soon as I heard that man’s…

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Not seeing eye to eye

Today I went to Optical Underground in San Francisco to pick up the new eyeglasses (pictured above and also on Flickr…

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Freedom to discriminate in Mississippi

Add Mississippi to the list of states making it clear that people like me do not deserve equal rights. The governor has…

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March 2016

On “not seeing” race or gender

Hi Amanda — I don’t know anything about you or your now-former publication, but the thread your post is in kept coming…

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Non-binary erasure at the Oscars

I’ll admit it: I love having on-demand access to hundreds of movies and TV shows through Netflix and Amazon Prime.

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February 2016

South Dakota’s fixation with children’s penises

Yesterday, a bill discriminating against transgender children passed the South Dakota state senate. Of course, the bill…

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January 2016

Men in skirts

There’s a great piece in Black Girl Dangerous today about femme clothing, gender expression and identity. In their…

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Thoughts on copyright in the digital age

I remember when my favorite author, Ursula K. Le Guin (I took my last name from one of her books), resigned from the…

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Black Vegans Rock is live!

Black Vegans Rock is now live! I’m excited about this new project for all the reasons I mentioned in my earlier posts…

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December 2015

Be a Man

It’s now been nearly two years since I began my physical transition with an injection of testosterone. Since then, I’ve…

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November 2015

Announcing Black Vegans Rock

As promised in my previous entry, I am excited to say more about Aph Ko‘s new project, Black Vegans Rock. The stated…

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Clothing has no gender.

On the left is a photo of me, taken shortly before the start of my gender transition, wearing my favorite denim jacket…

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Tolerance is not acceptance

Today is the Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day to mourn the lives lost to transphobic violence. With at least 22…

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We just need to pee

I’m sharing this story in response to yesterday’s defeat of anti-oppression legislation in Houston.

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October 2015

Don’t know much biology

Don’t know much about history Don’t know much biology Don’t know much about a science book…

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September 2015

A-gendering we will go

After reading Whipping Girl by Julia Serano, I wrote a blog entry about gendering and subconscious sex. In it, I ask…

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Our lives, our stories

Hello,

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Sometimes you’re just a jelly donut

This is a story I wrote shortly after coming out as trans two years ago. It’s a political allegory that expresses my…

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What I wanted to wear: Performing masculinity

Last night I was honored to attend a talk by Alicia Garza, co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter. While this was not a formal…

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