Welcome TransTech Members!
Greetings from a trans member of Medium
As a Black trans blogger and long-time member of the Medium Partner Program, I want to welcome new Medium members coming to us from TransTech Social Enterprises. As announced during the recent TransTech Summit and to members over email, Medium is providing a free annual membership to all TransTech members. (If you didn’t get the information on how to sign up for this limited-time offer, please contact TransTech.)
I first proposed this partnership to Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine after watching a panel of trans writers speak at last year’s Medium Day. When this year’s TransTech Summit was announced, I brought up the idea again to Tony and to TransTech CEO E.C. Pizarro III, who I’d met (along with TransTech founder Angelica Ross) at the 2023 Creating Change Conference. They both agreed, and brought in members of their respective teams to make it happen.
I like blogging here on Medium because it’s free of advertising and has rules that prohibit hate speech against marginalized people. These rules explicitly disallow the deadnaming and misgendering of trans people. For this and other reasons, while no space can claim to be 100% safe for trans and non-binary folks, I feel safer here than on most other online platforms.
Medium membership also comes with an account on a professionally-managed Mastodon instance, me.dm. Having left Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all in December 2022, I strongly prefer Mastodon (part of the Fediverse) over other social media networks. Along with having no ads or algorithms, I’ve found the Fediverse to be absolutely packed with trans and non-binary people.
In addition to blogging on Medium, I have been working as a curator for this site since the beginning of March. (This is a part-time, contract position.) I’m grateful for the opportunity to help make our great collection of stories even better.
Here are a few of the trans writers that I follow and recommend:
- Julia Serano, author of the feminist classic Whipping Girl
- Devon Price, author of Laziness Does Not Exist and Unmasking Autism
- Cassie Brighter, activist, public speaker, and community organizer
- Gemma Stone, journalist and co-founder of TransWrites.World
I also recommend following the Movement Advancement Project to keep up to date on legislation targeting trans folks and other members of the LGBTQ community in the U.S.
Happy reading and writing, everyone!
