By Nawal Arjini — 2019
We talked to the writer about his debut memoir How We Fight for Our Lives and his move from poetry to prose.
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CLEAR ALL
When I told my family I was trans, one of their initial reactions was, “But you’re so hairy! It’s going to be so difficult to remove all your hair to be a woman, so you should just give up.” They were zeroing in on my body hair as the barrier for me to be seen as feminine.
Creating spaces where the need to assimilate, conform, and belong are no longer important
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In the beginning, it was difficult to let myself rest, even with the ultimate doctor’s note. I felt like I still had to push past my (extremely limited) capabilities. I had to practice slowing down and allowing my frailties to become visible even when I had the choice to hide them.
A three-time U.S. champion in figure skating, Eliot Halverson is Colombian-born, was adopted and raised by a white Minnesotan family and is transgender non-binary.
At 25, Harnaam Kaur holds the world record as the youngest woman to have a full beard. For years, she was bullied. Now she’s an Instagram star.
Meet the model and body activist challenging beauty norms, bullies, and online trolls.
One of life’s paradoxes is that we are encouraged to “be ourselves,” but are often punished when we do.
In a viral clip from the podcast “Man Enough,” the nonbinary poet and speaker said the gender binary hurts everyone—not just trans people.
For LGBTQ youth in particular, the Internet can be a refuge—a safe place to feel less alone. For queer youth to feel normal, they need to see, read and hear the voices of others who look like them and use the same identifying labels.
“Representation and visibility is given to us by larger power structures, but what do we give ourselves? I’m more interested in that. What questions are we asking ourselves to grow and heal? To challenge the ways this world constantly teaches us to hate ourselves?”