On Being a Real Writer I suppose I spent so long worrying about being a real man, or even a real trans man, that I haven’t found much time to worry about being a real writer. I am a man who doesn’t have a cock. In fact, I am a man who has
Death Workshop We speak of what we want in our next life, the lacks in this one. More adventurous, one says. More kind. I say, I wish I’d spoken up more. We draw line charts of our fulfillment over time. Then she says close your eyes, picture your own death. We
Pretending For a while my mouth didn’t close and I had to eat pizza with a fork. This is where people interrupt and say what do you mean, your mouth didn’t close? and I take my two hands, wrists together, fingers apart, and show how my jaw closed in
At the Gynecologist What makes me cringe isn’t saying how many men I’ve fucked or lifting my shirt to reveal hairy breasts that she—trans-competent— resolutely only calls “chest.” It’s what slips out when she presses powdered-latex fingers into the flesh over my heart: “I kind of want to try
In the Witch Shop I was a Buddhist then, and never asked for anything. I chanted each day, Desires are inexhaustible, I vow to put an end to them and I wanted to be pregnant with a fierceness beyond reason. Enough to stop T and let my body go alien, enough to let countless
Three Steps to Asking Great Questions about Data — Even if You’re Not a Numbers Person A secret about me is that I’m not originally a numbers person. I got good at understanding data because I thought it was important in order for me to think critically about the information I was given. I hear many people say, “You can lie with numbers,” which is