more trans possibilities

Dear friends,

This month's issue might not be most mammoth in size, but it's full of beauty, self-reflection, and delight. This mirrors what I see in trans community all around me: busy summer schedules might not always allow for extensive conversations or long meandering walks to smell every single flower, but bursting at the seams are queer and trans performances, picnics, camping trips, and tender moments of mutual aid.

I confess I haven't had the most time myself to share about the newsletter or solicit community submissions far and wide, so I'm deeply grateful for every person who shared their joy with us this month. Whether it consisted of a spectacular creative project or just a quiet moment of happy reflection, I know our community appreciates every piece of representation and reminder that trans possibilities are worth celebrating, now and forever.

With care and solidarity,
Jin (he/him)

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Finally injecting E again after 6 weeks! Gods I've missed this! Another week of semi-phenomenal nearly-cosmic power!

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I've been taking my testosterone for about 3 months and it's going great! It's really nice to notice all the little changes and feel more aligned with myself every day.

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I am celebrating being on HRT for 18 months! I’m happy that I decided to go on this path.

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Looking in the mirror has slowly gotten a little easier over the last 8 years. I'm starting to see a handsome friend in the mirror.

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Three weeks ago my wife had her first gender affirming surgery, and it was A Production. Without going into the gritty details, the shape of her body has changed dramatically, in really good ways. Even with a hard recovery, she lights up when she looks in the mirror.

There's something magical about a T4T relationship where you get to watch your partner grow into themselves. Where you understand their experience of dysphoria, and also get to ride their euphoria with them. And it's been just as magical to ask for support from our loving community and get it, with company and food delivery and plenty of space to vent and know that we are held. I love the cozy life that we're creating, despite it all, and I wish for everyone in our community the same soft safety. 💜💜

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Recognizing that in the past, I had been immediately cast into an educator role, and now trying to be IN community, has been joyful. I'm dispelling myths IRL about being unwelcome. Turns out, people are pretty welcoming overall, as long as there's respect for each other.

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Recently, I’ve been working with my friend, who has a home-based recording studio and does music production, on recording original singles of mine!!!! I’ve been writing songs for years but have never gotten them produced or officially released before, and I am VERY excited because we just finished mixing and editing my very first official single! Now all that's left to do is master, market, and release it. SO excited to be a new trans POC recording artist in the music world!! 🥰🥰

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I'm camping in the forest with two sober trans friends. We are walking around with no shirts on, feeding and taking good care of one another, and having a great time. Trans joy is real!

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Thanks so much to all our joy contributors! If you'd like your trans joy in the next issue, the form for September is open, and we'd love to have you.

☀️🌙♍ Virgo season started with extra emphasis this year as the Virgo New Moon occurred only a day after the Sun ingresses into Virgo (on the 23rd). Ruled by a Mercury still revisiting its steps from before the retrograde, your queer group chat may want to change channels, or you may see work communication reshuffles coming to fruition.

>> Grab some incense that’s lavender-scented (or white sandalwood if you want to get fancy) and do some journaling. 

♀️🦁 Venus entered Leo on 8/25. This is a very trans motion because astrology started in Mesopotamia, the culture where the Queen of Heaven Inanna was attended to by trans temple servants! She is known as the goddess who “turned men into women and women into men.” Venus was her planet and Leo, the sign of the lion, was one of her favorite signs in this tradition.

>> When you dress up, go bold, go colorful, go loud. Maybe offer Inanna a beer and thank her profusely for everything she does for us folx.

🌕🐟 September 7th: Full Moon in Pisces. Expect a burst of good feelings and big appetites. Jupiter plays a huge and positive role in this full moon, so let yourself indulge just this once.

>> When you sing to the Moon this night, consider finding a song or setting aside a few verses for Jupiter as well. 

Friends, we have just a few features this month, but boy, are they delightful! Each of these projects have brought me so much joy, and I hope they do the same for you.

First off, I'm thrilled to share this informal interview with author Lio Min (they/he).

We met at a recent trans retreat, and I was so excited to discover his writing and to get my hands on a copy of Beating Heart Baby, his debut YA novel featuring queer and trans love!

What does trans joy mean to you?

When I introduce myself in formal settings like an author bio, I describe myself as a "fullmetal optimist." What I mean by that is that I practice optimism—I cannot transmute all the evil in the world into good, but I can activate change within a certain radius of influence around me. I only started thinking and feeling this way once I began transitioning. Suddenly, I could name the real questions of my heart, and begin to work toward real answers.

Trans joy is no longer fighting and denying myself control of my body. Trans joy is what makes me introduce myself to strangers so that one day, we might be friends.

Trans joy is the grateful and awed spirit that makes me insist in moments like these: Your destiny is always open to transformation. The first step is to imagine a future where you love being alive.

How do you see trans joy showing up in your book? (Knowing that joy is complex and doesn't just mean lightheartedness or happiness.)

Suwa, one of the protagonists of Beating Heart Baby, is a Korean-Japanese American trans boy whose lifelong dream is to be a rock star. At the beginning of the book, he's already self-assured about his transness. But as the story goes on, I retrace the beats of his transition journey—seeing himself in a character in an anime; falling in love with a boy whose own experiences with boyhood help clarify Suwa's relationship to masculinity; the painful coming out experience to most of his family; the realization that he has mentors and peers who will accept him and fold him into a new familial unit not bound by blood.

I did this because I think it's important for readers of all ages and backgrounds to realize that for most trans people, transitioning isn't a one-time decision: It's a river that ebbs and flows but which always yearns for the ocean, so to speak. And you can dam it, divert it, deny it, but the current only wants to flow one way.
There's fear in letting go, in going with the flow. But, without getting into spoilers, when you release that fear of the unknown and let your heart sing freely? You'll finally be able to move forward with the life you never thought would, could, be yours, but you're the only one who would, could, make it happen.

What do you want readers to know about Beating Heart Baby?

Beating Heart Baby is a love story about two boys falling in love with Los Angeles, art, and each other. It's a prayer for a more gentle world and a devotional to the ways in which creativity and imagination can crack open the future—but only if you allow yourself to imagine that you deserve it.

More specifically, it's about hidden intimacy: An online friendship turned long distance crush. Coming into the knowledge that your sexuality and gender are different from what you've been taught to accept. The realization that other people have the same favorite song as you, and love it for reasons that might be similar to your own.

What are you working on next?

My second book The L.O.V.E. Club just came out on August 5, so I'm already hard at work on a third book.

A three-phrase summary: Idols, illness, and eco-terrorism :^)

Get your own copy of Beating Heart Baby, his newest book The L.O.V.E. Club, or visit Lio's website!

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Next, a zine closely aligned with ATJ's mission for challenging and shifting mainstream trans narratives!

The creators say:

Hello! We're the Trans Solidarity Tuesday Group, a grassroots group based out of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Our mission statement is "The Trans Solidarity Tuesday Group organizes to bring trans people out of isolation and into community through political engagement toward collective empowerment. Because we understand transness as an inherently political identity, we seek to provide members of our community with political education and skills in accordance with our points of unity."

So, we made a zine! The theme is "Alternative Trans Narratives," and it's a collection of poetry, articles, stories and more that tries to speak to the narratives and ideas that are misunderstood or missing from mainstream and even trans understandings of transness.

You can get a physical copy of the zine for $5 + shipping by messaging the Trans Solidarity Tuesday Group on Bluesky. You can also follow them on Instagram or Twitter at @MBTuesdayGroup.

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Our last gorgeous feature for this month is this recycled art project involving a binder, embroidery, beading, and sequins. It's one of my favorite transition-inspired creations I've ever seen!

This amazing project's creator shares:

I am sharing my recycled binder! This was my one and only binder I had before top surgery. I found the phrase “keep going” on a sticker at my first trans pride event, being a few months on T and pre top surgery; it really stuck with me. Getting there was tough, I had my surgery denied and cancelled a few times, but eventually I made it.

After I finally got my surgery, rather then throw my old binder away, I decided to turn it into wearable art. My goal was to encourage fellow trans people to keep going on their journey, and show that trans joy is attainable and worth fighting for.

You can follow the artist on Bluesky!

• 9/23: "How does food nourish queer and trans joy?" Free virtual roundtable!
• Submit your stories of queer joy to Digital Delights: 2SLGBTQIA+ Joy, a "project aimed at highlighting the positive experiences of 2SLGBTQIA+ communities on the internet."
• T4T2, A Mutual Aid Music Compilation, out of Wausau, Wisconsin! "100 percent of proceeds from this compilation will be donated directly to The Trevor Project."
• American Teenager: How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era. This groundbreaking book was published last fall, but I only just heard of it—you too?

Are you enjoying ATJ?? It takes many hours, conversations, and collaborations to make this newsletter happen every month, so it would be amazing to hear from you! What part is your favorite, how did this issue make you feel, or what has inspired you? Please hit reply and let me know <3

⭐ If you're a cis ally and/or have a few bucks to spare for uplifting collective trans joy, you can now upgrade your subscription to $5/month! You can also tip us at Buy Me a Coffee.

⭐ Do YOU have trans joy to share with us?? Check out the Contributor Guidelines!

⭐ We’re always looking for trans projects & resources to amplify. If you make art of any kind, are launching something, or have a lead that you think our community should know about, please reply or fill out the form on this page.

If you haven't already, please 1) drag and drop this email to your Primary inbox tab, and 2) support us by forwarding this email to someone you think would love to see it in their inbox!

(Are you the person someone forwarded this to? Get your very own free subscription to Amplifying Trans Joy!)

You can also follow us on Bluesky where we share snippets of trans joy in between newsletters.

Thanks so much for supporting and reading!!!

I’ll leave you with this…

I've long been a fan of all the trans "representation" on trucking logos, but this one takes the cake, I think.

Here's to creating more transpossibilities every day!