Trans Pride, now and forever

Dear friends,

Recently, I got to gallivant around Trans Pride in my city, soaking up the incredible feelings that can only come with being surrounded by trans bodies, all uniquely beautiful and vibrantly dressed.

It reminded me of my love for trans people. I love the way we express ourselves when we aren't afraid to be seen. I love our art and performers. I love how excited we get about the nerdiest things.

For those of us lucky enough to have abundant in-person trans and queer community where we live, I hope we can take in every moment of joy and connection, as well as radiate the magic out into the world so our trans siblings everywhere can feel it.

This month, I hope you've shared in some tender moments, belly laughs, and/or moments of fierce truth-telling, even if it's just been with yourself in the mirror.

June's missive is on the shorter side, and I like to think that's because many of us have been busy living in the real world for Pride, rather than remembering to be on our screens.

At the same time, just like trans joy, Pride month is what you make of it. And we know our joy is here to stay year-round, no matter where you live. I'm grateful to be able to gather some of that Trans Pride energy here with you all, year-round.

With care and solidarity,
Jin (he/him)

P.S. When you're done reading this issue, don't take your eyes off ATJ quite yet! We have a special collab that's going to drop later this week. 👀

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This Pride month is special for my wife & me. It marks 18 years of us being officially together! October will mark our 10th wedding anniversary. 💕

We've been through so much together & I can't imagine life without her. She is my world, my life, my joy. I love you baby!

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This month has been full of queer blessings in the form of bountiful nature escapades with trans and nonbinary friends! In this tumultuous time of many overwhelming things, the water and the sun have been nourishing me alongside some truly terrific company.

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I've been blessed enough to have access to a truck that I can drive whenever and wherever I want, and so I've started my own "Trans With A Truck" service so I can help other trans people in my town with dump runs, rides, errands, anything they might need a truck for.

So far its been pretty successful and much requested, and I'm so happy to be able to provide this kind of service to my fellow trans community members. <3

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I know this doesn't sound like good news, but my ovarian cyst didn't go away, which means I need surgery to remove the ovary. I've been trying to get a hysterectomy + oophorectomy for a while and my doctor has been reluctant because of the risks related to other health issues, but other less-invasive treatments of the cyst not working (I did try! I followed all the directions!) means if I'm having surgery anyway, she's willing to take everything out. I'm really really excited that I will finally be able to yeeterus, and really glad that the cyst means I can get gender-affirming surgery I've been trying to get for years.

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Gender affirmation from the most unusual time and place: while slipping into anesthesia in the operating room, I heard my all-woman team of surgeons gushing about how much they loved my hair, how jealous they were of its length and curls. Wild.

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and a beautiful little haiku of trans joy:

It happened again
Gorgeous woman smiled at me
From the looking-glass

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Want your joy in the mix? Get a head start on checking out the contributor form for next month!

Hello! It's just me again. Sadly, we'll be putting Trans-Its on hiatus for now. (If you're a queer/trans astrologer interested in collaborating, please do reach out!) In the meantime, some leads for your astro fix:

• Embodied Astrology is a beautiful resource with free horoscopes for Cancer Season (and more!).
• They also put out a workshop on Queering Astrology recently with Alice Sparkly Kat, a queer astro icon in the community, whose mailing list I recommend getting on for horoscopes as well.
• Read all about Jupiter in Leo on CHANI's blog. I'm personally very excited for all the blessings this transit is going to bring!

...In the meantime, I'm thrilled to announce that in July, we'll have our very first guest editor, Ching-In Chen (they/them), a genderqueer Chinese American writer, teacher, and community organizer! ❤️‍🔥

I'm so excited for them to engage their wide community net of BIPOC and AAPI trans creators. They're especially excited to profile trans writers with new/recent books out. Please shower them with your love, support, and submissions!

Also, a very special collab with KB Brookins of Trans News that Doesn't Suck is coming your way in 🌟 a few days 🌟. So don't sleep on your inbox just because you saw this issue come through! 👀

Lastly (a purely unedited thought I just had)...any interest in an ongoing trans book-recommendation feature? I read more trans lit than most, and would be happy to share some of my favs. This probably won't happen unless I get some enthusiastic replies, so don't be shy! 📚

Now, back to our regularly scheduled shenanigans...

One of the things I love about our community is that we bring our spark and sparkle to every field. Please enjoy this spread of rad mental health story-shares, trans fabulism, and paleontology!

First, we have Jordan Alam (they/them), a writer and therapist asking important questions about mental health culture, and doing live storytelling about it:

They share:

Nothing to Fix is a QTBIPOC-run, mental-health storytelling podcast where Jordan Alam and Gloria Huh — two writers, theory nerds, IRL friends, and (yes) therapists — talk about the messy, contradictory nature of healing.

We got tired of how most social media advice makes it sound like you can take "these 5 steps to change your life!" We're living in a mental-health culture where *you* are so often positioned as the problem. With recent episodes on intergenerational trauma, how to do conflict, addressing guilt and shame, and how much people can change, we ask:

What if we're all just adapting to the pressures that we face?

What if we're using imperfect tools to address the imperfect world we live in?

What if, in the end, there's nothing to fix?

Also...

We launched Nothing to Fix this year, and we are having our first LIVE taping on July 16th at 6:30pm at Common OBJECTS in Seattle. We're talking all about our fave-not-fave topic: the "Seattle freeze," why the PNW is so so good at it, and what it *actually* takes to make meaningful community.

🔗 To listen to the podcast (from anywhere!), or get tickets (sliding scale $0-15) and share your story anonymously or on stage, check out the Nothing to Fix linktree. You can also get latest updates on their Substack.

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Next, we have a set of luminous short stories set in the fabulist American South by Emry Donaldson (he/him):

Emry says:

What trans joy means to me: It's trans solidarity, trans futures, trans creativity and dreaming. It's for an abolitionist future where we are all free. Stories in the collection focus on how trans people are there for one another, choosing one another in any future. 

He also shared this touching photo, along with these words:

My husband and I are both trans guys, from different generations. This photo is from this past weekend, where we visited a trans friend at his burgeoning writers' residency: another example of trans solidarity. 

🔗 Get a copy of The Iridescents! Don't have a Bookshop account yet? Emry also shared a 20% off referral link. 

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Rounding out this month is Riley Black (she/they), whose love letter to the T-Rex will be published later this year. Somehow, this is one of the queerest things I've seen recently:

Riley shares:

Dinosaurs were always there for me. They were permanent. Rock solid, and, at least in my imagination, I could be one. Because what was the point of all that science if not to imagine what the world was like way back when?

My relationship with the terrible lizards has lasted my whole life, and I’ve been fortunate enough to take all my carnivorous, Cretaceous daydreams and turn them into a book. Tyrant Lizard Queen is the story of a T. rex, Snaggletooth, from the moment she hatches through a life of hunting, sleeping, fighting, drinking, roaring, itching, peeing, and all the other things T. rex did. It’s dinosaurs as I see them, the monsters I could relate to when I didn’t know any other monsters like me.

🔗 Preorder Tyrant Lizard Queen on Bookshop!

• Illuminations Grant for Black Trans Women Visual Artists! Apps due 7/2.
• Write with Pride, a free online event with panels and workshops centering LGBTQ+ writing and creators, goes through the end of the month!
• The Monterey Bay Aquarium teemed up with Monét X Change to create a sea-otter-and-drag performance like you've never seen. Two minutes of pure joy right here.
• Financial & free post-op surgery support from QueerCare! Amazing resource.
• "Becoming myself, one small joy at a time." A beautiful, uplifting story from UK-based LGBTQ+ digital archive "Hope Starts Here."
• Teen comedy "She's the He" is the joyful and subversive media for trans youth we need right now.
• Two places to find amazing queer events in the PNW — the new Pink Calendar that anyone can add to, and upcoming shenanigans put on by Freeze Tag, our feature from last month!
• Gorgeous digital zines to get lost in — from a trans-of-color history compilation to trans resistance and decolonial archiving.

This is so fucking dope. I'm obsessed with everything y'all are doing. — ATJ Reader

Are you enjoying ATJ? Please reply with your thoughts, nice words, and love notes! With permission, your words might be featured in an upcoming issue!

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Thanks for supporting and reading!!!

I’ll leave you with this…

Because Trans Lifeline said it best:

Sending love to you, wherever you are.

See you all in August, friends, and please give a warm welcome to our guest editor next month!