after Sam Sax

after Anne Sexton’s “The Ballad of a Lonely Masturbator”

On Gender Affirming Surgery, out 60 participants, 95% “rated the global outcome as favorable [. . . and] No one regretted their reassignment.” According to a 2009 Swedish study by Annika Johansson, et al.

“If anything, the [Johansson 2009] study likely under-reports mental health benefits of medical and surgical care for transgender individuals [. . . and] suggests (surgery provides) extended and ongoing benefit.” —Dr. Joshua Safer, executive director at Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery, NBC News, 2019.

“What body shame taught her to hate, she taught herself to love through the magic of a new story. We have the power to change the narrative of body shame […] We are the authors of our own lives.” –Sonya Renee Taylor, The Body is Not An Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love

“Not all women menstruate and not all people who menstruate are women.” –Emmy Coletti

December 2019, I asked God for a break from being trans.
January 2020, COVID-19 reached the US.

“Anything can be borne for a while.” –Emma Donoghue, Slammerkin

“39% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered suicide in the past twelve months”—Trevor Project, 2019

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“Living as our authentic selves, whatever that might mean for each of us, is something to celebrate.” –Reid Vanderburgh, on “Coming Out” in Trans Bodies Trans Selves