The Candid Thoughts of Jana
From time to time, I will post some of my poetry here, especially the ones I find relate to my life before transitioning. Several of my poems are my subconscious telling me that I need to transition, that I’m actually trans. These were all written a decade or more before I consciously understood my true…
When I first started taking hormones a year and a half ago, I made a conscious decision to put my life on hold. My reasoning was sound: I’m was going to be undergoing a lot of physical and emotional changes, and maybe it wasn’t the best time to make life altering decisions. I assumed that…
Today is the day the trans community remembers our fallen: those who have died because others were unable to accept that a trans person had a right to exist. It is not easy living in a world that is openly hostile to you. Sure, there are pockets that are accepting, and those pockets are…
The phrase ‘toxic masculinity’ is used frequently these days. I don’t think that it is masculinity, per se, that is toxic. I think it is privilege. I think the phrase ought to be ‘toxic privilege’. Privilege is what gives people the feeling of entitlement that allows them to take advantage of others. Worse, the privileged…
Before I came out at the office, I was terrified of what would happen when I did. At some point that terror got superseded by the emotional need to stop living a dual life. Fear became a secondary, and then even a tertiary consideration. Simply living a complete life became my overriding concern and desire….
I am not an alarmist. I do not have an exit/escape plan. I live in a relative safe location for a trans woman. All that began to change last week. All that might radically change next week. Last week, the President of the United States and his administration announced a plan to define transgender people…
This week I attended my company’s employee resource group summit, which is also known as its diversity and inclusion summit. For two days I sat in a big room with about a hundred other folks that represented, among others, women, veterans, African-Americans, Latin-Americans and Asian-Americans. I was there representing LQBTQ+ employees and allies. It was…
I’ve told this story before, but I’ve never written it down… When did I know? That’s what everyone asks. When did I know that I was trans? The short answer is that I realized it almost two years ago. The long answer is that I’ve always known, but only subconsciously. When I was a child…
CW: Sexual Assault discussion. Non-graphic, non-specific. As a trans woman, I’d like to say a few things regarding our current national debate. Before I understood myself, and presented as a man, I never gave a second thought to sexual assault. It wasn’t something I expected to either do or experience. I didn’t think I knew…
I was recently asked ‘why you think it is that some folks refuse to accept or believe the experiences of others merely because they’ve never had the experience themselves?’ Part of it is that we don’t teach empathy and compassion. American Capitalism disdains them as a weakness. Men are considered weak for showing empathy and…