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As a Transitioning Trans Woman, I Need a Bigger Phone Booth than Superman

Straddling genders is exhausting.

Emma Holiday
Prism & Pen
3 min readDec 29, 2024

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I realize that my phone booth example is a baby boomer one. For the younger generations, the original Superman used to use telephone booths to change his clothes from Clark Kent to Superman.

Today, disrobing in public, he would be considered a pervert.

I have to resort to single, gender-neutral bathrooms. They are hard to find but the only places where I can change and keep my sanity. Occasionally, that makes me very unpopular with the people waiting to actually go.

Thankfully my fashion switch is super fast… pun intended. I don’t have time to dawdle. Fortunately, I just have to be gender passable not fashionable or even attractive.

It might mean I look androgynous.

But even that is OK.

My needs are simple. I just want to walk down the street or shop without fear as me. I just need to be enough “me” to survive public gender scrutiny, comments, or even…

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Prism & Pen
Prism & Pen

Published in Prism & Pen

Amplifying LGBTQ voices through the art of storytelling

Emma Holiday
Emma Holiday

Written by Emma Holiday

After decades of denial I finally answered the question “What’s wrong with me?” The answer is “Nothing”. I am transgender and I am OK.

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