I Have Nothing to Say About Abigail Thorn

I wish her well, but we’re not friends

Shain Slepian
The Startup

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“The transgender princess of TERF Island” is the name of my Harry Potter fanfic

A few months back, I wrote an article about the creator of the YouTube channel Philosophy Tube, then presenting as a cis man, being cancelled on Twitter for making a joke that some perceived as transmisogynistic. Now, as apparently everyone in this quadrant of the galaxy knows, she has come out as a trans woman named Abigail Thorn.

She looks beautiful, and I am delighted to see her looking happy. Obviously.

Not a day after her coming out video was posted to her channel, I received polite and carefully crafted comments about how I probably ought to update the article, seeing as the subject no longer used he/him pronouns or her deadname. In my excitement, I added this ‘editor’s note’ to the top of the story:

Yes, I wrote this before Abigail came out as trans and yes, I know that this story just got a whole lot more complex in a very crunchy and cool way. I’ll flesh out my update to this article soon, but sufficed to say, I’ve changed all references to Abigail’s deadname and old pronouns for the time being.

Hauuuunnnnggg, how I wish I had a filter.

The number of people who have read that article since the release of her video and my subsequent promise has absolutely sky-rocketed. I…

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Shain Slepian
The Startup

Shain is a screenwriter and screenplay editor. For more content, follow their blog and check out their YouTube channel, TimeCapsule. shainslepian.com/