If You’re Transgender, You Need to Write

The anecdote I’m choosing for this article takes us back to 2017.

I realized I was a trans guy around September or October of that year, and despite keeping mostly in the closet, I found myself attempting to stretch into every available space I could, considering my circumstances. Most of these were online spaces, because people online have a much lower likelihood of accidentally outing you than the people in close, physical proximity do.

At the time, I was considering changing my Twitter username, specifically to something transgender-specific. I wasn’t going by Logan yet- rather a shortened, androgynous version of my deadname- and I went to my at-the-time girlfriend for help in narrowing down my list. While I don’t have the specific message chain from that conversation, I remember exactly what was said and the point she made.

‘Being transgender shouldn’t be [your] entire personality’.

Because I was barely in the closet, let alone hardly even close to getting out, I didn’t have any perspective to do anything but quietly agree. I thought she must’ve been right, that I was doing nothing but talking about being trans, and that it was better for me to keep quiet.

Yeah, the breakup that happened a few months later was probably the best thing to ever happen to me. I’m going to…