How to describe my sexuality

I wish my sexuality could be tied up in a nice little bow like so many other folks. As a teen I desperately wanted to be a lesbian without knowing that it was possible to transition and be that. But now that I’m here I find that lesbian is too simplistic of a label to accurately describe me.

Through some trial and error I’ve discovered that I really am bisexual. As much as I wish I wasn’t sometimes (because ew, boys are gross), I really am sexual attracted to people of all genders, including cis straight men on occasion. Being at a point in my transition where I am attractive to that demographic is honestly mind boggling.

But I’ve also discovered through experimentation that I am homoromantic. I’m attracted to people with similar genders to me. Women and enbies, usually on the femme side, with gender blurriness. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that all the long term partners I’ve had in the last 6 years are nonbinary femmes.

So am I a lesbian if I’m primarily femme4femme? Or am I bisexual because I occasionally sleep with men? Or am I pansexual because my partners are usually nonbinary?

Luckily the word queer exists for a reason. And that reason is that sexuality and gender rarely fit into nice tidy boxes when it comes down to it.

So what am I? I’m a queer nonbinary trans woman. A mouthful but hey, it’s my reality.

(Re)starting Vocal Feminization

Yesterday I made the plunge and signed up for a vocal feminization course through Undead Voice Lab. I met the voice coach at Trans Pride Seattle and decided that now was as good a time as any to restart that work. It’s expensive but I was able to get a partial scholarship to make the monthly payments more affordable.

I tried working with a trans voice coach once before a few years ago but I ended up stopping because I was experiencing so much dysphoria from hyperfixating on how masculine my voice sounded. It is easy to ignore most of the time but if I think about my voice too much, it becomes overwhelming quickly. At that point I was in the middle of my physical transition and it was just a lot to handle at once. So I put that work on hold.

My roommate asked me yesterday why I was doing this work and I realized as I answered that it isn’t as much about my own dysphoria around my voice but rather about other’s perception of me. I get misgendered on the phone so often or don’t have people take me seriously in person, ostensibly because of my voice, and that misperception is what causes the dysphoria. If we lived in a perfect world where people didn’t make assumptions about you because of your vocal pitch, I probably wouldn’t put in the effort.

This time around I think I’m in a better place to do the work. I’ve finished my physical transition and have fewer areas that cause dysphoria on a daily basis. I’ve also done a lot of work in therapy to be able to approach this more non-judgmentally and just accept the pace at which I’m able to work. I know this is more of a marathon than a sprint.

If I really focus on it, I have the skills to feminize my voice but I’m not sure if I’m doing it sustainably. I also don’t want to have to always focus that hard on it so the real work is creating something that is effortless and natural and doesn’t take conscious effort every time. Fingers crossed that that is something I can achieve this time around.

I am valuable just by existing

I just had the most amazing EMDR therapy session that I have to gush about!

One of the strongest messages that I’ve gotten through my early life is that my primary value and purpose in life is to help others. It first came from my parents who are both incredibly helpful people to their communities and find a lot of purpose in that. And then it came from my ex wife who had a much more toxic view where my primary job was to serve her and make her comfortable at my own expense including doing very public acts of service to make us look good as a couple.

I don’t think my parents taught me that with any malicious intent. It came from their deep desire to be of service to the people around them. But the message I took away from it was that if I wasn’t productive or useful enough to others, I wasn’t valuable, either to God or to other people.

Ever since then, I have really struggled with that internal messaging, especially as my disabilities have gotten worse and prevented me from helping others using my physical strength in the same way. And as I have been trying to get this choir off the ground, it has been a constant battle for me internally to want to give more of myself than I am capable of. Especially when my mental health is worst during the winter, I tend to feel like I am a failure and have let everyone down if I can’t get the funding together to make this choir successful.

So today, my therapist and I decided to finally tackle that deep rooted belief through Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (or rather tapping in this case) therapy. We started by analyzing the difference between my stated belief that a person has inherent value that isn’t tied to their productivity and the feelings in my body that tell me I have to keep being useful in order to have value. Then we went into my mental safe space, which in my case is a children’s blanket fort. Next we started diving into the feelings about the phrase “I am only valuable when I am doing things for others” in small chunks, while tapping my leg bilaterally with my eyes closed.

At first I was envisioning a physical wresting match between my logic and my emotions; a divide which had been hammered into me by my ex. But on second pass, that fight turned into a hug where my heart and my brain hugged each other. It reminded me a lot of the show Steven Universe where a major theme of the show is Steven diffusing fights by taking the time to understand the other’s feelings. By the third pass, I felt almost zen about the phrase and had a sense of inner calm. And by the time we got to the inverse phrase “I am valuable even when I’m not productive”, I could envision the cracks in my heart knitting together and healing, almost like the gem fragments at the heart of the Earth being bubbled by Steven.

Finally, at the end of the session, I could almost feel a physical presence where a part of my own self was hugging me and healing my broken parts. Very much like the final episode of Steven Universe. It made me want to reach out to my mom and help her feel that same acceptance and peace through understanding.

I know that I’m not magically healed and that these feelings will continue to come up. But I also know that now I have the tools and vivid memory of that moment to help me combat them. I feel confident that next time I’m feeling down because I ran out of energy to be productive or my body is getting in the way of being useful in the ways I want, I won’t beat myself up for it. I can be at peace with where I am at and accept the love and support of the people around me.

So if you’re feeling down, especially in this cruel world that is so hard on trans folk like us, please remember that you are valuable just by existing. Your existence and joy is revolutionary!

Fuck America

I cannot begin to tell you just how stressful it is being a trans person in America right now. I am someone with a lot of privilege as a white middle class person living in a Blue state, but even so, it is very very scary just trying to exist. Every day more and more of my rights are taken away across this rotting cesspool of a country. I’m not sure how long it will be before it’s safe for me to take a roadtrip outside of the West Coast again. And as the borders close in around me and bills constantly come forward from the right wing of my own state, I feel like even my own liberal bubble is threatening to pop.

How my gender journey impacted my career path

I’ve been asked at work to be on a small, diverse team of people from my department who will be welcoming a group of high school students for a field trip to learn about career opportunities in research and science. And as I’ve been thinking about what stories I’m going to tell, it made me realize just how much my gender and transition journey has shaped where my career pathway has led.

First off, how did I get into a career in science? I’ve always been interested in science from a young age. My favorite shows as a kid were Bill Nye the Science Guy and Kratts’ Creatures. I loved learning about animals in particular and my earliest career aspiration was to become a zookeeper; a dream I held on to for many many years.

When I was 7 we moved to a house on what was at that time the border between the suburbs and rural farming country. It was one of the oldest plots of land in the development so it came with 3 acres of 70 year old forest that used to be logging territory. That experience was absolutely magical for me. I spent most of my time as a kid running around and learning intimately how a healthy PNW forest ecosystem looked and felt. So when it came time for college, I decided that instead of studying zoology, I would go into ecology so that I can learn about the whole system instead of just the animals.

My time in college, other than my early marriage and the homophobic institution I was studying at, was incredibly enriching. I loved school (well except the theoretical math part) and I was incredibly lucky to have an amazing team of professors who were deeply passionate about their jobs and field. I got to do lots of cool lab classes and I spent about 7 weeks studying at a field station in the San Juan Islands and a study abroad trip to the Galapagos Islands.

I volunteered at the Zoo during college but by the time I graduated, I had come to realize that I didn’t have the patience to deal with a job that was becoming increasingly competitive, controversial, and underpaid. I wanted to go on to a research position in ecology but this was right after the 2008 recession and jobs were scarce. The only things I could find were “room and board” type positions in remote areas.

With my marriage being the mess that it was, I didn’t feel like I could leave to pursue the career I wanted. And I didn’t have the energy to go on to more schooling because I had so many unresolved relationship issues and identity crisis dilemmas. So I decided to turn to my other skills.

Through college, I had been supporting myself by working as an office assistant at a couple of the school departments and a local nonprofit. So after work study ended, I decided to get a receptionist job. I don’t think it was a mistake that the first job I ended up in in a highly femininized field at a vet clinic where I was the only “man”.

My 20s were a mess. While most of my classmates were off getting Masters, PhDs, and MDs, I felt stuck trying to figure out my life. I spent from age 20 to 26 in a relationship that was slowly and traumatically imploding, trying desperately to make it work. At 26 I finally realized that I was trans, but my partner wouldn’t let me come out to my friends and family so I had to stay in the closet for another few months while I worked up the courage and resources to get out.

Finally at 27, I was free and could start figuring out who I truly was without the baggage of being forced to be someone I wasn’t in so many ways. I started writing this blog when I was 28 and that proved to be really helpful to my transition and I started hormones a month before my 30th birthday. That’s when I feel like my adulthood truly started.

Back to my career though. I had a few different administrative jobs through my 20s that were mostly really good experiences where I was allowed to grow and get promoted internally. Which was great. But I still wasn’t working in science.

In 2015, shortly after I first came out as genderqueer, I joined a research study for an experimental HIV vaccine. I heard about it through an old classmate at Trans Pride Seattle and thought I might as well contribute to science and make a few much needed bucks for participating. I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of inclusivity but I found myself really impressed by the study team and paperwork. It was really the first time I felt seen and respected in a clinical setting as a trans person. I had such a good experience on the study that when I finished, I decided to see if I could get a job at the company that ran the trials.

I landed a job at Fred Hutch shortly before I started this blog and it was my first professional coming out experience. It went well and even though I wasn’t working on HIV vaccines at first, I loved getting my toes wet in the administrative side of science. Eventually I applied internally and got a job with the HIV Vaccine Trials Network where I still work today.

Today I’m really thankful to be able to contribute in meaningful ways to scientific research, even though I don’t have an advanced degree or specialized technical training. My eventual dream is to find a way to work on more targeted research on the health disparities impacting the transgender and nonbinary community. Now that I’m a project manager, I hope to partner with a research investigator to be a subject matter expert on identifying the many gaps that still exist in the science around trans healthcare.

I know that was a long story but I just want to say that no matter how long it takes you to come out, you can still find success and fulfillment in your career. Sometimes life gets in the way of advanced degrees, but there are lots of ways to contribute to specialized fields like science and many paths to get there.

What have I been up to

It’s been a few months since I updated this blog so I figured it was time to give an update.

The last few months have been very busy with starting the Seattle Trans and Nonbinary Choral Ensemble (STANCE) and getting it up and running. We have auditions this week and I’m very excited to say that we hit my goal of 50 signups! After 5 years of dreaming and scheming, it is so exciting to finally see this coming together. If you want to get in for an audition slot last minute, there still a few calendar times open. Signup at www.stanceseattle.org/join_us.

The biggest hurdle so far has been getting funding. We got a great early grant from Seattle Pride and individual donors have really stepped up to raise $2,500 so far. But to really make this successful and sustainable we really need to win a bigger grant to fund the Artistic Director’s salary. I already got turned down for one of my hopeful opportunities but I’m waiting to hear back soon from the largest potential grant I’ve found so far. Fingers crossed that we get the money soon.

We did find a lovely church to host us. It hits all of our requirements in terms of accessibility and inclusivity and it was even less expensive that I was expecting to have to pay. Unfortunately the only night that both the church and our Director were available is the same night as my former choir, Puget Soundworks. I hate to compete with them but I have also been really disappointed in their lack of trans inclusivity lately. They don’t have any trans board members (I applied and was turned down) and when TERFs outed themselves in the community a couple years ago, it took them over a year to deal with the problem.

That’s part of what gave me the impetuous to finally make this choir happen. I believe strongly that there should be no communities that claim trans inclusivity without having trans people in leadership long term. Nothing about us without us.

To make a long story short, I’m so happy to finally be fulfilling my long time dream of making Seattle’s first chorus by and for trans and nonbinary people. No journey is without its hurdles but I think that I’m able to take those in stride and push through challenges much better now than I was a few years ago. I’m grateful to finally have the brain space to do things like this now that I have pretty fully transitioned. Not having to fight daily with dysphoria really gives me a lot more capacity.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way. I couldn’t do this without you!

I finally Transitioned. So now what?

Today I ran across a meme that said “Okay, you’ve transitioned. So what are you plans for the rest of your life? – I don’t know. I didn’t think I’d get this far…” and girl howdy did it resonate. Realizing I was trans AND having to get a messy divorce at the same time really threw my life off. I lost any forward momentum that I had and instead focused on getting myself a career that would allow me to transition. And I did that pretty successfully. I found people who cared about me and supported me for who I really was, both in my personal life and my professional life, and I successfully navigated the miasma of steps necessary to change my legal name and gender and get the trans affirming healthcare that I needed.

So now what?

Now I want to give back to my community. Remember 5 years ago when I tried to start an all-trans choir? Well now that I’m more stable and better networked, I’ve resurrected that plan and I’m taking steps to make it a reality. Last fall I found a friend of a coworker who is a trans choral director and together we started plotting to bring about Seattle’s first Trans and Nonbinary Chorus. In January, I formed a board and we’ve been meeting regularly to plan. Now this week, I’m filing paperwork to get incorporated as a Nonprofit Organization!

I have to admit, this is absolutely terrifying. I know I have a lot of the necessary skills for managing a small org and I’m really good at paperwork, but the idea of me being an Executive Director is still mind blowing. When I feel overwhelmed and like maybe I should quit, I think about all the trans people who are currently without an inclusive singing community and it gives me the hope I need to make this vision a reality. I want to build a place where trans people can be fully themselves without constantly having to educate cisgender allies to make that happen. A place where we can learn to embrace our changing voices and identities and find musical embodiment.

It’s going to take a lot of work to get there and a lot of support from our community. But I’m confident that this is the right next step. It’s not going to be paid work for me, but with the right donors and grants, it can be a paid job for a trans artistic director. So if you’re interested in singing or becoming a supporter, check out our website at https://www.stanceseattle.org/join_us and sign up for updates.

Trans Day of Visibility 2022

Today is Trans Day of Visibility and while not all trans people want to be visible, I am very happy that I am. A lot of people are sharing before and after photos but for me, there never was a true before and after. I have always been trans, there were just phases of my life where I didn’t have the language to access that part of my authenticity. From a young age I was very gender non-conforming and I adopted that label quietly in college at age 20. It wasn’t until 2014 though that I finally began to see myself as Genderqueer and falling under the Trans umbrella thanks to help and advice from other genderqueer folks. At that time I was still trapped in an abusive marriage so I couldn’t come out publicly. But in 2015 I finally escaped and with that freedom, claimed the first parts of my true identity openly.

My path to coming out was slower than many people because I was so scared of not being accepted for who I really was. When I first learned about trans women in college, I didn’t think I belonged in that category because I could never “pass” and I thought that to be a woman meant you had to be primarily attracted to men. I didn’t have access to the kind of tomboyish, lesbian-leaning gender and sexuality that I needed. Even when I came out in 2014/15, I was afraid of even attempting to be treated as a woman because of all the negative self-talk about my body and ability to change those features. So for many years, I kept my beard as a way to hide the parts of my face that were most dysphoria inducing.

Slowly by 2018 though, I accepted that I am a woman, even if I am a gender-nonconforming, nonbinary tomboy, and I started to take the medical transition steps that I needed. I started hormones 4 years ago this month which is one of the best decisions of my life. My body quickly began to change shape into the beautiful curvy shape I am now. And in October 2018, I finally took the scary step of shaving off my beard and facing the long uphill battle of hair removal.

Now I am nearly complete with my physical transition. I am still trying to get insurance coverage for the last remaining hair removal I need to be able to stop shaving occasionally but my surgeries are finished and my body finally reflects what I want to see. I am so happy that my face has softened and rounded out and that my breasts have filled in and give shape to my clothing. Getting here was a long hard path but now I get to reap the reward and enjoy myself more. I still have mental health challenges, but I no longer feel ugly all the time and avoid looking at myself in the mirror. I appreciate the body that I have, even if it took modification to get here.

Thank you to all the people that have supported me on this journey, both emotionally and financially. Being trans is hard and expensive at times but the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow is definitely worth it.

Me today in March 2022
Me in 2016 before my physical transition

Sex and Dating Updates

Things in my sex life have finally been going much better. I still have only orgasmed on my own the once but it’s starting to get a lot more reliable with good partners. One person even managed to give me the best orgasms of my life two dates in a row! It’s nice to not end sex frustrated and worried about when and if it is going to happen. Instead I get to have that nice satisfied feeling and all the happy endorphins that I missed so much after my first surgery.

The new orgasms feel so different than with my old parts. Before it was like climbing a mountain, seeing a beautiful view, and then coming down much faster than you went up. Now it’s more like cresting waves that build on each other until they crash on a beach and slowly ebb away. It’s a lovely feeling that always leaves me feeling so happy and contented. I’m really glad I got the revision surgery.

I’ve also continued to experiment with men and it’s really solidified for me that while I may be a little bit bisexual and it is very validating to be attractive to straight men, I really am very lesbian leaning. I enjoy dating women and enbies in a way that I just don’t get the same fulfillment with men, whether they’re cis or trans.

I’ve started doing more dating lately, still with a lot of COVID precautions in place, and it feels good to have that fun new relationship energy and to delve more deeply into existing relationships in my life. I’m really thankful to have so many supportive and loving people in my life.

Solo Adventures

I did it! After well over a year of trying I finally orgasmed from masturbation!

This feels like a major milestone for me. Sex with a partner is absolutely wonderful but it feels empowering to be able to give that to yourself when you need a release. I’m so happy to finally have gotten to this point in healing.

It’s been 17 months since my initial surgery and 3 months since my revision. It took a lot of experimentation and some fancy toys from Babeland but I finally got here!