I Don’t Think It’s Transphobic To Acknowledge Certain Truths/I Used To Be Afraid Of Microwaves
Where we are right now
With gender and sex
Reassignment procedures, opportunities
Treatments available —
It is not possible
For either sex
To transition into becoming
Sexually fertile in the other gender’s way.
I, personally,
Feel a nonstop sense of existential dread
About this fact, as I did
Long, long before I transitioned.
Transitioning– has–
In some ways
Made these things harder to deal with.
In other ways it has helped me enjoy who I am
And express myself fully
But as someone
Who spent a few years of his life
Anxiously avoiding microwaves–
I understand that there are some things
That people do and do not do
For various reasons they read about
On the internet
That are completely anti-science.
I worry, as a trans person
And as someone who is trying to be taken
Seriously in the world
That being transgender
Will permanently label me
As a triggered, sensitive lily-pad idiot.
Identifying as nonbinary is where I got the worst of it–
That kinda motivates you, honestly, to push it further the other direction
Before you know it you’re up shits creek with no paddle
And all the time I know
That I am never going to be fertile
In the way that I wish I was!
Again, not a trans-exclusive phenomenon, but
And honestly I am completely fertile
Just not in the way I want to be.
This, supposedly
Should be enough reason
In bigoted minds
To not transition at all.
It kinda presents a tricky predicament
For trans people
Because, well–
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
My concern
As a transgender resource, as a
Domain-purchaser lmfao
I find it really dangerous and suspect
To tell gender-questioners
That they can just become
The other sex, with no obstacles
Besides surgery recovery weeks and
Fallen-off nipples.
I think it’s a bad idea to advertise
Literal gender euphoria
It’s fucking ridiculous
I think people who are trans
Have a responsibility to be honest
About their circumstance
When it matters.
I want to be able to talk about
Gender and sex
While acknowledging the very real differences
Between the sides of the fence. You can’t
Cross without scraping something, and
You can’t be born again.