Asphodelpelt

“A few threads and fragments of our history have escaped and survived – a few poems, some paintings, a couple of legal decisions – and we cherish them. They feel like reassurance, like validity – we have always been here; this has always been a thing.”
― Alex Iantaffi, How to Understand Your Gender: A Practical Guide for Exploring Who You Are

“Take time for YOU. What would it look like, in this moment, if you could meet some of your own needs? Do you even know what your needs are right now? Tune in and take care of this very important, primary, intimate relationship with yourself right now. When we can do this, we can also have more capacity to care for others. You are worth your time, care, and attention. Your needs have worth. You can take time to nurture and care for yourself. We’ll say it again: You are worth your time, care, and attention.”
― Alex Iantaffi, How to Understand Your Gender: A Practical Guide for Exploring Who You Are

“Outward focus is also a great way to resist the shaming, criticising, judging culture that we live in. We can gently but firmly point out that if our genders are difficult in our place and time in history, then it’s the world that’s flawed and needs to change, not us. Without this approach we might never have reached the point of gender equality we’re at now, because women would have simply focused on how to make themselves more feminine – according to patriarchal standards – instead of embracing feminism and demanding equal rights. Similarly, LGBTQ+ people might still be being imprisoned and treated with drugs or electroshock therapies, instead of occupying the place they currently do in many countries as equal citizens with heterosexual and cis people.”
― Alex Iantaffi, How to Understand Your Gender: A Practical Guide for Exploring Who You Are

“When I gave birth to my child I was a mom. To her, I am still mom because she does not believe this should be a gendered role. I’m her mom and also a trans masculine person. She says my mom and “he” (I use both they and he pronouns) to refer to me in the same sentence, with the ease of someone who has been doing this for the past ten years.”
― Alex Iantaffi, Life Isn't Binary: On Being Both, Beyond, and In-Between