IM DRAWING AS FAST AS I CAN

which is still slow

Successful trans men

I wish I knew about men like these growing up, I wish I knew that trans men could be successful after a lifetime of never seeing anyone ‘like me’ excelling in life. So here are some trans men - some that you may have heard of, some that you may not - that are successful in a range of careers. Never let being trans hold you back, never think you can’t do something, never think there is not a place for you.

Ben Barres American neurobiologist for Stanford University and advocate for women in science. Barre’s research on the interactions between glial cells and neurons changed the way that we understand the brain and opened up a whole new field of research.

Stephen Whittle Professor of equalities law. Founder of FTM Network in 1989 and Press for Change in 1992. Whittle has been heavily involved in trans activism since joining the Self Help Association for Transsexuals in 1979. His research and activism has been instrumental in ensuring the rights of trans people in the UK.

Michael D Cohen Actor, teacher and coach. Making his break in award-winning Nickelodeon sitcoms Harvey Danger and Danger Force he was the first series regular actor to publicly come out as transgender. Cohen has a BSc in cell biology and a masters degree in adult education, teaching at his own acting studio and providing workshops.

Chris Mosier American triathlete and award-winning coach. Six time member of Team USA in both duathlon and triathlon, Mosier also won two national championships in racewalking and was the first transgender athlete to qualify for the Olympic trials to compete against other members of his gender.

Yance Ford African-American film producer and director. Ford received an Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking and was nominated for an Oscar for his part in producing and directing the documentary Strong Island which follows the death of his brother.

Kael McKenzie Canadian judge. Serving in the Canadian Armed Forces for several years, McKenzie later attended law school and and worked as a lawyer before being appointed as a judge to the Provincial Court of Manitoba in 2015. 

Shane Ortega Native American former flight engineer in the US army, former marine and professional bodybuilder. Throughout his career Ortega has served in Iraq and Afghanistan in over 400 combat missions. He has a long history of advocating for the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and the recent banning on transgender service members in the US army. 

Drago Renteria Chicano photojournalist and deaf and LGBT activist. Renteria founded the Deaf Queer Resource and is CEO of DeafVision - a webhosting and development company run by deaf people and the founder of the National Deaf LGBTQ Archives. Renteria has been instrumental in both creating and hosting many online deaf/queer spaces online along with being heavily involved in real-world activism for decades.

Phillipe Cunningham Elected city councillor for ward 4 Minneapolis and previous special education teacher, Cunningham holds a masters degrees in Organizational Leadership & Civic Engagement and in Police Administration and is passionate about tacking inequalities in his community. 

The vast majority of these men did not get puberty blockers early. I think that’s important for trans youth to know… that stupid legislation can’t stop them from being trans and transitioning well, even if the hoops are worse and take longer. (I think trans youth should be able to transition when and how they need to, but in the face of current transphobic legislation, you need to understand that even if they manage to delay you, they can’t stop you.)

Ben Barres, in fact, didn’t transition until he was 43 and already a full fledged neuroscientist in a faculty position. He chose to use his circumstances, and the differences in treatment he experienced after transitioning, to draw attention to gender discrimination in his chosen field in all directions. I’ve spoken to a number of people who knew him over the years and have never heard anyone express anything but profound affection and admiration for him as a mentor and a teacher as well as a groundbreaking scientist.

So, you know. They really can’t stop you. Sometimes in science I hear trans folks, especially transmasc folks, expressing fear that they’re somehow letting the side down by choosing to live life in the way that feels most authentic to themselves. Ben’s legacy puts the lie to that fear: in choosing to transition in 1997, very publicly — in academia your name is part of your publication record and all his previous work was obviously published under his deadname — he was able to use his particular perspective and unique experiences to advocate for others even harder than he might otherwise have been able to do.

His memory is a blessing. His legacy is a gift.

For some reason yesterday it seemed really important to draw naked kissing instead of getting any actual work done. But look! I drew her hands totally without reference. Actually I drew most of this without photo reference (I did use ref for his head angle), which means it took me hours (this sketch is my third attempt) but I think it was time well spent because I learned a few things :)

Terry Pratchett started his career as a crypto-monarchist and ended up the most consistently humane writer of his generation.  He never entirely lost his affection for benevolent dictatorship, and made a few classic colonial missteps along the way, but in the end you’d be hard pressed to find a more staunchly feminist, anti-racist, anti-classist, unsentimental and clear-sighted writer of Old White British Fantasy.  

The thing I love about Terry’s writing is that he loved - loved - civil society.  He loved the correct functioning of the social contract.  He loved technology, loved innovation, but also loved nature and the ways of living that work with and through it.   He loved Britain, but hated empire (see “Jingo”) - he was a ruralist who hated provincialism, a capitalist who hated wealth, an urbanist who reveled in stories of pollution, crime and decay.  He was above all a man who loved systems, of nature, of thought, of tradition and of culture.  He believed in the best of humanity and knew that we could be even better if we just thought a little more.

As a writer: how skillful, how prolific, how consistent.  The yearly event of a new Discworld book has been a part of my life for more than two decades, and in that barrage of material there have been so few disappointments, so many surprises… to come out with a book as fresh and inspired as “Monstrous Regiment” as the 31st novel in your big fantasy series?  Ludicrous.  He was just full of treasure.  What a thing to have had, what a thing to have lost.

In the end, he set a higher standard, as a writer and as a person.  He got better as he learned, and he kept learning, and there was no “too late” or “too hard” or “I can’t be bothered to do the research.”  He just did the work.  I think in his memory the best thing we can do is to roll up our sleeves and do the same.

Around the world today, the penumbra of the rising of the first sun of May is lined with onlookers and wellwishers, eyes on the eastern horizon to catch the first glimpse of a new season.

Because in our hearts, this is how summer returns to the northern hemisphere; this sun a baton passed in the annual relay as the south prepares for what winter may bring.

Among our number, where the hilltops flatten enough for people to trust their feet in the gloom, for over a century now morris dancers have set out in the fading dark to dance in the dawn, for the same reason we do anything: because it's what we do. That's all tradition is, after all.

And every year, alongside the bells, a passage from Terry Pratchett's Hogfather rings in my mind.

And so, every year, follow the sound of bells and sticks, the chorus of voices singing Hal And Tow, and you'll find a bunch of knackered weirdos in the middle of nowhere in daft hats and a chill breeze, but proud of what they've done.

After all, we just made the sun rise.

I am one of today's lucky 10,000.

I did not know until this moment that Morris Dancing existed as an irl phenomenon. I thought Pratchett made it up for his books. I was wrong. Apparently Englishmen will really get out of bed in the pitch black, stalk through the night in a costume with bells on, and dance to herald the dawn on the first of May.

Pratchett did not make this up. He didn't have to.

Dear OP, thank you for dancing in the dawn.

Oh it gets weirder! There are different schools of Morris dancer. They have fun.

The Cotswold Morris dancer is usually an old white British man, extremely serious and would be the perfect uncle if you yearned for an uncle. They wear bowler hats with flowers, white clothes and bells on their legs. They do a symmetrical polite dance with a hanky. They are VERY spry, like alarmingly spry and athletic. There is usually an accordion. In addition to the hanky thing, they also carry small rounded sticks like spoon handles, which they gently tap against each other in a pattern (this is called rapping.) Their presence usually evokes the vibe of cricket grounds, mown grass and a speech from the mayor: the genteel English folk tradition whose pagan roots are endorsed enthusiastically by the history-minded vicar. I think the best thing about everything Cotswold dancers are is that they are doing something in public that is likely supposed to be incredibly embarrassing and they are completely immune to that. Because of the purity of their confidence and focus and the courage of their convictions, nobody can object to them or interfere with them or even mock them. If a straight old man wants to wear a flowery hat and strap ribbons and bells to his legs and high-kick in the middle of town, then that’s what men do, fuck off. The cringe factor is utterly dead in these men. The second best thing is that their mathematical focus and hypnotic autistic rizz DO make you think that they are doing something Significant and Important here. Clearly they ARE underpinning the seasons because why else this confident wizard behavior?

The Border Morris dancers are the goth ones, usually wearing some mixture of black, stompy boots, a decorated top hat and a “tatted coat” of colorful dark rags. They used to paint their faces black to disguise themselves, but as this began to collide unpleasantly with blackface and anti-Blackness, the progressive ones now use alternative makeup. Today they might do a black painted eye mask or other gothy looks. Women are more common in this tradition. Their dances often involve rushing at each other in mock battle and thwacking each other in ferocious patterns with sticks. There is whooping and howling and a sense of chaos and usually a Hobby Horse; they are going for a mad max witchy vibe. Clearly these rituals also do something.

You also get fusion ones…

And outliers like the extremely sexy topless young men with knives, who randomly broke out at the wassail this year and did a sexy knife dance with each other before shouting HUP and sprinting off into the dusk. I don’t know if anyone knew who they were, but they were great at it. I’m sure it did the apples a lot of good, and I’d like to study the effect further, please come back and try it again with a control group etc. Secretly hoping OP is one of those