Itai Shlemberg

To Transgender People: You Matter

Keep fighting to live another day.
Sade Andria Zabala
January 23, 2017
“People changed lots of other personal things all the time. They dyed their hair and dieted themselves to near death. They took steroids to build muscles and got breast implants and nose jobs so they'd resemble their favorite movie stars. They changed names and majors and jobs and husbands and wives. They changed religions and political parties. They moved across the country or the world — even changed nationalities. Why was gender the one sacred thing we weren’t supposed to change? Who made that rule?”
— Ellen Wittlinger, Parrotfish
Tagged: gender, LGBTQ+, Transgender
“But you can only lie about who you are for so long without going crazy.”
— Ellen Wittlinger, Parrotfish
Tagged: gender, LGBTQ+, Transgender
“Nobody knows as yet what is normal - we only know what is customary.”
— Dr. Harry Benjamin, via Tumblr
Tagged: Gender Norms, Transgender, LGBTQ+, normal
“My hope is that you can seek a body presentation that supports your life and creates a sense of overall well-being. You deserve to feel self-love and to feel safe and at home in the body that you inhabit.”
— Dr. Melody Moore, Dear Melody: Can I Separate My Gender Identity from My Body Image Issues?
Tagged: Transgender, Body Positive
“Children aren’t coloring books. You don’t get to fill them with your favorite colors.”
— Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
Tagged: LGBTQ+, Parenting, Children, Identity
“Do you dwell on everyone’s junk when you meet them? Like, all you do all day long is think about dicks and janes? Is that your thing, Bailey? You can’t stop thinking about what’s in everyone’s pants?”
— Brie Spangler, Beast
Tagged: LGBTQ+, Transsexual, Transgender
“Trans* people are exactly who they say they are — no matter what the culture or media would lead us to believe”
— Janet Mock, Transgender Activist
Tagged: Transgender, Transsexual
“There is a man with pamphlets talking about a God.
I ask him if God loves his Children.
He gives me a confident ‘Yes’
I ask him if God loves homosexuals.
He tells me ‘No’.
I ask him if homosexuals are God’s Children.
He said nothing.
I do not believe he has heard the Question.”
— Atlanta Team, "Public Trans"- 2014 Brave New Voices (Finals)
Tagged: LGBTQ+, Religion, Spoken Word
“I understand you named me while I was unable to speak, but I have found my true voice. Now it’s my turn to tell everyone what my name is.”
— hyunilsbf, via Tumblr
Tagged: Transgender, Transsexual
“Include everyone, no matter their gender, sexual orientation, race or religion. We are all human beings and we are part of society.”
— Lea T, This Model Made History At The Rio Opening Ceremony
Tagged: Transsexual, Inclusion, Acceptance, Tolerance, Anti-Hate
“I believe when we love someone, we respect them, and we listen to them; we feel that their voice matters. And — and we let them dictate the terms of who they are and what their story is.”
— Laverne Cox, Laverne Cox at Creating Change 2014
Tagged: Anti-Hate, LGBTQ+, Transgender, Respect
“This pervasive idea that trans women deserve violence needs to be abolished. It's a socially sanctioned practice of blaming the victim. We must begin blaming our culture, which stigmatizes, demeans and strips trans women of their humanity.”
— Janet Mock, Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More
Tagged: Transsexual, Domestic Violence, Victim Blaming, Transphobia
“I would like them to understand that we (transgender) are people. We’re human beings, and this is a human life. This is reality for us, and all we ask for is acceptance and validation for what we say that we are. It’s a basic human right.”
— Andreja Pejic, Exclusive: Read Aaron Sorkin's Moving Email To His Daughter After Trump's Win
Tagged: Transgender, LGBTQ+, Acceptance, Fashion, models
“At the beginning there was a lot of fear, but I came to the point of knowing I can't be that fearful or let that fear traumatize me or prevent me from doing the work I want to do.”
— Geena Rocero, The Trans 100
Tagged: Fear, Courage, LGBTQ+, Bravery
“I’m sick to death of this particular self. I want another.”
— Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography
Tagged: Reinvent Yourself, reinvention, Tired, Existential Crisis
“It is revolutionary for any trans person to choose to be seen & visible in a world that tells us we should not exist.”
— Laverne Cox, via Instagram
Tagged: Transsexual, Transgender
“They ask me if I was born in the wrong body. As if gender is that simple… I am not trapped in my body. I am trapped in other people’s perceptions of my body… I don’t want to hate my body for this. My body is not wrong. The way people talk about my body is wrong. But my body is the only thing I can change… I am more than my body… I was not born into the wrong body. I was born into a world that does not know what my body means.”
— Ollie Schminkey, Boobs
Tagged: Transsexual, Transgender, LGBTQ+, Gender Identity
“Transgender people have used public restrooms for the last sixty years, and a mass epidemic of trans*-related sexual assault has not occurred. You may not realize that you’ve very possibly already shared a restroom with one of us. We just want to live our lives, enjoy the pursuit of happiness and empty our bladders in peace like everyone else.”
— Laura A. Jacobs, Peeing While Trans*
Tagged: Transgender, Trans WOC
“We take a breath, wipe off the spit
And keep fighting to live another day”
— Lj Mark, Up for the fight
Tagged: Resilience, LGBTQ+, Adversity
“I asked Jesus to fix me,
and when he did not answer
I befriended silence in the hopes that my sin would burn.”
— Lee Mokobe, Transcript of "A powerful poem about what it feels like to be transgender"
Tagged: Spoken Word, LGBTQ+ Poetry, God, Losing Faith, TED, Talks, Themes, Speakers, Technology, Entertainment, Design
“my mother told me of the miracle I was,
said I could grow up to be anything I want.
I decided to be a boy...
I was the mystery of an anatomy,
a question asked but not answered,
tightroping between awkward boy and apologetic girl.”
— Lee Mokobe, Transcript of "A powerful poem about what it feels like to be transgender"
Tagged: LGBTQ+ Poetry
“It had nothing to do with hating my body,
I just love it enough to let it go,
I treat it like a house,
and when your house is falling apart,
you do not evacuate,
you make it comfortable enough to house all your insides,
you make it pretty enough to invite guests over,
you make the floorboards strong enough to stand on.”
— Lee Mokobe, Transcript of "A powerful poem about what it feels like to be transgender"
Tagged: LGBTQ+ Poetry, Transgender, Body Positive
“I wonder how long it will be
before the trans suicide notes start to feel redundant,
before we realize that our bodies become lessons about sin
way before we learn how to love them.
Like God didn't save all this breath and mercy,
like my blood is not the wine that washed over Jesus' feet.”
— Lee Mokobe, Transcript of "A powerful poem about what it feels like to be transgender"
Tagged: LGBTQ+ Poetry, Transgender, Suicide Awareness
“You are not any less of a man just because you have to take your binder off at night.”
— trans-dysphoria-blues, via Tumblr
Tagged: Transgender
“Here’s to women with prominent Adam’s apples, five o’clock shadows and deep voices.
Here’s to women like me.”
— Laura Kate, On Being a Trans Woman … Who Doesn’t Pass – Defiant
Tagged: Transsexual, MTF
“Most trans women don’t look like Laverne Cox or Caitlyn Jenner. Most of us look … well, like trans women. We might have a visible Adam’s apple. We might have real trouble hiding that five o’clock shadow. We might have broad shoulders or big hands and feet. We might be really tall or have a deep voice. We might have a penis.

We’re non-passing. As trans women, we are told that to gain acceptance, we have to pass for cisgender. We have to be invisible. We have to be indistinguishable from someone who was born a woman... When the media portray non-passing trans women, it’s usually non-trans men who play them. Male actors win awards for their courage in playing trans women. In truth, they’re just reflecting back at the world what the world assumes trans women are. We’re not women. We’re just men in dresses. The media wrongly depicts us as makeup-obsessed little boys who made a choice one day to become women. We’re never just women who happen to possess some untraditionally feminine attributes.”
— Laura Kate, On Being a Trans Woman … Who Doesn’t Pass – Defiant
Tagged: Transsexual, beauty
“America needs more trans people who are open about their transitions. Who don’t try to pass. Who insist that beautiful can mean a lot of different things.”
— Laura Kate, On Being a Trans Woman … Who Doesn’t Pass – Defiant
Tagged: Transsexual, beauty
“I absolutely do not accept the insistence that my trans body is grotesque and dangerous or that my health care is unnecessary or that I should simply not go to the bathroom. If challenging those narratives costs us elections, then those are elections I will gladly lose. We cannot be patient in our demand to lift up the humanity of our siblings in struggle.”
— chase strangio, The Politics of my Trans Identity
Tagged: Transgender
“I don’t know about you but I don’t really think about the genitals of a person who’s peeing next to me. That’s kind of weird and private.”
— Kat Blaque, 8 Helpful Comebacks to Use When Someone Is Being Transphobic- Everyday Feminism
Tagged: Transgender
“It's your story. You get to name it.”
— make-me-your-king, via Tumblr
Tagged: LGBTQ+, Transgender