When i first read that passage, i seriously wondered if somebody had reformatted a Halimede tweet. I don’t want to dunk on Serrano too much here, i’ve taken a lot of good input out of her works, but this is one of her takes that has aged poorly. Like, seriously, i am so fed up with that view of being trans. The one that always, always without fail, centers suffering and pain and misery, that can only frame our joy and our thriving in contrast to the damage that has been inflicted on us, the one that can never let the past rest.
I am not like this. And it’s beginning to become a problem.
You see, i like being in community with other trans people. I’m at home there, i’ve made friends there, found lovers there. It’s where i belong. As long as i stay within my own bubble. As soon as i step out of it, i immediately get bombarded with unsolicited trauma dumps, dysphoriaposts out of a 4chan hellhole and a trainload full of internalized transphobia. Everything is a trigger for me. I cannot safely navigate most trans spaces anymore because the people there just drag me down. I logged in yesterday after a long hiatus and looked into the trans megathread and the first thing i had to do was block a user for her unspoilered loathing of the trans existence. I don’t know how to handle this anymore. I used to be the kind of woman who writes big effortposts about self acceptance and how to figure yourself out and how to begin navigating systems of medical gatekeeping, but the further i go along in my own transition, the further i am removed from making these early experiences myself, the less i have it in me to unpack all that needs to be unpacked when baby trans yell their pain into the void.
And that’s eating at me. It makes me feel guilt, it makes me feel like a failure to my community. My second puberty feels as if i get to sit at the table with the pretty, cool and popular girls, giving fashion advice to the prom queen while i’m leaving the most vulnerable trans people out in the rain, the ones that would need my experience and my encouragement the most. But when i try to be there for them, i harm myself. I can’t say it otherwise, it is burning me out to expose myself to that kind of pain. It feels as if i’m walking backwards into a darkness i have escaped from. How do i deal with this? Do i retreat to my wonderland of privileged, happy women and girlthings or is there a way to move beyond the triggers and face the misery of others without becoming miserable myself? Because that’s what i would need if i wanted to keep helping my siblings.
I think if you want to ensure that baby queers have community with people who can support them as they figure themselves out, you need to look at how communities remain healthy in general. Situated Learning and communities of practice make for a good model imo, where the practice in this case is the practice of transitioning and of being trans. This is based mostly on Lave & Wenger 1991. You need old timers as a store of knowledge and you also need newcomers to offer fresh perspectives. It’s very dialectical that way. Trans support communities aren’t lacking in newcomers, but that doesn’t mean that any particular old timer needs to stick around. Old timers come and go. The continued existence and function of the community implies that there are enough old timers doing their work for the purposes of the group, at least on some level. If you’re observing dysfunction in the trans groups here, that’s one thing and worth calling out. But if your absence hasn’t disrupted the functioning of the community, I think you’re safe to step away as needed.
I think this problem is compounded by the fact that queer people in general haven’t had this modeled for us very well. Older queer people are just more rare thanks to the AIDS epidemic, suicide, murder, etc. I love the queer boomers I follow on TikTok. But their function is also very different from someone who’s in the trenches providing support to individual pre-transition trans people. I think it’s all valuable and that whatever you decide to do, you can find a balance that’s valuable. Because even if all you can do is distance yourself and self-care, that’s valuable too. Because you’re part of the community and your well being is just as important as mine.