In order to investigate how pervasive gender and gender norms are in society, there is a need to look at the ways in which gender is taught outside of the home. In school, not only is curriculum material a part of the learning experience but the “correct” ways to interact with one’s peers, and […]

“To continue with the German genders: a tree is male, its buds are female, its leaves are neuter; horses are sexless, dogs are male, cats are female — tomcats included, of course; a person’s mouth, neck, bosom, elbows, fingers, nails, feet, and body are of the male sex, and his head is male or neuter […]

The world of health and fitness is frequently challenging for bodies that do not fit a specific mold. Gyms are filled with subtle and not-so-subtle judgments against those who vary from a norm, especially a gendered norm. Health and fitness environments seem to invite judgment of the body from all directions – internal, external, and […]

What issues do trans* people face today? The United States is considered to be a “first world” country, but two in five Americans live in a state of economic insecurity.  This statistic demonstrates to us that close to half the population of our country is struggling financially— a significant number for a “developed country.” In […]

  Photo by Lukas Avendaño The idea that female and male identities are stagnant and gender is fixed at birth, while a commonly held belief in the US, is not unanimously accepted across cultures and the muxes are evidence of this. Muxes are a third gender within Southern Mexico that challenge a “traditional” idea of […]

Introduction The next time you decide to comment “YAS QUEEN” on your best friend’s particularly stunning selfie, stop and thank a drag performer.  It’s necessary to acknowledge the contributions drag performers have made towards the greater mainstream culture.  Even though drag performance has been considered a subculture, I constantly see its influence in modern vernacular, […]

I am a child of immigrants.  Being raised by immigrants means being raised with the same norms and expectations that one would expect from traditional culture – for me that is Indian, but specifically Punjabi, norms.  Deviance was not allowed; the thought was not even allowed to enter my mind.  I grew up on stories […]

Mainstream hip hop has recently become (at least more openly) a musical artform which can highlight the power, joy, and/or problems of queer life and existence. Popular hip hop and R&B artists like Frank Ocean, Azealia Banks, and Zebra Katz openly identify as queer, and the number of “out” artists in the genre is growing. […]

Native Americans who identify as “Two-Spirit” – or queer, but in a specifically Native way – are a radical presence. According to Daniel Heath Justice, Euro-American society is deeply heteronormative, and its spread to the United States is precedented on the emptiness of the land before contact. Therefore, Native Americans who identify as Two Spirit […]

The day after Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017, people gathered for the first Women’s March on Washington as well as sister marches across the United States and worldwide. According to the Women’s March website, “We were answering a call to show up and be counted as those who believe in a world that is equitable, […]

Introduction There are a few queens that come to mind when someone mentions the term ‘drag’ which is, to give a dull definition to a lively and colorful art form, the act of dressing up in clothes not associated with your identified gender for the sake of entertainment. RuPaul, Divine, Lady Bunny, Courtney Act, and […]

I remember my tenth birthday almost perfectly.  I was just getting over pneumonia, and my pregnant mom had been trying to care for me without getting sick herself.  However, my birthday was special for another reason.  It was September 11, 2006, and it just so happened to be the date the doctors said we would […]

The Southern Comfort Transgender Conference was founded in 1991 in Atlanta, Georgia, and has been an exceptional representation of the merit of community building within marginalized populations. The conference aims to serve as a safe space for all LGBT individuals, particularly hoping to provide a secure and inclusive environment in which transgender people and their […]

Transgender people face disproportionately high rates of violence. According to the Human Rights Campaign, twenty-three transgender people were murdered in the United States in 2016, and as of November 2017, twenty-eight transgender people were murdered in the year. Despite the widespread aggression targeted at transgender people, especially trans women of color, the culprits are rarely […]

Jared Leto is known for his extreme acting methods throughout Hollywood. For the filming of The Suicide Squad (2016), he apparently did not break the Joker character once throughout the time the cast was filming, going as far as to send creepy token-like dead pigs to his fellow cast members. His method acting prior to […]

Dominant trans discourses most often stress transgender lives as constantly in danger, policed, in a state of suffering, or discriminated against. An ever-growing amount of research is frequently released on the effects of oppression on transgender people, such as the lack of quality health care and the high rates of mental illness and suicide among […]