Follows probably know about my recent trans & Uvalde essays. But I also used to write fantasy short stories for @bcsmagazine.bsky.social and other magazines. Under a pen name. I'm thinking about sharing about it because I'm thinking about writing stories again and I want to be mindful about it.
April Maria Ortiz
@aprilcicada.bsky.social
Trans Texan gadfly | math lady | UT Austin PhD | writer/artist | mutant/demon | wife/mother | she/her | ✊🏼🍾🔥🧱🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈
1. Despite Republican attacks in recent years, America is queerer than ever before. LGBTQ+ identification has risen to 9.3% in the last Gallup Poll, a huge jump from 7.6% last year. I cover the latest numbers in my story. Subscribe to support my journalism.
Despite Republican Attacks, Americans Are Queerer Than Ever In Latest Poll
According to a Gallup Poll released on Thursday, more Americans identify as LGBTQ+ than ever before, despite heavy attacks from right-wing politicians.
erininthemorning.com
This is me, lol. Because I'm built different, maybe it was actually an incentive. I couldn't sit back and watch trans people be attacked, knowing I was one.
Critical support to everyone who saw the war on LGBTQ people and decided to come out anyway. Our strongest soldiers!
According to the Transgender Education Network of Texas, there have been 140 bills attacking the rights of #trans and #LGBTQ+ people introduced in this Texas legislative session. Imagine if these legislators felt the same pressure to address... literally any real issue. billtracker.transtexas.org
I wonder whether there isn't an issue of cultural competence in how we try and evaluate these arguments. The purpose of these statements is not to give a universally convincing rationale for policy. It's to offer justification that will be accepted by specific decisionmakers, w specific beliefs 🧵
The definition of sex put forwarded on this page, however, thinks that biological structures inherently have purposes. Thus it stipulates that even if a body does not function to produce gametes, it *ought* to. This is, at core, scientifically illiterate...
This site includes the "clear guidance" that Trump's EO 14168 mandated should be produced within 30 days to expand on the definition of sex in that order. This is what the policies of the US Government will be based on. Let's take a walk through...
NEW: HHS launches anti-transgender campaign featuring Riley Gaines. It seeks to ban gender affirming care and require the federal health agencies to eliminate recognition of trans people. womenshealth.gov/protecting-w...
Now, after years of this behavior, the Times has the audacity to issue OpEd's like, "Why is Trump being so mean to the transgenders?"
From @kitoconnell.com in 2022: How Texas used @nytimes.com's inaccurate and misleading reporting about gender-affirming care for young people as evidence in court when the state accused supportive parents of child abuse.
I always feel good right after injecting and sometimes I'm like wow that E really does it but other times I wonder if it's maybe just an aftereffect of the unpleasantness & pain of jabbing myself. I always feel great right after laser / electro, too. The painfuller the better. Is that weird?
Oh! Here's my Valentine's Day fit! Pretty cute, no? I've been saving this top for the occasion.
This is a post for a very niche audience, but sometimes my life feels like a drawn-out demythologized fictionmania story, but without the gross objectifying stuff, just kind of chill & nice & fulfilling. This was inspired by a specific experience, I won't say what, but anyway the robins have come. ❤️
Jennifer Finney Boylan says that having tits is like having a nose, which is true, but it's like having a nose if you've never had one but your brain told you that you should and then one day a nose grows on your face after you start injecting yourself with magical nose juice.
Got a text midway through therapy that a municipal court in a town where I got pulled over last year is issuing a warrant for my arrest but when I called afterward it turned out they had the wrong number is how my day is going.
Featured story: “Even in rural Texas the average person couldn’t care less about my gender. Most Texans who know me and hear my story are supportive, wherever they happen to lie on the political spectrum. They may not understand it, but they accept it and move on.”
My Happy, Normal, Trans Life in the Heart of Texas
Trans people are a gift to the world. They show us how creative God can be, and they are the embodiment of a fundamental journey that every Christian must make.
texasobserver.org
I feel so scared, sad, and alone right now. I’m crying, actually. Here’s my joy, though: * The other night at DQ the workers called me ma’am before and *after* I ordered. My voice, it’s getting better every day. * An HEB employees called me ma’am today. * I had electrolysis on my upper lip and 👇🏼
Downside to being trans: Everybody hates you and wants you to die. Upside to being trans: You can sit literally anywhere and just vibe on the way you look, all day and forever. ✨
A year ago today (left) vs now (right). One of those who wore it better things. I guess I find a look I like and I stick with it. 🤷🏻♀️
New dress just dropped. Not my usual style, but you have to try stuff. Today’s gender euphoria: sometimes my 9yo daughter gives me a hug & when she does she wraps her arms all the way around my waist (the narrowest part of bod 2.0) & squeezes tight, & it makes me feel so momcore.
Today's look is one I've been rocking since the days of grunge (more or less) but I think I've finally perfected it.
Went to Goodwill yesterday. As usual, an exhilarating & draining experience. 🤩😮💨 Partly bc of lighting, gawd, which here nicely contours my pooch. Tho I think the dress actually ties in front which helps. The trans agenda needs to include good lighting everywhere. ✊🏼🏳️⚧️ (I got the dress tho.)
Friday night, drinking a Bloody Mary, making pad Thai for my babies. 🤤
Hello, it's me, a 45yo woman. Vs. me from exactly two years ago. "You have to go the way your blood beats. If you don't live the only life you have, you won't live some other life. You won't live any life at all." [James Baldwin] Transition did more than save my life. It *gave* me a life.
My story from the November-December issue.
Featured story: “Inadvisedly, perhaps, I’d come out as transgender through a Texas Observer essay, begun living full-time as a woman, and started gender-affirming hormone replacement therapy all at once in March of last year. ...” www.texasobserver.org/trans-childr...
Intro: I’m trans. I talk about it a lot b/c it’s rad. I’m a woman. Also rad. I’m a mother. Two of my kids call me Mommy. One calls me Dad. I’m a wife. I have a wife. You get the idea. Bylines in the Texas Observer & elsewhere. Board member San Antonio Gender Association. Opinions are my own.