Return to Self: A gender affirmation learning resource

Fae:

It's not hyperbolic to say my favourite thing about being trans is that it saved my life. From school age to 25, I was unhappy every day, and now I'm happier than I've ever been in my whole life.

Ari Heart:

In this last video, we're going to get specific about some very simple daily practices you can do to enable gender affirmation. And then we're going to end with something that I think is really special. We're going to have Cam, Fay, and Nora share their hopes for the future, for themself and for the world. And these are hopes that I think are very achievable and I think give us a kind of a North Star to set our sights on. Even as they do require some action.

At its heart, gender affirmation can be very straightforward. In everyday moments it simply looks like:

• Using the name and pronouns that someone has shared
• Updating records where needed
• Avoiding assumptions about gender based on how someone looks or the sound of their voice
• Creating opportunities for people to share their pronouns if they wish to and helping normalise that practise by, for example, including pronouns in our own email signatures or wearing a pronoun pin
• If mistakes happen, correcting them briefly and neutrally and moving on.

These aren't complicated actions. These are really quite simple, but they make a huge difference to whether or not trans people can equally participate in our community.

Thank you for the role you play in creating an environment where people can show up as themselves and get on with the work and the study that they want to do and the life they deserve to live.

Fae:

In 20 years' time, I hope that being trans is not a big deal. That would be my biggest hope.

Cam:

Representation is super important and trans representation, it's life affirming and it's life-saving. But there's also kind of like a hyper visibility in this moment we're living in. So I hope that that representation is still there, but it just is not even a big deal.

Ari Heart:

We have to understand that authenticity, and being recognised, is a human need. And it's something that I think trans people have to spend a lot of time thinking about for a period of time. And that at the point that they are affirmed enough as who they are, there's the freedom to finally start to stop.

Andy Perfors:

If trans people are supported, we are-

Ari Heart:

Just fine.

Andy Perfors:

... just fine.

Nora:

The kind of woman that I imagine myself to be in 20 years lives for the community, supports other trans people. I mean, I also kind of wish I was a little witchy and cronish, right?

Cam:

I hope that I see future generations of trans students thriving, that I continue being able to do things to support students in that way.

Nora:

We know the beauty of our lives and it's up to other people to actually get on board. We're just bursting at the seams to be who we are in all these infinite configurations.

Fae:

For myself in 20 years, I hope that I have chickens, I hope that I look at my phone less, I hope that I live somewhere nice where I feel safe.

I really do want chickens. It's really important to me actually.