good faith labels ​ ​ & contradictory ​ ​ ​ ​ ids

& ​ my ​ own ​ personal ​ experience ​ as someone ​ ​ who ​ ​ uses ​ ​ these ​ ​ labels!

— these experiences are mine, and mine alone. not all transmen feel this way, and not all lesboys or gaybians feel this way, either. queer identities are nuanced and personal to each individual, and there are many reasons for someone to have these identities.

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my identity growing up:
i am afab. growing up, i was always hyperfeminine. i liked wearing dresses, and i was always the most feminine of the daughters in my immediate family.

i also always knew i was queer. starting from age 10, i defined my sexuality as lesbian. even then, i still liked boys, my childhood crush for years was a boy that lived near me. upon starting my journey of questioning my gender, i still knew i was a lesbian.

at age 12, i came out to my parents as transgender. i began socially transitioning, and at age 13 i started testosterone. to everyone around me in the midwest, i was still a girl. no matter if i wanted to be seen as straight, i was still a queer girl to them. this is when i started identifying as bisexual, for a few years.

if i was a lesbian, nobody would take me serious as a transman. if i was a transman, those who accepted that wouldn't take my identity as a lesbian seriously. so i decided to use labels that weren't me.

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my identity current-day:
through interacting with queer peers and finding support groups throughout highschool and college, i have started labeling myself with terms that suit my identity throughout my personal life experiences.

i have a complex relationship with my gender, i am everything and nothing all at once. to society, i will always want to be a man. but to those close to me, i am just me.

this complex relationship, as well as the years of defining myself as a lesbian, have resulted in me being a lesbian man. i also identify with the term gaybian, loosely.

my attraction to women has always been queer, my lived experiences growing up as a girl reinforce this. my attraction to men is also queer, my experience as a "passing" transman now reinforces this.

my identity as a lesbian does not invalidate my own gender, nor vice versa. if you feel as though my identity is invalidating to your own identity, or to the identity of others, you are not comfortable enough in your own identity.

i am not forcing you to be friends with me, and i am not forcing you to date me. i am stating that my identity is a fact, and nothing can change who i inherently am. i am proud of who i am, and i am proud that i have found labels that suit me and my own life experiences.

informational directory
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this was created by me ^^^