I have lived in Maryland for most of my life; I go to college in this state and am registered to vote here. Admittedly, I have a kind of hate/tolerate-and-kind-of-like relationship with the state, but it seems like anytime I find something semi-decent or cool here, something arises to reminds me why I have spent most of my time here despising it.

I now have a profile on a notorious gay cruising site, not going to say which one and give out any details about it, but it does exist. This completely surprised the few friends that I have told about it, mainly because it is so out of my nature (which we all know by now is timid, passive, and too wrapped up in my own head).

I guess hearing about Tyra’s murder just reminded me that even just outside the walls of my college, there are still people that hate us enough to want kill us.

By even suggesting that you remove the T from the GLB, you are asking some of us to pick between two facets of our identity. In addition to that, making us have to fight an uphill battle on both sides as we fight for our rights not only as trans people, but also as queers…Separately. Personally, that makes me feel really fucking invalidated.

It could be interpreted as either cowardly or a shrewd way of handling unknown situations, but there is no “one true way” to the process of outing oneself (especially on a large-scale such as a college campus). My methodology is essentially to give them my chosen name with any additional information given if/when it is asked for.

I’m trans, and sometimes I like to watch other trans people get down and dirty. Why? Because it is an affirming experience that helps tell me that I might not die sexually-isolated and alone because I happen to be trans. The other reason is because just like cisgender people, transgender people can be goddamn sexy too (what a surprise, right?).

One of the first questions that my some of my friends (who know about me being trans) was, “Are you going to start being full-time once you go over there?”

It is just a day (and usually a cold day here); everyone goes nuts about it, stores suddenly have weird hours or are closed altogether, and people make promises they aren’t really going to keep. What are we celebrating anyway?

I guess I just don’t think that mutual attraction and caring should be inhibited by distance. This is the 21st Century, right?

I am a different person than I was at the time I added many of people in my friends list. People change over the years, and what kind of people we connect with evolve.