trans

Whether you’re transgender or otherwise gender nonconforming, you may be thinking about the options when it comes to surgical transition, either now or in the future — and if you’re under 18, “future” may be the operative (so to speak) word. While you may not be thinking about surgery for quite a while, it helps to be informed so that you can start thinking about your options and the decisions ahead.

So you’re ready to start talking openly about your gender, and you want to come out of the shadows and live as yourself. Coming out stories are as diverse as gender itself and you have a whole lot of options in front of you, depending on the level of support you anticipate from friends, family, school, and the world at large.

So you’ve thought about sex and gender and all that good stuff and a little bird is telling you that you might be trans. But how do you know?

Whether someone peeped at your reproductive organs in utero or they waited until after you popped out into the world, one of the first things people probably defined about you was your sex, on the basis of what they found between your legs. Ever since, you’ve been stuck with the assigned gender label of “male” or “female,” and all the baggage that goes along with it. Well, here’s your chance to set that baggage down for a bit, because we’re going to go in deep on sex, gender, and identity.

Experiencing a little gender confusion? We know the feeling. In Trans Summer School, we’ll give you the big scoop about trans and otherwise gender nonconforming people, and answer your questions about the wide world of gender.

Gender identity can be complicated, and often people who are questioning aren’t comfortable in that space - but it’s a totally valid place to be.

Sometimes you meet an activist who is so dang cool you want to tell the whole world about it. We’re lucky to have two such folks who agreed to a Scarleteen interview: Luna Merbruja and Lexi Adist! Luna is the author of Trauma Queen, a member of the 2014 Trans 100 List, international performance…

What do you do in dating when one person is trans and one is cisgender?

Many trans or gender non-conforming youth come to us looking for support they’re having difficulty finding, or don’t feel safe looking for elsewhere.

I’m going to make probably the biggest understatement of the year: gender is complicated. As obvious a statement as that is, it’s still true, and I think it’s worth repeating. I think one thing a lot of people - even many gender-savvy folks or fellow trans people - sometimes forget is that there are…