Member-only story
What it’s like to be in the best possible position as an American trans person right now
I just finished the paperwork to withdraw myself from art school after two terms. It feels like the correct decision in my reluctant heart and, most importantly, my practical gut, because it has taken up just about all of my free time as a full-time software engineer.
In a kind world, school would continue to be a welcome and delightful use of this free time. But now, I desperately need the evening hours to research and apply for overseas jobs, bounce emigration scenarios off Google and ChatGPT, attend legal seminars, draft letters to politicians, play self-protective phone tag, and, of course, write stuff like this.
I’m in one of the best possible positions that a trans person in the U.S.A. can be in right now, and putting my passion on hiatus feels like a first-world problem among first-world problems. To put things into even more concrete perspective…
…I’m an adult. That alone dampens the immediate threat of medication loss, as does the privilege and money that comes with a white-collar tech job. (My home state of Texas and my other familial state of Tennessee both outright ban my medication for minors, though. I feel lucky to have found myself at 28 rather than back then, because I can’t conceive of finding and then legally losing my normalcy and feel ill even entertaining the thought. That said…)
