The Journal · Opinion & Essays
Notes from the Desk
Essays on writing, identity, and the histories we’re still learning to tell.
8 entries on file
- No. 08Latest
Changing Your Mind Shouldn’t Be This Embarrassing
At some point, a change of mind made you look untrustworthy. We call it hypocrisy. Backpedaling. Flip-flopping. Getting exposed. The internet has receipts, and God help you if some…
Continue reading → - No. 07
Do We Have the Right to Invent the Lives History Did Not Record?
History loves paperwork. Birth certificates. Marriage licenses. Census records. Passenger manifests. Court documents. Newspaper clippings. Military records. Death certificates. If somebody wrote…
Continue reading → - No. 06
I Know My Biology: Part 2
I have been thinking about how I describe my transition, and I realized something that might seem strange at first. I didn’t transition into a man; I transitioned into a trans man.
Continue reading → - No. 05
Writing the Story That Wrote Back
I did not expect writing Ink & Saltwater to be therapeutic. When I first started shaping the story, I wanted to write historical fiction. I wanted it to follow a transgender man aboard the Titanic…
Continue reading → - No. 04
“I Miss the Old You”
"I miss the old you." If you are transgender, you have likely heard some version of that phrase before. It may have come from a parent, a friend, or someone who cared about you, at least about the…
Continue reading → - No. 03
What if you regret it?
If you're transgender, you've likely faced that question before. Perhaps it came from a stranger online, a doctor, a friend, or a caring parent. The wording might have differed, but the question…
Continue reading → - No. 02
Grief Through a Trans Lens
People talk about grief like it only shows up at funerals. Like it only belongs to death. But grief is everywhere in the transgender experience.
Continue reading → - No. 01
I Know My Biology
One of the strangest things about being transgender is how often people feel the need to remind me about my biology. "But your biology is female." Yeah. I know.
Continue reading →