That's...um... a complicated question. In general, since Western culture is pretty wedded to the gender binary, trans folk who live in it identify with one side or another and want to be recognized as such. You will meet people who eschew the gender binary though, and they might identify as a third gender, or…

In short: yes, they are different.

Oh certainly. It really distressed me when I was younger when I realized that people in the bible who were suffering from demon possession were likely mentally ill. Cast out, living in filth, etc. There's so many things I would've been killed/imprisoned/cast out for in many different times in the past.

I hold hands with my female friends all the time when we're out. Sometimes we even skip!

We had an unpopular teacher in grade school - eons ago - who was socially awkward. So some Mean Girls types started a rumor among the parents that the guy was gay. He almost lost his job, married the equally awkward language teacher in a hurry, possibly as a beard and every parent could sleep soundly after that. I…

I think it's important to point out that this a series of photos by queers for queers. I think that in itself is the reason you notice the long winded identity labels. Most if not none of these people would go much futher than 'lesbian', gay, bisexual, 'trans man', etc. normally when speaking of their identity in…

I've always thought the "what about the children?!" line to be particularly odd. If a small child asks questions about what appears to be a romantic relationship between two people of the same sex, he will accept your explanation and go on with his day. You literally say "Oh yeah, you know how boys and girls like…

Reminder that there are people who say ENDA is unnecessary because anti-LGBTQIA discrimination is not a thing.

I like that this a "non-cultural" movie and it stars a black girl. Meaning: usually, when a PoC stars in main cartoon roles, it's to tell a story related to their culture. Mulan, Princess and the Frog, Aladdin, Prince of Egypt, what have you, were all taking place in each of those respective cultural settings and so…

I thought I had seen this before (in a Ted talk), but this seems to be a different project. This is so fun. I suppose I see myself as a Soft Butch Lesbian Transwoman Passing As a Feminine Straight (Possibly Gay?) Man. It really messes with people's gaydar. "Are you gay?" "Yes, but not in the way you think I am."

So, basically, queers look like a lot of different things. But what they don't look like is literally anyone mentioned in the countless mainpage articles on beauty standards (like today's "not wearing makeup isn't a trend"), nor do they seem to be trying to. Things seem to skew masculine, but when there are femmes,…

Categorisation is not the enemy... As long as we are in control of our own categorisation.

The short version is that you should never respond to a story about rape with a deconstruction of the victim's choices. It erases the culpability of the actual rapist and, more importantly, doesn't actually work to prevent rape. Every piece of "advice" designed to "teach[ women] to take measures to protect…

Explanation does not equal exculpation. Watch that maniac's YouTube video and you'll understand. He's out of his fucking mind. At the end of the day, the criminal justice system should be about public safety rather than retribution, so rather than assigning blame/identifying culpability, we should focus on figuring…

Cornflakes! Oh my god cornflakes!

I love Oh Henry! I'm American! It's not sold everywhere but it's not too hard to find.

Oh, I know it's widely available in Canada, but I see other Crunchie related products (such as Crunchie cookies) in "British food" sections in such stores as Bulk Barn, so it seems like it's something we get due to our relationship with British culture.

You need to let me write a guest post called "All Your Chocolate Bars Are Disgusting, America: Superior Canadian Chocolate Bars Ranked".