Leah Tigers
@9BillionTigers
Followers
22K
Following
49K
Media
1K
Statuses
22K
"Queer theory running riot," according to my detractors.
Joined May 2019
6 months ago I set out to write a history of gender dysphoria, a concept I think many trans people use, but lack context for. This grew into a much grander investigation of trans womanhood as a form of madness. It would mean a lot to me if you read it.
29
429
2K
I never tweet about Elon Musk because I read the time Azealia Banks called him Apartheid Clyde and felt like that was the end of the discussion.
227
16K
163K
every trans woman on this site knows so deeply and profoundly how much this is a lie.
83
24K
118K
learned recently that after they realized they were gay during wwii returning combat veterans refused to marry into families so they formed bike gangs and started the leather subculture.
62
7K
73K
From a gay man held as a teen in a mental institution, 1962-4: "I remember this one doctor who was talking about homosexuality. And he said, well, there is a normal homosexual period between 8 and 12 and beyond that it's abnormal. So I piped up and said 'Is that a.m. or p.m.?'".
75
5K
63K
last step of me figuring out my sexual identity was definitely "I don't care".
55
8K
63K
guy who thinks "social construct" and "not real" are synonyms.
78
5K
62K
back when i told my mom my name was Leah she was like "oh how did you know that's what i would have named you" & i was like "ah. on April 25th 2002 as you washed dishes i asked what my name would have been if & you told me & i wrote it 200 times in my notebook to never forget so".
224
2K
61K
cis women will tweet some shit like "i wish my man had the pussy and i had the dick" and then just like go on living the rest of their lives.
152
2K
46K
there were a bunch of quiet, homey, mostly sober queer bookstores and cafes in the 70s and 80s! with cats and everything. and despite all claims to the contrary, there are still a few now, although way fewer. can you all guess why they closed.
“why aren’t there spaces for queers that would rather stay in than go to the club” cause you just said you’d rather stay in.
57
3K
43K
The Met Gala was established when art was becoming the 2nd-largest unregulated market (after drugs) and public museums fell to behest of private collectors. Impossible for me to observe a Wojnarowicz or dress saying "Tax the rich" in this context and not feel burning cynicism.
36
3K
32K
Once you start getting into pre-code film you can really identify just how severely the Hays Code decimated cinema. It was pretty bad.
160
3K
31K
you guys all understand that laws around "public sex" aren't historically about like, "kink," but sex workers working out of cars, homeless people, and cruising right.
23
3K
26K
A lot of trans people avoid transphobia or just deal with longterm feelings of dysphoria by not going outside, something I don't think is talked about enough. Discouragement from public life is an effect of discrimination that is hidden because it is not open bigotry.
126
7K
24K
Many people know of Lili Elbe, a trans woman of the early 1930s made famous by a biography published at time of her death, then once again by media property The Danish Girl. Sadly both accounts ignored how gay Lili's wife Gerda Gottlieb was; here's her erotica from the 1920s
52
3K
19K
every time i hear this oddly specific "don't let your kids near drag queens" scaremongering i think about how Sylvia Rivera got her name from queens that took her in off the street when she was 11.
19
2K
16K
she has that same simultaneous quality of surprise in every turn of phrase yet perfectly coherent and meaningful overarching symbolism we celebrate in our greatest modernist poetry of last century. truly the best contemporary culture has to offer.
15
1K
17K
ever since i learned there was a Best Butch category in '80s ballroom, i was somewhat bemused the documentary Paris is Burning had no (masc) lesbians in it. watching outtakes i saw the director did take footage from the category, in what must have been around 1987 -- here it is
24
3K
16K
Way too often "queer elders" is referencing people who are like 29 and the "new generation" is like 14.
95
938
15K
something about transgender childhoods (or mine specifically or whatever) i think is deeply instructive about childhood generally is the way offhand comments by adults become incredible lifeshaping moments (constraints) they have no capacity to ever realize the significance of.
32
370
15K
It's funny that because there are no wedding ceremonies in the Bible straight couples have for centuries adapted the oaths of two women (Ruth and Naomi) or two men (David and Jonathan).
30
2K
14K
TAKE OFF YOUR HETERO-IMITATIVE FROGSKIN AND DANCE TO A LESBIAN/GAY SPIRIT!!!!
11
3K
13K
Maybe I'm being dense. But what exactly is the logic behind advertising tampons and pads to transwomen??.
7
1K
9K
The 90s trans girl experience is being afraid to rewatch any childhood sitcoms because jokes making fun of trans women are in every. Single. One.
78
928
9K
Hey so no offense but how do you even sleep at night using the AIDS crisis to tone police Palestine activists. Like how can one ever rest under the weight of that tremendous evil.
26
889
9K
this is yet another one of those cycles in "queer discourse" that is endlessly frustrating for a historian because there is just such an extremely clear and patently obvious answer to the question. you don't even have to look back very far to answer it, only like 2009.
5
214
8K
these kind of pseudofeminist pseudoscientific new age dunks on patriarchy are always going to end in a transmisogynistic place just imo. there's no scientific discovery which will make girl power a law of nature or refute male dominance biologically, it's all fake.
So crazy that the patriarchy has convinced us that men carry the family line when mitochondrial dna can only be traced maternally lmfao.
20
964
8K
PROMOTING THE IDEA A MAN TAKING A WOMAN'S DICK IN HIS ASS NECESSARILY INVOLVES BEING OVERTHROWN, OVERPOWERED, ANNIHILATED, DESTROYED, ABOLISHED, EMBARRASSED, HUMILIATED, DISCOMFITED, OR OTHERWISE SHAMED AS MEN TRADITIONALLY SHAME WOMEN IS ACTUALLY EXACTLY THE WORK OF PATRIARCHY.
“If someone doesn’t know what this means, you’re gonna have to look it up” — Cara Delevingne #MetGala
33
2K
7K
Just speaking As A Trans Woman here but what is "cosmetic" is entirely political contestation over what insurance will cover. For this reason every socialist feminist paradigm will cover all surgery unconditionally, and dismantle all oppression which may generate desire for it.
22
959
7K
guys who are really into vintage pornography are i think one of the few truly noble expressions of male sexuality left in the world today.
169
280
8K
you guys ever hang out with a cat and be like oh yeah she's definitely autistic.
28
473
7K
The gay man who wrote this cover story from 1981 is still alive at 91 years old. Yesterday I talked to him on the phone for 20 minutes. It does give me a tiny bit of comfort, knowing that paper has always been trash.
11
1K
7K
"Anora embodies the dehumanizing consumer fantasy of a devoted worker who loves the consumer so much she does not conceive of her servitude as labor.".
When people ask “what do sex workers think about Anora?” I hope my words can be included in the conversation on behalf of the sex workers who found the film disappointing and difficult to watch.
10
580
7K
Today is World AIDS Day. It took me too long to realize since studying AIDS activism during the '80s that this infamous jacket made by David Wojnarowicz wasn't a slogan or quip. In fact many AIDS victims specifically requested a political funeral, and some had them.
3
1K
7K
alternately magnus hirschfeld suggested (in sexual history of the world war) that gay Germans had suicidal tendencies because they were hated and were thus most likely to sacrifice themselves for das Vatarland. part of his pacifism was to save his twinks. which way modern man etc.
4
186
6K
One of my favorite German artists from the Weimar era is Jeanne Mammen. My favorite painting from her is this 1928 watercolor of lesbians at a masked ball.
15
912
6K
Obsessed with Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld's suggested therapy for trans people being "milieu-therapy," that is, hanging out with your friends at drag bars in Berlin. Sadly never taken up by the broader medical establishment.
25
958
6K
LGBT people are actually unbelievably fast to forgive when people offer an actual apology for their previous bigotry, it's just that almost no one ever does this.
29
969
6K
its pretty painful to read earlier narratives of queer city life and realize they are literally no longer possible because of high rent.
21
543
6K
look i can keep going. most military gays didn't actually fuck in the army (too heavily surveilled) so they figured this sexuality stuff out more during leave and port of call. whole bars were dedicated to them, this is how military regalia got so fetishized in gay culture.
3
198
6K
STOP asking about my sexuality. I'm whatever sexual identity makes the joke land.
19
821
6K
queer housing groups are so scary because they're like what if the worst gender takes you've ever read on the internet also had extremely direct high-stakes implications for your ability to continue living.
16
429
6K
"small dick energy" is actually a reference to the Lacanian phallus and has nothing whatsoever to do with the body. but you'd know this if you read literature.
27
572
6K
libgen sending up 502 error for days. zlib seized by fbi. solidarity to my thirdworld academics on this dreadful solemn day.
20
689
5K
[watching porn] this plot scene does not advance the sex in any way.
3
755
5K
When I was a kid my mom used to bully me until I let my dad shave my head in our backyard. Now they're old and mild and "accept me" as their daughter. What am I supposed to do with this? Queers talk so much about family rejection, what do we do when it resolves into "acceptance"?.
103
251
5K
I'm a big fan of trans women asserting we have periods because whether or not it's scientifically accurate or whatever it always makes the very worst kind of person obsessively irrationally frothing-at-the-mouth angry.
24
272
5K
huge amounts of homophobia in the States during the Lavendar Scare came from a presumed connection between gays & communism. at almost the same time, huge amounts of homophobia in Cuba came from presumed connection between gays & capitalism. always found the juxtaposition telling.
30
663
5K
that's some nice self-loathing you have there. would be a shame if i loved you unconditionally despite how you feel about yourself.
9
682
5K
If you are a trans person on hormones I recommend you hoard them. Lie to the pharmacy about losing your prescription for a refill. Shave a bit on your typical regime to create a surplus. Try to keep a buffer of at least three months for yourself and other trans people in need.
47
804
4K
rough and tumble bisexual military men would 1) sell sex for some spare change [they were underpaid] 2) get picked up by older wealthier urban gays which is a major part of where "trade" comes from, it's a bar relationship.
4
91
4K
The "trans women in sports" conversation really misses out on the fact that only an elite few participate in paid, televised, or professional sport. Women's sport, especially for youth, is primarily a vehicle to develop a public life and become involved in your community.
27
551
4K
As a trans person I wish people learned to use the word "eugenics" for forced fertility like they do for forced sterilization because it means both.
14
543
4K
Happy Pride Month everyone! I present to you, A Quick Visual History of Gay People and Our Tacky Matching Shirts: A Pride Collection. 1. Boston Bisexual Women's Network, Christopher Street Liberation Day, NYC, June 26, 1983.
10
837
4K
Trans people have often had oral histories, subcultural relationships, and jobs in the underground economy. It is helpful for me (as a historian) to remember that not everything needs to be recorded and analyzed, that escaping the record is often the intent.
8
458
4K
haha it's so funny how nonbinary trans people feel pressure to be binary trans and binary trans people feel pressure to be nonbinary trans almost like society is structured so that it's fundamentally impossible to correctly perform transness hahaha good times good times goo.
19
799
4K
obsessed with the "openly" in all the page three headlines "Sarah McBride first openly transgender member of congress". who was the closet queen foremother before her.
6
133
4K
bisexuality is fun because it's easily the coolest sexuality to have and the least cool sexuality to talk about.
19
211
4K
i think an unfortunate side effect of new "tender" queer cultures of authenticity sacrificing cattiness and shade is that instead of just disliking someone its adherents often imagine new internal gender hierarchies to justify their dislike as oppression.
15
269
4K
Just found out two trans female patients at Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute, Charlotte Charlaque and Toni Ebel, were lovers for about 12 years (1930-1942). Toni converted to Judaism during the Nazi regime under Charlotte's care. Happy post-Valentine's Day malaise to trans dykes.
12
440
4K
trans guy musicians like "i'm gonna make an acoustic bedroom bop with warm electronic elements about recovering some good from past traumas". trans girl musicians like "i'm gonna scream over this pitchshifted white noise about having BPD & burdening all who ever tried to love me".
33
459
3K
It was when I realized nearly every trans person has deep-seated escape fantasies that I understood how important the concept of utopia is to transness, or queerness. We all have a fictional geography in our heads where we get to be most free, most ourselves.
22
435
3K
did you all know that "girlfriend" and "boyfriend" used to be terms queers used to talk about their girlfriends and boyfriends without being outed? back in the 1920s. like a court jester i appear to throw this little wrench into partner discourse before retreating into the night.
My loves, we asked them to use partner. We, queers, asked them to use it so we could talk about our partners without immediately being outed.
13
219
4K
I have 200,000 accounts blocked on this website because twitter comms doesn't do shit but oppress minorities. I am a trans woman who has been suspended for one week for calling myself a fag hag and for two days for saying adults shouldn't fuck children. I have receipts.
12
246
3K
Trans women have what nonbinary people want (getting called they).
13
278
3K
anyway totally unrelated but please enjoy Quentin Crisp and others discussing Marlene Dietrich's gay kiss in Morocco (1930). "I don't think they've done anything as sexually delicious since.".
16
169
3K
hey one big way that monkeypox actually is a lot like AIDS is that it's yet another reasons to have solidarity with Africans, who have been struggling against literal decades of abysmal global health response to these exact diseases.
6
533
3K
"Visibility," "attention," "spotlight" are all euphemisms for what trans women actually endure, which is surveillance.
9
598
3K
hey just an idea but what if this belief spread even by trans men that testosterone is Very Serious and never to be "fucked around with" has less to do with medical science than a culture of gentility in which womanhood is absurdly fragile and in constant need of protection.
20
289
3K
When trans people dredge up the horrible transphobic things said by a recently dead public figure, it's not an effort to "cancel" them, at least not to me. It's an effort to remember what parts of them our culture is invested in forgetting.
6
420
3K
one thing i love about Sylvia Rivera is that after she got in a relationship with another trans woman in her later years people kept asking if this meant she was lesbian and she was like "please go away".
3
141
3K
One thing I can say decisively about David Wojnarowicz is he would never have taken issue with something so gauche as "text on clothing" or "lack of subtlety." He would have taken issue with the Met Gala!
5
260
3K
parents grieving the loss of their trans kid's previously assumed gender is so upsetting because you know the violence they put that child through for years on end was absolutely unbearable and they genuinely think it was an act of love and will for the rest of their life.
17
419
3K
a lot of trans women i know, myself currently, have a kind of gap in transition. we do everything that felt totally urgent, then normal depression takes hold a year or three. we stop taking care of ourselves. then we're ready to have a go again. i call this the ftf moment.
50
193
3K
Actually I'm the kind of nonbinary where everyone attracted to me is straight.
20
178
3K
I see that the author of the best-selling children's series of all time is now following men who advocate for pedophilia.
29
440
3K
i think there's something to be said how many adult cis women have romantic views of the "tomboy" figure because, absent lived experience of violence towards gender variant children, their cultural feminism regards an appropriate measure of female masculinity as a moral virtue.
34
267
3K
all that homophobia trans women escape transitioning from being called a faggot to being called a tranny faggot.
15
230
3K
"We're the daughters of the witches you didn't burn" is funny to me as a historian because there are identifiable female descendants of women accused of witchcraft living today.
28
234
3K
trans women cant give birth but we can get a friend started on hormones which is basically the same thing.
12
178
3K
Cis feminists will be like "Trans women's vaginas are unnatural wounds forever trying to close serving no function but to please men" and be wearing earrings??? Fuck off.
19
193
3K
Laws against jaywalking and the word "jaywalking" itself was invented and spread as propaganda by the US automobile industry to demonize pedestrians their products slaughtered.
9
626
3K
It's so sick that transphobes have revived calling gay people "same-sex attracted" because that's such a homophobic red flag lol are you in a Mormon church in 1998.
29
309
3K
Bottom/top stereotypes are absolutely a cisgender psy-op to get queers to have bad sex.
11
347
3K
lol so the FFS surgeon took out a giant benign tumor in my head.
49
33
3K
Hi everyone. I wrote a little essay about what the Nazis did and did not take from us, trans people. It's a mythology we all know well, but a history we all know poorly. It would mean a lot to me if you read it. On trans life in the Weimar Republic:.
37
857
3K
shocked at how underdiscussed this humbly spoken transgender memoir from 1974 about a 23-year-old woman without a high school diploma who transitions in a psych ward is. im reviving it. left me in a state
11
212
3K
i injected myself with a needle full of estrogen for two years and now it's illegal for me to be shirtless outside, what the fuck.
28
133
3K
@KyleLukoff gay trans guys get to teach me leather history they know like the back of their hand and i get to ramble at them about random transsexuals in weimar berlin. it's a kind of gift exchange.
2
45
3K
"It wasn’t so long ago that L.G.B.T.Q. people were thrilled to cheer for every out person and ally who would march in the Pride parade, including L.G.B.T.Q. police officers," writes the editorial board.
5
679
3K
trans people's twenties are the decade after they transition.
42
270
3K
Two trans sisters (biological, Lauraine & Lennette Lee) hanging out under the marquee for the Christine Jorgensen biopic, 1970.
9
304
3K