Reading Time: 6 minutes I had a complicated relationship with my voice even before I figured out I was trans. When I was small I loved singing, but then my voice broke. That’s what we call it in the UK when testosterone makes a voice change at puberty—we say your voice “breaks.” As a trans woman, I find that term especially apt. Because my voice was still unpredictable, the choir teacher put me in the bass section where no one would hear me. Singing became something I was afraid to do.
Jenna Scaramanga
Jenna has written for the Guardian, New Statesman, Times Education Supplement, Salon, and AlterNet. Her PhD from the UCL Institute of Education studied the experiences of students in fundamentalist Christian schools in England.
Posted inLGBTQ
I’m a trans woman exhausted by the broken conversation around sports
Reading Time: 6 minutes As news broke of the British Triathlon decision to force trans women to compete against cis men in a cynically rebranded “Open” category, and British Rugby Union clubs gear up for a vote of their own, I find myself exhausted by a public conversation that is hopelessly broken yet will not go away. Because I’m […]
Posted inLGBTQ
The transgender swimming ban is not about sports
Reading Time: 6 minutes FINA, the international swimming federation, has banned trans women from competing in women’s categories for the sports it governs. Within days of this announcement, a raft of other sporting bodies had announced reviews of their policies for transgender inclusion, and the International Rugby League banned trans women from competition, pending “further research.” The decision has […]
Posted inSex & Gender
Why I wish I’d transitioned when I was 12
Reading Time: 7 minutes Texas Governor Greg Abbott has ordered that parents of trans children be prosecuted as child abusers. The Biden administration has mobilized against the order, and the ACLU is suing, but the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services has begun investigations of some parents. A district judge has now blocked these investigations pending a March […]