Call me Fénix. I’m a nonbinary trans man, in my mid-30s, started T some ten years ago and been on it most of the intervening time. Based in Portland, OR.

Have had hysterectomy and bottom surgery but got a full torso tattoo instead of top surgery, heh. I get euphoria from a lot of kind of old-fashioned or formal trappings of masculinity, like neckties and the like, though because I work in a less formal setting my standard uniform is a Hawaiian shirt.

I’m here because being a transmasculine person on the internet can be pretty lonesome. There’s lots of spaces full of transfems, or cis queer people, but places I can hang with other trans guys are pretty limited, especially for the kind of geek who doesn’t go on Facebook or similar. This is a place I feel community.

It’s not just the TSA; I had an unpleasant experience some years ago flying through Frankfurt, Germany. I wasn’t packing, but scanners flagged me because of my chest (no top surgery, I bind for travel but I guess it wasn’t flat enough that time) and the agents asked me if I’d prefer English or German. I said English, because my German’s not equal to that situation, and they assumed this meant I understood no German. So the one guy who spoke English asked me if I were a man or a woman and I explained that I’m trans. He translated to his associate as “both” to which she laughed scornfully and said “there’s no such thing!” I pretended not to understand so I could just get through the indignity as quickly as possible, but it cemented my hatred for airport security theater.