I want to invite everyone to share this post in order to celebrate trans JOY Throughout Trans Awareness Week I was thinking about the bind trans people are in: we have to simultaneously prove that we face urgent and life-threatening challenges that the public needs to care about, AND that we are happy and we didn’t make some mistake or develop some malign disorder by being trans. Here, despite my acute awareness of the collective challenges we face and the personal ones I am going through, I want to focus on joy. I want the world to know that I am trans and SO HAPPY ABOUT IT. And let’s face it, I am doing kinda amazing. My friendships are deep and soulful. My work making music is incredibly satisfying and exciting (I’m going on tour in 2022, buy yr tickets!). I am deeply in love and I am having an overwhelmingly joyful time raising our beautiful toddler. And, as is universally agreed, I’m super-attractive and cool as hell. So! Has being trans ruined my life? No it has not! In fact it has made my life way, way better. Coming out has improved my confidence, my mood, my ability to get things done, my relationships, my Jewish spiritual life and my mental health. I feel compelled to say this also because I just listened to an interview with the wonderful @chasestrangio, on the @gendereveal podcast (a podcast which in general I ferociously recommend to anyone who’s at all interested in trans people). Chase, a lawyer who constantly and heroically defends trans rights, pointed out that AS PART OF LEGAL ATTACKS ON TRANS RIGHTS, trans people are portrayed as miserable and suffering across the board, and it is regularly suggested/argued that being trans and transitioning is not good for trans people. And so, Chase says, to be trans and share your joy is a crucial counterpoint to that kind of thinking. In short, cis people think it is harmful to be trans. And I would like to share my joy to show quite clearly that it is not. I am so lucky to be trans, and coming to understand it and talk about it is one of the b