Milo Stewart - Trans Futures Now: A Queer Guided Journal on Finding Your Allies, Demanding Liberation, and Using Your Voice

Copyright 2022 by Milo Stewart.
Published by Mango Publishing, a division of Mango Publishing Group, Inc.

Cover Design: Elina Diaz
Layout & Design: Megan Werner

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Trans Futures Now: A Queer Guided Journal on Finding Your Allies, Demanding Liberation, and Using Your Voice

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication number: 2022931239
ISBN: (p) 978-1-64250-846-8 (e) 978-1-64250-847-5
BISAC category code JNF053080, JUVENILE NONFICTION / LGBTQ+

Printed in the United States of America

The information provided in this book is based on the research, insights, and experiences of the author. Every effort has been made to provide accurate and up-to-date information; however, neither the author nor the publisher warrants the information provided is free of factual error. This book is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any medical condition or disease, nor is it intended as a substitute for professional medical care. All matters regarding your health should be supervised by a qualified healthcare professional. The author and publisher disclaim all liability for any adverse effects arising out of or relating to the use or application of the information or advice provided in this book.

Table of Contents

Hi, Im Milo. Im a proud member of the trans community, a vlogger, and your guide for this guide. The goal for this project was to create a resource for people like me and like you to have an outlet. A tool that can help you organize and understand all the emotions and feelings rolling around your min d and body.

So this journal, what is it? Its whatever you need it to be. A friend, a diary, an escape. I hope that the writing prompts, exercises, and resources within the pages help you feel a little more secure. Ill start off by telling you about myself, the history of our community, and the world were aiming to shape. And hopefully by the end of the journal, youll have told me all about y ourself too.

Our history has been censored in the past. Be it by religion or politics or just hatred, the truth is that trans truths have never been fully told. For every step we take forward, someone is always there to say it didnt happen. So I hope these next few sections help change that. I wanted to include my story and tipping points as a way to say that all our journeys matter. And that our struggles should be documented, even if just in a journa l for now.

Before you start using this journal, I think it will be helpful to have a few resources at your disposal. If not for you, for someone who you care about.

Transgender people in crisis should contact the followin g resources:

The Trevor Projects 24/7/365 Lifeline at 866-4-U-TREVOR (866-488-7386) or TrevorChat, their online instant messaging option, or TrevorText, a text-based sup port option.

If you are looking for peer support, you can visit TrevorSpace from anywhere i n the world.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) Trans Lifeline at 8 77-565-8860.

Do you live outside the United States? If so, check out The Trevor Projects list of international res ources here:

Transgender Organizations National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE ) (advocacy)

Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF) (leg al services)

Transgender Law Center (TLC) (legal services a nd advocacy)

Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP) (leg al services)

Trans People of Color Coalition (TPOCC ) (advocacy)

Trans Women of Color Collective (TWOCC ) (advocacy)

Black Trans Advocac y (advocacy)

Trans Latina Coalitio n (advocacy)

Gender Spectrum (support for families, trans youth, an d educators)

Gender Diversity and TransFamilies (support for families, trans youth, an d educators)

Trans Youth Equality Federation (support for families and trans youth)

TransTech Social Enterprises (economic empowerment)

SPART*A (advocacy for trans military serv ice members)

Transgender American Veterans Association (advocacy for tra ns veterans)

TransAthlete.com (info about tra ns athletes)

Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC ) (advocacy)

TransLife Center at Chicago House (suppo rt services)

Trans Doe Task Force (leg al services)

These are just some of the incredible outlets that GLAAD has outlined on their website. You can learn more and find an even bigger part of our community here: www.glaad.org/transgende r/resources .

I will never forget the feeling of meeting a trans person in real life for the first time. I was in 8th grade, identifying as pansexual at the time, and hadnt started to question my gender. Some unconscious curiosity I hadnt identified within me was piqued by a conversation I overheard in the halls of my 8th and 9th grade middle school in Ankeny Iowa.

I later learned the student walking in front of me identified as a trans man and was taking testosterone as a 9th grader. I was drawn into his conversation by some wordWas it gender? Or transgender?so deeply that I walked past my next class by mistake. That interaction (or lack thereof) stuck in my mind for days and prompted later Google searches that led me to finding the YouTube channels of trans men making videos to document their lives and transitioncreators like Alex Bertie, Ryan Cassata, and Chase Ross. It was a few months after finding and binge-watching Alex Berties videos that I first called myself genderqueer, then switching to transgender, before adding on nonbinary.

The meaning this story holds for me demonstrates the power in being able to look up to another trans person. I was vaguely aware of trans peoples existence before this interaction, but meeting a trans guy at my school opened a new world for me as I learned that trans people exist in the mundane of every day, living lives that arent exclusively full of suffering as they appeared to in TV and movies I had seen. In this way, every trans person owes their ability to claim an identity to the wider community. We breathe each other into existence by way of showing how to externalize the feelings that we only felt internally before learning from example. We dont do this in the way that trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs) would like people to believe, that trans adults prey on the insecurities of young children to make them change sexes (I hyperbolize, but that isnt far from how TERFs see trans people). Learning that being trans is possible and joyful didnt suddenly make me choose to be a different gender than the sex I was assigned at birth; finding the community around the term trans put into the world all of the feelings that were already inside of me. We show each other (as well as cisgender, or non-transgender, people) that there is another way of existing. We can choose to transition and label our genders for ourselves, and, beyond that, the way that we understand gender can change the ways we relate to every person we interact wit h every day.