It has seemed to me for a while that a lot of Dopers aren’t very familiar with trans voices. I’ve long wanted to recommend people watch or read things from trans people who talk about trans issues, but couldn’t think of how to do it without it getting into an argument (which I very much request you don’t have here. There are other threads for that.)
And somehow it never occurred to me that I could just make a Cafe Society thread to share stuff from trans creators. While I would prioritize those who have addressed trans topics, I could even see value in just more exposure to people who are out as trans. I’d just request you label which is which.
I’ll start with a couple people I love:
Jessie Gender: She’s a huge Star Trek fan, but she also does deep dives into trans topics, and tries her best to be very even handed and not discouraging to those who are just unaware.
Vera Wyld: She has two channels. The first is Council of Geeks, where she primarily discusses topics related to geeky media (sci-fi, superheroes, etc) albeit sometimes mentioning trans issues, but also will have full on discussions on trans topics. The other is just her Vera Wyle channel which is more personal about her own journey.
And then there are these two peas in a pod:
Contrapoints (Natalie Wynn): A widely beloved trans philosopher. She gets into very deep topics, very often related to trans stuff.
Philosophy Tube (Abigail Thorne): Her channel started as more about philosophies in general, albeit with a more liberal or progressive bend. But she’s been adding more trans-related stuff since she came out. And, since she’s British, you can get a lot of insight about how TERFs treat her.
A note of etiquette, all but Jessie have older videos pre-transition, and two full on appeared as male. However, they all prefer to be referred to as female. (Though Vera is also fine with they/them pronouns.)
Anyways, I very much hope more people will chime in with examples. Feel free also to link specific videos or articles. I hope to do so myself later, as I find the ones I think are really insightful.
Came in here just to promote Contrapoints, thanks @BigT. She is scary-smart and hilarious. Not universally loved in her own community, I fear – she’s earned a few enemies, whether justly or not.
I’ve been following James Stephanie Sterling (formerly Jim Sterling, which they still use as a “brand name”) for years before they came out as NB. They’re a British-born naturalized US citizen who started as a video game reviewer for Destructoid and The Escapist before going freelance. They still do a lot of game reviews and the occasional let’s play, but these days they mainly cover scandals in the game industry, with a focus on excessive profit-seeking and sex abuse. Their scripted videos are very well-written and professionally sourced, and their improv videos feature a lot of great unexpected ad hoc humor.
Also, a few years ago they started a second career as an indie wrestler, playing a spandex-clad, star-faced heel called “Sterdust” or “Commander Sterling” who chokeslams the hell out of people.
I found Countrapoints by turns lucid and INCREDIBLY long winded, occasionally going off on tirades or bitchy gossip about the trans community, or maybe it was the gay-porn community that I had zero interest in hearing about. I bookmarked a few gems because Natalie brought clarity to some otherwise baffling topics.