Me Trying To Convince Myself That The Whole Spectrum Of Human Emotions Is A Good And Necessary Thing

As a trans man and as a Ukrainian Jew, I cannot stress how important it is for us to know our history.

LGBTQ representation in Slavic countries is almost nonexistent. The ubiquity of gender norms is so often baked into our culture and societies. The looming threat of violence if we don't comply is so omnipresent that it prevents us from forming a strong community. Our stories are shared privately, hushed, with bated breath from friend to friend.

Far too much, i've witnessed the loneliness and alienation of people like me, the paralysing fear in parents' eyes for the fates of their children. I still cannot share my transness with my closest friends or relatives. People I have known since I was a child, whom I've shared my whole life with.

Imagine how many of us are living in the exact same circumstances. But we can never appease them enough, no matter how much we bend and mold ourselves for a semblance of normalcy that never existed.

It does not have to stay this way. Through making our history known, we must stay alive and stand united now more than ever.

We have always existed, and we aren't going anywhere.

Queer Jews Project Day 8 - Berel-Beyle

We only know about Berel-Beyle through Yeshaye Katovski’s letter to the Forward in 1936 about “the girl who became a man.” To summarize: Berel-Beyle was AFAB, grew up in Krivozer, Ukraine, left home for Odessa, transitioned to a man, went back to his hometown, was accepted by his community, and married an old girlfriend, Black Rachel.

To quote the letter, “In our shtetl, Berel-Beyle always had a good name as a fine, upstanding Jew.”

I wish we knew more about this trans ancestor, but I’m glad we know about him.

Learn more about Berel-Beyle here.

Queer Jews Project

It makes me sad that most people around me are so unbelievably burnt out from work and life that they are just truly emotionally unavailable and don't even wanna use their energy for anything beside going out partying once a weekend

It's like watching friends who you've seen be silly and have deep talks work jobs to the point of stress where they are incoherent and respond to messages like legit 6 days later and not in a rude way but genuinely they don't have the mental capacity to do shit anymore

Working jobs and paying bills shouldn't take everything out of people to the extent it really does

Even when I'm off work and I had a shorter shift most of the time I truly have nothing left in the tank after the combo of emotions and physical labor

beautiful caffeine on an empty stomach I'm going to live forever

buying four things that are about sixteen dollars adds up to over sixty dollars. that doesn't make any sense they are each sixteen dollars (small price) and it is only four (small amount) they should not make over sixty dollars (big cost) this is why the economy is in shambles

I don't think you know true dedication until you spend 5 hours in a dilapidated train station waiting for the first train because of a metal concert

got a major pest problem this year actually