Love these suggestions! I will also add a plug for Renée Yoxon (dot com), the trans vocal coach I worked with! Their courses are online and self paced, so if you get spooked by hearing yourself recorded you can slow way down or take a break if you need to.
I have found the Gender Reveal podcast and the associated Slack community to be a really positive place for sharing day to day questions, struggles, selfies, HRT knowledge share, and all different stages of social and medical transition at all different ages.
And in my personal life, I have found getting my clothes tailored to suit my body has helped SO MUCH with dysphoria.
Thank you for this article. This is what I didn't know I needed at this point in my life and in this state of the world; this really couldn't have been published on a better day for me.
Getting my name right has been the biggest affirmation anyone could give me, especially early on. Once I started going by it with my friends, but my family hadn't switched, a friend sent me a card addressed to my legal name but had written Ken about a dozen times across the inside to make up for it.
Thank you for this, Ben! As the cis parent of a trans young adult, I am always looking for ways to affirm him & be supportive. There is so much I don’t know or understand, and your newsletter is so helpful. 💕
Love these suggestions! I will also add a plug for Renée Yoxon (dot com), the trans vocal coach I worked with! Their courses are online and self paced, so if you get spooked by hearing yourself recorded you can slow way down or take a break if you need to.
I have found the Gender Reveal podcast and the associated Slack community to be a really positive place for sharing day to day questions, struggles, selfies, HRT knowledge share, and all different stages of social and medical transition at all different ages.
And in my personal life, I have found getting my clothes tailored to suit my body has helped SO MUCH with dysphoria.
YESS i love Renée !!
THANK YOU FOR THIS <3 i am really far into my transition but i still get dysphoria and this has given me some schemes lollllll
YAY I'm so glad!!!!!
Saving this one, what an amazing resource of inspiration.
Thank you for this article. This is what I didn't know I needed at this point in my life and in this state of the world; this really couldn't have been published on a better day for me.
Getting my name right has been the biggest affirmation anyone could give me, especially early on. Once I started going by it with my friends, but my family hadn't switched, a friend sent me a card addressed to my legal name but had written Ken about a dozen times across the inside to make up for it.
Thank you for this, Ben! As the cis parent of a trans young adult, I am always looking for ways to affirm him & be supportive. There is so much I don’t know or understand, and your newsletter is so helpful. 💕
Shaving with your trans girl friend and making it a fun girly skincare task is suuuuch a good idea.
THE COMMON GOOD MANIFESTO
A society built for people, not predators.
We are at our best when we invest in each other.
We are at our worst when we abandon the vulnerable.
This manifesto is how we return to the common good.
I. DIGNITY AND JUSTICE
1. Release the Epstein files — full transparency, no exceptions.
2. Impeach, convict, and imprison Donald Trump and every handler who enabled his corruption.
3. No federal office for any convicted felon.
4. End the weaponization of the justice system against the poor, immigrants, LGBTQ people, and marginalized communities.
II. DEMOCRACY THAT ACTUALLY WORKS
1. Abolish the Electoral College — one person, one vote.
2. Abolish ICE — replace it with humane immigration policy that honors human rights.
3. Ban gerrymandering with a standardized national apportionment method.
4. Two-term limits for every elected office.
5. Mandatory retirement at 70 for all elected officials.
6. Paper ballots only — end the era of hackable voting machines.
III. AN ECONOMY THAT SERVES PEOPLE
1. Restore 1950s-style progressive tax rates — when America was prosperous and fair.
2. Overturn Citizens United — corporations are not people.
3. Eliminate the Social Security payroll cap and tax capital gains for Social Security contributions.
4. $25 minimum wage indexed to inflation.
5. Medicare for All, one unified system — no A/B/C/D maze.
6. Congress receives Medicare, not boutique private insurance.
IV. WORKERS, CREATIVES, AND PUBLIC SERVANTS
1. Big pay raises for social workers, teachers, librarians, artists, and cultural workers — the people who actually hold society together.
2. Universal childcare — because families are the foundation of the nation.
3. Free public university education.
4. Full forgiveness of all student debt.
V. CLEAN GOVERNMENT
1. Root out corruption at every level, starting at the top.
2. Full financial transparency for every elected official, appointee, and senior bureaucrat.
3. Ban lobbying for former officeholders for life.
VI. THE FUTURE WE CHOOSE
We choose a country that values:
• Compassion over cruelty
• Community over greed
• Truth over propaganda
• Shared prosperity over billionaire hoarding
• Democracy over minority rule
• Human dignity over corporate profit
We choose a nation where the common good is not a slogan, but the organizing principle of public life.
And we refuse to apologize for demanding better.