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Click the button below to join our community of storytellers, where you may receive alerts and updates on calls to action and other opportunities including trainings and events, to grow power for yourself and/or others in the community through storytelling, as well as to learn more about other members of the 2TIGE community who are using their stories to impact change.

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2 TIGE voices deserve to be heard. Reclaim your power,. Take Back the Narrative
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Question: What does visibility mean to you?

Question: What advice would you give your younger 2TIGE self or to 2TIGE youth today?

What has brought you gender euphoria?

Image shows a solid purple background with a floral banner which reads: I feel powerful. I remember before I transitioned I'd always see these women in media who just absolutely kicked ass and I'd feel so inexplicably jealous for reasons I couldn't understand. I was such a scared boy for most of my life. I had no confidence in myself, I didn't want to be seen, I never stood up for myself, and I got manipulated and hurt a lot. But now I feel confident, I feel powerful, almost radiant. I look in the mirror and I see one those badass women I used to look up to. I take charge when people don't know what to do, I stare down nosy people on the subway, and I scare away creeps who try to catcall me or my friends. Some might balk at the idea of a trans woman being confident, scary and assertive (and those perceived traits are definitely being used to demonize us even now), but for me all of those things have always been associated with femininity and specifically the women I've always looked up to. I am powerful, I am frightening and I am so goddamn alive I can hardly believe it.

My Gender Euphoria-Gillian Knightingale

My Transition Euphoria-JS

Graphic shows a solid pink background with the following story left by an anonymous storyteller for TEP. Story reads: The part of my gender journey that has brought me the most joy was the feeling of being at home in my own body a few months into starting my hormone therapy. I had never felt foreign in my body per se but there was certainly a disconnect in it. I had come to terms my body as-is in my 20s and in retrospect, that was me wanting to cope with feelings of body dysphoria; I don’t think I was as accepting of my body as I had led myself to believe. A few months into GAHT, I started to notice the physical changes begin. But it wasn’t the external changes that made a big impact on me (of course they did make an impact on me), it was the sensation I felt within. I felt different IN my body. I moved differently throughout the world. There was a lightness to my step, a sway in my hip, not exaggerated but authentic. I began to feel the full breadth of my womanhood, one that was not necessarily reliant on what physical traits I had. This happened in tandem with quarantine and me beginning to wear less and less makeup. Where I once felt “manly” without makeup, I began to feel beautiful in my natural state. I’m so thankful for starting hormone therapy. I began presenting at 21 but did not start therapy until 34 and, though I would have definitely seen a bigger difference if I started younger, I feel like a good example that it’s never too late to start.

TBN-GenderEuphoria-Response-01

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