Trans Community on YouTube

Like their lesbian, gay, and bisexual peers, transgender people can feel very isolated and alone in their communities. In response to this perceived lack of likeminded people, a flourishing community of thoughtful trans individuals began sharing their experiences on YouTube. Over the last four years, this community has skyrocketed in number of vloggers and number of subscribers, making YouTube one of the largest trans community portals on the internet.

Though many identify in their videos simply as "trans," they are, in fact, transsexual people, those who transition both socially and medically from one sex and gender identity to the other.

The premiere of these trans vloggers is Grishno, a trans woman who essentially began the YouTube trans community with her vlog a little more than four years ago. You can access her YouTube profile and her videos by clicking here. In January 2009, she launched grishno.com to further her exposure and reach; the link to grishno.com is here. Grishno enjoys a kind of internet celebrity, if you will, and she focuses more on trans activism than personal experience, meaning that her videos don't always offer incredible insights. But she is a powerful speaker and meaningful figure who deserves to be recognized. Personal note: in November 2010, Grishno was a speaker at the Montana Transgender Day of Recognition, a not-for-profit organization I conceptualized and helped begin with a fabulous trans activist named Bree in 2009; Grishno was a lovely, kind, and vivacious young woman. If you would like to share a laugh with Grishno, check out her hilarious video called "SEX," linked here.

Ashley, I feel, is the heart of thoughtful and intelligent trans discourse. Under the handle icecoldbath, which you can find here, Ashley records the totality of her transition. Seemingly inspired to live as her true self due to the death of her mother, her three-year-long video history chronicles everything from  her first hormone replacement therapy regimen to (today) her life mostly-post-transition. Ashley's first moments are particularly tender: piercing her ears and purchasing a pearl bracelet make interesting windows into the feelings of being deprived of the "proper" childhood many trans people experience. More important than the journal of her physical transition, however, Ashley uses her vlog to muse about the philosophical elements of trans identity and community. For example, she tackles her objection to the notion of "stealth" in her video called "stealth is wrong," explores inequality within the trans community in "More Trans than Thou," and deconstructs the semantic meanings of trans community jargon. Truly, Ashley's videos should be watched from beginning to end, if for nothing else than that she sometimes revisits old topics with new perspectives, and you don't want to miss out on that. Ashley's video production has slowed down considerably now that the majority of her physical and social transitions are over, but she does continue to update occassionally. (Ashley, if you ever read this blog, I would very much like to brainstorm with you; please contact me!)

Charlotte is the pseudonymn of a trans woman who vlogs as karmatic1110, who you can find here. She is particularly interesting to me for two reasons. Firstly, Charlotte tends to focus on the darker, sadder elements of being a transsexual person. Though not a happy realm of ideas - and they take obvious tolls on her happiness - these are real, very human aspects of trans identity in modernity. In particular, Charlotte seems to talk about the ways people react to her as a trans person, both online and in person. As a lesbian, she also gives great detail to discrimination against trans women within lesbian communities, a topic that majorly affects her on the personal level. This discussion about the interplay of gender and sexuality is the second reason Charlotte captures me. Though her subject matter is not particularly joyful, Charlotte is unafraid to dive into the topics that bother her most, and in doing so, she offers a perspective that no other trans vlogger provides.

Leonardo is royale76, who you can find at this link. A trans man in Canada, he often focuses on how passing as a cisgender man (which he does very easily) fails to provide him the kind of internal happiness he hopes it will. His ethnic identity as an Arab-Canadian is also discussed in his videos, and becomes particularly important in his coming out process to his family. The majority of his videos, though, focus on self-loathing, particularly on how his internalized transphobia inhibits him from meeting straight women, something he very much wishes to do. His video about what he calls "penis dysphoria" touches on this issue. Since his top surgery, he no longer posts new videos, but his older material is still relevant. It's worth mentioning that Leonardo also does song covers in many of his videos, and he has a lovely voice. He's also quite handsome....

TrannyGirl15 is the screen name of Maxine, a French-Canadian trans woman and prolific vlogger. Her intended audience seems to be younger trans women, who she coaches through various aspects of transition, such as makeup, sex and relationships, and "passing." Like Ashley, Maxine focuses on intellectual aspects of trans identity; unlike Ashley, I disagree with almost everything Maxine has to say! It's true; I've honestly never gotten through a whole TrannyGirl15 video without wholeheartedly disagreeing with something she has to say, but I find that to be a testament to both the magnificent nature of intellectual discourses and her perspicacious personality. Being an intelligent woman, Maxine is a graduate student of artificial intelligence, and so much of her vlog focuses on her transition at school. Maxine is also a femme-identified lesbian. Having saved for her medical transitions, many of her recent videos focus on surgical elements of her transition, something that sets her apart from most of these vloggers. Maxine's videos are often very long, upwards of twenty minutes, so those of us hyperwired technology natives will need to take breaks during her videos. Given my love-hate relationship with many of the things she has to say in her videos, I fathom I will inevitably write about TrannyGirl15 in the future.

Braunwyne vlogs as Bronwyn031, the link to which can be found here. Her perspective is laid back and highly diary-like, and I appreciate that she occassionally touches on being a trans person of color. Working within the US military, her transition while on the job is of particular interest. Her more recent videos include continuing her physical transition, the effects of marriage inequality in the state in which she lives, moving into adulthood, and her relationship with her wife. Upon her marriage, she and her wife begin to do videos together, sometimes discussing what they call a "trans-lesbian" relationship; thus, the interplay between gender and sexuality is a key topic to see in action through Braunwyne's videos. Personal note: Braunwyne's wife happens to be a friend of mine!

Perhaps my favorite vlogger of all time - trans or cisgender - is Candi, who vlogs under the name CandiFLA. Candi is notable for her incredible male-to-female voice work and the unique manner in which she transitioned. Candi's transition can only be described as slow and methodical; she began transitioning later in life (though she looks very young, she is forty-years-old) and didn't begin living full-time until years into her transition. Candi's patience in transitioning is mirrored by the unique ways in which she comes out to (or rather, how she doesn't come out) to her family and coworkers. At present, she now lives full-time as herself and is partnered, meaning that she now releases videos at a slower pace. Did I also mention that Candi is hilarious? Cuz she is. Given the slow process in which she transitioned, Candi actively mantained a male identity in her day-to-day life for the first few years of her vlogging; in that time, she goes on "dates" with her male and female selves, plays dress-up for the camera, makes suggestive videos about powertools, and brings a lighthearted element to a topic and community that, sadly, feels the serious sting of depression and inequality. Oh, and she loves the boobies.

The last vlogger I will include here is Aydin, an eloquent trans man who focuses on life post-transition. He vlogs under the handle 33Aydin, and his YouTube channel can be accessed by clicking here. Like many of these individuals, I've been following Aydin for several years, but I'll cut my analysis and recommendation short, as I will have more to say about him in an upcoming post.