As early adopters and innovators of the internet, transgender people carved out an enduring and valuable safe space for finding community, support, and themselves online.
When I was in high school in the late ’90s, my dad borrowed my laptop (a gift from a family friend) and opened susans.org in his browser. susans.org was founded by Susan Larson in 1995 and is a peer support website with advice articles and forums. , and other resources primarily focused on trans women. Susan’s Place became a late-night hangout that sent shivers down my spine in ways I can’t explain and directed me to a web of other transgender blogs, forums, and resources on everything from DIY hormones to gender expression.
Susan’s Place suggested that there are people like me in the world, that there are words to describe us, and that there are communities that affirm us. It also opened up the possibility of a better world awaiting us. In that world, my struggle with gender could become a public part of my identity, rather than a confusing internal jumble of contradictory thoughts.
Without realizing it, my father opened Hotmail and averted a potential crisis. I can’t explain what Susan’s Place meant to me at a time when the word “transgender” meant nothing to most Americans. Avery Dame Griff’s His 2023 Book, Two Revolutions: A History of the Transgender Internetis a detailed and fascinating look at online transculture, spanning a wide range of experiences in “gender communities” where the internet provides “a safe and confidential space for self-expression” and fosters relationships with members of other communities. We offer a unique and deeply researched perspective.
Dame-Griff’s book begins before the Internet and spotlights classified publications such as: tapestry and crosstalksupport and support such as the Society for the Second Self (Tri-Ess), which provides confidential advice, support, information and hotlines to both the transgender and transvestite or cross-dressing (to use the language of the time) communities. Alongside community organizations.
The Internet has brought great and dramatic changes to the accessibility of information and privacy. Trans women who call the hotline or order a zine leave behind physical evidence of their passage through trans spaces. Anyone who visits her website can cover her tracks by calling their ISP. Readers can also get specific information about hormone therapy and how to access hormones, seek tips on transbody-friendly clothing lines and businesses, and form a community that introduces new transgender experiences. You can also.
The rise of the transinternet has also ushered in a persistent debate. Supposedly, Jane Cresap, then-vice president of the Los Angeles-based Tri-Es branch of Alfalow, wrote in a newsletter: support group. ” Do online spaces matter? Are online spaces really meaningful communities? Do what happens online translate into real life? Are friends you meet online “real” friends? The answer to all these questions is “yes” and, as Dame Griff wrote, creating a world where “space is allowed.” [trans web users] To build a queer community…it was a particularly important platform for transgender youth to come out, assert their transgender identity, and make connections with other transgender youth. ”
The divide between the “artificial internet” and the “real world” is a persistent topic of debate that extends far beyond the trans community, with many people who are not members of marginalized groups finding safe spaces online and They don’t understand what it means to build. Getting involved in the community and making connections from the rural bedroom where a teenager with a disability lives or the suburban home where an adoptee is trying to make connections with people with a common experience. You can also.
Communities experiencing hate, racism, legislative attacks, violence, and politicization can find strength and safety in online communities. These spaces are much needed and should be cherished, not ridiculed.
Today, from Dylan Mulvaney and Elliot Page to Admiral Rachel L. Levine, visible transgender people are everywhere, expressing the complex and richness of transgender identity. This visibility and active conversation around transgender identity makes it safer (and quantifiable) to be transgender in an era of systemic legislative and societal attacks on transgender people, especially Black transgender people. At the same time, they have become more dangerous (more visible, making them easier to target). woman.
Being transgender no longer automatically means the end of marriage or career. For some transgender people, it is no longer a secret, but a deep-seated shame that must be suppressed for life.
Yet, I primarily feel the pain for trans women. two revolutions As is often the case in the memoir genre, these are people who struggled with gender, even if they didn’t want it to be their primary identity. Dame Cliff writes about the proliferation of blogs, personal websites, and other forms of direct communication: “On their home pages, creators post aspects of their identity that are unrelated to their identity, such as professional accomplishments, hobbies, and fan interests.” This evolution has the potential to make room for an interconnected assemblage of different, sometimes contradictory aspects of the self.” This evolution was supported by the early support of the fan-owned and operated Archive of Our Own (AO3). As someone said, it was only possible by controlling the online environment. This is also echoed by Dame’s glyphs, which point out that: That is something that later generations are losing.
Susan’s Place still exists. As well as personal networks of websites, blogs, newsletters, private chats, and group activities. Despite the rapid expansion of what it means to be transgender, it is platform-based rather than independently maintained and barely continues to exist in a rapidly evolving internet. Some are abandoned. Compression into walled gardens means that once those gardens are seeded, the information within them also disappears.
The decline of Twitter, the instability of Tumblr, and the dangerous algorithms of Threads and TikTok are suppressing trans expression. And infantilizing it: Transgender and other marginalized people often change their meanings to cute and sometimes alienating to avoid being accused of violating community guidelines, both in tags and content. I keep my mouth shut by covering it up with harsh words. We live in a world where: corn star, not alive, Racismand Segusa coded language that forces us back into the realm of shame and loneliness.
After reading stories about how the trans community has leveraged the internet as a powerful tool to build community, I was also struck by the need for a separate volume. Queer and trans people have been such passionate technologists since 1995 that trans people literally built the internet. It starts with a variety of reasons that are worth exploring.
The stereotype that behind every sysop or programmer is a purple-haired, cat-eared transgender girl isn’t necessarily true, but it’s also not without merit. (I can think of at least six people I know, most of whom work at FAANG companies, sometimes explicitly using comprehensive gender care benefits.) Transgender people are creating the backbone that allows Gen Z to build community online, an app we take for granted: .
It’s not necessarily Dame Griff’s responsibility to tell this story, but it’s important to ensure that this story is told as a generation of trans innovators slowly begins to enter the valley and bring back an incredibly valuable history. I strongly hope so. The fragility of the resources that Dame-Griff drew on in her research shows that when transness is absent, it can be recorded as a flutter in the corner of the eye, and that this history can be understood and used for future generations. This is a reminder that it is extremely important to save. After all, we must consider our history before looking to the future.
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Mr. Smith
A Northern California-based journalist, essayist, and editor whose writings include disability, culture, and social attitudes. of washington post, time, guardian, rolling stone, esquireand Deputy” and “Anthology.” body language (Catapult, 2022). These won the 2020 National Magazine Award. They speak English and are members of the Trans Journalists Association and the Freelancers Union. |
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