Leah’s trans* FAQ

1) Hey, what’s going on?

Hi! Perhaps you know me under a prior name. Since I got bored of explaining the same things all over every time, I decided to write a manual so I can tell you to RTFM instead.

Long story short, I’m trans—this means my gender identity differs from my assigned sex—and started medical transition in December 2017.

Please note that the following answers are my personal views, and likely not true for other trans people—everybody is different, and it’s a very sensitive topic. Please be respectful.

2) OK, so do you have a new name and pronouns?

Yes. Just call me Leah. As of late February 2019, this is now my legal name, too. In IRC and similar chats, call me leah2, I probably won’t get highlighted otherwise.

In English, my pronouns are she/her. It is also fine to use they/them.

Meine deutschen Pronomina sind sie/ihre/ihr/sie. (Wenn du ein tolles genderneutrales Pronomen kennst, bitte erzähl mir davon.)

Oh, and don’t call me a “guy” or “dude”. These words are not as gender-neutral as you may think.

3) How would you like your previous work cited?

Please cite my academic works as published; everything else just results in confusion.

Most of the software I touched in the last few years, as well as maintained websites, have my name updated, refer to them as such.

If you speak about me in a context where only my old name is known, it’s not a problem to me. Please try to use they/them, though.

4) Anything else?

I also have a new primary e-mail address, leah@vuxu.org, and a new Jabber account leah@jabber.ccc.de.

My Twitter handle is now @LeahNeukirchen.

5) Are you going to get surgery?

This is an extremely rude question that you should never ask.

If you think we're on close enough terms where genital configuration is an okay topic to talk about, feel free to talk to me in private.

6) What can we do to make life easier for people like you?

[OK, that one isn’t asked frequently. But since you’ve read up to here, please keep going.]

Some ideas:

• Make it easy to change display and user names in the services you offer.
• Don’t ask for gender when creating forms. (Why do you care? Ask for pronouns if you want to address people.)
• Provide unisex restrooms at your events and office buildings.
• Help abolish unjust and patronizing laws such as the German TSG and help providing access to simple name and gender marker change procedures such as the Personenstandgesetz for everyone, without medical assessment.
• Be a good ally; while we can defend ourselves, it’s really tiresome and exhausting to fight transphobia ourselves all the time.

Thanks!

7) But I still have questions…

That’s ok, I tried to keep this short.

Just drop me a mail with comments or questions at leah@vuxu.org.