March 23, 2023

A nonbinary martial arts essay, and moving to Substack

Hi friends,

I'm delighted to share my latest published essay about growing up as a nonbinary child in martial arts. I show my karate and aikido experience and how physical training is intertwined with my gender identity and expression.

Check it out on POPSUGAR:

How Martial Arts Helped Me Accept My Nonbinary Body | POPSUGAR Fitness

The writer's martial arts practice helped them understand and accept their nonbinary body — and become more comfortable with their gender expression.

This is one of the first times I've published such a personal narrative about my identity and it was truly a learning experience to create a story arc out of my various memories. I hope you enjoy it.

On another note, I've decided to move my email newsletter to Substack. This is an admin change on my side - you do not need to do anything to continue receiving emails from me. Of course, if you wish to unsubscribe at any time you may do so by clicking the unsubscribe links at the bottom of this or future emails.

I've been complaining about Substack for years now, sharing the true facts that the company paid conservative transphobes to move their platform to Substack. I tried other email newsletter platforms. I didn't want to personally support a company that funds bigots.

But today, I can see almost every writer I respect and admire has a Substack. Some are very successful, and some are a source of funding for these authors. Notably, Substack hosts some of my favorite newsletters written by trans people, such as Erin in the Morning, the best reporting I've seen about the trans healthcare bills currently being passed in many US states.

So, I've decided to move to Substack, for practical and marketing reasons. I feel my personal boycott of the platform is now hurting me more than it ever hurt the company.

This week on the blog:

How old were you when you knew you were trans?

How old was I when I knew I was trans? I can't give you a simple answer, because this question can mean a lot of different things. I've gotten similar questions about my childhood from a number of pe

Take care,

Rey

(they/them)