🧵
You can be an academic and be neurodivergent. You can be an academic leader and be neurodivergent. There is a lot of gaslighting and never-mentioned conventions in the academy about how to *do* both academic work and leadership. Know that these conventions are nonsense. When neurotypical supervisors of neurodivergent PhD students tell them all the ways that they have to 'change', they are telling them that they do not belong as their true whole selves. This is not the same as *understanding* conventions (that can be challenged if understood).

This one is just a personal story, not about whether people should get gender-affirming surgery/take hormones.
Last year I wrote that I couldn't get surgery; this year I found out I could. I've taken steps already, with others coming next year (hopefully).

#TransAwarenessWeek Disclaimer: many ppl cannot access gender-affirming surgery/ies because of prohibitive costs or their own circumstances. Many do not need/want (& all that that entails) them. They may access, need/want them later. Some trans ppl never take hormones, some do.
#TransAwarenessWeek

#TransAwarenessWeek this year has been battling a lot of transphobes, but that's not it's function. It's to learn more about what it is to be trans, how you might negotiate it if this is you, and how to support people that you love/work with/know who's trans.
A bit more: The colonial project of gender tells us to exist in the gender assigned to us at birth, regardless of how wrong this is, or the incompleteness that we feel. In a week focused on awareness, let's counter myths with truths. 1/

#TransAwarenessWeek

It's no coincidence that transphobia is in force during #TransAwarenessWeek; it's strategic. That it's also vicious, malignant and dehumanising is hard to watch, but they're the tools many deploy when they're on the wrong side of history.

#TransRightsAreHumanRights I have two charities that I'd like to suggest you donate to, as @GaikMasis points out, it will do good, but also might piss off some of these people.

Sorry all...England just woke up, so unfortunately did the transphobia. Ignore comments across my timeline while they have their tea & crumpets & tutut about the ppl they couldn't control. They wouldn't know compassion if it colonised their own country. #TransRightsAreHumanRights If you feel like going over to that particular thread though, that would be welcomed. It's like playing whack-a-mole over there.

https://twitter.com/sandyosullivan/status/1591659171031953408

There's a way to go to ensure that trans mob are included in our community resourcing. Acknowledging that men are men and women are women, regardless of whether cis or trans is one thing. Also supporting access by non-binary mob.

@IndigFutures
#TransMob
#TransAwarenessWeek @IndigFutures Without question, as Aboriginal people we understand, but the way funding and conservatism in our resourcing has been managed has challenged inclusion and support. I keep coming back to this remarkable report from Dr @Percy_ixi et al that *included*.
mmiwg2splus-nationalactionplan.ca/wp-content/upl…

A while ago I met a famous person I’d been following on twitter. I genuinely loved their work. I said I followed them on Twitter & my online tweets were mostly trans & mob focused. ‘I don’t like what they do to kids’ was what came out of their mouth. The end.

#TransAwarenessWeek The end of engagement, the end of loving their work, the end of assuming because someone seems kind that they aren’t judgemental. It was the end. The media could help to make our lives better, to help us spread the word. @abcnews and @SBSNews could do that.
#TransAwarenessWeek

🧵When you hear #TransRightsAreHumanRights, this #TransAwarenessWeek (or any other time), what we mean is many of us don't have the same rights and opportunities as cis folks.

A ranty questioning thread that requires you to do some homework. I don't expect to live a long life, but I'm more angry I will be misgendered on my death cos of restrictions in the state I live in/was born in/work in. Self-ID matters and not just in binary genders. Do you know what could change with self-ID? Report back.

#TransAwarenessWeek

I'm a professor & I'm trans, so I'm setting homework for y'all (not all of you) for this #TransAwarenessWeek

1. When you say 'men or women' as though it's everyone, know you're excluding. Not all of us are in that binary.
2. When you write 'men & women', mean both trans & cis. Also, @abcnews, it's #TransAwarenessWeek, not #TransAwarenessWeak... do better in your representation. Challenge your terrible Media Watch transphobia, don't back down because of it. You have some amazing queer journos, let them take the reins.

On this #TransAwarenessWeek let’s celebrate ourselves as trans people. What would you tell your younger self about how things turned out for you so far? I'd probably tell my younger self that - longer or shorter - my haircut hasn't appreciably changed in 35 years.

(Self, if you like) ID: Me, at 21... nearly working out how to smile for the camera.

As transgender people we didn't arrive as fully formed adults - once we were kids. Let’s show when we were little trans kids!

Me, 1970. I seemed to have assembled a small army.

#TransKids #TransKidsMemories #TransAwarenessWeek As transgender people we didn't arrive as fully formed adults - once we were kids. Let’s show when we were little trans kids!

Me, 1969 w/Mum. What am I wearing?!

#TransKids #TransKidsMemories #TransAwarenessWeek

I've just realised that I will be in Melbourne for the #TransDayOfRemembrance vigil next Sunday - so I'm registered to go! I'll be solo, so I hope to see folks there to attend vigil with. I've missed vigil the last few years, so it'll be good to be there to bear witness. *Never been to one in Naarm

Watching the @abcnews run as many drag stories as it can find in the lead up to #TransAwarenessWeek is the train wreck we all expect. Anyway, let's celebrate in spite of this kind of terrible media.

I mention this not to call them out, but to argue that solidarity is conditional for those who aim to position themselves in relation to their idea of what power provides or 'transcends'.

https://twitter.com/sandyosullivan/status/1590914268521988096

Okay, maybe that is to call them out, lol.

🧵for mob, for trans folks (& both, & others - no doubt) @IndigFutures

CN: Love & work
Across my career I've been cautioned to not disclose too much of my personal life, beliefs, queerness, as it would tank my career. I've been an academic for 31 yrs... and this is a thread 1/? @IndigFutures I've also been told I'm 'too much' in relation to this public discourse. Their approach, and their choice to 'advise' me was clearly about protecting their own navigation of the academy, and how they sought to shape the person they *could* work with, rather than who I am.
2/

🧵After I came out about my gender I had some friends respond with variations of ‘I see you the way I’ve always seen you’, or ‘you’re just Sandy to me’. I want to explain here why this was a problem for me, and why it *may* be an unhelpful response to others who are trans. I came out to you, not because my world is the same as it’s always been, but cos of a radical change for me. I’m sharing it because it was a revelation for me, it represented change I had to explain in relation to pronouns, how I present, my body or how I move through the world.

What older person out there who’s had top surgery wants to tell me about how fantastic it was?

Also if you’re an any-aged person and you happen to be in Sydney which wonderful surgeon did you go to? Feel free to answer in DMs if you don’t want to be public! I should say this is me asking, not me as a researcher.

'Birthing parent' is used on forms for two main reasons: because a child has two mothers and it identifies which gave birth to them, or because they have a parent who is trans (a man or non-binary or agender) who birthed them. Removing it is both transphobic and homophobic. I'm probably being clumsy in how I framed it (because I am absolutely fucking wild about this), but basically it's use is completely practical, and removing it is not.

Whichever government we have in, my stomach drops every time they do these intentionally transphobic things. It reminds that they will do anything to rid the world of us.

Is this the message you want your kids to hear? As someone who tried to rid the world of myself not that long ago, I can tell you that their message would have added fuel. That has to be what they want.

Of course Labor intervened in the workings of an actual government department cos they were worried it wasn't sufficiently transphobic. Of course they did. Labor supporters: take them on, they're your heroes.

Here are some responses to family/close friends who misgender:
1. Call me by my name or say they/them when you talk about me
2. Use person, sibling (sib), cousin (lol), 'your majesty' (that's for nephews, nieces & their kids) Saying this in response to someone just asking it.

I don't have parents anymore, but I will accept 'kid' from anyone substantially older than me. Though I will also chuckle.

No, there are no agreed-on titles, but some people DO have other titles they use.