I’m a butch transbian. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my butch identity, and how my experiences with butchness overlaps and maybe differs in some areas to my non-transfemme butch siblings. For example:

• We’ve likely grown up with very different bodies and genitals, and that has impacted our relationship to our butchness
• Our struggle with presenting butch in a way that doesn’t get us misgendered or give us dysphoria
• Dealing with the pressure from outside transfemme circles and inside to present more feminine
• Feeling like a fraud in lesbian spaces, because I feel like I’m dressing like a “man”, despite knowing that butch identity is a whole separate thing.
• Fearing exclusion from cis lesbians, what if they think im a cis dude creeping around?
• The lack of representation for butchness in transfemmininty
• How do other butch transfemmes feel about femminine clothing?
• How do we feel about compliments? Beautiful vs handsome?
• Feeling tension between wanting to present more feminine in some ways to “escape” the masculinity I was imprisoned by growing up.

I would love to hear about any thoughts and experiences you’ve got.