Posiblogging.

So it's 2026 and I'm up bright and early. It's 04:53 as I start writing this post and I've been up a while already.

Two days ago Lynn Jones referenced a term which Sue Richmond coined back in March: Posiblogging.

As Sue wrote: “Showing good in the world has always been the policy of my blog and I thought it was a Pollyanna-esque approach once but it’s more a case of finding and telling the positive stories in a media arena that loves focusing on the negative.”

Googling “posiblogging” just brings up Lynn's post and this comment from Google AI Overview:

The term "posiblogging" is not a widely established or formally defined term in general usage or the blogging community, and search results do not provide a clear definition. It is most likely a misspelling of a similar term, such as:
Plogging: A global movement that originated in Sweden, which involves picking up litter while jogging, walking, or cycling.
Plog: A less common or possibly obsolete term used as an abbreviation for "photo blog," a blog primarily used to display photos.
If you were thinking of one of these terms, their definitions are well-documented. If you had a different term or concept in mind, please provide more context.

No, I shan't be doing that, Google AI. Though I do quite like the idea of plogging. Very public spirited.

But I'm definitely thinking about Posiblogging. Not as a public service, mind. More as a personal one. As a sort of CBT perhaps. “Mostly negative feelings” (from an April post) are not good for me.

So what – ignoring the state of the world for the moment – is there to say that's positive? Well...

• I still have my health. (Mostly; *blows nose at the back end of a cold.*) That's no small thing.
• Relatedly: Self-medicating (since June) with Progynova, even at low (and low-risk) dosage, is boosting my body's natural tendencies, so that I'm happier with it now. (More so if I can follow through on my usual Resolution this year.)
• Relatedly again: That also prompts me to bodygroom daily, which is a Good Thing. (Google AI does flag another usage of Dysphairia other than mine, but it was four years later, so...)
• I have work, when I can motivate myself to do it. (Posiblogging may help my attitude there.)
• I have my recorders (garklein, sopranino, descant, treble, tenor, bass, great bass) and people to play them with, not least the orchestra.
• We're doing pretty well in both my chess leagues: Notts and Sheffield. Okay, second in Notts isn't so amazing, given that we've won the league the past four years, but the possibility that we might win in Sheffield is unprecedented.

That's a few things to be going on with anyway. I'll try and think of some more for some more posiblogging at a later date. Until then...

Happy New Year :)

TDOR 2025

Last night's Nottingham TDOR vigil was on the Portland Steps again. It was cold again. I wore my big afghan coat again (and a scarf and a bobble hat). Afterwards we were invited inside again. I went home again.

All in all it seemed a quieter affair than last year's vigil. Just four speakers. And a smaller flag.

But there were quite a lot of people there all the same.

And one new thing at least: replica battery-powered candles with bulbs for flames. No one is blowing those bastards out.

I'm taking those candles as a metaphor.

No one is blowing us out either.

Nottinghamshire Pride 2025.

As with other 2025 Pride events, Notts Pride rightly banned political parties from attending.

The ongoing assault on trans rights has led to the UK falling further down the ILGA Rainbow list. This was due in large part to the Supreme Court ruling in April. But with the right wing Labour government limiting access to trans healthcare, reviving Section 28 for trans people (in its new RSHE guidance), and almost certain to accept the forthcoming trans-exclusionary EHRC “Code of Practice”, we're soon going to be dropping into Hungary or Georgia territory, if not Russia.

In such circumstances, rather than just being a party, Pride reverts to being a protest. And that's good. We're going to need a lot of protests. Not least outside Wes Streeting's house. I hope this one went well.

I didn't go. I went to Gainsborough with my mother, walked by the river, and had a Lincolnshire sausage in a riverside cafe.

Some days, no matter what, all I want to do is head off up North.

A matter of sides.

My last few posts have been about feelings. Mostly negative feelings. Not feeling very positive. Not feeling very trans.

But if you're going to go large with your bullshit...

Yes, UK Supreme Court, I mean you. For effectively ruling that every trans person everywhere should be made to suffer every day lest some cis woman somewhere some time be made to feel uncomfortable. Yes, so-called EHRC, for instantly exploiting the judgment to further your own prejudicial agenda. Yes, all you political and media bigots, for creating the climate in which it could happen. Yes, all you political and media cowards, for allowing it to happen. Yes, all you celebrating, gloating dickwads, motivated by little more than hatred.

If you're going to make it a matter of sides...

Fuck, get away from me. You can see my trans body at the protest.

Somebody asked...

“I was wondering about your own experiences. I realise I know very little about you really.”
___________________________________________________

Ok...

I'm genderqueer and femme. Non-binary sort of. I prefer neutral pronouns but don't insist on it, except in print; I don't like to see “he” and “him” in print. Sometimes I place myself under the umbrella – given that there's no right way to be non-binary or trans – but often I don't. I'm not currently feeling very trans at all. I ran admin at Notts Trans Hub for several years but have stepped back from that now. I'm not intending to transition in any direction. Although my body has had its own ideas about that and given me mild gynaecomastia. I have been casually investigating HRT to help that along...

The DIY HRT directory

...but I probably won't do anything.

My main identification is femme. I present as femme. To that end all my clothes are off the women's racks, and I have nice earrings and such, but don't attempt to make myself look female. Probably people just think I'm gay, which is fine by me, although I think of myself more as “theoretically bisexual”. That's “theoretically” because I don't date anyone, so it's all pretty much irrelevant.

Well, our gender journeys are all different, aren't they ;)
___________________________________________________

They are. And that's where I am in mine. I thought I'd post it here as a kind of milestone.

X miles to go.

Not.

Not male.

Not female.

Not binary.

Not non-binary.

Not neutrois.

Not agender.

Not bigender.

Not demigender.

Not pangender.

Not xenogender.

Not cisgender.

Not transgender.

Not butch.

Not futch.

Not not... femme.

I think that about covers it ;)

TDOR 2024

This year's Transgender Day of Remembrance vigil was hosted by Nottingham Trans Collective, with Nottingham Against Transphobia and Notts Trans Hub. It's the first time I've been on the Portland Steps (aka Djanogly Terrace). It's a sort of amphitheatre with a big screen and fountains. It feels a good space, a community space.

I hadn't gone to a TDOR vigil for a few years. (I did go to the one for Brianna Ghey in 2023.) Since it moved out of the city centre, the venues have always been inconvenient. Both Clifton and the University are the wrong side of town for me and going round the Ring Road at that time of day is a pain. But this year it felt important to attend, given the prevailing climate:

Ever increasing hate crime, propagated by a callous cum malicious mass media to further its own interests. A cowardly prime minister with TERF-adjacent cabinet set on implementing the politically motivated bullshit that was the Cass Report. An impending trans-hating Christo-fascist US government with full control of the legislature. And on. And on.

So I made the effort. It was cold but everyone dressed warm. (Me: afghan coat, chunky mohair jumper, bobble hat in trans colours.) A huge trans flag appeared on the giant screen – and disappeared to leave us in candlelight – then reappeared and disappeared, ad repetitum. We listened to and applauded speeches and poems and such. When those had finished we were invited inside for food and fellowship.

I went home.

I like social situations less and less. I don't want to talk. I avoid conversation when I can. I don't have anything to say anyway. I haven't posted here in months. All I have is unexpressed and unorganized feelings, mostly of a lugubrious nature.

But as Amelia from the Hub said beforehand: It was “a chance for us to come together, honor, and remember”. That much at least I can do.

Earrings.

So not breast cancer then. One harmless lipoma and the rest gynaecomastia. All the same, the circumstance of a non-transitioning, non-medicating, sort of mtf, sort of trans person having “woman” problems of whatever kind does have a certain piquancy. A cosmic joke from the trans goddess if you will.

But more importantly...

Earrings.

Since I had my ears done last December, I've been buying earrings.

These were the first (and most expensive)...

Neometal threadless. Swarovski crystals. They go in from behind the ear, which is tricky. My fastest time is 1:15 (both ears), but I can spend 6 minutes or more when fumbling about.

I have some standard front-loading studs too...

But mostly I'm buying drops...

All 925 sterling silver. An “affordable option”, as they say.

Now I'm thinking about hoops. 9ct gold perhaps and a proper size. Nothing discrete. Femme as fuck or fuck the fuck off.

What do you reckon? :)