A queer political culture that valorizes visible gender non-conformance has lead to an increased scrutiny of trans women. >First, so much of the new latitude of everyone else’s gender positions—your deliberately clashing nonbinary visibility, your I-don’t-owe-you-androgyny, and so on—is premised on the heightened abjection of trans womanhood. Not passing has become a kind of political virtue, proving how "radical" you are and playing into neoliberal pageantry. >In the neoliberal pageantry that is so much trans and nonbinary “radicalism” today, where having an interior identity so unique no one could ever understand it is highly prized, it’s become a little passé to want to be seen and recognized in a shared category like woman. But passing is relational, not an individual achievement. And many trans women, particularly trans women of color and trans women who don't have access to gender affirming care, are disproportionately affected by this increased visibility/scrutiny environment. >Trans women themselves haven’t beneĝtted from that process. On the contrary, it has made passing an even more diĞcult bar to strive for in everyday life. ![[The Way We Weren’t - by Jules Gill-Peterson.pdf]]