Am feeling ridiculously…

Am feeling ridiculously relieved that someone trans read my story featuring a trans protagonist (thank you, first reader!) and didn't think it was horribly transphobic or otherwise completely wrong on the trans aspects. I tell my students all the time to write minority characters even if they're in the majority themselves, that if they don't, they just end up contributing to the pervasive absence of such characters in literature.

But, of course, they (and I) are afraid we'll do it wrong, we'll screw it up, we'll get something horribly wrong, and then the (already disenfranchised, already hurting) readers will be further hurt and upset and mad, and also, the internet may fall on our heads. (You may be surprised to learn that I am actually quite conflict-averse.)

One trans person reading and liking my story doesn't automatically give it a political stamp-of-approval, of course. I'll show it to some more people, and try to address any issues they may notice, and if it gets published, more issues may surface then, and that's just the way it goes. We fail sometimes, we try to address it, we hope to fail better next time.

But still, it's reassuring to know that it's not obviously horrible on the political issues at first glance. Whew.