Trans lesbian women exist. And we are not seen...
There is one group of trans women that is rarely spoken about — even within LGBTQ+ communities.
Trans lesbian women.
Trans women are talked about often.
Lesbians are talked about often, too.
But when these two identities coexist in one person, something like a system error occurs.
We are not seen.
We are not understood.
We are often simply erased.
This text is not about slogans or politics.
It is an attempt to calmly and clearly state a simple fact: we exist.
Who is a trans lesbian woman?
A trans lesbian woman is a lesbian woman.
Period.
About sexual orientation — simply, and without myths
There is one basic thing that, for some reason, still needs to be explained:
sexual orientation does not depend on gender.
A trans woman is a woman.
And her sexual orientation develops in exactly the same way as that of any other woman.
Trans women can be:
lesbians,
bisexual,
heterosexual,
asexual.
Exactly the same range as cisgender women.
No more. No less.
Gender is about who you are: a woman, a man, or a non-binary person.
Sexual orientation is about who you love.
These are different dimensions, and they do not define each other.
But in trans people’s lives, sexual orientation can be:
muted by fear;
masked by the need to survive;
confused with the need for safety, acceptance, and closeness.
That is why different life trajectories exist:
some trans women felt attraction to women from childhood, and after transition it became possible to live this truth openly;
others lived in relationships with women before transition, but only afterward were able to recognize that their erotic and romantic attraction is toward men.
This is not a “change of orientation”.
It is the removal of protective layers that made it possible to see and accept one’s real sexual orientation.
Why are we not seen even within the LGBTQ+ community?
Because our experience:
does not fit the classic image of a cis lesbian couple;
does not fit common assumptions about trans women;
often seems “inconvenient” or “hard to categorize.”
As a result, a trans lesbian woman may end up isolated:
among cis lesbians,
within the trans community,
and in society as a whole.
Why talk about this?
Because we exist.
Because silence is also a form of erasure.
