Out with Ellens, in with the Elliots — Part 1 of 2

They should’ve changed his name to Elliot years ago. It’s what most of us dude-spirit lesbians have always done. Jacquelines goes by Jack. The Katherines are Kats. Courtneys might go with Cory. Hopefully the Tiffanys have middle names to utilize, or else they can just go by T.

I never had to change mine because it’s Arielle, which, while technically my parents used the French feminization of a Hebrew male name, still causes enough gender uncertainty to work fine for me. Notice that Elliot, like so many afab* trans men and non-binaries— whether hes or he/theys — went with a cutesy androgynous name rather than a fully masculinized Robert, William, or Brian.

I get it. We’ve always been the little boy ones. Everyone knows that. Some people have been trying to change us since we were toddlers, but even so attempting they were acknowledging our problematic boyishness. Nowadays we even might be on to the science of it all as it looks like we vagina people of the strong jawlines, attraction to women, and, at least in my case, menopausal/teen boy/new trans boy amount of facial and body hair, probably got some extra testosterone in utero.

I think of us as a variety of women, but many people, especially those any younger than I (born in ’86) am, have decided it’s better to think of us as males or neither/boths. I…