Some Links for Pride Month

Re-sharing some of my queerest/transest whatnot ...

Author

Sandy Allen
June 05, 2026

Welcome to What’s Helping Today, a newsletter about the everyday work of staying alive on earth — by author and journalist Sandy Ernest Allen.

A sunrise rainbow aka God saying ‘trans rights/happy pride’

Hey all,

As Pride Month begins, I wanted to re-share some relevant stuff of mine, especially for newer subscribers who maybe didn’t see these …

My latest big feature, for Assigned, on Anemoni House … a first-of-its-kind trans/queer-led safe house, in Western Massachusetts.

Here is a brief essay I wrote last year on how transphobia has rotted the brains of my colleagues working in media.

If you’ve never listened to the second TAL story I did, on my losing and regaining my singing voice, I highly recommend it.

Here was my appearance on Cancel Me Daddy discussing the NYT’s devotion to transphobia:

Here was the episode of Proxy about my effort to get more cis allies to wake up and support trans rights …

Sandy and the Silence

Proxy with Yowei Shaw · Episode

Spotify

Here was my Eater essay, a favorite of mine, on being a ‘trad trans’ guy …

The Delicious, Life-Saving Joys of the ‘Trad Trans’ Lifestyle

For a trans, queer and rural guy like me, growing my own food is part of how I stay alive

Eater • Sandy Ernest Allen

Here was our big package of LGBTQ-authored books overlooked by the NYBTR under Pamela Paul, for Lit Hub:

What Was Lost: A Queer Accounting of the NY Times Book Review, 2013-2022

“Goodbye, Pamela Paul,” was the headline of Andrea Long Chu’s now-iconic, recently ASME-nominated New York Magazine farewell to the former NY Times Book Review editor, when Paul left the paper two …

Literary Hub

And also for Lit Hub, this long essay of mine reckoning with being a trans, former Harry Potter fan:

Burn Harry Burn: Reckoning With My Harry Potter Fandom as a Trans Person

During the spring of 2020, as the world locked down and people were dead and dying and breaking apart and mourning and afraid and hiding, the British author J.K. Rowling decided to publish an open …

Literary Hub

Here’s an essay about the damage that segregated bathrooms has done to my body:

Avoiding Public Bathrooms Damaged My Bladder—Now, As a Trans Man, I’m Finally Letting Go

Inside the emotional and physical toll of holding it in.

Cosmopolitan

Still relevant (alas): My 99% Invisible episode on the past, present and future of public bathroom segregation:

Where Do We Go From Here?

99% Invisible · Episode

Spotify

Most of my earlier gender-related writings were my column for Them, which was called Between the Binary … This was my first essay for Them:

How Marie Kondo Helped Me Sort Out My Gender

Her book, ostensibly about cleaning, ended up sparking a much deeper kind of joy.

Them • Sandy Ernest Allen

Here were a few others for Them I often find myself re-sharing, still:

A Farewell to Boobs

How I faced down my uncertainty and fear about getting top surgery.

Them • Sandy Ernest Allen

How Yoga Helped Me Learn to Love My Body, And Myself

As a nonbinary and trans person, it’s taken me a lifetime to learn to love my body. Yoga was the last thing I expected to help me get here.

Them • Sandy Ernest Allen

I also highly suggest the trio of essays I wrote for Esquire, all evergreen …

Esquire – Into the Woods with 150 Trans Men — Sandy Ernest Allen

Sandy Ernest Allen

Esquire – How to Talk Like a Man — Sandy Ernest Allen

Sandy Ernest Allen

Esquire – Mourning the Trans Boyhood I Never Got — Sandy Ernest Allen

Sandy Ernest Allen

As you probably saw, earlier this week I published a “Humanifesto” on trans rights, here on this very newsletter:

Transgender for Everybody

A Humanifesto

What's Helping Today • Sandy Allen

What’s Helping Today: The lovely responses the Humanifesto has gotten …

Thank you for sharing this! I also started my transition a little later, I was 24 and that was 13 years ago, so a lot of what you wrote resonated with my experience. Having others we can relate to is so important, especially now. Your perspective is important, valued, and cherished!
I love this writing that explains what transgender for everybody could really mean. Check it out!
This is a great piece that I encourage everyone to read, but especially cis allies. :trans flag emoji:
Such a thoughtful, worthwhile read:
I think this really nails it. In my experience even people who don’t feel uncomfortable with their sex/gender can still struggle with the realization your body is free to change to make you happy, after decades of hearing “you just need to learn to accept the body you have.”

Thanks to everyone who’s read and shared it … I encourage you all to …

Finally! Here’s my latest column for the Catskill Crew, an ode to my compost pile …

COMPOST

Weekly Catskill Crew dispatch from the Catskills & Hudson Valley. Over 1,000 breakfast sandwich submissions, voting open for the ultimate champion. Plus: Daytime Arietids meteor shower, ode to composting, Catskill Animal Sanctuary volunteer call, Waterfall Sessions, Pride events, and this week's local happenings.

Catskill Crew • Michael Kauffman

Sending love,
Sandy

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