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In This Issue

How Do You Define Pleasure?

Top Surgery: Grief & Pleasure Circle

Scar Care Demo Night: November 14th

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How Do You Define Pleasure?

Pleasure is a state or feeling of being pleased; something that gives satisfaction, enjoyment.

I use the word PLEASURE, knowing it's loaded. For many it has associations of eroticism or sexuality. Yes, I am, my space is, and my offerings are: sex positive, inviting of the erotic, pleasure centered, and sex work inclusive. But those are mere invitations. I use this word to denote the fluidity of desire: from asexual to overtly sexual. I think it's part of what makes the difference between medical and health care. Holistic health includes your erotic body: you decide whether/how you desire to engage with that or not.

I've had many people tell me they want to work on their felt sense of gender and/or their erotic traumas, but they're not ready to center "pleasure" because the pain or discomfort is too great. "I need to get through the pain first" or "I cannot think about pleasure until I'm away from the discomfort".

Where are you going, when you are moving away from these challenging feelings and sensations?

How do we know where we're orienting towards, if our focus is solely on what we're moving away from? Where do we set our intentions (and subsequent attentions) so we don't slide back towards the habituated tendencies of centering our pain or our dislikes? In this work, I ask you to name what you want -- NOT in relation to what you do not want. That's a tall order, I know! That's why I'm here, to assist in that navigation and exploration. I ask you to place your pleasure, what you want to move towards, as the North star by which you might guide yourself towards something you find desirous to explore -- thereby moving away from what you don't want, which necessitates our tending to grief and the permissions of releasing shame put upon us by others.

Black feminist author Imani Perry carries the torch of so many of her sisters over the past many decades when she stated in The Atlantic, "Do not misunderstand. This [joy] is not an absence of grief or rage, or a distraction. It is insistence." I center your pleasure, because it builds resilience! Pleasure based care work teaches us to move towards the world we want, just as much as we struggle to be with the world that is. Multiple truths, multiple realities playing out at the same time: moving from and moving towards.

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Top Surgery: Grief & Pleasure Circle

In the tapestry of our lives, our scars are the threads that tell a story. They are the tangible evidence of transformation, of journeys taken and identities shed and/or embraced. From the heart of our trans and gender non-conforming community, where strength and resilience are our compass, I invite you to join in an intimate exploration of the art of trans scar care for the mind-heart-body.

Open to all that identify with an ethos of gender queering and have already under gone this surgery type. This is an online course and live (Zoom) circle group: you'll have space for private reflections and practices, as well as shared community that will gather once a week for three weeks, October 3, 10, and 17th

Register Here (sliding scale)

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Scar Care Demo Night: November 14th

We had overwhelmingly two groups of people show up for the practitioner showcase in August (about 80 people in-person + online live). Half of ya'll wanted to know, "How do I take care of my scars" and the other half wanted to know, "How can I better support people with scars". So! We're going to host two more events. 1. An in-person demo night, so you can learn and see your local queer and trans practitioners in action and 2. A skill share online for others in support of our care.

First up, November 14th at L'Etage (a queer co-working space in the Village) who has agreed to rent us space, allowing for the showing of genitals. Hats off to the dedication of seeing us get the care we need! More details to come, but go ahead and mark your calendars.

BIGGEST OUTCOME: We put together a (starting) suggested continuum of care for gender surgeries and a list of local practitioners to support you in those steps!

Continuum of Care & Resource List

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In case you missed the showcase: you can watch it on YouTube. Just a quick 60m all about our different ways of working and how we're seeking to weave community more completely. It was a smashing success and to top it off we raised 360$ for the Pervers/cité BIPOC fund: thanks ya'll.

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SCHEDULE A FREE EXPLORATORY CALL ​ ​ WEBSITE INSTAGRAM YOUTUBE

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