(Image: This post’s title card with a partially colored coloring sheet of a fox covered in leaves. A souvenir from a recent lecture I attended.) It’s hard to explain, from a personal point of view, what gender dysphoria really is. A friend of mine, when explaining dysphoria in general, tends to say “You know what euphoria is, right? Well dysphoria is something on the completely opposite part of the emotional spectrum”. And that is true....
Hi, why do you use the asterisks in identities? I find “trans*” puts a wall between trans people and nb people Thanks for reminding me to update all my descriptions! I see that I totally forgot to update the bios that I send out to events and conferences I’m a speaker at. I updated the description on my home page though immediately when I saw your message. Honestly, I was a great fan of the...
(Image: Four long rows of flagpoles with UN member states flags, with the Broken Chair sculpture visible in the distance and the title of this post. Taken recently at Geneva, Switzerland) A few weeks ago, a member of one of the few mailing lists asked a very important question concerning what European media refer to as “refugee crisis” and what to me is clearly an “European crisis” or rather “the clear end of European humanity”. What was clearly...
For the last few weeks I have been thinking extensively about well-being. I am confronted with that topic as a long-time individual activist who in their lifetime had suffered much from burnout, small breakdowns and moments when all was thought to have been either lost or done for nothing. I also manage a staff of 5 whose physical and mental health is one of my key priorities. Every single action or development I consider a...
Photo: Preview polaroids from my recent photoshoot. They do not show the final outcome, but rather try to determine the intensity of light play And both I and the camera loved it. But don’t worry or anticipate anything. You will not see these pictures anywhere, especially not here. What I want to do here is to simply tell you about this experience and why it felt so important to my overall well-being and general body...
For your information: This is how I looked a few minutes before the Polish Senate began discussing the gender recognition law. Full disclosure – I have never, ever once in my life watched or even monitored the work of the Polish Senate except for a short statement created together with Campaign Against Homophobia just a few months ago. And to be honest, I never understood why some Poles call it jokingly the “Reflection House” and urge...
TL;DR – a lot of lives will get better. And here’s the longer answer to this question. As I write these words, the long awaited moment is almost upon us. 3 years ago Anna Grodzka, Poland’s first openly trans MP submitted the Gender Accordance Act to the Polish Parliament. It was for the first time that a piece of draft law actually proposed to change the situation of trans people in this country for the...
Yours truly at the Miss Trans 2015 pageant in Warsaw last weekend. I was recently invited by Rosamund Mather to give some thoughts on trans spaces and trans activism in Poland for the “Europe & Me” project. I have to say, it was quite interesting to be able to dwell on some aspects of trans realities in Poland from a different than usual perspective. You can view it on the project’s website. While you’re there,...
Trans activism can be tough, especially when you deal with a number of issues. As an organization working both with the community and for it (with support and advocacy being our main focuses), we deal with a lot of difficulties, also in the area of managing and countering anti-trans groups and the effects they have on trans people all around Poland. Sometimes we get emails. Some of them want us to convert, some wish we’d burn in...
This was it. The final surgery. One last step out of numerous to finally be at peace with his body. After years of transitioning and maturing as a person, the time had come to put a dot at the end of the sentence. And why wouldn’t he? His life had already been on the right track for years. He had an understanding and supportive wife who had been with him from the very beginning, even...
© 2025 · Wiktor Dynarski | Photos © Claude Russell