The Latest from CSE

If home isn’t the place I grew up, and surely not the place I am now, where is my soul supposed to live? My childhood bedroom is scant now, last August I stripped its walls …  Read More

As a child I was convinced I was an alien. I had been transplanted onto this orbiting rock called Earth to collect data on human behavior that evaded my understanding. The family I was placed …  Read More

I’m sorry that I can’t give you an “it gets better” story. But what I can give to you, my younger self, is the most essential skill to endure what’s coming. Practice it. Hone it. …  Read More

Five years ago, I was a closeted trans woman who didn’t feel like she fit in anywhere. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, and was content in getting an engineering …  Read More

I am no stranger to grief – after all I have known love. Just like the birch or magnolia I grow around the dead branch full of knots, my grain consists of dark patches where …  Read More

Little one, I see you.   Knees pulled tight to your chest, eyes locked on a mirror that feels more like a prison door. You keep knocking but no answer comes.   I am you. …  Read More

4/5/23 Dear Evie, I needed to talk to you, like you’re owed a little explanation. To be honest, we were never great at being a girl unless we were pretending to be one. I still …  Read More

Tonight there was a rainbow around the moon. And I don’t mean a dinky one, that you have to squint to imagine it’s real. This one was full-spectrum, deep and bright. The true ROYGBIV experience. …  Read More

In response to a surge of anti-transgender attacks from the federal government, some clinics that serve transgender young people in North Carolina, including UNC Health and Advocate Health,  have announced that they are ceasing gender-affirming …  Read More

Trinity (2024) is an overt reflection on my younger self(s) and demonstrates an acceptance of all facets of that self. There are clear allusions to my Catholic and Iranian background and how that interacts with …  Read More