Is it fair to date non-binary trans femmes without knowing how I identify?

“I’m just going to go ahead and say, ‘Yes!’” Kai advises. “Go forth, with some caveats.”

“I don’t know if it’s always possible to be firm in our identities before we start dating other people,” Kai Cheng Thom says. “If we notice that our attractions and our gender identities are falling outside of the box of prescribed heteronormativity, then I think it’s pretty fair to call oneself queer, to experiment with that label and then also to discard it if it’s not feeling right later on.”

It’s our latest in the video series Ask Kai: Quickies, offering advice on sex, dating and relationships for those of you in a hurry.

Kai Cheng Thom is a writer, performer, and social worker who divides her heart between Montreal and Toronto, unceded Indigenous territories. She is the author of the Lambda Award-nominated novel Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir (Metonymy Press), as well as the poetry collection a place called No Homeland (Arsenal Pulp Press). Her latest book, Falling Back in Love with Being Human, a collection of letters and poetry, is out now from Penguin Random House Canada.

Read More About:
Video, Video, Ask Kai: Quickies

Keep Reading

Who gets to claim parental rights?

Xtra and TVO’s Unravelled partnered on this mini-doc diving into what "parental rights" policies mean for kids and parents across Canada

Second Alberta town votes to ban Pride flags, rainbow crosswalks

Barrhead residents voted this week in favour of new “neutrality” bylaw

Xtra Explains: Parental rights

What does Canadian law actually say when it comes to the rights of parents and trans kids?

Xtra Explains: Social vs. medical transition

Media and politicians like to fixate on the medical aspects of transition. But for most trans youth, social transition plays a much bigger part in their lives