Welcome Our New Trans Subject Editor, Xoai Pham!

Xin chào! My name is Xoai Pham. I’m the new Trans Subject Editor at Autostraddle.

Here are some of the basics about me:

  • I was born in southern California on Tongva land. My parents fled to the U.S. after the war in Southeast Asia (wherein the U.S. destroyed Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos). I’m a Vietnamese trans person with a complicated relationship to womanhood. Some days I wish I wasn’t trans. What I do know is that we’re all more expansive than what we were taught.
  • Whales are my favorite. The way many of them sing together, communicate with other species, and drift across the boundless ocean—it releases all the tension from my shoulders. I like to say I was assigned the wrong astrological sign at birth (making me trans in more ways than one), because I’m a Leo when I probably should be a Pisces. Also, I cry at least once a week.
  • My life’s work is to tell the kinds of stories that put a blowtorch to existing cultural perceptions of marginalized people, especially trans people of color and sex workers. And to help people see those stories as a mirror to their own humanity, even if they aren’t themselves trans or in the sex trade.

My Big, Fluffy-Cloud Dreams for Autostraddle’s Trans Content

As the Digital Media Coordinator at Transgender Law Center, I am connected to a vast network of brilliant community organizers and thinkers who are very literally changing the world day by day. The trans community is on the frontlines of every movement. We are the imagination, resilience, and love that sustains every movement, despite efforts to neglect us or outright harm us.

With my position at Autostraddle, I plan on bringing the future to our screens — the future that trans people across the world are diligently crafting. I plan to preserve the Indigenous knowledge of gender variance that predates the word “trans”. To lift up the trans disabled activists that call for a monumental shift in our relationship to our bodies. To continue unearthing Black trans wisdom in the face of global anti-Blackness and the afterlife of slavery. These are just a few glimpses into what you’ll be witnessing.

Above all, I am privileged to be in a position where I can remind the world that trans people are sacred beings. That we have a divine purpose. I extend a big thank you to the Autostraddle community (that’s you, too!) for welcoming me.

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

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xoai pham

Xoài Phạm is a Vietnamese trans person who descends from a long legacy of warriors, healers, and shamans. Her life's work is in dreaming new futures where we are all limitless, and she makes those dreams a reality as a poet, essayist, editor, and collaborative educator. Learn more about her work here: xoai.co. Catch her on Instagram @xoai.pham and on Twitter @xoaiwrites.

xoai has written 22 articles for us.

39 Comments

  3. Welcome! Can’t wait to see more of what you’re bringing to the site.

    I only know two things about Pisces:
    1. Jenny Schecter
    2. Super defensive and aggressive comments when it was their turn to be roasted in “what we love and hated about dating ___”

    But I’m going to assume there are lots of other positive things you relate to. Or that you’re leaning into the crazy. Either way, cool.

  7. Welcome, always great to see new voices! Side note: the SoCal area school I went to did a poor job talking about the Tongva Tribe. I learned more about them from Wiki than school. Thank you.

  24. Welcome! I have times where I wish I wasn’t trans but I also never want to be a cis man. I just want to wake up as a cis woman.

  25. Welcome, Xoài! How lucky are we that we get to learn from you and the people you will connect us to!

  34. Welcome Xoai! Hope you will have a great time working for AS and I’m looking forward to your work.

    Crying is good for us, it releases endorphins. :)

    Just wondering: how do you pronounce your name?

  36. Welcome to the family.

    Selfishly hoping for some fashion/beauty content, cause I just get a vibe that you have amazing style.

  37. Welcome Xoai! As a transgender woman at the beginning of HRT I look forward to reading your articles and learning from your experiences! Autostraddle has given me the courage to become the true me and it is people like you that give me and others the strength and support we need!
    Thanks
    Michelle

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