I Won!

This blog was nominated for the Liebster Award! (Thanks Just Another WW – now go check out her blog.) The best part about being nominated is that you automatically win. The Liebster works more like a Chain mail/post, where the nominee then bestows the honor to 5 other blogs, and thus the love is passed along. The catch is that the blogs should have under 200 followers. It’s quite clever really, since it opens up the potential for discovery. It’s also a nice way to get surprise appreciation from your devoted readers.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Now, if you’re like me, which I am (duh), then you’ll take this analysis a bit further. Where did I get nominated from? Thus, I embarked on a mission to track my nomination down. In all honesty I was expecting a formidable line of queer blogs, which is more or less how it goes for two or three stops, but then it gets… well… interesting. See for yourself:

Maddox at Neutrois Nonsense (a trans queer, that’s me) nominated by

1. JAWW, or Just Another White Woman (a butch lesbian), nominated by
2. Bren at Buzz Cuts and Bustiers (a butch), nominated by
3. Natasiarose at Hot Femmme in NYC (a femme lesbian), nominated by
4. Conchsaladesque (from the Bahamas), nominated by
5. Lina at White Board in the Office (on how to find a job), nominated by
6. The Catholic Coupon (for those catholics who coupon?), nominated by

Okay, I’ll stop there, since it gets kinda boring after that – a bunch of coupon blogs and then onto the mommy and family blogs, until I hit a dead end. But if you were paying attention, you might have noticed I stopped at 6. Indeed this proves I am only 6 degrees away from something completely unrelated from me and this blog, as I must admit I am not a Catholic nor do I clip coupons (I know, shame on that last bit). Alas, I could not find the origin of the Liebster Award.

The Nominees

There’s another reason I’ve been putting off this post: while I do read a ton of rss feeds, I had a hard time rounding up only 5 blogs that have less than 200 followers. So I narrowed the criteria to those that a) I read often enough, b) post often enough, and c) are relevant to my readers. Yes, I did make up additional requirements in order to limit my choices, otherwise I’d be naming almost all 51 blogs on my subscription list. So, in no particular order:

• Enrique Torre Molina blogs at Tengo un Crush en Nuevallorrrrr. He’s representing the LGBTQ in my hometown of Mexico City, where he is constantly blogging, guesting at radio talk shows, hosting TV interviews, contributing important news to GLAAD, and is slowly becoming quite the celebrity. He mostly writes in Spanish, which is excellent, because we need more non-English LGBTQ resources out there.
• Jillian at A Fine Line is a genderqueer author-to-be, whose poignant analysis of all things society inspire discussion and deep thought. Made famous by the very comprehensive Labels post, they are also detailing how to self-publish a book, which I hope to find useful some day (if and when I embark on that undertaking).
• Jen from Today You Are You is shining a guiding light on the ups and downs of raising a transgender child. She wrote a children’s book too!
• CN Lester at A Gentleman and a Scholar is London-based singer / songwriter, who has a strong voice for opinions on trans-related issues.

… and More

Immediately breaking my promise of not listing everybody on my list, there’s apparently an 11-way tie for the last slot that was too close to call:

• Matt Kailey at Tranifesto. His blog is awesome, friendly, informative, and the gathering of the community is always encouraging. I make it a point to read every single post, along with most of the comments.
• Lee Wind, of I’m Here. I’m Queer. What the Hell do I read? who was also disqualified from receiving the award for having too many followers, which isn’t entirely a bad thing. He also runs an awesome blog, with a nearly fathomless list for finding queer themed YA and children’s books.
• Malinda Lo is a queer author who wrote two very beautiful YA fantasy adventure books, and is busily finishing up the third. She’s always recommending great reads, and offering insightful critiques. Alas, she also suffers from the too many followers disqualifier.
• Ace Eccentric, at An Asexual Space, a fellow neutrois ace.
• Meike at Genderweird, another trans* ace.
• Genderkid at Genderkid, representing the South of the American continent.
• American Trans Man at ATM tells of the time he went to Iceland, or to work, or to the dentist, and it’s all somehow related.
• Cat from Operacion Botones shares way more than I ever wanted to learn about having a baby, all while navigating a nightmarish (heterocentric) bureaucracy as lesbian parents.
• Nat at Practical Androgyny has lots of practical resources on – well – androgyny.
• Marylin Roxie at Genderqueer ID has an enormous list of resources and links.
• The dedicated mother of a transitioning young adult, PFLAG Mom, who once personally reached out to me, spreads the love throughout the interwebs to all queer people who need it. Your presence truly inspires hope.

Oh and there’s many many more. Gosh, I think I’ll stop now. Happy discovering!