27 Comments

Wow! Revolutionary self love and owning the beauty, strength, and dignity of the butch lesbian. Thank you thank you Aaron. Wishing you peace, joy, and full embodiment of your awesome female self.

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I am so glad to hear that you now fully embrace your female and lesbian self that has been there all along. Women are whole humans and should not be restricted to “feminine” stereotypes. Women have always resisted our oppression, sometimes by passing as men. We need those strong women, those amazing lesbians as role models both as part of our history and our present.

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I celebrate you and immediately subscribed to your substack. What a momentous decision to embrace your butch lesbian identity with dignity and grace. There are so many of us older lesbians who have been wondering, “where have all the butches gone?” I’m so glad to see that you react as I do to the queering of our foremothers!

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Welcome home to lesbian land, although you’ve never left - never stopped being courageous and strong or your innate beautiful self.

Your story fascinates me. It’s interesting because from the first time I tuned into your videos, I knew we were the same, even though you present so convincing as a man. It is something I think lesbians intuitively know when we see our own kind. I asked someone about you and they told me you “used to be” a butch lesbian which confirmed how I saw you. There is no used to be.

Your predecessors would be very proud. 👏 Such a fine history you follow in the footsteps of as a gentle soul, a fierce warrior, and a change maker.

Congratulations on your land purchase. Super exciting!

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Welcome home Aaron

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What a moving piece. Your use of the word "utility" (especially with regard to having a beard) immediately brought to mind Mmamoriri, the Botswana maned lioness. A very few of these incredible lionesses have been observed in nature: females who have a male appearance (and roar) and take on some of the social roles associated with males: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/natural-born-hustlers-maned-lioness-displays-male-female-traits-mmamoriri/13513/

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I absolutely love this. Thank-you.

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A beautiful and truly moving piece and journey. Thank you for sharing your evolution with us Aaron.

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Beautiful essay. Very best wishes to you, Aaron.

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Spectacular! Much luck and many blessings on the homestead!

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I think the readers of Lesbian Connection would love this article. Do you have any objection to my sending them a link or directing them to your Substack? The latest issue just came out, so it wouldn't appear for a couple of months.

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I would be happy for you to share it. Thank-you. I see a couple of typos which I'll fix as well. :)

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Cool

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Thank you for sharing this and so many facets of your journey. I think you have a sense of how much this can help LGB youth. I respect and appreciate you and wish you so much peace and happiness.

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I had polycystic ovary syndrome so I’ve always had a mustache bc I had extra testosterone. Glad you are back in the clan bc if we don’t get some sanity I believe there will be a backlash on the lgbt(sexual) from the t(gender)qi++mouse is dragging us down.

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Thank you for all you are doing and have done--and thank you for who you are!

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A couple of years ago I had it explained by a really patient politically homeless woman this way: the life of a pious nun, the life of a feminine tradwife, the life of an obvious butch and the life of a male-passing woman (beard or no beard) are all still a form of 'living as a woman', but they're quite different and for the last it is more akin to an undecover agent.

That made a lot of sense to me and still holds deep impact.

Not all butches or gender non-conforming women in general (including non-homosexuals) deliberately masculinize themselves through biomedical means, but it doesn't mean that the ones who do need to be ejected from female community or the empathetic understanding of the particularities of their womanhood, and in your case, of their lesbianism.

Just like through time riding horses expanded into carriages and then into motorcycles and scooters and cars broadening the meaning of what a vehicle is and what kind of transport humans could engage in, modern cross-sex HRT availability altered the breadth of the trajectory a woman/lesbian could have and its consequences. Obfuscating and severing the connection between the passing women of the past and cases like yours in the present is not accurate and not helpful to the people affected longterm.

Thank you Aaron, for raising your voice and for honoring your history. I hope your new land brings you a sense of peace and strength and becomes a beautiful refuge if not a home. Wish you good health and newfound camaraderie with other butches as this new chapter of your life unravels ❤

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Wow, wonderful! Courage to all the butch lesbians of the world! 💛

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This straight woman (but a seven sisters gal so no stranger to gender complexity and turn of the century butch women) am fascinated by the way you are open to being in flux and living in the contradictions.

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