Note: This post was updated on August 3, 2018, to add the quote from truetrans, and on April 15, 2021, to add the final two paragraphs. What’s your take on folx? Comment below! Want to ask a radical copyeditor something? Contact me! Was this post helpful to you? Consider making a donation! It was meant to be a coded way to communicate “folks like us” among people with radical politics who defy gender and sexual norms. As far as I’m aware, folx was never meant to be about gender neutrality and it was never meant to replace or improve on the word folks. The word folks is not gendered or exclusive in any way. I believe this is an urban legend that likely originated as a back-fill sort of explanation from people who consciously or unconsciously associated the word folx with the word Latinx and tried to apply the same logic, even though it doesn’t make sense. Founded and led by Gray (they/Gray) an experienced barber, Kindred Kuts aims to make queer folk and their friends, feel and look good. Many people have claimed that the purpose of folx is to be “more inclusive” or “more gender neutral” than folks. The thought is that when we simply say “folks” people think of “men and women, gender conforming people.” When these communities use the word “folx” it signifies a recognition that in that community there are people outside of binary gender systems and heterosexual norms. It is a way to replace folks with a word that invokes mental imagery and association with queer/trans people. The X is to designate gender nonconformity, gender neutrality, and/or gender nonbinary sentiments. People organizing and theorizing in queer, trans, and other people of color spaces use Folx instead of folks. In May 2017, Reddit user truetrans offered this additional helpful take: So it’s basically a coded way of saying “folks like us”-that is, a within-community expression used by people who are radically non-conforming in terms of gender and/or sexuality and for whom their identities are deeply, radically political. In 2014, Trans Folx Fighting Eating Disorders explained: “Folx might be a more regional California term, but we use it to indicate Q/T/gender-diverse community and to denote a politicized identity.” I’ve exclusively seen it from queer and trans people, usually people of color. The rebirth process is difficult, but sovereignty over your life is a worthwhile outcome.ĭoes this sound resonant at all? Please reach out to me via my contact page for an initial consultation.Q: Alex, your recent share from Laverne Cox included the phrase “trans folx.” Is this a thing?Ī: Good question! It is a thing. It can be debilitating to know you have superpowers, be unseen, and then find yourself completely unrepresented in society, all by the age of 5. ![]() You came here with a superpower (or two) and perhaps never had it acknowledged during childhood. A Two Spirited individual is often a gifted individual. My approach to how I work is similar in frame for all my clients, but working with the queer population has some uniqueness (that I love). Messaging around prescribed identities and the probability of exile are inside you somewhere, creating havoc. ![]() The good news is that being gay or trans or somehow adjacent is in vogue! Be free! The bad news is that it isn’t uncorked by a willing society alone. These subconscious messages leave their mark as you bend yourself in all your life contexts, trying to fit in somehow. Perhaps you interpreted that in order to live and succeed, a part of you had to stay in exile. ![]() For a cis-gendered queer person, this may look like not being able to step into one’s identity as it wasn’t represented or allowed by society around you, and perhaps not your family, either. The maturation process had a huge monkey wrench thrown at it that needs to be freed from the body. The trans case can cause a split often around 3 or 4 years old, where you realized something was definitely not right and went on to internalize both exile from society and self. ![]() As a queer person who grew up in rural Indiana, I remember the moments myself. First, there was the moment in your childhood that where you felt same sex attraction, or that you were born into the wrong gender. For queer folx over 30, it is the themes of exile and belonging. After working with queer folx for a few years, I came upon some findings that drive my approach.
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