#TransLooksLikeThis

About

#TransLooksLikeThis is a hashtag that catalogs social media posts by transgender and non-binary people who post a selfie to express pride in themselves, share stories and show support for transgender people who have faced discrimination.

Origin

On January 2nd, 2018, Twitter ^[1] user @wondyful tweeted a number of selfies and the caption, "tired of being told im not trans/not trans enough like…. boys wear makeup and have boobs and guess what?? ITS VALID 🤠 #TransLooksLikeThis." The tweet received more than 815 retweets and 3,000 likes in six days (shown below).

Spread

Following the post, @wondyful shared an explanation for the hashtag. In addition to sharing their story, as well as expressing support for transgender people who cannot receive surgery or hormone therapy or are at different stages of their transition (shown below, left and right).^[2][3] They wrote, "im starting a hashtag called #TransLooksLikeThis because at the end of the day being transgender doesn’t come with a set look, it comes with just being you!! please rt/like this so it gets traction!! and @ me in all ur posts i wanna rt all of you cuties!"

Others shared images using the hashtag, offering support to fellow transgender people. For example, Twitter^[4] user @petiteghoul tweeted a selfie with the caption, "(they/them) a non-binary has appeared and is here to make the homophobes and transphobes angry!" The tweet received more than 870 retweets and 5,000 likes in one week (shown below, left). Over the next week, others shared posts (examples below, center and right).

Several media outlets covered the hashtag, including The Daily Dot, ^[5] LatestLY^[6] and more.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References