Features & Longread FEATURE: Transitioning with Sugar – I love men, what can I do? asks Sugar Swan As Eartha Kitt sang during the disco revival of her career in the 1984 title track, ‘I love men, what can I do? I love men, they’re no good for you’. Never have song lyrics felt more relatable right now. Pre-transition I was never the ‘gay man’ that I was often perceived as and regular readers of th By Ms Sugar Swan • 5 min read
Features & Longread OPINION: Transitioning with Sugar – My Pride experience Last month I wrote about my Pride experiences over the last 20 years and how I never quite felt like I fitted in. I was always troubled with poor trans representation. I surmised by hoping that trans folk, and the less represented minorities of the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, would be better respected and re By Ms Sugar Swan • 8 min read
Features & Longread OPINION: Transitioning with Sugar – my memories of past Prides My first experience of a Pride event was back in 1997, some 20 years ago. A fresh-faced 16-year-old kid, who knew she was trans but only in her wildest dreams did she think she could transition, made her way to Clapham Common for Pride London. I was absolutely terrified as I made my way there with m By Ms Sugar Swan • 4 min read
Features & Longread OPINION: Transitioning with Sugar – ‘You need to be more ladylike’ Those 6 words. Those 6 words that I have heard over and over again in many different guises since I began transition feed into a cis narrative in which I neither belong, nor wish to. The OED defines ‘lady’ as ‘a polite or formal way of referring to a woman’. Well, I am a woman, so therefore, I am a By Ms Sugar Swan • 4 min read
Features & Longread OPINION: Transitioning with Sugar – Looking Forward by Ms Sugar Swan Today sees me one week post op of my fourth, and hopefully last, hair transplant surgery. Back in late February I headed to Latvia after a long search for a surgeon who would take on my hair restoration case. A tricky one due to the very advanced state of my balding. In April’s Gscene I covered the By Ms Sugar Swan • 4 min read
Community News OPINION: Transitioning with Sugar – A scary walk down memory lane The Brighton Sauna was always a mainstay in my life. When I moved to Brighton at 20, some 15 years ago, bars were open until 12, clubs until 2 and no night was complete without “finishing off”, take that as you will, in the sauna. By Ms Sugar Swan • 6 min read
Features & Longread OPINION: Transitioning with Sugar: Trans exclusionary feminism by Ms Sugar Swan When I came out very publicly as trans, I was flooded with love and respect and within the first month of ‘being out’ half a dozen people had contacted me and come out as trans. Some of them I knew from Brighton, some I didn’t, but they all had the same message for me: “Thank you for talking about t By Ms Sugar Swan • 4 min read
Features & Longread FEATURE: Transitioning with Sugar – Sugar’s Big Hair Trip – Part 1 Latvia, a country neighbouring Russia, regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1992 and decriminalised homosexuality soon after, however, general social opinion has not moved on much since then. In 2005, Riga, the capital city, held its first Pride but unfortunately counter protesters greatly By Ms Sugar Swan • 4 min read
Features & Longread FEATURE: Transitioning with Sugar: Hair today – gone tomorrow I remember a time in the late 1980’s when I was in school and my hair was long and my mother said I needed it cut for the school photographs. Obviously, being a little trans girl I didn’t want my hair cut, so, in an act of defiance, whilst my father who took me to the barbers was outside having a ci By Ms Sugar Swan • 5 min read
Features & Longread FEATURE: Transitioning with Sugar February. St Valentine’s Day. Ancient Roman fertility celebration? Christian Priest Valentine who defied his Emperor and performed marriages without his blessing? There are a lot of conflicting takes on the origins of Valentine’s Day but no amount of reading and history takes the sting out of the ta By Ms Sugar Swan • 4 min read
Features & Longread FEATURE: Transitioning with Sugar It came as a surprise to many when this time last year I came out as non-binary and then six months later came out once more as a transgender woman. Having fled my oppressive London Home County suburb aged 20, I landed in Kemptown and I have worked, lived, socialised and volunteered on the scene eve By Ms Sugar Swan • 4 min read
