maxmovinghands:

artoftransliness:

Trailer for Austin Unbound, a documentary about Austin, a deaf trans man. 

confession: i would love to watch this documentary, but when i met this guy irl, he asked me if i was hearing. that hurt my feelings tbh.

I’ve had Deafies ask if I was hearing too in the past. I try to not let it get to me. I know sometimes my mannerisms are a bit “hearing” because I grew up surrounded by hearies, signed in Signed English (so I think in English by default a lot), and was a solitaire for what seemed like forever and ever. Now I have some Deaf friends but overall I’m more of a loner, focused on making art, and only see some of my besties who happen to be hearing. Anyway I think in some ways, to Deaf people, I maybe seem to act like a hearing person, mannerism-wise. I don’t know. I could be classified as “hearie-mind” by some people probably. THAT would hurt my feelings though because I feel so strongly about my Deaf identity, and spend a lot of time thinking about it. I make a point to be active in the Deaf community online and offline (working at Deaf camp and being on the BC Cultural Society of the Deaf board, etc). It’s an incredibly important part of my identity and way of being. But some people just don’t see that when they first meet me, so they ask me if I’m hearing and I just try to not let it get to me. They usually don’t mean to offend, they just were not sure.

Excited about the documentary!