Birdy Psychology

Birdy Psychology Secular Enby Psychologist working with queer and trans+ sexual health and wellbeing.

My research has been focusing on trans experiences of cisgenderism and cissexism - and in hearing stories from community...
08/02/2026

My research has been focusing on trans experiences of cisgenderism and cissexism - and in hearing stories from community, unsurprisingly, there were many experiences of being both denied access to being trans whilst simultaneously having existence being flattened to trans identity.

I'm incredibly grateful for how these powerful stories shared have started conversations that challenge unchecked cissexism and cisgenderism. Under the cis-stem, people have deeply engrained conditions of existence that erase trans as legitimate possibility. It means people act from places of entitlement, ignorance and privilege that dehumanize trans community. Whilst it shouldn't take pathways like publication to recognize these harms, it does offer a platform to challenge and further document what community has known.

There is so much power in sharing stories. By resisting the cis-stem and making sure our voices are heard. And I'm eternally grateful for the chance to amplify community voices and hopefully help people acknowledge and reflect on their cissexist and cisgenderist bias, and change their script.

This article is open access, so you can read the full article at International Journal of Transgender Health (or click the link in my bio)

Image description: black handwriting that reads new publication, underlined. An image of a article abstract.

If you've got the spoons (or interest), I've just launched the final study part of my PhD and am currently recruiting pa...
14/11/2025

If you've got the spoons (or interest), I've just launched the final study part of my PhD and am currently recruiting participants. Feel free to use the qr code to check it out

💚

We need to go beyond a week of awareness of trans people and into an ongoing commitment to trans liberation.✨Abolish cis...
31/10/2024

We need to go beyond a week of awareness of trans people and into an ongoing commitment to trans liberation.

✨Abolish cis supremacy, individually and collectively
✨Dismantle connected structures and oppressive systems
✨Center the most targeted in your process of trans liberation
✨Use your privilege to serve our most oppressed kin
✨Engage critically with the messaging and teachings around you
✨Seek knowledge and educate yourself outside the labors of trans people
✨Let discomfort guide you into deep reflection and learning
✨Let go of saviorism and decenter yourself
✨Connect with your community

Image description: a white tile with the words trans liberation in black text and awareness week crossed out

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Perfectionism demands that we know everything, and this demand often means that we delay actions for the pursuit of more...
09/09/2024

Perfectionism demands that we know everything, and this demand often means that we delay actions for the pursuit of more knowledge.

If we want to fight for a better world, we need to be able to do so messily, with room for mistakes and lack of knowing better, and we need to know how to atone and repair with those around us in our journey of doing better. We need to be prepared to allow those around us to atone and extend understanding and compassion to those learning - even if we were never given the same space and support to do bdffer. We need to treat learning as a forever thing, not a milestone to reach.

We can't expect perfection from eachother. Perfection is a pillar of white supremacy and in fighting for a better world we need to dismantle these systems with new ways of doing, new ways of relating and connecting, new ways of rebelling.

Image description: a white tile with black handwriting that reads you can't know everything

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You don't have to understand everything about someone's identity in order to respect them, respect their capacity to kno...
09/09/2024

You don't have to understand everything about someone's identity in order to respect them, respect their capacity to know themselves better than you do, respect their right to explore and express the parts of themselves that have been hidden or pushed away because of the harsh, cruel feedback from the world around them.

Affirm and learn. Affirm the person in front of you, and then go and learn - fill in the gaps of your knowledge, read up on the things you're curious about or don't quite understand. Get curious about your discomfort and go out and learn about that.

Fearing diversity - punishing diversity - policing identity - who does this benefit? What systems does this uphold? How much does it cost you, to fight against the very real very valid diverse ways people show up in this world. Interrogate why you would want to control or punish that? The work to be done is with you, not the person exploring and expressing themself.

Image description: a white tile with black handwriting that reads affirm + learn

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Happy non binary pride week We are beyond awareness. The binary as the construct we know it today is new, gender expansi...
08/07/2024

Happy non binary pride week

We are beyond awareness. The binary as the construct we know it today is new, gender expansiveness has existed for thousands of years. Cultures across the globe and across history have known life without the emphasis of sex/gender, and yet the violent colonial system in its quest for land, resources and power injected its binary ideas and erased histories of expansive ways of being.

Inherent in celebrating diversity is action, is conversation, is sacrificing your privilege for change. This pride week is no different. There are non binary folk across the globe and on the lands of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, who are subject to violence and death. None of us are free until we are all free.

Image description: a white tile with black handwriting that reads non binary pride week with three love hearts underneath, yellow purple and black

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Check out the creator .bandora Wanting a genocide to end, wanting freedom and safety for Palestinians, wanting people to...
04/07/2024

Check out the creator .bandora

Wanting a genocide to end, wanting freedom and safety for Palestinians, wanting people to care more about people beyond themselves and their privileges -- this is not a radical position. Speaking out and taking action against an apartheid is not a radical position.

Find strength and solidarity in those who help you keep going for a free Palestine. Find strength and solidarity in those who help you keep fighting for the freedom and safety of our most vulnerable, our most voiceless.

Image credit: .bandora

Image description: the words resistance until reclamation generation after generation in bold black letters with tiles of people wearing a keffiyeh, holding the Palestinian flag, holding a sling shot and olives

I don't hear preference tacked on when people are talking about cis folks pronouns or gender identity. I do hear it when...
12/06/2024

I don't hear preference tacked on when people are talking about cis folks pronouns or gender identity. I do hear it when people talk about trans folk. PSA: Framing trans+ folk affirming themselves as a preference is an aggression.

If you want to be more affirming to the trans and q***r folk in your life, avoid referring to identity and expression as preferences (Unless of course the person has explicitly instructed you to use that specific language when referring to them ).

Image description: a white tile with black handwriting that reads I don't prefer my pronouns, they are my pronouns

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Getting caught in waves on social media - like posting trending imagery that is disconnected to the content/art/directio...
30/05/2024

Getting caught in waves on social media - like posting trending imagery that is disconnected to the content/art/directions of those at the center of the movement - is an important prompt to slow down.

Slow down and assess what the post is signalling -

Is it to raise awareness? Maybe share the content and stories of those at the center of what is happening.

Is it to show your solidarity? Maybe look into what has been asked of us as witnesses and comrades to show our solidarity and post about those directives.

When it comes to community resilience and liberation, we need to be intentional, engaged, consistent. We need to slow down and remain informed on what it is we are doing. Waves are temporary, a story is 24 hours. How are you engaging in your comradery for the long haul? How are you making this a sustainable movement towards liberation?

Image description a white tile with black handwriting that reads getting caught in a wave on social media post trends like the black tile of BLM or the ai image of Rafah is a sign to slow down - engage with the cause you're posting about & get deep with the calls to actions made by those at the centre

Image description: a white tile with black handwriting that reads conformity requires us to minimise our differences for...
16/04/2024

Image description: a white tile with black handwriting that reads conformity requires us to minimise our differences for the greater good we fear that if we don't conform, we will be abandoned, but there is no loneliness like having people only see you after you've erased yourself in quotation marks and Alok Vaid-Menon's name at the bottom

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I'm a big fan of wearing your values whenever you can - and so when I saw had this epic shirt to be a visible accomplic...
03/04/2024

I'm a big fan of wearing your values whenever you can - and so when I saw had this epic shirt to be a visible accomplice to a free Palestine, I had to get it.

Image description: Birdy sporting a white cropped T with the words fatties for a free Palestine printed in the centre of the shirt with olive tree branches and watermelons surrounding the text and three people, one with a walking aid, standing arm in arm

Language changes so quickly, so of course mistakes can happen. But that doesn't mean we don't carry responsibility to ke...
31/03/2024

Language changes so quickly, so of course mistakes can happen. But that doesn't mean we don't carry responsibility to keep up with what is more appropriate/affirming/safer to say.

🩵There are some phrases and words that we have not used as a community for a very long time because they are outdated and harmful;
🩷There are some phrases and words that are closed to community - that allies and cis folk should not be using under any circumstances;
🤍There are some phrases and words that should only be used on an individual basis when given explicit direction to use that word when describing/referring to a specific person, by that person;
🩷There are some phrases and words that parts of the community will use that others don't, which can create tension for some and deeper understanding and affirmation for others;
🩵There are some phrases and words that are for community to reclaim - that is not for allies and cis folks to critique or partake in

It's okay to make mistakes - that's how we grow and do better - no one is perfect and demanding perfection goes against human nature. But by not updating your knowledge or doing the work to remain informed places trans+ and q***r folk around you in a position of harm.

Image description: a white tile with birdys wonky black handwriting that reads staying informed is harm reduction and a personal responsibility

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Address

Wollongong, NSW

Website

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/K-Dove, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10

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