The Plural-Trans Symbol

In April of 2022, our system was misdiagnosed with Other Specified Dissociative Disorder during a partial hospital stay. We were there for OCD treatment, and instead were subjected to forced fusion as a "treatment" for our plurality -- something we explicitly stated was not problematic for us, and was just a facet of our everyday existence. The doctors told us that we were experiencing extreme dissociation (we were not) and that our existence as plural was a form of "extreme emotional avoidance" that acting like a singlet was supposed to "solve."

And the most dehumanizing, offensive, and harmful part of this was how they refused to let us use our names. This is what started the whole issue -- we used our own, chosen names during group and didn't closet ourselves. As transgender Jewish plurans, we understand so much how powerful names are. A name is a recognition of your personhood and your impact on the world. It's what keeps you and your memory alive even when your body is long gone. It's a statement of self and freedom. A statement of "I'm here." A affirmation of הִנֵּֽנִי, even.

When they denied us the right to use our names, they stripped us of our personhoods, our genders, and our culture. So we took that back and got this symbol tattooed on our body immediately after being discharged from the hospital stay -- The Plural-Trans Symbol.

This symbol was originally designed by us for our tattoo with feedback from a couple other systems. It combines the Plural Rings designed by ouregaiya (may their memories be a blessing) in October of 2011, with the transgender symbol combining Mars, Venus, and both signs into one, as well as an additional asterisk symbol for genderqueer identities outside the binary. Symbols for man, woman, both, and neither are all there, intersecting to show how intertwined plurality and transgender existence can be.

When we got out of the hospital, we had our misdiagnosis of OSDD removed from the records. We went to therapy and Torah study and spent time with alterhuman company -- all to regain a feeling of self-worth and individual existence. To reality check and combat the constant gaslighting that systems go through, being told we don't exist. And we got this tattoo to solidify all that.

Since then, other people have really taken a liking to this symbol, and we want to release it to the public. The only intentions we have for this symbol being that it stands for MAD PRIDE, ANTI-MEDICALISM, RADICAL PLURAL-TRANS LIBERATION, AND RADICAL PLURAL ACCEPTANCE! We got this tattoo to cope with and process our own trauma from saneist violence across multiple hospitalisations and a lifetime of bouncing across therapists and being disrespected as a trans system. It's meant to empower everyone who has had their identity denied to them, who has been told they are literally not real.

That means anyone using this symbol to tell anyone they aren't plural, that having a DID/OSDD diagnosis is the only way to be plural, or that some kinds of plurals are more real than others is misappropriating the symbol. Anyone who claims you need dysphoria to be transgender, that nonbinary or genderqueer people don't exist, or exhibiting exclusionary radfem-like behavior is also misappropriating the symbol. Fascists, radfems (that means trans-inclusive radfems, anti-kink/sex negative radfems, all of them!), racists, ableists, and anyone else who actively uses this symbol while using their position to keep others down should be called out and kicked out. Nazi plurals fuck off!

Everyone else -- Stay Mad! Stay Proud! Fight Back! This symbol is yours& now, too.

~ Magen and Aster