Elsie Hupp

Elsie grew up middle class in the Midwest where the church was a big presence in her life. Though she encountered a progressiveness in various ways within the religious communities she was part of her in childhood, the fact that she was gender-questioning ultimately alienated her from the church. An important part of her socialization took place online, in the Myspace, DeviantArt, Twitch websites where she felt she had more control over interactions than IRL, especially if they became abusive due to her being a trans woman. Elsie speaks frankly about struggles that she has had both in school and her romantic history, as a sexual assault took its toll on both of those spheres in her life. She also talks briefly about her medical transition as a process that lead to her feeling more herself on estrogen than testosterone. Toward the end of the interview, Elsie connects her own empowerment and political development both to instances of police brutality that Black Lives Matter.