Writing

Mischa’s writing spans a breadth of pressing issues and has appeared in several major publications. Whether she is discussing her experiences as a trans mother, exploring the intersection of trans feminist ethics and theology, or illuminating the dangerous interplay between misogyny, queerphobia, and fascism, nuanced and thoughtful analysis is a key feature of her work.

Mischa’s work has featured in university courses on religion and gender, as well as transgender law and politics. Mischa was a panelist at the 2018 Association of Writers’ & Writing Program Conference. The panel “Nevertheless, She Persisted: Writing Political Feminism in the Age of Trump” discussed feminist writing in the unprecedented political era of Trump. Mischa is a Pushcart Prize nominee and served as the first transgender woman on the board of Lambda Literary.

Explore Mischa's Work

The Next Step in #MeToo Is for Men to Reckon With Their Male Fragility

Slate

January 23, 2019

"And we will not move forward until we understand that misogyny is something that is so embedded that it imbibes our own thinking and that those men we love most dearly, our sons, our partners, our fathers, are easily induced to oppress women by the prevailing forces of social conditioning. It is possibly all men, including men that we love."

The Trans Experience Is Not Defined by One NY Times Op-ed

Advocate

November 27, 2018

"... trans people know all too well, as any marginalized group has throughout history, that the words of one of us will be deployed as ammunition against all of us."

Authoritarians like Trump target trans people for a reason

The Guardian

October 22, 2018

"Misogyny and oppression of women must be fought globally and unwaveringly, including in western societies, which have falsely been perceived as post-feminist. Transgender rights are crucial in the struggle not only for human rights, but women’s liberation. Those who fiercely advocate for eradicating transgender people are fighting to retain a world under the regime of male hegemony. In such an environment, autocrats and their accompanying oligarchies are sustained."

Transphobia Is Not a Feminist Value

Truthout

March 30, 2018

"Trans exclusionary activists are telling trans women to know our place. They are dictating to trans girls and women that we are not autonomous, that we will be told who we are, where we are allowed to be and under what conditions. That sounds an awful lot like tyranny — the opposing aim of true feminism."

Putin's Horror Moves West, Thanks to His Protégé

Advocate

February 8, 2017

"The foundation of liberal democracy appears to be much more threadbare than we thought, and it would be unwise to delude ourselves into believing that fascist dictatorship is something that only happens in other times and places."

The Only Thing Standing Between Trump and Authoritarianism: The Supreme Court

The Guardian

February 3, 2017

"With Congress in Trump’s pocket, the judicial branch is the only remaining constitutional bulwark against his authoritarianism."

Stop Hiding the “T”: Fighting the Stigmatization of Trans People

Truthout

January 28, 2017

"... as this country wavers over granting transgender Americans their civil rights, we must ask whether we live in a democratic republic based on the ideals of individual liberty or whether we are inhabitants of an Orwellian pig farm."

Never Trump, and Never Again

HuffPost

November 22, 2016

"First, Donald Trump has not officially been elected president... Second, there is a very real path by which the electors could deny Trump the presidency... Third, there is every reason for Americans to pursue this constitutional path."

America's Existential Hour

HuffPost

November 7, 2016

"Language, the principal vector for dehumanization and stigmatization, is inseparable from violence."

I Am a Trans Mother — Deal With It

Advocate

September 13, 2016

"My motherhood is without hyphens, qualifications, or apologies, the injudicious prejudices of a blinkered society be damned."

'Ma Chérie' -- A Perspective on Trans Womanhood in the Male Gaze

HuffPost

August 5, 2016

"Acknowledging transgender womanhood is granting womanhood the validation of personhood free of the trappings of flesh; a validation primarily reserved for manhood in the misogynistic matrix."

The Curious Case of the Anti-Trans New Yorker Article

Advocate

June 21, 2016

"Why transgender females should be made to pay the price of aggression committed by males, we are never told."

I Blame Hate

HuffPost

June 12, 2016

"Please spare us your speeches, your candles, and your prayers, and give us our right to breathe. And please do not drown out our right to love and exist authentically with hate."

Writing a Different Story for Trans Rights

Advocate

May 17, 2016

"Writing a different story this time means, above all, taking immediate, forceful action, rather than waiting for states to gradually come around to the idea of trans equality."

Unrighteous Anger – Queen Vashti and the Erasure of Transgender Women

Tikkun

May 13, 2016

"What eats away at the ego of the modern day King Ahasuerus is not in fact the fear that transgender women are a danger to cisgender women and girls; it is the deep-seated terror that they are a danger to patriarchal hegemony. In order to establish and maintain ownership of women, men must first define women as unequivocally different from themselves, and lower on the gender hierarchy."

Support Target for Being Trans-inclusive

HuffPost

April 28, 2016

"Target recently affirmed that transgender people should use the facilities in their stores that match their gender identity."

Time for a National 'Pee-In' Movement?

Advocate

April 6, 2016

"Not since the days of whites-only facilities has this country seen bigotry implemented by means of physical segregation as is done in the transphobic bathroom bills."

Carving Up the Rainbow?

HuffPost

April 3, 2016

“The fact is that many, if not most, trans people do not, cannot and have no desire to conform to socially constructed expectations of the gender binary. It is these trans children and adults who are most at risk in our locker rooms and restrooms."

A New American Apartheid?

HuffPost

February 22, 2016

"Let us remember the plea of Leelah Alcorn, a transgender teenager who took her own life after enduring years of harassment, "My death needs to mean something.... Fix society. Please." We can honor her memory by ensuring that acts of bigotry like the bathroom bill never become law, in South Dakota or anywhere else."

Toward Comprehensive Protection for Trans Rights

HuffPost

January 8, 2016

"Here we should take note of a central lesson of other civil rights movements of the past century: that in the struggle for equality, halfway measures may hold a dangerous appeal, often promising far more than they are able to deliver… It is time for America to stop denying trans Americans their basic rights and freedoms, and to begin the long-overdue process of instituting a comprehensive set of legal protections for them."