All posts by Claire Fitzsimmons
Claire Fitzsimmons is the Founder and Director of Salty.
Self Help Burnout and the Politics of Healing
"A Healed Person, for instance, does not binge a pint of Ben & Jerry's...Mental Health /
Parenthood
The Blessings of My Miscarriage
"To my sweet little belly being, my love, my teacher, thank you for being...Beauty /
Black Experiences
Why I Cut My Locs
"I always felt I owed the world “femininity”, but interestingly, the world owed me...Disability /
Identity
The Limitations of Empathy
"For many autistic people who’ve been accused of not having (enough) empathy or of...Religion Won’t Heal My Disability. I Wish My Family Understood That.
"Why can't you just accept me for who I am?"Why I’ll Never Change My Name, Even While Changing My Body
"Losing someone that young is so painful, that I honestly still don’t dare to...As a Former Sex Worker, I Want Our Representation to Include the Bad, and the Ugly.
“People only seem to care about stories of sex workers who are wholly empowered,...Being Peruvian Is the Most Punk Thing About Me
"Music historians have credited The Sex Pistols with starting the punk movement in 1975,...Five Red Flags to Look Out For When Working at a Non-Profit
"Not-for-profits have a real issue, and it's time to address it."Activism /
Black Experiences
Copy-and-Paste People Have Ruined Online Safety
"They are stealthy leeches of “wokeness” who press “select all” and replicate."How I Learned to Empathize From a Video Game
"I have autism, and am aware of the misconception that we lack empathy."The Voices and The Afterlife: My Experience with Schizophrenia and Spirituality
"Before I knew I was schizophrenic, I thought that I could connect with souls...A Love Letter to the People that Progressive Movements Leave Behind
"If we all agree oppression is wrong, do we not apply our values to...Ketamine Therapy Helped Me Accept Myself (For The Trash That I Am)
"Be your truest self. Your trash self. Be a disappointment!"They’re Already Criminalizing Miscarriages. It’s Going to Get Worse.
"Many think criminalizing miscarriages would never happen in the United States, but we’re well...I’m Fighting For You.
"There are millions of us standing at the crossroads of intersectionality fighting for it...LGBTQIA+ /
Trans Experiences
Finding Queer Connection at Disneyland
"I reveled in being seen, in giggling together, three happy queers at Disneyland."I Got Pregnant Without My Consent. It’s My Body, So I Made a Choice.
"Is “my body, my choice” the only lie I’ll ever tell my daughter?”LGBTQIA+ /
Mental Health
My Final Transformation: Learning to Love Myself
"Frankly, there have been many moments in my life where I believed I needed...Health /
Parenthood
My Bittersweet Abortion
"Would I choose to kill the maiden in me to become a mother? Or...Exclusive: Censorship of Marginalized Communities on Instagram, 2021 (PDF download)
Our second groundbreaking report into algorithmic bias, "Censorship of Marginalized Communities on Instagram"...Disability /
Health
Disability and (lack of) Style: Wearing Transition Lenses
"The small stigma associated with wearing transition lenses as a young woman has so...Vulvodynia: The Common Vaginal Chronic Illness No-one Wants to Talk About
"I hated my vagina because approximately four times a week it would hurt unbearably...Navigating Demisexuality as a Black Woman
"These days, casual hookups and one-night stands seem to be the quickest way to...What ARE Xenogenders? The Evolving Self-identity Landscape
"I use chaosgender (gender is erratic and ever-shifting), celestarian or celestialgender (having celestial qualities...Trans Healthcare is Cis-Dominated; That Needs to Change
"Although a medical transition isn’t in the cards for everyone, it is for me....United in Grief: Two Widow’s Perspectives
"Losing a partner is cruel, unnatural. You don't just lose your soulmate; you also...Only In The Stillness Of 2020, I Realised I’d Been Assaulted
"But a different realisation came over me - a suppressed memory that only really...7 Gender Affirming Activities for Transwomen in the Closet
"Whatever your reason may be for being in the closet, there are ways to...Seize the Means of Seduction: How Sex Work Taught me to Value my Time
"In capitalist societies, sex workers are almost universally people whose labor is devalued, systemically."...Body Positivity /
Feminism
Loving My Body Hair, Whether I Shave Or Not
" Invoking the power to love my body is never about getting others’ approval;...Sex Work /
Trans Voices
Being Trans Masculine in Sex Work : We Exist
"A lot of people just somehow don't know we exist. This erasure leaves us...How the Pandemic Helped Me to Start Living Beyond the Male Gaze
"I was ten when I first started feeling ashamed of my body."I Am Not a Man Or a Woman (and My Gender Expression Doesn’t Make Me Into Them.)
"I want to be the most baseline, most comfortable, most me version of me...Social Media Sites are Censoring Transgender, Black, and Conservative Users – But for Very Different Reasons
"It's all about the grey areas."Skin Picking: The Unsexy Truth
"Reopening those wounds became a way to control my emotions, a reminder of the...Dating /
Relationships