{"id":840,"date":"2026-07-22T10:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T17:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/22\/spectra\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T17:17:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T00:17:32","slug":"spectra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/22\/spectra\/","title":{"rendered":"spectra"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

i grew up in a biracial household where Blackness, white passing, and whiteness were all intertwined, as a neuroqueer, bigender, autistic child with high justice sensitivity, but low hierarchy awareness. being late-diagnosed, i didn’t have names for a lot of my experiences, but looking back, it all makes perfect sense. none of the labels i’ve used are choices i’ve made. they are simply acknowledgements of what always was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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i grew up in a biracial household where Blackness, white passing, and whiteness were all intertwined, as a neuroqueer, bigender, autistic child with high justice sensitivity, but low hierarchy awareness. being late-diagnosed, i didn’t have names for a lot of my experiences, but looking back, it all makes perfect sense. none of the labels i’ve…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,14,15,9],"tags":[449,157,445,441,161,61,162,442,450],"class_list":["post-840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chronicle","category-neurodiversity","category-politics","category-reflection","tag-20th-century-history","tag-bigender","tag-blackness","tag-class","tag-gender","tag-neurodiversity","tag-nonbinary","tag-race","tag-whiteness","hs-thumb"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/saor1p-spectra","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":829,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/21\/bigender-identity-journal-entry\/","url_meta":{"origin":840,"position":0},"title":"bigender identity journal entry","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"July 21, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"i passed 3 tween girls doing a coordinated dance for tiktok on a walk recognition: that's me. memory: when i was a kid, i wanted to play jump rope and hand-clapping games with the girls, instead of kickball and four-square. the boys were always trying to win, and would spike\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_1683.jpg?fit=350%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":837,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/23\/837\/","url_meta":{"origin":840,"position":1},"title":"more spectra","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"July 23, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"In my last reflection, I mentioned the intersection of race, gender expression, and neurodiversity in my family story\u2014qualities that all have spectra embedded in them. I didn't touch on culture and class, which are also observable as existing on spectra. I was shaped by aspects of Black domestic and expressive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_1690.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":771,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/09\/to-a-young-person-questioning-themselves\/","url_meta":{"origin":840,"position":2},"title":"to a young person questioning themselves","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"June 9, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019m 60Mf (that\u2019s how I\u2019ve been indicating a male-presenting femme-relating person). I\u2019ve always known that I\u2019m different on the inside, and I\u2019m so glad that it is becoming normalized to express ourselves about the nuances of our experiences relative to gender. I\u2019ve also recently been diagnosed AuDHD, and that has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1188.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1188.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1188.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1188.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1188.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":881,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/13\/what-i-brought-with-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":840,"position":3},"title":"what i brought with me","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"September 13, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"ever since i was young, i've felt like i was from a different culture, and was dropped into this one by a stork. somewhere along the way, i decided to stick by this, and honor the integrity of my original culture, and not get too deep into this dominant culture\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":858,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/17\/normalize-casual-intimacy\/","url_meta":{"origin":840,"position":4},"title":"Normalize casual intimacy.","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"August 17, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019m a bi-gender person\u2014masc and femme together in parallel unison. Like a Tootsie Roll, a Twinkie, a Ho-Ho, or a KitKat, I have a more brittle, masc outer layer; and a creamy, femme inner core. The femme part of me has been surprised when I have proposed activities to femme\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/img_1782.jpg?fit=1179%2C820&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/img_1782.jpg?fit=1179%2C820&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/img_1782.jpg?fit=1179%2C820&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/img_1782.jpg?fit=1179%2C820&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/img_1782.jpg?fit=1179%2C820&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":737,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/31\/on-trans-visibility-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":840,"position":5},"title":"on trans visibility day","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"March 31, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Perusing reddit today, I noticed someone posted about wanting to start a men\u2019s group and asking for fun ideas. Many of the comments were followed by an enthusiastic \u201cyes!\u201d or other signifiers of feeling seen. Nothing in the post spoke to my identity or special interests. 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