Digital Transgender Archive

Interview with Maxwell Poessnecker

Maxwell Poessnecker is a 26-year-old queer trans masculine guy who was assigned female at birth. They use they/them pronouns, but predominately also use he/him pronouns depending on the space they are in. He was born in Atkinson, Nebraska, and then after his parents split he moved to Page, Nebraska, a rural farming, conservative Nebraska town. As an only child, he helped his stepdad working on the farm. Growing up they knew they were attracted to traditionally feminine bodies and that there was something different about them they couldn’t name. When they were young up until junior high, they presented more masculine like a tomboy with short hair wearing boy’s clothes. He was teased and bullied predominately by boys in school. During junior high he began to dress in feminine clothing, grew out his hair, and wore makeup since he thought that was a good way to attract other girls. During his first year in college he came out as bi and dated a cis man. Poessnecker broke up with him though when he started to realize he wasn’t physically or emotionally attracted to him. Poessnecker then came out to his small circle of friends and then later his family as a lesbian and joined the Pride Club. Lesbian didn’t feel right, however, so they began identifying as gay. They completed their master’s in Mankato, Minnesota where they came out as queer. During his master’s after taking their first feminist theory course, Poessnecker began to think a lot about gender identity. He also met his current partner of 4 years during grad school. She previously had a trans partner, and Poessnecker would ask her questions about their trans experience and that’s when he decided he wanted the same for himself. He identified as gender non-binary for a while and then genderqueer. Wanting to remove himself from the status quo of what constitutes masculinity in our culture, he began identifying as a non-binary trans man, but that didn’t feel right so he now identifies as trans masculine. He always appeared to be much younger than his actual age and so struggled to gain credibility in professional settings, and he’s also experienced being minimized and diminished by others because of his young appearance. He’s always had more of a husky build, so he hasn’t experienced many issues using the restroom and passing. Even before starting testosterone in 2016 and top surgery in 2017, he was passing 50% of the time. They are currently a director of an LGBTQ Center.