My name is Uil Mac !
I go by Uil, Bill or Liam and i use he/him pronouns.
I am a chronically houseless autistic comic artist who has been housing insecure since 2020 and honestly before then on-and-off since I was a child.
I'm from Woodland Park, Colorado- a rural town about 25 minutes from Colorado Springs. I've lived in three different states within the past 6 years and none of it by choice.
The worst of my housing insecurity has been these past two years here in Portland, Oregon. I had help from family to relocate to an apartment after I was threatened with a knife in a shared house. Conflict arose when my friend was arrested and I took action like a friend normally would. Apparently the response to that should be violence. Such is life in the United States.
My masculinity exceedingly demonized every house I went into regardless of if my other roomates were also trans. Animosity grew worse and worse as time went on. 5 separate living circumstances and not a single one successful. I was lucky enough to have a vehicle and a unreliable safety net. I went without food continuously, in one house my EBT was shared with other housemates and once they all decided they couldn't take advantage of my labor didn't pay me back and deprived me of food.
One coincidence after another led to me losing my job a year ago and my apartment this past July (2024). I moved out of it twice trying to cover rent.
I started Effigy parcels about a year from publishing this website. Selling off-platform and eventually on Etsy. It wasn't long until Etsy banned the sale of sex novelties, specifically targeting queer and trans artisans selling depictions of nudity, genitalia, non-genital sexualized body parts, and even bdsm leathers and abstract sex toys.
I am now currently homeless again and desperately looking for any income I can get since Etsy banned sex specialty shops.
As I said before I draw comics and digital art! I've been drawing online since I was 12 years old on DeviantART. Like many trans people my age and older, the internet was my sanctuary. My portal to reality.
I am transgender and I came out to family the third or forth time-started paying for my own HRT in 2019 in Denver.
I am incredibly privileged to be able to launch this store today. Despite everything. This shop and my toys are the beginning of my love letter to sexual diversity and to all of my trans friends!
I wouldn't have gone down the silicone rabbithole without my friend Sam.
I wouldn't have continued to persue art further without all of my comics friends!
Gunner, Seb & Coo, Carl, Eddy, Krillraiser and the rest of the homies too!
I wouldn't have gotten through times I was alone without my friends Maple, Emma, Greyson and my bestie Medusa.
And this store WOULD NOT EXIST AT ALL RIGHT NOW without the help of my dear friend in a section 8 apartment Cabbage who helped me move out of my apartment when I had no place to go! Thank you lord our god Cabbage!
Thank you to all of my followers, supporters, and customers who've been on this journey with me the past year!
We did it!!
And lastly to my partner Moss who's been with me since I got to Portland and has been here the whole time looking out for me. I am currently staying with him at his grandparents house and they've kindly let us set up shop in their garage.
I was inspired to to make my toys and launch Effigy Parcels by the vast open source community that is indie silicone!
Actually mostly @SlurpToys on twitter/instagram! Please check out his stuff!
Also additional thanks to Amavidi on youtube for providing the extra tips I needed to start making toys.
Also thank you to my fellow furry community... just generally also??
Alot of horrible things have happened to me in my life but I find myself graced by my tragic circumstances where I was forced to learn about community care and true love.
I have learned so much from all of you and I feel the strongest I have ever been in this moment of low systemic affluence.
I was inspired to make zines and trans art mainly from my trans artist peers and Daniel Aston who died in my hometown during The Club Q mass shooting a couple years ago.
I found out on facebook that Daniel-like alot of us trans people- we all have the dream of expanding sex education and diversifying the concept of sex.
To think there could have been a time where we crossed paths. The regret tears me apart inside. I studied my body for years, drawing myself for decades- designing and representing myself infinitely.
And so I am willing to carry this torch for as long as I am alive.
An Effigy for us all!
Thank you,
Uilleam MacGregor
Liam Ashley
Leah Ashley
