I did a lot of thinking last night about some Big Ideas, and I am sure that comes as a complete and total surprise to you. I'd like to share a little of this. I won't pretend any of my thoughts or ideas are novel and bright shining glistening new...but they are my thoughts, assembled in my own way, and presented with no varnish or candy coating to help the medicine go down.
I want to start this essay off with a little bit of etymology. My last name is derived from the German Kniespol, which in succession is derived from the Czech Kněžpole. Kněžpole is a village and municipality (obec) in Uherské Hradiště District in the Zlín Region of the Czech Republic. This will become important later, so please keep this in mind, OK?
~~~~~//||\\~~~~~
We are told, time and again, that we have 2 years before midterm elections, and that's when we'll wrest the House from the Republican party. The thing is, we don't have two years...we only think we do because no one ever learns from history. We all think things will go differently when the plain and simple fact of the matter is that they never do. All one needs to do is look back at history and see the exact same set of variables occur time and time again to realise that the only change will come when the cycle is broken early, and when we do learn from the mistakes of the past.
To wit:
Adolf Hitler rose to power through an entirely populist movement in post-Weimar Germany. He made promises to the working class that he'd legislate to improve their lots, to free them from the shackles of an invisible entity of indistinct shape and size which oppressed them and kept them down. He played on their fears, their worries, their place in society, and promised to Make Germany Great Again for her people.
In 1930, Hitler and several other Reichswehr officers were brought up on charges of being members of the NSDAP, the National Socialist German Workers' Party. You may know them better by their common name, the Nazi Party. The NSDAP "was an extremist party, prompting defence lawyer Hans Frank to call on Hitler to testify. On 25 September 1930, Hitler testified that his party would pursue political power solely through democratic elections, which won him many supporters in the officer corps." (Wheeler-Bennett, John (1967). The Nemesis of Power. London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-1812-3.)
Three years later, on 30 January, Hitler was named Chancellor of Germany.
Two months after his election to the highest position in the German government, on 23 March 1933, the Reichstag were called to the Kroll Opera House to vote on the Ermächtigungsgesetz (Enabling Act). The Act—officially titled the Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich ("Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich")—gave Hitler's cabinet the power to enact laws without the consent of the Reichstag for four years.
These laws could deviate from the German constitution. Since it would affect the constitution, the Enabling Act required a two-thirds majority to pass. "Leaving nothing to chance, the Nazis used the provisions of the Reichstag Fire Decree to arrest all 81 Communist deputies (in spite of their virulent campaign against the party, the Nazis had allowed the KPD to contest the election) and prevent several Social Democrats from attending." (Shirer, William L. (1960). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-62420-0.)
Two days later the vote passed 441-84, essentially rendering the German government a de facto dictatorship under the auspices of Hitler and his political cronies.
~~~~~//||\\~~~~~
"At the risk of appearing to talk nonsense I tell you that the National Socialist movement will go on for 1,000 years! ... Don't forget how people laughed at me 15 years ago when I declared that one day I would govern Germany. They laugh now, just as foolishly, when I declare that I shall remain in power!"
("Germany: Second Revolution?". Time Magazine. Time. 2 July 1934. Archived from the original on 17 April 2008.)
~~~~~//||\\~~~~~
If any of this sounds familiar, it should.
Now, considering that, look at the length of time between assumption of power and dissolution of any semblance of democracy.
Two months.
Not two years.
Two months.
Now, I'd asked you to remember something above, and here's where this comes into play.
Appeasement in a political context is a diplomatic policy of making political or material concessions to an enemy power in order to avoid conflict. The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the British Prime Ministers Ramsay Macdonald, Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain towards Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy between 1935 and 1939.
Appeasement can take many forms. At the least extreme, it can be 'when they go low, we go high,' doing things like donating money to rebuild campaign offices...money that would be covered by insurance, money that would have been better utilised by benefitting groups that truly need that funding to oppose the policies of the right wing. At a more extreme juncture, it can be assurances to work with the opposition if only they show themselves to have the best interests of (insert geopolitical phrase here) in mind, even when all publicly stated policies run counter to that.
And at the most extreme point, it's a decision to not oppose a nation taking over country by country so long as they leave us alone.
It results in things like the Anchluss.
The Munich Agreement of 1938.
The Munich Betrayal.
Comments like this:
"How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas masks here because of a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing."
And so it goes.
~~~~~//||\\~~~~~
1 September was the date that Germany invaded Poland. By this time, Germany had annexed Czechoslovakia, and by 1940 German occupation was pretty much absolute. There were several resistance groups...The Defense of the Nation (organised by the Czech army command), the Politické ústředí which was virtually eliminated following arrests in 1939, the Petiční výbor Věrni zůstaneme, formed by trade unionists and intellectuals, and the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, which found itself hamstrung for a swath of the early part of the war until actively fighting back in 1941 following Operation Barbarossa.
Kněžpole is a small municipality...even now it is home to less than 1100 people. However in 1940 the residents of the town took part in the Czech resistance against the Reich. Despite the overwhelming odds against them they fought back, and at least 18 residents were arrested for treason and summarily executed.
They didn't capitulate in the face of a stronger force.
It's even possible they knew that the fight was futile.
But they fought. They didn't appease. They didn't expose their bellies. They fought, were arrested, and died for the cause of liberation.
Right now in America, we have two major political parties. One is an extreme right wing party who draws ideas as much from Mussolini as they do the Reich. This is a party that thinks women are simply breeding incubators for babies, that gays and transgender people can be electrocuted into normalcy, that deporting the 'others' and registering Muslims is perfectly OK because there's precedent to do that.
The other party is a party of Neville Chamberlains and Stanley Baldwins.
It's a party of politicians who fought against the right wing, only to say 'well we need to give them a chance,' even as their own party was gridlocked for eight years. It's a party of journalists and pundits bummed out that people booed the vice-president elect at a musical, because at least he's trying to engage, and who state that said booing shows a lack of respect for said same.
We wonder so often why the good people of Germany allowed such atrocities to happen. We talk so much about how we'd be different, how we'd fight back, how we'd stare in the face of fascism and spit in it.
But when the rubber hits the road, no one has any rubber to hit the road with.
I am not a 'good German.'
I reject fascism.
I reject a party and a leadership that espouses and advocates othering and torture.
And like the people of my namesake town in the Czech Republic, I will resist, and I will bleed if necessary. Because I will not belly up, I will not be quiet, I will not appease.
We do not have two years.
And I will not be Neville Chamberlain.
(NB: This is posted under the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
license with the intent that you may share it if you have found it
informative, helpful, or enlightening. You may use extracts, properly
attributed, as part of your work as long is it is openly shared under
similar license.)
04 December 2016
Transgender Day of Remembrance 2016
(NB: This was initially posted on Facebook on the 20November 2016. I am now sharing it here as well.)
Sunday 20 November is the 18th Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Because of reasons beyond my ability to control, I am unable to share this on my wall. For the first time since I started being more public about myself, I am not allowed by Facebook to express my thoughts about TDOR. Instead, I am going to write this, and ask for each of you to share this as widely as possible.
I have a story to tell. This should come as no surprise, really...when do I not have a story to tell? This one is personal, and surely I will get into some kind of trouble for it, so I'm going to be very non specific on certain things. Names have been removed.
Here we go.
A while ago I spoke on the phone to a very dear friend of mine who had just come out as trans. I was hugely proud of her, as the pix I saw showed the same kinds of things people said of me when I came out...a genuine smile, a glow, a radiance. There was an ease of bearing...a sense of truly being, rather than wearing an ill fitting costume. I was so proud of her, and told her that. I encouraged her, told her how much happier she'd be as she progressed along and came out of the shell that'd held her back for so long.
We both cried. It was incredibly powerful. I remembered how I felt when I had this conversation from the other side of the equation, and I can imagine how she felt, but not really, you know? I just know I was proud of her. Like you are.
Several days after that call, I had a second call.
On this call, I was told goodbye.
She was scared. Terrified of a world in which people would attack her for being her. Terrified of a world in which a fascist neo-dictator would be legislating against all non WASP cis het people. She's not only trans, she's a trans WOC and so double the worry. She was happy with her decision...she was going to make a day of it, go to the movies, have a great dinner, and she was at peace with her decision. She was in too much pain...physical, emotional, fear...she didn't want to have to bear living in fear every time she walked out her door.
To the best of my understanding, she's still with us. It's touch and go. I know she's in the best hands she can be in, but...it's hard.
And I get it. I do.
Last night...or was it the night before?...I got a FB message from a friend of mine I have known since high school, apologising for not touching base with me and checking in on me sooner. She knew how terrified I must be feeling and felt she'd done me wrong, maybe?, by not taking the time to make sure I was OK and if I needed anything sooner. I don't know that there was any reason to apologise to me, since I knew just how much pressure she'd been under with so much stuff in her personal and professional live...but I meant and mean enough that she DID find the time to tell me I mattered, and that she saw me and heard me and was with me.
I am not sure how easy that is to understand.
But here's the thing, OK?
I say constantly that I don't want allies, and I don't. I do want accomplices, people who will dive into the mud and the blood and fight with me, not for me.
Most of all, however, I want friends.
That's all any of us...and by us, I mean humanity as a whole, of course, but specifically, I mean my trans brothers and sisters and enbies and the rest. We want friends. We want to know we matter. We need to know that we have people who will help keep us safe. Especially in a world like the one we are creating through peccatum omissionis et commissionis, we want to know that the way out is through...that there is in fact a way through that people can help us through when we need it, holding us up when we are hurting, walking alongside us when we can carry ourselves.
I grew up in the country, and it was not until I went to college that I had any exposure to a community of LGBTQIALMNOP people. I felt...no, knew...I was a freak, and a monster, and horribly terribly broken. I've said it before, and I'll say it again here; I was terribly homophobic and transphobic. Perhaps not vocally so, but the fact is in my head and my heart I know I was...and yes, that was because I hated what I saw in me, which I knew was wrong, and evidence that I was irreparably broken.
How many of us feel that way?
How many trans youth wake up every day knowing, because of what they are taught, that they are worthless?
How many are rejected outright by their families?
How many have to live rough, do risky things, just to have a 'safe' place to stay?
Too many.
2016 has already surpassed 2015 as the deadliest year for trans men and women in the 'United' States. Let me list the names, so I can offer my own remembrance:
Monica Loera, a 43-year-old Latina trans woman from North Austin, Texas. For days, both the media and police report identified her as a man and referred to her using her birth name.
Jasmine Sierra, a 52-year-old Latina trans woman from Bakersfield, California, was found dead in an apartment on 22 January, with her body showing signs of trauma and foul play according to police.
Kayden Clarke, a 24-year-old white transgender man with Asperger's syndrome from Mesa, Arizona, was fatally shot on 4 February by police who had been responding to a call to prevent him from committing suicide.
Maya Young, a 25-year-old black trans woman from Philadelphia, was fatally stabbed on 20 February 2016.
Demarkis Stansberry, a 30-year-old African-American transgender man of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was fatally shot on 27 February by an acquaintance. Some media reports identified him as a woman and used his former name.
Kedarie/Kandicee Johnson, 16-year-old black genderfluid child (who went by both names and used the pronoun they), was found dead by Burlington, Iowa police on 2 March, having been shot several times and left in an alley.
Kourtney Yochum, a 32-year-old trans woman of color, was murdered on 23 March in Los Angeles.
Shante Thompson, a 34-year-old black transgender woman, was beaten and fatally shot in Houston, Texas on 11 April.
Keyonna Blakeney, a 22-year-old black trans woman from Upper Marlboro, Maryland who had attended Bowie State University, was found dead in a hotel room in Rockville, Maryland on 16 April, with trauma to the upper body indicating she had been beaten and murdered.
Reese Walker, a 32-year-old black transgender woman from Wichita, Kansas, was stabbed to death in the evening of 1 May, in her Windridge apartment bedroom.
Mercedes Successful, a 32-year-old black transgender woman was found dead in a Haines City, Florida parking lot on 15 May 2016, after being shot.
Amos Beede, a 38-year-old homeless transgender man was severely beaten in Burlington, Vermont on 23 May. He died of his injuries (broken bones, internal bleeding in the brain) in the hospital six days later, on 29 May.
"Goddess" Diamond, a 20-year-old black trans woman, was found in a torched car in New Orleans, Louisiana on 5 June. She died from blunt force trauma before the car was burned.
Deeniqua Dodds, a 22-year-old black trans woman, was shot in the neck near her home in Washington D.C. on 4 July 2016. The shot left her hospitalized on life support until she died on 14 July.
Dee Whigham, a 25-year-old black trans woman who worked as a nurse, was stabbed to death in the face and body on 23 July in her hotel room in Biloxi, Mississippi, where she was staying with friends to see a rodeo. Police arrested a 20-year-old US Navy trainee as the suspected killer.
Skye Mockabee, a 26-year-old black trans woman, was found dead on 30 July in a parking lot in Ohio with a head wound, the victim of an apparent homicide. Initial reports from the medical examiner and police misnamed and misgendered her.
Erykah/Erika Tijerina, a 36-year-old Latina trans woman, was found dead in her apartment in El Paso, Texas on 8 August 2016. Tijerina's sisters expressed belief that her death was a hate crime.
Rae'Lynn Thomas, a 28-year-old black trans woman, was shot twice in front of her mother, and then beaten to death by James Allen Byrd in Columbus, Ohio on 10 August as she begged for her life Byrd called her "the devil" and made transphobic comments. Her family called for the murder to be investigated as a hate crime, but Ohio hate crime statues do not cover gender identity.
T.T. Saffore, a trans woman, aged 26 or 27, from Chicago's West Side was found murdered in Chicago's Garfield Park the evening of 11 September 2016. Her throat had been cut and a knife was found nearby. According to a friend of T.T., Saffore got into an altercation with a young woman on Madison Street. The woman pulled a knife and allegedly said "I'm going to get you killed." T.T. did not report the crime to the Chicago Police Department due to a fear of abuse from CPD officers towards trans women who live on the West Side. Major media outlets misgendered her.
Crystal Edmonds, a 32-year-old black trans woman, was killed in Baltimore on 16 September 2016.
Jazz Alford, a 30-year-old black trans woman from North Carolina, was killed in her hotel room in Birmingham, Alabama on 23 September 2016. She was initially misgendered by the police, but her sister Toya Milan, also a trans woman, corrected the record as to her sister's gender.
Brandi Bledsoe, a 32-year-old black trans woman from Cleveland, Ohio, was found dead in a driveway on 8 October 2016. Her body, wearing only underwear with white plastic bags covering her head and hands. She was found by a 5-year-old boy.
Sierra/Simon Bush, a white 18 year old gender nonconforming Boise State University student went missing on 24 September. The body was found naked in a rural area creek south of Idaho City, Idaho, about 30 miles away from their home a month later, on 25 October. An investigation is still ongoing, "Police have not said whether they suspect foul play in her death, or whether Bush left Boise of her own volition. But Boise Police Sgt. Justin Kendall said the case is being investigated as suspicious.
Noony Norwood, a 30-year-old transgender woman of color, was shot and killed on 5 November 2016 in Virginia. Police are investigating surveillance of a man leaving the scene. They are not yet clear about what the motive of the killer may have been.
Not even in death are these men and women afforded any dignity. Misgendered, misnamed, treated as less than chattel, left to die for children to find, for police to say 'well, it may be suspicious,' not reporting things because they fear abuse at the hands of the people sworn to protect them.
This is our world.
Not just for everyone, but for every trans man, woman, and non-binary out there that I call my family.
And thanks to 60 million people, it's going to get worse.
So when I say anyone who voted for the president-elect is worthless, is scum, lacks common decency and humanity, see where I am coming from. I have no reason or need to be kind. I have no need or reason to be polite, to be respectful, to appease. He has made it clear he is not my president, and thus I refuse to recognise him as such. At the VERY best, he is a crimson king, and the blood on his hands will never wash away.
There is an epidemic of murder against my community going on, and too many hands are complicit in it.
So take a few minutes today, and take into consideration the men and women and enbies and genderfluid individuals I listed above. Offer them some respect, unlike what was afforded them in life. Spare them and their families some love...because surely they lacked in that in life.
Take some time and spare a thought for my friend, who deserves to know she is loved, and respected, and seen.
And then do something.
Make a fucking difference.
Because next time...next time, the name you'll see may be mine.
(This is posted under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license with the intent that you may share it if you have found it informative, helpful, or enlightening. You may use extracts, properly attributed, as part of your work as long is it is openly shared under similar license.)
Sunday 20 November is the 18th Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Because of reasons beyond my ability to control, I am unable to share this on my wall. For the first time since I started being more public about myself, I am not allowed by Facebook to express my thoughts about TDOR. Instead, I am going to write this, and ask for each of you to share this as widely as possible.
I have a story to tell. This should come as no surprise, really...when do I not have a story to tell? This one is personal, and surely I will get into some kind of trouble for it, so I'm going to be very non specific on certain things. Names have been removed.
Here we go.
A while ago I spoke on the phone to a very dear friend of mine who had just come out as trans. I was hugely proud of her, as the pix I saw showed the same kinds of things people said of me when I came out...a genuine smile, a glow, a radiance. There was an ease of bearing...a sense of truly being, rather than wearing an ill fitting costume. I was so proud of her, and told her that. I encouraged her, told her how much happier she'd be as she progressed along and came out of the shell that'd held her back for so long.
We both cried. It was incredibly powerful. I remembered how I felt when I had this conversation from the other side of the equation, and I can imagine how she felt, but not really, you know? I just know I was proud of her. Like you are.
Several days after that call, I had a second call.
On this call, I was told goodbye.
She was scared. Terrified of a world in which people would attack her for being her. Terrified of a world in which a fascist neo-dictator would be legislating against all non WASP cis het people. She's not only trans, she's a trans WOC and so double the worry. She was happy with her decision...she was going to make a day of it, go to the movies, have a great dinner, and she was at peace with her decision. She was in too much pain...physical, emotional, fear...she didn't want to have to bear living in fear every time she walked out her door.
To the best of my understanding, she's still with us. It's touch and go. I know she's in the best hands she can be in, but...it's hard.
And I get it. I do.
Last night...or was it the night before?...I got a FB message from a friend of mine I have known since high school, apologising for not touching base with me and checking in on me sooner. She knew how terrified I must be feeling and felt she'd done me wrong, maybe?, by not taking the time to make sure I was OK and if I needed anything sooner. I don't know that there was any reason to apologise to me, since I knew just how much pressure she'd been under with so much stuff in her personal and professional live...but I meant and mean enough that she DID find the time to tell me I mattered, and that she saw me and heard me and was with me.
I am not sure how easy that is to understand.
But here's the thing, OK?
I say constantly that I don't want allies, and I don't. I do want accomplices, people who will dive into the mud and the blood and fight with me, not for me.
Most of all, however, I want friends.
That's all any of us...and by us, I mean humanity as a whole, of course, but specifically, I mean my trans brothers and sisters and enbies and the rest. We want friends. We want to know we matter. We need to know that we have people who will help keep us safe. Especially in a world like the one we are creating through peccatum omissionis et commissionis, we want to know that the way out is through...that there is in fact a way through that people can help us through when we need it, holding us up when we are hurting, walking alongside us when we can carry ourselves.
I grew up in the country, and it was not until I went to college that I had any exposure to a community of LGBTQIALMNOP people. I felt...no, knew...I was a freak, and a monster, and horribly terribly broken. I've said it before, and I'll say it again here; I was terribly homophobic and transphobic. Perhaps not vocally so, but the fact is in my head and my heart I know I was...and yes, that was because I hated what I saw in me, which I knew was wrong, and evidence that I was irreparably broken.
How many of us feel that way?
How many trans youth wake up every day knowing, because of what they are taught, that they are worthless?
How many are rejected outright by their families?
How many have to live rough, do risky things, just to have a 'safe' place to stay?
Too many.
2016 has already surpassed 2015 as the deadliest year for trans men and women in the 'United' States. Let me list the names, so I can offer my own remembrance:
Monica Loera, a 43-year-old Latina trans woman from North Austin, Texas. For days, both the media and police report identified her as a man and referred to her using her birth name.
Jasmine Sierra, a 52-year-old Latina trans woman from Bakersfield, California, was found dead in an apartment on 22 January, with her body showing signs of trauma and foul play according to police.
Kayden Clarke, a 24-year-old white transgender man with Asperger's syndrome from Mesa, Arizona, was fatally shot on 4 February by police who had been responding to a call to prevent him from committing suicide.
Maya Young, a 25-year-old black trans woman from Philadelphia, was fatally stabbed on 20 February 2016.
Demarkis Stansberry, a 30-year-old African-American transgender man of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was fatally shot on 27 February by an acquaintance. Some media reports identified him as a woman and used his former name.
Kedarie/Kandicee Johnson, 16-year-old black genderfluid child (who went by both names and used the pronoun they), was found dead by Burlington, Iowa police on 2 March, having been shot several times and left in an alley.
Kourtney Yochum, a 32-year-old trans woman of color, was murdered on 23 March in Los Angeles.
Shante Thompson, a 34-year-old black transgender woman, was beaten and fatally shot in Houston, Texas on 11 April.
Keyonna Blakeney, a 22-year-old black trans woman from Upper Marlboro, Maryland who had attended Bowie State University, was found dead in a hotel room in Rockville, Maryland on 16 April, with trauma to the upper body indicating she had been beaten and murdered.
Reese Walker, a 32-year-old black transgender woman from Wichita, Kansas, was stabbed to death in the evening of 1 May, in her Windridge apartment bedroom.
Mercedes Successful, a 32-year-old black transgender woman was found dead in a Haines City, Florida parking lot on 15 May 2016, after being shot.
Amos Beede, a 38-year-old homeless transgender man was severely beaten in Burlington, Vermont on 23 May. He died of his injuries (broken bones, internal bleeding in the brain) in the hospital six days later, on 29 May.
"Goddess" Diamond, a 20-year-old black trans woman, was found in a torched car in New Orleans, Louisiana on 5 June. She died from blunt force trauma before the car was burned.
Deeniqua Dodds, a 22-year-old black trans woman, was shot in the neck near her home in Washington D.C. on 4 July 2016. The shot left her hospitalized on life support until she died on 14 July.
Dee Whigham, a 25-year-old black trans woman who worked as a nurse, was stabbed to death in the face and body on 23 July in her hotel room in Biloxi, Mississippi, where she was staying with friends to see a rodeo. Police arrested a 20-year-old US Navy trainee as the suspected killer.
Skye Mockabee, a 26-year-old black trans woman, was found dead on 30 July in a parking lot in Ohio with a head wound, the victim of an apparent homicide. Initial reports from the medical examiner and police misnamed and misgendered her.
Erykah/Erika Tijerina, a 36-year-old Latina trans woman, was found dead in her apartment in El Paso, Texas on 8 August 2016. Tijerina's sisters expressed belief that her death was a hate crime.
Rae'Lynn Thomas, a 28-year-old black trans woman, was shot twice in front of her mother, and then beaten to death by James Allen Byrd in Columbus, Ohio on 10 August as she begged for her life Byrd called her "the devil" and made transphobic comments. Her family called for the murder to be investigated as a hate crime, but Ohio hate crime statues do not cover gender identity.
T.T. Saffore, a trans woman, aged 26 or 27, from Chicago's West Side was found murdered in Chicago's Garfield Park the evening of 11 September 2016. Her throat had been cut and a knife was found nearby. According to a friend of T.T., Saffore got into an altercation with a young woman on Madison Street. The woman pulled a knife and allegedly said "I'm going to get you killed." T.T. did not report the crime to the Chicago Police Department due to a fear of abuse from CPD officers towards trans women who live on the West Side. Major media outlets misgendered her.
Crystal Edmonds, a 32-year-old black trans woman, was killed in Baltimore on 16 September 2016.
Jazz Alford, a 30-year-old black trans woman from North Carolina, was killed in her hotel room in Birmingham, Alabama on 23 September 2016. She was initially misgendered by the police, but her sister Toya Milan, also a trans woman, corrected the record as to her sister's gender.
Brandi Bledsoe, a 32-year-old black trans woman from Cleveland, Ohio, was found dead in a driveway on 8 October 2016. Her body, wearing only underwear with white plastic bags covering her head and hands. She was found by a 5-year-old boy.
Sierra/Simon Bush, a white 18 year old gender nonconforming Boise State University student went missing on 24 September. The body was found naked in a rural area creek south of Idaho City, Idaho, about 30 miles away from their home a month later, on 25 October. An investigation is still ongoing, "Police have not said whether they suspect foul play in her death, or whether Bush left Boise of her own volition. But Boise Police Sgt. Justin Kendall said the case is being investigated as suspicious.
Noony Norwood, a 30-year-old transgender woman of color, was shot and killed on 5 November 2016 in Virginia. Police are investigating surveillance of a man leaving the scene. They are not yet clear about what the motive of the killer may have been.
Not even in death are these men and women afforded any dignity. Misgendered, misnamed, treated as less than chattel, left to die for children to find, for police to say 'well, it may be suspicious,' not reporting things because they fear abuse at the hands of the people sworn to protect them.
This is our world.
Not just for everyone, but for every trans man, woman, and non-binary out there that I call my family.
And thanks to 60 million people, it's going to get worse.
So when I say anyone who voted for the president-elect is worthless, is scum, lacks common decency and humanity, see where I am coming from. I have no reason or need to be kind. I have no need or reason to be polite, to be respectful, to appease. He has made it clear he is not my president, and thus I refuse to recognise him as such. At the VERY best, he is a crimson king, and the blood on his hands will never wash away.
There is an epidemic of murder against my community going on, and too many hands are complicit in it.
So take a few minutes today, and take into consideration the men and women and enbies and genderfluid individuals I listed above. Offer them some respect, unlike what was afforded them in life. Spare them and their families some love...because surely they lacked in that in life.
Take some time and spare a thought for my friend, who deserves to know she is loved, and respected, and seen.
And then do something.
Make a fucking difference.
Because next time...next time, the name you'll see may be mine.
(This is posted under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license with the intent that you may share it if you have found it informative, helpful, or enlightening. You may use extracts, properly attributed, as part of your work as long is it is openly shared under similar license.)
27 January 2016
Intersectionality, body shaming, and elevation
Many of you may have seen the story about the mom and her daughter at a Dillards doing the prom dress thing, and the salesperson getting all pushy and stuff. What upsets me equally as much is reading people's responses to the open letter the mom wrote, accusing her of pushing the dress on her daughter (it's a gorgeous floor length dress I'd die to wear) and then body shaming the girl as well...with so many of them being other women. What does that say, that we're tearing each other down? Does that make us better? What does that say about societal conditioning? What does that say about expectations?
What does it say about how much we've absorbed the thinking of the patriarchy?
We all deserve elevating. We all deserve to be seen as the beautiful people we are, no matter our body shape. You don't elevate by tearing down. You're being just as bad as the salesperson at the store and it disgusts me.
I will never look like a cis-typical woman...and I'm actually pretty ok with that. I'll always be broad shouldered. I'll always be the height I am...and obviously way taller in heels, which I wear when I can not because it's expected but because I like them. I know why passing is important for so many people, and yes, there's a part of me that would love to pass. But I look at what I've got already, and on good days can say nice things about my legs and butt, and realise that despite my self-effacement and self-deprecation I am actually a decently put together woman.
I have left so many trans support groups because of body shaming there...transwomen telling others to wear more makeup or get a wig or wear different clothes or why don't you shave better (to genderqueer or enbys) or you need to wear a dress and not jeans and a t or whatever. I hate it. And by it, I am not referring to the people shamed, but of course to the ones doing the shaming. We already have so many issues to deal with...depression, abuse, fear of violence...tearing things apart from the inside makes it worse. I half think a lot of the time that there are as many TERFs inside the community as outside.
There are reasons I feel I need to go this alone and not be part of a support group...other than the friends I have gathered together here on this thin raft. Because you get it. You don't tear down. You elevate. You're intersectional. You tell all women they are beautiful.
You tell me I am.
I don't know what I'm getting at or where I'm going with this. Like I said, I'm feeling a lot of emotional overwhelm-edness-ing-ment today.
But all y'all are beautiful.
Even the boys.
What does it say about how much we've absorbed the thinking of the patriarchy?
We all deserve elevating. We all deserve to be seen as the beautiful people we are, no matter our body shape. You don't elevate by tearing down. You're being just as bad as the salesperson at the store and it disgusts me.
I will never look like a cis-typical woman...and I'm actually pretty ok with that. I'll always be broad shouldered. I'll always be the height I am...and obviously way taller in heels, which I wear when I can not because it's expected but because I like them. I know why passing is important for so many people, and yes, there's a part of me that would love to pass. But I look at what I've got already, and on good days can say nice things about my legs and butt, and realise that despite my self-effacement and self-deprecation I am actually a decently put together woman.
I have left so many trans support groups because of body shaming there...transwomen telling others to wear more makeup or get a wig or wear different clothes or why don't you shave better (to genderqueer or enbys) or you need to wear a dress and not jeans and a t or whatever. I hate it. And by it, I am not referring to the people shamed, but of course to the ones doing the shaming. We already have so many issues to deal with...depression, abuse, fear of violence...tearing things apart from the inside makes it worse. I half think a lot of the time that there are as many TERFs inside the community as outside.
There are reasons I feel I need to go this alone and not be part of a support group...other than the friends I have gathered together here on this thin raft. Because you get it. You don't tear down. You elevate. You're intersectional. You tell all women they are beautiful.
You tell me I am.
I don't know what I'm getting at or where I'm going with this. Like I said, I'm feeling a lot of emotional overwhelm-edness-ing-ment today.
But all y'all are beautiful.
Even the boys.
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