Queer Musings

I WOULD LIKE TO START A SUPPORT GROUP/DISCUSSION GROUP FOR QUEER/TRANS PEOPLE OF COLOR WHO DATE OR HAVE CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS WITH WHITE QUEERS. or generally want to talk about their experiences w/ white queer people?

feral-femme:

feral-femme:

there are lots of white queer people who i hold very near and dear to my heart. my best friend/platonic life partner, my girlfriend, and many of the queer people who i am closest to are white. my mom is also white and is kind of queer. i think they all identify and work on being anti-racist white people but there are still, obviously, plenty of instances where i feel alienated and/or silenced by the unintentional affects of their whiteness/white privilege. it is not uncommon that i am in a space where everyone is queer and/or trans, and i am the only person of color.  i think right now i have lots of things i need to explore regarding WHITE QUEERS and my experiences with them. i would like to do this with other QTPOC folk. is anyone interested in starting a private facebook group, for starters? does anyone have any recommendations for other ways this group could happen? 

please signal boost! <3

this also should include queer and trans people of color who have white family members, such as queer people of color who were transracially adopted or come from a mixed race family.

signal boost

Binary trans men, you are capable of being sexist.

iragray:

Trigger warning for discussions of sexism, transmisogyny, rape, and abuse.

I just wanted to remind you, because almost every trans man I interact with is incredibly sexist. I recognize that whether or not we (sometimes we, since I’m non-binary) gain access to male privilege can be complicated what with sometimes being perceived as women and all. I recognize that some of us internalize the messages sent to men and some of us don’t. Lastly, I recognize that some of us don’t want or need to medically transition. 

I want to be clear that these things don’t mean we can reclaim terms used against cis and/or trans women. These things don’t mean we deserve access to women’s spaces. When it comes to reproductive needs, things get a little more blurry. In the blur of these lines, however, trans women are most certainly left out. Let’s work to change that. In a support group, exclusively for women, however, we are not welcome and rightfully so for every space outside of women’s spaces is a man’s space. We have plenty of room whereas women are forced to find and create safe spaces. We hardly allow them room to breathe elsewhere.

Being trans does not mean we are incapable of being abusive. Being trans does not mean we know what it is like to exist in a male supremacist society as a woman. Some of us do; some of us don’t. My point is that it’s not inherent. When in relationships with women, it is on us too to make sure consent is present at all times. We too are capable of rape. 

Trans men, we do not understand the experiences of trans women or of folks who also are gendered male at birth. Acting as though we do is taking part in transmisogyny and, therefore, also taking part in sexism. We don’t experience the same struggles as trans* folks who are gendered male at birth, and when we list off the plethora of trans women’s names during Trans* Day of Remembrance, let us take notice the monumental difference between how much space their struggles take on that list in comparison to ours for theirs is far greater. 

Let us remember to move back and allow women to communicate their ideas for they are encouraged by us and by male supremacy to not do so. Let us remember that when taking part in trans* advocacy to include and encourage the inclusion the trans* folks who are gendered male at birth always. Let us not take part in urinary segregation nor in segregation of coercively given genders for these constructs limit the liberation of all people, not just trans* folks.

This could go on forever, but lastly, and potentially most importantly, let us recognize that we can always grow as allies to women and to CGMAB, non-binary, trans* folks. Let us recognize that we do not deserve cookies for not being rapists, for otherwise practicing good consent, for recognizing the existence of sexism and/or transmisogyny, or for not reclaiming words used against women (or for writing posts such as these). Remember to call out other men when you have the chance. Remember that it is not your place to dictate what is or is not sexist. Recognize your privilege and keep it in check.

(via transfeminism)

Tennessee state Rep. Richard Floyd, “I Would Stomp A Mudhole In A Transgender Person”

transfeminism:

abaldwin360:

This is Richard Floyd, Tennessee State Representative and sponsor of the Bathroom Harassment Act, a bill that would fine transgender people $50 for using restrooms and dressing rooms.

True to his name, the man is a dick. Here’s a direct quote from this shining example of morality:

I believe if I was standing at a dressing room and my wife or one of my daughters was in the dressing room and a man tried to go in there — I don’t care if he thinks he’s a woman and tries on clothes with them in there — I’d just try to stomp a mudhole in him and then stomp him dry.

Don’t ask me to adjust to their perverted way of thinking and put my family at risk. We cannot continue to let these people dominate how society acts and reacts. Now if somebody thinks he’s a woman and he’s a man and wants to try on women’s clothes, let him take them into the men’s bathroom or dressing room.

Think Progress has a video of an interview with Dick Floyd, where he tries to state that the bill doesn’t “penalize anybody,” that it “protects everybody,” and that he could “care less” what transgender advocacy groups think.

Which begs the question, if this guy says that the bill doesn’t penalize anybody, does that mean he doesn’t think of transgender people as “anybody”?

Comments where someone openly describes, in explicit details, their cold-blooded fantasy about murdering a trans woman for using women’s sex-segregated public accommodations are not at all uncommon. You are likely to hear statements like Tennessee state Rep. Richard Floyd’s wherever issues concerning trans people’s rights to access public accommodations are being discussed.

The imagined scenario is almost always the same: A trans woman who attempts to use a women’s restroom or dressing room, in which a cis female is present, is killed in the most brutal way the speaker can imagine. It usually involves literally beating that trans woman into a bloody pulp. The person always describes their imagined self as acting out of the heat of the moment to protect a cis female, often a daughter or granddaughter.

I don’t know of any of these stories ever actually describing the trans woman doing anything to the cis female — the trans woman’s presence alone in the same restroom is all that is required. And the fact that these are pre-imagined scenarios betrays any sugestion that it is done in the heat of the moment.

Every time I hear these types of murder fantasies I immediately think of lynchings. Jim Crow and the lynchings and other forms of violence that bolstered this system of White supremacy used very similar arguments where all Black men were treated as sexual predators and threats to White women. And it should be noted that the majority of trans women killed in the U.S. each year are Black and Latina. While all trans women are threatened by these hateful, bloodthirsty fantasies, it’s Latina and Black trans women who are most vulnerable. 

I also see how these sexual predator myths are increasingly being applied to very young trans girls. People like Floyd put these young trans girls at risk when they use restrooms and changing rooms or join female youth organizations like the Girl Scouts and it scares me. Where does a person like Richard Floyd draw the line? Would he kill a 14 or 11 year old trans girl? What about an eight or five year old girl?

The lie of Rep. Richard Floyd’s bill is that it does exactly the opposite of what it claims to do. Rather than protecting women and children, it promotes violence against women and children. Only, as he tells us himself through his own murderous fantasy, Floyd and people like him don’t think the lives of trans women and children are worth anything.

pompadoursandpincurls:

boyqueen:

Today I wore my “trans pride” shirt out with my mom (because it would be easiest if the problem is just that she’s forgetting my gender and needs to be reminded sometimes instead of that she just refuses to believe it exists).  I usually expect stares in that shirt, I usually wear it in secret with scarves on top or a sweater.  But I wore it nothing less than emblazoned across my chest and the queens and queers were out in full force when we went out and they saw me and they smiled and winked and nodded and told me they liked my shirt or they liked my hair but I knew that it meant I SEE YOU BOO, YOU ARE ALIVE AND BEAUTIFUL AND I AM TOO. 

And I don’t want legibility and recognition to mean so much to me but it just does right now in this moment.   Because it is too easy to disappear if I feel invisible.  Because I wanted to kill myself a little less the next fifteen times my mother called me someone else’s name and someone else’s pronoun.  Because I wanted to live a little more when you leaned into your hip and raised you hand heavy with rings and turned your smile as crooked as your stance and told me you liked my hair.

Thank you gorgeous strangers for those stolen moments in the busy shoping mall.  I see you too, boo <3

This is beautiful and I need it on my blog.

(via cage-veil-cunt)