You Won’t Erase Our Lives.
Trans people have faced erasure throughout our history.
“It is a scary time to be trans,” I keep scrolling social media, hearing so much reactionary comments about ‘protecting us, showing us love’ how cis people are afraid for our lives and well-being and it is amazing to me, that only a week ago I roasted the fuck out of this little white girl from Fredericksburg whom I went to middle and high school (very proudly to be a Black and Brown school) for saying transphobic shit in a mutual friend’s post.
Her argument? the ever ignorant and wrong “you are what you are born like.” Mines? that is funny since I recall you NOT having anything to do with POC until you moved out of our small red neck town to exploit Jazz music, develop a blackccent and a penchant for saying that having a Black child makes her non-racist. What was just a little bit of facebook dragging turned sour when this person brought up my trans-ness in respects to my children, implying that they (whom are also non binary) must be embarrassed of having a parent whom doesn’t even understand themselves enough to decide that they want to ‘be a man.’ I put her on social media blast and turns out that a lot of dirt came out about this person being racist, homophobic on top of the transphobia and blatant anti Blackness of capitalizing off of Black people’s cultures as a white femme with a re-invented persona of a boho jazz player. Look, you can take the white girl out of Fredericksburg but you can’t take the Fredericksburg whiteness outta a white girl. ‘Having black/gay/trans friends’ ain’t enough of a pass to be trash and honestly I do not want to be that friend.
Petty as it might seem to drag an idiot white girl, I tel you this story because the whole discussion came about from a cis-het friend asking a question about trans people’s identities and if they are what we say we are, I don’t get upset about these posing question anymore, chalking it up to the ‘people want to genuinely learn’ category or the ‘they just want to discuss your humanity and that ain’t a friend, hard pass’ category. A lot of people do this. A lot of friends do this. It hurts and tires to have to educate ya’ll on basic decency toward people. Ya’ll have got to do better by us…
NOT JUST BECAUSE TRANS and Enbie and Queer and Ace POC are always and forever have been at the front lines of our social movements for liberation.
Not just because we are siblings in this struggle — That LBGTQ issues ARE Black issues and Brown issues…
Well actually… YES also because of the above but how about because it is the decent humane thing to do? If that doesn’t jive with people’s ‘opinions’ or ‘faith’ then it is important to remember that cis-het-patriarchy as we know it used falsehoods as ‘god ordained’ through Christianity, which became a tool for capitalism, exploitation, sexism, slavery, imperialism and white supremacy.
As my friend Xemi The Two Spirit (buy their book here) always says:
“Two Spirits always have been and will always belong here.” #TwoSpiritsBelongHere
Not unlike the presidents of past, here is DJT trying once again to erase people of color legacy, our work and the struggles of our ancestors, our transcestors without realizing that this is not news to us.
We have been buried before by greedy colonizers. We have been surviving a society that tells us that we do not belong, that our bodies are un-welcomed in spaces where we are just trying to normally exists. — for example, many people from both sides of the isle like to use the old “trans in bathroom” argument. When people talk about bathrooms in regards to trans folks I wish I could flush their shit opinions down the toilet. It is disgusting, right wing, conservative nonsense that seeped into the mainstream as a valid talking point when it is anything But… We know whom we should be afraid of in a bathroom, a elevator, a darken hallway, our walks at night. It is cis het men. It is themselves first and predators regardless of gender identity that we should concern ourselves with and Not people trying to pee. It is of no one’s concern How your are relieving yourself in the privacy of a stall.
Cisgender people need to worry less about encountering ‘a trans’ in the bathroom, cus it has already happened. You just didn’t know therefore did not even think about it.
When you say of yourself that you open minded, trying to be understanding/supportive but willingly share transphobia for the sake of ‘conversing’ without moderating and let others with more un-evolved opinions of their own bleed into your comment sections, or when you share transphobic memes, use slurs, dead name or call people by their wrong pronouns, just understand this: trans people are watching you. You might have lost a friend over this. Or at the very least respect, trust and the feeling of safety to be ones’ full self in front of you without even knowing it. You might have hurt a person whom you claim to love or that loves You very much.
We are afraid for our safety. As we always been. We are afraid for our families, we have been for so long that some of us go our entire lives not telling our own flesh and blood who we really are for fear of losing you. We have faced difficulties from society, culture, institutions, family, god and self and we have still managed to live, love and move forward for our trans youth. DJT ain’t gonna stop that. This is not our first burial, in fact I say,
“BURY US YOU COWARDS, WE ARE THE SEEDS AND THE ROOTS.”
Trans folks, especially trans femmes of color, Black femmes being most at risk have faced death and unspeakable acts of violence because of these systems. They have lived and loved and died with fierce determination and their work and lives touch us to this day. Our movement do not move without them.
Make sure that you support a trans person today. Learn a little more each day, normalize pronouns, stand up against hatred when you see it.
Help Us, but for real this time.
Pride exists because of a woman.
Pride exists because of a black woman.
Pride exists because of a black trans woman.
Pride exists because of a black trans woman who was a sex worker.
Pride exists because of a black, bisexual trans woman who was a sex worker that threw a brick at a cop.
Pride exists because of a black, bisexual trans woman, who was a sex worker, that threw a brick at a cop and started a riot against the state.Her name was Marsha P. Johnson.
Don’t lose this month in rainbow capitalism and unabashed racism because of the privilege of being white while queer.
If you aren’t supporting the queer people of color, trans women, and queer sex workers, you aren’t celebrating pride, you are celebrating rainbow capitalism and police brutality.
