The gender binary and heteronormativity crush our imagination and our possibilities. They force us into unnecessary boxes of expectations. Their limitations keep us from liberation. We must build beyond them.
The Trans Student Educational Resources site has a page of useful definitions, clarifying things such as the difference between sex and gender, for example. Read over all of them and celebrate the beautiful variety of gender and sexual expression that exists.
Listen and learn from those who live beyond the binary. “We aren’t failures: Naming what was lost as an agender person,” is a beautiful piece by local activist (Hill)ry Brown that was published on Autostraddle.
Follow trans women of color to freedom.
“There cannot be an end to patriarchy without an embracing of trans rights. It’s fundamentally impossible,” activist Imara Jones said in a recent interview on the Laura Flanders Show.
“And to the degree in which we believe that patriarchy is a fundamental pillar on which injustice is built in our society, that means that that pillar can’t be undone. As long as we have gender essentialism, as long as we think in binary ways, we’re gonna get caught in the same constant trap. It’s one of the reasons why we haven’t made as much progress as we think we should have made in feminism and on women’s rights, that’s because misogyny and patriarchy are essentially still there, and they work in the same ways around these issues. What the trans perspective does is that it fundamentally undermines that. It takes the core argument of biological determinism out of the conversation of gender, which then undermines patriarchy.”
Watch the whole interview, which is full of powerful insights, here:
This is a tweet I saw and loved: “trans as in lawless, as in freedom is the language of our bones, as in dangerously blossoming with human possibility, as in shame on you for trying to control what will always be ours.” – @ntranloan
SisterSong, an amazing women of color reproductive rights collective, recently sent out a call to action. Excerpt:
“Many people see the riots at the Stonewall Inn in 1969 as the birth of the modern movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. That moment – a riot, a protest, an amazing and beautiful rising up of people pushed to the margins for too long – was started and led by transgender women of color and self-identified drag queens who were tired of being hurt by people in their communities and who had nowhere to turn in a system that pushed them down came together and resisted.
We owe so many of the rights that we have today to those women. We are grateful to them. We honor their courage and their sacrifice by continuing their work to stand with and follow the lead of transgender women of color who are fighting not just for their human rights, but who are fighting for their lives.”
On Thursday, November 1, 2018, at 6:30 pm, there will be a “Service of Refuge and Strength” at the Land of Sky UCC Church, hosted by Tranzmission and the church. The event invite reads: “A gathering for the transgender and non-binary community and their allies to find refuge in community and equip ourselves for the way forward. Let us gather together … that we may find our way together. Music, Poetry, Art, Testimony.”
Love to all.
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Ami Worthen 