tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:145993compilerbitchcompilerbitchcompilerbitch2015-11-16T21:44:20Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:145993:210480Sigh. Here we go again...2015-11-16T21:44:20Z2015-11-16T21:44:20Zpublic0<p>I was wondering whether to actually post about this or not, but like it or not, I think I pretty much have to do so.</p><br /><p>I’m not exactly sure what caused this most recent transphobic crapstorm, but I suspect it was most likely the ugly defeat of the <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/City_of_Houston_Anti-Discrimination_HERO_Veto_Referendum,_Proposition_1_(November_2015)" target="_blank">City of Houston’s HERO ballot measure</a>. This was a right-wing photo opportunity for hate groups to openly walk around wearing T-shirts emblazoned with their transphobic crapulence. Not entirely surprisingly, the ballot measure was defeated. Let’s keep this in perspective: this was one city, admittedly a relatively progressive one, within a sea of good old boys, guns, oversized trucks and Confederate flags. This should really be an object lesson in exactly why it is that civil rights should not be decided by the popular vote, because as with so many similar cases in the past, all this proves is that the majority of people who can be whipped up sufficiently to rise from their pools of acquiescence to actually vote are mostly bigots.</p><br /><p>Following shortly thereafter, a disgusting poll on change.org (no, I’m not linking it here because it doesn’t need my contribution to its Google page rank) went up that was exhorting major LGBT organizations to drop the T, becoming specifically LGB groups and explicitly excluding transgender people. I strongly suspect that its proposer is a right-wing sock puppet, but there are plenty of queer bigots out there so this may not necessarily be the case. This is really beyond belief. Trans people have had a long history of being in the front line of the fight for queer rights — we don’t get to hide or slink back into the woodwork like so many cisnormative LGBs, so for us all-too-often we have to fight or die, in many cases literally. The T has always been the poor cousin of the LGBT world — personally I don’t have much to do with lesbian and gay events because frankly so many people can be total bastards to trans people within those communities, so it just isn’t worth the risk in return for any meager benefit. I’m seeing lots of TERF language showing up — members of the T community have ‘different concerns’ than those of the LGB community, so we’re better off separate. BULL FUCKING SHIT. So what if we have different concerns? Lesbians and gay men have different concerns, so why wouldn’t they prefer to part ways? The hidden agenda here isn’t so much that they want to kick out the T. They want to disenfranchise the people who check more than one box — people who are <em>both</em> transgender <em>and</em> lesbian, gay or bisexual are really the people they want rid of. Why? Quite simply because they are transphobic bigots who don’t want nasty icky trans people anywhere near them, or (particularly) calling them out on their bigotry.</p><br /><p>I am over, seriously over, commentary from people who want the T people out saying that, ‘we stand for trans people, but we want our own separate space from them.’ Yeah, right. As I said previously, BULL FUCKING SHIT. What you really don’t want is to confront your own bigotry, it’s really that simple. ‘Oh, I’m not a bigot, I find it really upsetting to be called a bigot, all I want is .’ BULLSHIT. If you hate trans people, at least have the fucking decency to admit to it. Maybe there should be a symbol, or a particular way of dressing you might want to adopt so we can easily spot you and avoid the hell out of you — you don’t want us anywhere near you, so why not?</p><br /><p>In the pagan community, a number of elders recently publicly supported the kick-out-the-T measure. Aline O’Brien (aka Macha Nightmare), Ruth Barrett and Luisah Teish all signed the kick-out-the-T petition. Macha Nightmare has subsequently backpedaled and is now claiming that she disavows the petition, though I’m given to wonder why the hell she even thought for one second that signing it in the first place was any way appropriate. Luisah Teish is also backpedaling in her own not-actually-apologizing kind of way. Ruth Barrett is doubling down and crying victim, just like she always has. There has been quite a bit of discussion about whether or not these people deserve to be regarded as Pagan elders as a consequence. I find this a little ridiculous, because realistically eldership really just means that you happen to have a number of students and/or friends and followers who regard you as an elder, which is clearly the case for all of these people. None of them are <em>my</em> elders, and they will have my respect when hell freezes over.</p><br /><div class="sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded" data-src="//widgets.wp.com/likes/#blog_id=72895981&post_id=0&origin=www.mageofmachines.com&obj_id=72895981-0-564a4e34862fc" data-name="like-post-frame-72895981-0-564a4e34862fc"><h3 class="sd-title">Like this:</h3><div class="likes-widget-placeholder post-likes-widget-placeholder" style="height:55px"><span class="button"><span>Like</span></span> <span class="loading">Loading...</span></div><span class="sd-text-color"></span><a class="sd-link-color"></a></div><br /><br />Please note: this was cross-posted from my main blog at <a href="http://www.mageofmachines.com/main/2015/11/16/sigh-here-we-go-again/">http://www.mageofmachines.com/main/2015/11/16/sigh-here-we-go-again/</a> -- If you want me to definitely see your replies, please reply there rather than here. <br /><br />#QueerofSwords, #TransgenderActivism<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=compilerbitch&ditemid=210480" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments