The Trans Women's Anti-Violence Project

womenwhokickass: Reina Gossett: Why she kicks ass She joined...

Sun, 12 May 2013 01:17:37 -0400

Reina Gossett: Why she kicks ass

She joined the Sylvia Rivera Law Project in July 2010 as the membership coordinator, and staffs the newly created Movement Building Team, working to develop SRLP’s membership and community organizing work.

Formerly, she was the director of the Welfare Organizing Project at Queers For Economic Justice, and is a Soros Justice Fellow at Critical Resistance.

She also has numerous writing credits, including The Scholar & Feminist Online and Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex.

when nobody knows you, nobody cares: It is Not Transphobic to Treat Trans Men as Men

Wed, 08 May 2013 22:31:17 -0400

when nobody knows you, nobody cares: It is Not Transphobic to Treat Trans Men as Men:

tobitastic:

(Note: indentation of differing responses got messed up, the below constitute my original post, two responses from meliass, and my response)

idothisallthetime:

meliass:

gcvsa:

ericaorion:

tobitastic:

…

I mean, we can all hang out in our all-genders spaces. I’ll volunteer to keep them going, my partner can bring a batch of hir awesome cupcakes. But whether we are talking about a dyke march, a women’s conference, or localized feminist organizing, exerting external force to dismantle or destroy women’s spaces is never anything but misogynistic. And taking away an important resource from trans women is the truly transphobic act in this situation.

this is so fucked up - how is this ANY different from excluding trans women?

so because trans men want to be men, they don’t deserve a safe space? trans men don’t receive cis male privilege, you know. just COMING to a women’s only space puts them at a vulnerable position, outing themselves to the entire community of cis and trans women.

Wait, um… if it’s a women’s only space and we’re talking about a trans man, then his attending doesn’t out him as trans unless there is a special exemption for trans men. If there is no special exemption, his attending only outs him as a jerk - same as any cis guy who attended.

safe spaces should be for cis women and any trans* person who wants access.

where else are trans men going to be in a safe space?

Maybe in trans men’s spaces? Or men’s spaces that are trans inclusive. Or trans spaces. Or queer trans men can be in queer spaces. Trans men of color can be in POC spaces. Young trans men can be in youth spaces or trans youth spaces. Do I need to go on?

i guess i understand a trans* only space but.. that is literally the only place that trans men would be allowed. should queer/nonbinary people also be excluded from women’s only spaces?

You’re shifting the ground of my argument. I am not saying that all community spaces should become women only so that men aren’t allowed anywhere. Re-read my final paragraph above. What I am saying is that the few trans friendly women’s spaces that exist should not be dismantled. For inclusion of non-binary folks, look at what I’ve already written about it. That’s not what this post is about, it’s about trans men.

I’ll emphasize that when I throw events or plan protests, I consciously think about making space for trans men. I am generally known as THE trans woman making queer/feminist porn focusing on trans women - and I’ve made sure to always include trans men in each of my films and even made a film focusing on trans men. There’s much more trans men focused queer porn out there and for the vast majority of it there is no reciprocal effort to include trans women. There is no risk of queer and trans spaces that include trans men suddenly disappearing because a play party or a dyke march decides to be for women only - without exception for trans men. In fact, I still see many queer and trans spaces that include trans men but are not so welcoming of trans women. And when trans women are excluded from *women’s* events, *women’s* colleges, and *women’s* shelters while men are welcomed, then we have a problem. Continued insistence that trans men belong in these spaces is dependant on the argument that trans men are somehow less men than cis men are. Relying on “socialized gender” or pre-transition history only gives credence to the exact arguments that are being used to deny trans women access.

Let’s not forget that there do exist men’s spaces that are welcoming of trans men. (In fact, I don’t think I can think of four equally prominent women’s spaces that include trans women.) Maybe you should support those men’s spaces rather than trying to dismantle women’s spaces that are welcoming of trans women. If you don’t want to be a part of those spaces because you’re genderqueer, then be a part of the myriad of genderqueer or queer spaces out there rather than trying to dismantle any other gendered spaces.

i don’t understand why trans men can’t speak on women’s issues if they want to - they still have experience with living as women & being treated as women. wanting to be/living as a man shouldn’t disqualify their voices. with trans women, having once been living as/treated like a man shouldn’t disqualify their voices, either.

It’s still different to have been a man who was living as and treated as a woman than it is to be a woman who has. No, that doesn’t disqualify your voice, but why do you have to show up to a women only sex party in order to share your voice? Most of the protests and rallies around women’s issues DO include men, trans and cis. Is it that big a deal to you if a few don’t?

i guess i can accept a women’s only space if there is always a corresponding trans*/queer only space (but what are the chances of that ever happening?). it still doesn’t seem quite right to me, because trans* men and queer people also have important experiences from living as or being treated as women.

What disturbs me here is that you seem to believe that women’s spaces need your acceptance or permission in order to exist despite you seemingly not being a woman. And what happens if we don’t get your permission? Will you start an internet petition like the one that sparked this original post asking for dyke march to make a special exception to include trans men but not cis men? Will you apply political pressure to try and shut it down by labeling our women only spaces transphobic?

Let me ask you, do you apply your criteria in reverse? Do you argue that every trans*/queer space should have a corresponding trans inclusive women’s space? Because I know a lot of “trans*/queer” spaces that don’t do a very good job of supporting trans women. Not to mention that some trans folks are straight. In fact, many trans women I know - including queer trans women - avoid trans/queer spaces in general because of the high risk of experiencing transmisogyny. And from my sense we seem to be lacking in trans inclusive women’s spaces much more than we are lacking in trans*/queer spaces.

Bottom line, though, it’s not a competition. We can have trans*/queer spaces AND women only spaces. And I’m not trying to take away trans*/queer spaces from you. I’m just responding to the folks who are trying to take away women only spaces from me.

odofemi: SAY IT TO MY FACE - Performance Documentation (4...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:01:35 -0400

odofemi:

SAY IT TO MY FACE - Performance Documentation (4 mins)

SAY IT TO MY FACE is a 40 minute long endurance performance by transsexual artist Odofemi (Morgan M Page). Exploring her experience as the target of multiple transphobic hate websites and petitions created by radical feminists, Odofemi stands naked at the front of a room. Projected onto her body is video footage of the hate websites. Audience members are instructed to approach the artist, where they are given a piece of paper with one of the actual comments on it. They are told to read it aloud, into the microphone, and then look Odofemi in the eyes. Odofemi moves as little as possible and does not react. Eventually the audience realizes that they have become implicated in perpetuating both the artist’s and their own trauma, and retaliates by giving the artist improvised positive affirmations, effectively reclaiming their agency.

"[D]rag queens can move freely within gay male settings as long as they abide by the implicit rules..."

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:55:48 -0400

“[D]rag queens can move freely within gay male settings as long as they abide by the implicit rules of such circulation. What would happen if a drag queen was not on the stage but rather cruised one of the many dark corridors of K.O.X. in search of a sexual partner? That gay men can accommodate the presence of drag queens on stage does not mean that gender liberation has arrived. Indeed, relegating gender performances to the stage implies that gay men do not “perform” their identities: they are just are. This containment of gender transgressions can, in turn, work against transgender people in a variety of ways. Drag queens are reduced to entertainment, coifed personalities whose only purpose is to titilate the gay male viewer. Framed as pure spectacle, this negates a variety of reasons why people might choose to cross-dress in a club: an exploration of one’s gender identity, a gesture of political intervention, a creative solution to border, and/or a way to the pay the rent.
A restriction of drag queens to the stage also suggests that drag is something you do; it is not something you are.”

- Vivane K. Namaste in “Tragic Misreadings: Queer Theory’s Erasure of Transgender Subjectivity” from Invisible LIves: The Erasure of Transsexual and Transgender People (via queerandpresentdanger)

GUUUUHH this is so important. love to everyone who has to leave their identity at home in order to get laid.
(via nemesissy)

Jamaica – Transgender women call for equality

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:51:13 -0400

Jamaica – Transgender women call for equality:

projectqueer:

Two transgender Jamaicans, Whitney and Tiana Miller, have joined J-FLAG’s We Are Jamaicanscampaign, which seeks to encourage respect and understanding for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. We Are Jamaicans is a participatory video campaign (http://www.youtube.com/user/equalityJA), which was launched on January 17, 2013 by J-FLAG to raise awareness about LGBT identity and community.

We cannot effectively reduce the incidence of violence against women in Jamaica if we continue to ignore socio-cultural factors that make violence against women permissible. Transgender Jamaican women are often not included in our vision for women’s rights in Jamaica despite their vulnerability to violence and discrimination. The voices of transgender women in the We Are Jamaicans campaign is in an effort to bring visibility to their lives and to not limit our definition of ‘woman’ to genitalia. In her video, Whitney stated that Jamaicans “are not accepting of people whose gender identities don’t align with their biological sex,” (http://youtu.be/O9iNYKqttc4). Tiana Miller, whose video can be seen at http://youtu.be/GCHppSFrDYE said she does not have life easy in Jamaica. “I feel alienated, always being bashed by society, but that doesn’t change who I am,” she said.

J-FLAG is encouraging Jamaicans to recognise that we must embark on implementing a more multifaceted programme to address violence against our women and girls. It is important that we recognize and appreciate the need to create support systems for victims and their families, encourage honest conversations about gender, sex and sexuality, and teach mutual respect for each other. The campaign is funded by the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition(CVC) through its Global Fund Vulnerablised Project.

janetmock: Yesterday I made my debut on the Melissa...

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 12:57:27 -0400

janetmock:

Yesterday I made my debut on the Melissa Harris-Perry Show on MSNBC - the only political show that I watch. During the segment, I discussed redefining equality, unpacking the monolith of our “community”, GLAAD’s “name change” and why we’ll need more than that from our internal and external allies:

“What I need from these people [our LGBT & Straight Allies] is to fight for access to healthcare coverage, for protection when I’m looking to use the restroom, when I’m looking for housing, employment, and education. Also legal and social recognition that trans women are women and trans men are men, and that some trans people choose not to identify with either and self-determination is okay.” -Me, Janet Mock ;-)

Odofemi: Remember that photo project I snarked about a couple of days ago? One...

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 18:46:36 -0400

Odofemi: Remember that photo project I snarked about a couple of days ago? One...:

odofemi:

Remember that photo project I snarked about a couple of days ago? One of the models wrote to me, asking if that’s what I was talking about, and apologizing for the erasure of trans women. Here’s my response:

“Hey [trans guy],

I mean, it was partially about that, but moreso about the continued…

"When I asked Miss Major how the recession has affected transgender women and men, she laughed..."

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 21:13:26 -0400

“When I asked Miss Major how the recession has affected transgender women and men, she laughed humorlessly and said, “We don’t have jobs to lose. We never had pensions for a company to take from us. I used to get $50 for a blowjob and now I get $25. The cost of me has gone down. And I’m going to accept it because I have to, whether it’s $25 or $50. I have to eat; rent’s due, I have to get it somehow.” Under the new economic regime, informal sector workers including transgender people may be working more hours and under potentially riskier circumstances. Miss Major estimates that since the start of the recession, twelve social service organizations in California alone have cut services that transgender clients depended on. She has extended her workday to include more one-on-one time and case management with community members coping with additional financial burdens.”

- “This is What Pride Looks Like: Miss Major and the Violence, Poverty, and Incarceration of Low-Income Transgender Women”

by Jessica Stern, in the Scholar and Feminist online

(via marginalutilite)

loneberry: STAR: Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries...

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 21:11:33 -0400

loneberry:

STAR: Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries

From “RAPPING WITH A STREET TRANSVESTITE REVOLUTIONARY: An Interview with Marcia [sic] Johnson,” published in Out of the Closets: Voices of Gay Liberation (1972)

I remember when STAR was first formed there was a lot of discussion about the special oppression that transvestites experience. Can you say something about that?

We still feel oppressed by other gay brothers. Gay sisters don’t think too bad of transvestites. Gay brothers do. I went to a dance at Gay Activist Alliance just last week, and there was not even one gay brother that came over and said hello. They’d say hello, but they’d get away very quick. The only transvestites they were very friendly with were the ones that looked freaky in drag, like freak drag, with no tits, no nothing. Well, I can’t help but have tits, they’re mine. And those men weren’t too friendly at all. Once in a while, I get an invitation to Daughters of Bilitis, and when I go there, they’re always warm. All the gay sisters come over and say, “Hello, we’re glad to see you,” and they start long conversations. But not the gay brothers. They’re not too friendly at all toward transvestites.

Do you understand why? Do you have an explanation for that?

Of course I can understand why. A lot of gay brothers don’t like women! And transvestites remind you of women. A lot of the gay brothers don’t feel too close to women, they’d rather be near men, that’s how come they’re gay. And when they see a transvestite coming, she reminds them of a woman automatically, and they don’t want to get too close or too friendly with her.

This part of the interview jumped out at me because its discussion of the relationship between cis-lesbians and trans women departs significantly from the way the dynamics of that era get historicized now. Anyhoo, thought it was interesting because it anticipates many of the issues Julia Serano would write about decades later in Whipping Girl.

thespiritwas: “We (Lesbian Feminist Liberation) found out there...

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 06:16:05 -0400

thespiritwas:

“We (Lesbian Feminist Liberation) found out there were plans to have a transvestite as part of the entertainment for the 1973 Gay Pride rally in Washington Square following the march and we decided to make a statement critical of transvestites…we decided we were going to stand up on that stage and tell everybody what we thought. We stayed up the whole night before the rally and typed up this little statement. We thought it was very important. You see, we were creating theory at the time.” Jean O’Leary, founder of Lesbian Feminist Liberation, later the first president of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF)

“The transgender community was silenced because of a radical lesbian named Jean O’Leary, who felt that the transgender community was offensive to women because we liked to wear makeup and we liked to wear miniskirts. Excuse me! It goes with the business that we’re in at the time! Because people fail to realize that -not trying to get off the story -everybody thinks that we want to be out on them street corners. No we do not. We don’t want to be out there sucking dick and getting fucked in the ass. But that’s the only alternative that we have to survive because the laws do not give us the right to go and get a job the way we feel comfortable. I do not want to go to work looking like a man when I know I am not a man” Sylvia Rivera

“A case could be made that we should have included transvestites rights but I don’t think that gay people wanted to be identified with that. We were trying to get away from that image. And we were trying to get the bill passed. So the transvestites were excluded from the bill and they never got reinstated.” Jean O’Leary

“I thought free loving was the thing, I found it doesn’t pay the rent…During the daytime they all call us fags and freaks. At night I get even. I freak on them. I make them pay for all the insults they gave me. I can have a nice conversation with them, give them words of wisdom. But I’m getting back at them. My way.” Marsha P Johnson

Odofemi: I love that trans women have, in recent years, really banded together...

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 06:04:00 -0400

Odofemi: I love that trans women have, in recent years, really banded together...:

odofemi:

I love that trans women have, in recent years, really banded together online and in print to name our specific issues and advocate for ourselves. However, I’ve noticed a very conspicuous absence of sex workers’ voices among those finding/creating representation. Little analysis is given to sex…

prettyqueer: Indigo Girls and other MichFest 2013 Performers:...

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 05:58:19 -0400

prettyqueer:

Indigo Girls and other MichFest 2013 Performers:
Boycott MWMF until the organizers fully include trans women

stick up for yourself: HEY! Support trans women artists!!!

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 22:33:10 -0400

stick up for yourself: HEY! Support trans women artists!!!:

stickupforyourselfson:

Three projects going on right now that I want everyone to know about:

(in which the author abuses dashes and semicolons)

January Rising: My friend January is an evil witch living in New York; January Rising is her fundraiser to cover transness-related medical expenses. It’s real simple. Buy…

womenwhokickass: Lorena Borjas: Why she kicks ass She is a...

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 23:01:16 -0400

womenwhokickass:

Lorena Borjas: Why she kicks ass

She is a Mexican trans activist, and health educator for the transgender community.

She started the Lorena Borjas Community Fund; which is a volunteer-run project created to institutionalize the support that Lorena has provided for years. The LBCF Fund supports low-income gay, bisexual, lesbian, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, and gender non-conforming immigrants avoid the collateral consequences associated with criminal convictions, jail time and court appearances.

She works with the AIDS Center of Queens County, and with Trans Latinas, a collective of transsexual Latinas that strive to create more tolerance within the Latino community and among the authorities.

delicateheresy: Sylvia Rivera interview at World Pride in...

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 22:27:06 -0500

delicateheresy:

Sylvia Rivera interview at World Pride in Italy

reclaimingthelatinatag: Harmony Santana appreciation photo...

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 22:15:08 -0500

reclaimingthelatinatag:

Harmony Santana appreciation photo set.

This beauty of half-Dominican and half-Puerto Rican descent is a transgender actress who in 2011 made waves in her breakthrough performance in Gun Hill Road, where she plays a trans teenager trying to live openly as a girl while dealing with a disapproving father. That same year Harmony was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Independent Spirit Awards for her performance. Harmony Santana is definitely one talented and beautiful lady!

AfroLez®femcentric Perspectives: There Is No Hierarchy Of Oppressions by Audre Lorde

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:07:16 -0500

AfroLez®femcentric Perspectives: There Is No Hierarchy Of Oppressions by Audre Lorde:

afrolez:

Audre Lorde (Photo Credit: Dagmar Schultz)

“…I cannot afford the luxury of fighting one form of oppression only. I cannot believe that freedom from intolerance is the right of only one particular group. And I cannot afford to choose between the front upon which I must battle these forces of…

The Spirit Was...: Sylvia Rivera (STAR) and Arthur Bell (Gay Activist Alliance) interview Chris Thompson for GAY FLAMES 1970

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 20:06:39 -0500

The Spirit Was...: Sylvia Rivera (STAR) and Arthur Bell (Gay Activist Alliance) interview Chris Thompson for GAY FLAMES 1970:

thespiritwas:

(the interview below discusses forced psychiatric institutionalization, gender coercion, self harm and the prison industrial complex)

ISSUE SEVEN **A BULLETIN OF THE HOMOFIRE MOVEMENT** Nov, 14, 1970

CHRIS: GAY PRISONER IN BELLEVUE

(GAY FLAMES: Chris Thompson is a black male transvestite…

hystericalqueen: Sylvia and Marsha with STAR banner, 1972...

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 10:26:39 -0500

hystericalqueen:

Sylvia and Marsha with STAR banner, 1972 Christopher Street Liberation Day

Trans women join One Billion Rising in the Philippines

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 12:07:36 -0500

Trans women join One Billion Rising in the Philippines:

transqueery:

Transgender women in the Philippines join day of action to end violence against women and girls