The Hind End of Space

monetizeyourcat:

 

EDIT: Many readers had strong concerns against the campaign, particularly the use of the word “sex” and the “trivialization” of being transgender. I sent a note to the people who organized the campaign regarding the concerns brought up by readers and I received this response from them:

“I can honestly say that our intentions in creating this were entirely pure. […] While we are both cisgender people, we are also members of the LGBT community and were only trying to gain some additional support and awareness for the struggles faced by that facet of our community.

We’re working on some revisions to the project now. (Moving it off of TDoR and onto a different day in TransPride week as well as addressing the already topical Facebook gender issue.)”

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i was asked specifically to address this statement. here’s what i think: the “intentions” might have been “pure” to the degree that these people think of themselves as our friends, but this is also an attempt at social media branding that is fundamentally at our expense. it’s part and parcel with the “LGBT” community roping trans people in exclusively as passive and voiceless objects of pity and fun.

what business do two cis people have making their voices heard on trans issues in a LGBT context? what made you think we would want the kind of “support” that’s couched in a cute little facebook gimmick of this sort?

you didn’t run any of this by a trans person, or if you did you’ve got them so fucked up over expressing uncomfort that you might as well not have. you’re up to date enough on the terminology (except “sex change”, which is just fucking hysterical) but the way you play cute little games with shit that is deadly fucking serious to us - and invite outsiders to play those games with you, thereby increasing your social media profile and that of organizations you’re involved with, at our direct expense - comes from an ugly and privileged place.

you stigmatized and othered trans people, you made our lives a cute little game, you promoted crass and shitty misunderstandings of appropriate relationships with trans people, and at its heart, at the heart of all of it, is a communication problem - and that problem is you don’t think you need to communicate with us at all.

no, the problem isn’t you thinking that - it’s you being right. you didn’t need to ask permission and it’s obvious from the tenor of your response that you don’t think you need to apologize. your hearts are pure, and as cis gays you know everything there is to know about us and you’re perfectly appropriate people to get a leg up over our oppression.

your leg up is the girls in my friend’s school doing comically deep voices and snickering about him getting a “sex change” when he walks by. your leg up is my friend being afraid of the queer youth shelter and unable to go anywhere else. your leg up is the bus driver asking loudly what bar i’m heading to as he undresses me with his eyes and tries to guess how much of my breasts are fake.

we don’t need or want what you think of as help and at this point you can’t even fall on a bigoted ignorance as an excuse. come up with some other goddamn way to get big and leave us the fuck alone.

(Source: equaldex)