#all in solidarity and support of all the trans community!!!

[hunkydorkling]

I urge you guys to listen to the entire TRANSA album. I implore you.

[aptericia]

Not proud to be here.

--

Ok, here goes draft like 5 of this fucking post. I spent 4 hours tossing and turning in bed last night thinking about this, and then this morning I found a tumblr post that really helped me understand what I was trying to say.

The post talks about how aromantic "advocates" claim that "aros don't take up resources, so there's no reason not to include them!" And if that's actually what people believe, I think I can finally articulate why it is that I feel so alienated in queer spaces.

It's because aspecs in general aren't "welcomed" by much of the queer community. We're tolerated. We perhaps get the luxury of not being contradicted on our own identities, or not being specifically kicked out of LGBTQ-only spaces, but that's the whole point: what we get out of the queer "community" is people NOT doing things, not actually doing things FOR us. And that, frankly, is not enough. We deserve conversations about us. We deserve to have others consider our feelings, even when making lighthearted jokes. We deserve varied, respectful representation in media. We deserve the active deconstruction of amatonormativity in society. We deserve to have space made for us, rather than at most being told we should "go take up more space!" ourselves.

Of course, the reality is that my being aspec is a personal matter that does not inherently affect anyone else. But the same can be said for literally any queer identity. Your being gay doesn't say anything about me, so of course I shouldn't hurt you for it, but why should I help you either? Because your happiness and comfort are important. The same goes for aspecs.

And most of the time, I don't even need anyone to make space for or expend resources on me; I can live fine in everyday, non-queer-specific places without mentioning my identity at all. But it's the queer community that claims it will make that space for me, doesn't, and then acts defensive and morally pure if I call out the hypocrisy because "we're queer too, you can't erase our identities to advocate for yours!!!!"

Again, this post isn't about specifics. I have queer friends who are incredibly thoughtful and supportive about my identity, just as I have non-queer friends who are. I find more solidarity in aspec-only communities, as well as trans/genderqueer ones, although there are still many exceptions. This post is also not about amatonormative ideology, which is extremely common from queer and non-queer people alike. This post is about the reason I've felt so betrayed by the queer community.

--

On a personal note, I remember being so excited when I started identifying as aromantic (and later asexual). Fitting myself into labels has been a lifelong struggle for me; to this day I still can't confidently say if I'm White or PoC, neurotypical or neurodivergent, abled or disabled, cisgender or not cisgender. I continue to struggle making friends because I don't fall into social cliques. To discover that I officially, certainly, was LGBTQ+ lifted a huge weight off my shoulders. And now I'm just so sad to find that despite that, I'm still stuck in the middle. I didn't get rewarded with a community. I still feel alienated from both queer and non-queer people. I know it was silly to get my hopes up when there's such vast diversity in both groups, but it really was a disappointment. Going to my first Pride parade last year was really the moment where I realized this.

[drdemonprince]

ok fine cis men aren't the bad gender it's all men and we're all exactly like that anon who admitted to having abused women even if we don't know it. are you fucking happy now? is this the solidarity you want us to feel with cis men, that we're all just as mich rapists and murderers of women as they are? you have some fucking nerve to be throwing vague jabs while calling an admitted abuser "brave"

Normally I don't platform asks like these, but I'm moved by the genuineness of your emotional reaction here. I think you're hurting, and you've been hurt, and that the belief that abuse and violence are located within one gendered group (to which you don't belong) has felt like a way of organizing your world that has helped you make sense of things, and given you guidelines for how to act and whom to trust that have helped keep you safe. I think a lot of assault survivors feel that way when they're not cis men and their attackers were cis men.

As someone who has experienced a ton of sexual predation at the hands of cis women, cis men, and even other trans people, I don't feel the same way. There is no "bad gender" I can chalk up my abuse to. I find there are no easy means of categorizing entire people as abuser or as victim either -- I have known so, so many people who have occupied both roles depending upon the power they wielded and the social context of the moment. Hell, one cis lesbian that I knew who was infamous in her community for raping trans men would always tell her victims that her acts were those of "trauma recovery," of her "reclaiming" her power after men had stolen it away.

Even she, I don't think, is irredeemable or ontologically evil.

I'm an abolitionist. That's a core value through which a lot of my political action and beliefs flow. If you're not on board with the project of abolitionism, you'll find much to object to here, and most of your objections are things I will refuse to entertain, because I do not believe human beings are disposable no matter what they do, and I don't believe that anyone should have the authority to deem another human being as disposable.

An abolitionist politics is incompatible with the idea that some people or some groups are inherently bad. It's incompatible with the belief that abuse and violence comes from evil. It's a worldview that holds that people do harm because of social structures and networks of power that must be destroyed -- systems like the patriarchy, cissexism, anti-Blackness, ableism, capitalism, and more. And I think one of the ways that we conquer such oppressive systems is by raising the consciousness of all the people trapped under it -- so that we can topple it together. I want trans men and cis men alike to realize they have some skin in the game.

You don't have to associate with the men you don't want to associate with. If, because of repeated abuses at the hands of men, you can't ever trust them, well, those are your feelings, that's your life, that is your business. But when your personal feelings of safety are used as a justification for developing and promoting a worldview with transphobic, transmisogynistic implications, I'm gonna talk shit about that on my stupid little blog. And I'm gonna continue conducting my life in the way I feel I should.

And for me, that means forging common ground between trans men and cis men, and pushing both groups to take women's concerns seriously (especially trans women's concerns) and to stop centering themselves in feminist dialogue. There's a place for both trans men and cis men in the gender revolution, but we gotta do a lot of work on ourselves to stop getting in the way. It's work I'm emotionally equipped to do and find rewarding, and it's fine if you don't. There are lots of other people who need support that you can focus your energies on -- other survivors of abuse and assault that you perhaps find it easier to relate to. That's important work too, and I wish you well in doing it. Just make sure you're not excluding trans women in that work or I'll continue to be annoying about it on my stupid little blog.

[antifainternational]

Kirkcaldy reportback!

On Saturday the 18th of May 2024 a group of antifascist members of the community disrupted an event organised by Women Won't Wheesht in Kirkcaldy.

These people were workers, locals and members of the public. They were transgender, cisgender, gay and straight. They were unaffiliated with any organisation, group or political party. Their actions were their own and were organised on their own initiative. They acted to protect their community from an intolerant group who aim to plant a seed of cruelty, a seed of hate that would grow and overshadow everything around it, which would poison the earth and kill off wildflower and bramble and thistle alike.

"A community is made up of many different types of people," one member of the group said, "and what makes a community strong is celebrating the diversity of its members and standing in solidarity with those who need it most. Trans people are one of the most marginalised groups of people in society, and yet groups like Women Won't Wheesht seek to sow division in our local communities by painting trans people as a danger. Trans people are part of the fabric of our communities and groups like Women Won't Wheesht have no place in inclusive and safe communities. We all need to stand up against hate speech and protect our neighbours and friends."

Women Won't Wheesht is a hate group which peddles anti-transgender bigotry. Their events, veiled under vague 'concerns about women' have historically been attended by anti-abortion anti-feminist groups such as the Scottish Family Party, homophobes such as the Destiny Church, and members of the fascist Scottish Defence League. Their members also attended rallies organised by the neo-nazi Kelly Jay Keen.

Women Won't Wheesht's rhetoric calls for the elimination of drag queens, transgender and nonbinary people from public life. It is the same rhetoric which was used to murder members of the gay community during the AIDS epidemic. It advocates both social murder (murder by inaction from the state) and violence against transgender people. To achieve this, they bully and harass transgender people in society and online. They publicly share people's addresses and names. They accuse all transgender people of being sexual predators, thereby toxifying and dehumanising them so they are seen as less-than-human. They lobby politicians to spread their hate and appear legitimate.

The anti-transgender reactionary movement in the UK has been called explicitly genocidal by the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention.

We, as proud members of our community, denounce all genocides and any who participate in them. We stand for a world where everyone has the right to speak their mind, where everyone has the right to be who they are. We stand for a world where gay, straight, brown, white, man, woman, and everything in between can live and love together. We cannot stand by and allow Women Won't Wheesht platform to spread hate and cruelty. We are fighting for a kinder, more caring world.

If the members of Women Won't Wheesht reach out to their local queer community, if they choose to talk, and listen, and learn, if they come with humility and gentleness, they will be greeted and welcomed with kindness and respect. We understand that many of those who come to join these movements have done so under a deception. They have been told that their alienation is not due to the United Kingdom's misogynist society and the social murder and violence of neoliberal capitalism, but due to transgender people existing. Many of us have been caught and deceived by such lies too. We have learned, and we have grown.

But if Women Won't Wheesht continue their campaign of violence, they will meet resistance. Their platform will be taken away, because it is by the grace of the people of Scotland that they have it in the first place, and the people of Scotland will not allow genocide of any kind.

At the action on Saturday, members of the public were overwhelmingly in support of transgender liberation.

One organiser said "People of all ages stopped to speak to the outreach team and expressed disgust at the transphobia from the Women Won't Wheesht incomers." Over one hundred trans flags were distributed to supportive people of Kirkaldy.

SOLIDARITY. LOVE AND KINDNESS.

ANTI-FASCISTS OF SCOTLAND.

[sourcreammachine]

look yeah. i’m an Avoidant Personality. i’m terrified of doing anything

it’s not that i present cis in real life. in every fucking way to all my people, i am cis. because i’m fucking terrified of not being. my they/them persona online is basically cognitive dissonance: i’m AVPDing away from the fact that i am, cognisantly for years and incognisantly for my whole life, and always will be, a trans girl. i’m “taking it slow” but have been doing so for years and years and years because i’m so terrified and frozen and unable - because i have personal issues i need to work through before my brain will let me start transitioning

and tumblr was safety for me. that’s how i could be non-binary here. wall-to-wall trans inclusivity and love, when you don’t put your head above the parapet. and hell and hostility if you do, but i never had reason to. i could stretch my wings here. i could be something closer to being me here. one little bit of acceptance in a horrible world

and even here, the QuEeReSt PlAcE oN tHe InTeRnEt, a bigoted little baby man and his spineless enablers are annihilating my community of love and safety, and deleting my friends

my friends are going to keep getting deleted. i may well be. exactly how then am i supposed to find community and love and solidarity with all the people i’ve known and loved and supported. i don’t ever like talking about my head here, but it truly is a lifeline for me in a world of hostility

fuck you Matt. i’ll return the favour. next time you have friends over, i’ll be hovering in the room gradually throwing them all out, and then you too. next time you show your face in public i’ll have you arrested for indecent exposure. if you dare say “hey stop” i will call the police and FBI

i hope your car gets destroyed with so many hammers. i hope your house gets smashed down with a wrecking ball. i hope your phone catches fire in your pocket. i hope you never feel like you’re allowed to exist in any space. i hope all your friends get crushed by pianos. i hope everything you touch fucking explodes in your face

[genderkoolaid]

queer community in the past seems really chill and fun. like back in the day they seems happily support each other and have fun instead of having infightings like current queer community

Unfortunately and fortunately, untrue.

Unfortunate because there has always been infighting and hurtful behavior in our community. I can only speak for the US but I know that historically there have always been divides based on class, race, as well as a separation between gay men and lesbians as well as cis queers and trans queers (particularly amongst the middle and upper class), and ableism has also been an ever present issue. Certainly infighting has taken different shapes over time, but there was never a perfect past where we all happily supported each other all the time.

Fortunate because, just as there was community and solidarity in the past, there still is today! There are still many places were queers of all kinds get together and support one another. And the work of Black + Brown queers, disabled queers, and people affected by misogyny and transphobia has meant that there are more spaces today which are aware of accessibility issues, racism and colonialism, misogyny and transphobia. That doesn't mean any place is perfect, but there are many ways things have improved. And we can continue to improve things!

It's important to keep in mind that our brains latch on more easily to negative experiences than positive ones. And it's easy to glorify a distant past, especially one not experienced personally, in comparison to the present where all the problems are painfully close and ongoing. But it's not so black and white.

[sharpth1ng]

Ive already posted this in my server, so you may see it twice, but In case you don't see it there im posting it here too.

Im assuming most of you have seen the news about the us election. Honestly im feeling nothing less than devastated, and i would assume Americans are feeling ten times worse. Im so fucking sorry to you all, and I know that doesn't help at all. I feel angry, hopeless, and sad as fuck, and i dont know how to comfort anyone or advocate for the hope i think we deserve.

What I can do is remind you all who you come from.

Women, queer people, disabled people, indigenous people, black people, new immigrants- anyone who experiences marginalization- we have been through this before. Many times. So many lives have been unjustly lost and our rights have been trampled on over and over, and we shouldnt have to be dealing with any of that still in 2024. It feels insane that im even having to write this post right now.

But even with that crushing history, repeating itself over and over, we haven't been silenced. If anything we've gotten louder. We've been having mainstream conversations about oppression and liberation in the past few years that were completely undiscussed when I was a kid. The vocal support for trans people alone, even with the rise of transphobia, is unprecedented.

None of this is meant to tell you that it's alright, or that it's not that bad, because it is that bad. But what I'm telling you is that its been this bad before, only this time we're louder than we ever have been before and we'll be louder still next time. There are more of us than there ever have been before, and if they couldn't take us all out when there were fewer of us they wont manage it this time.

There were drag shows happening in gay bars when it was still illegal to be gay at all. There were Natives preserving language and knowledge out of residential schools, and black people inventing whole new types of art and resistance while they were still being actively enslaved, and those are just a few examples. The point is that we dont stop, we never have. We will keep making art, finding love, and joy, being fucking loud and fighting for each other.

It's ok to hurt, to be angry and scared. Let yourself feel all of those things because its the only rational response to this.

But don't let it shut you down. Your history is one of resilience, survival, and compassion. We're so much more than the oppression we face and we always have been.

Reach out to the people you love and tell them you fucking love them. Make plans to see them. Gather with your community and organize to support each other, find ways to protect each other, and above all else don't stop looking for joy. Don't stop making art. Don't stop showing compassion.

Solidarity is the most important thing we have right now, so don't give up on it.

I don't know how to close this message really, but i want to repeat I'm not telling you to have hope, I'm not telling you it's not so bad. What I am telling you is that you're stronger than you think. You come from strength, you come from people who faced odd that seemed insurmountable so that you could be here today.

If they couldn't take us out before they wont succeed now. We're only going to get louder, angrier and stronger. And when the tide swings back in the other direction, like it always has in the past, they better be fucking grateful that most of us will be fighting for equality instead of revenge.

[enbycrip]

I am *really* getting sick of people trying to use the “queer people shouldn’t support Palestine because they’d kill you for being queer there” card. Particularly at a time when institutional transphobia is ramping right up in the US and UK.

I’ve been in contact at various points over the last 10-15 years with queer Palestinians living authentically and with openly queer foreigners bringing in aid in solidarity. No one tried to lynch anyone. Pretty much everyone was kind and welcoming to foreigners.

Queer Palestinian lives are made *so*, *so* much worse by *the fucking ongoing genocide* than by homegrown queerphobia that trying to even compare them is sort of horrifically laughable? Honestly, they seem to be facing the same kind of level of that *from some people* that I and people I know face pretty regularly? It’s unfun, and I’d very much like better for all of us, but it’s hardly comparable to *being fucking bombed into the ground*.

This is just Islamophobia with a queerbaiting flavour. The implication that every country with a Muslim population is the same as extremist Islamist theocracies where queer folk are judicially murdered is just incredibly racist.

Queer Muslims - including trans binary and nonbinary Muslims - and queer folks who are culturally Muslim whether they actively practice or not exist all over the world, same as queer folks from every other faith community and cultural background. The othering of Muslim people is really shitty and I refuse to see my marginalised community used in this way even when it’s *not* being used as a cover for a racist genocide.

[plaidos]

i've seen a couple other people share their experiences with transmisogny in queer discord servers and i wanted to share my own because it was something that was so shocking to me when it first happened. i am not a trans women, this is something that happened to a friend of mine in a server we were both in. one of the mods of the server came out as transmasc after we had been in the server for a while, and ofc everyone celebrated his egg cracking and him being brave enough to come out, everything seemed well and good. but then like a week or so later?, he asked my friend to change her name because it was his dead name and seeing it "made him dysphoric". when she refused, and tried to explain that she had been using this name for years and that it was also the name of her dead grandmother (and like, even without these circumstances she's still within her right to keep her damn name????), the rest of the serve dog piled on her. they tried to pressure her into changing her name, calling her transphobic and saying she wasn't being supportive to newly trans people, etc. she doubled down refusing to change her name, and me and one other person tried to defend her right to keep her NAME, (and we also tried to explain how he needs to learn to cope with seeing things that might make him dysphoric, because he can't control other people + he had a common dead name), and we all ended up being kicked from the server. i know i lost a couple friends in this diabolical, but she lives in a much more rural, conservative area so most of her support circle was through online spaces, so ofc she was rightfully very upset when this happened. i feel like this shows how deep transmisogny runs through the wider queer and trans community. trans women don't even have the autonomy over their own NAMES when it comes to TME people's comfort, and if you show the most surface level solidarity with trans women you are also ostracized. its completely ridiculous and horrifically common place.

(sorry if any of this was hard to understand, i tried to check for typos or grammar issues, but i have a couple disabilities that make writing harder for me)

it makes sense to me, Anon. it’s fucking heartbreaking the recurring themes im seeing in these stories where trans women are fully exiled along with anybody who supports us…… because we wouldn’t CHANGE OUR CHOSEN NAMES FOR A MAN? im utterly gobsmacked at how common this issue has been for other people in the trans community.

transmascs; you have to do better.

[doberbutts]

"we all need to link arms against transphobia" then tell your buddies to stop demonizing the trans woman being stalked and harassed by the ceo of the website your own. right now its primarily trans women under fire, the matt is using the same strategies your asshole crowd has used against trans women. you want solidarity? put up or shut up

Can you name names on who exactly is demonizing so I can verify if I have blocked them? Because I know a lot of anons tend to make a lot of assumptions on who is my friend vs who is someone I am very friendly with, and I gotta tell you that in both cases we've pretty much stood the line of "this is unfair and ridiculous and probably not legal". Unless you mean to say that I am personally responsible for policing the behavior of every single person who happens to share a demographic with me?

But, also, I gotta say. A demand for community action while on anon is interesting. When was the last time you yourself showed the same love and support for trans mascs? Did you stand it solidarity with the black bloggers who are also unfairly treated by the moderating of this website? How about the Palestinian bloggers? Or anyone else that isn't exactly like you?

If you want community, you've gotta do the work involved. Even when your own life sucks.

[floral-ashes]

Do you really think that the needs of detransitioners aren't being centered or talked about enough? I refer you to the people under your post engaging in conspiracy theories about how trans healthcare is being pushed on poor innocent children by evil doctors. This stuff is the basis for legislation currently being passed in what is likely to soon be a majority of US states, not to mention the UK. I just feel like maybe detransition is a little too much in focus, idk.

The first thing to point out is that I didn’t even call for ‘more’ talking about detransitioners. I wrote one paper where I talked about detransitioners (among other folks). Then someone got pissed about it. Then I wrote a post about how treating detransitioners and those who talk about them like ‘traitors’ isn’t helpful. Also… intra-community discussions on Tumblr are very much not a comparable context to anti-trans newsmedia or legislatures?

Second, you could say the same about trans people; why do we need to talk about their needs, aren’t they being talked about all the time in the media.

Which brings us to the central issue, namely that volume isn’t quality. The media weaponizing detransitioners for anti-trans agendas isn’t actually ‘centring the needs of detranstioners’. It’s centring the interests of anti-trans movements. None of the discussions actually include expanding mental healthcare and medical support for detransitioners, for instance, even though that’s constantly reported by detransitioners as core needs in research.

Staying silent and letting the media platform anti-trans activists as ‘the voice of detransitioners’ won’t counter anti-trans narratives. By contrast, an important part of countering those anti-trans narratives involves building solidarity and community with pro-trans detrans folks.

Do I like that the media has put such a spotlight on detransitioners in pursuit of transphobic agendas? No, but that’s the reality we’re working under and I don’t think letting anti-trans detrans narratives roam free and define detransitioners in the public eye is going to turn out well for trans folks.

It’s also worth emphasizing that detrans folks are real people with real needs, so the implicit idea that we just shouldn’t talk or care about them because transphobes talk about them enough already just doesn’t sit right with me.

[goblincow]

The first ever AMAZON STRIKE in the UK is one week away - and they need your support!

Respectfully asking if I can get a bunch of notes on this so I can show my phone when I go to the rally and let them see how much support they have! ��

And here are the Amazon strike fund details to donate if you're able:

Name - GMB Midland & East Coast

Bank - Unity Trust

Sort Code - 60-83-01

A/c No - 33010410

Ref - Amazon

I'm pretty sure I know how this works:

Like to charge, reblog to cast!

Update:

Thanks everyone who has responded to show your support, here's a link to an interview with one of the GMB union officials earlier this morning after Amazon workers walked out at 00:00.

I will update again later today when I visit the picket, but as this is doing numbers here's a link to the official donation page: stick it to Amazon and show your support for the workers! Solidarity ✊

Update 2:

Some great fighting talk from union speakers willing to take on Amazon.

Strikers told me that amazon managers and bosses have been intimidating staff & taking advantage of the fact that many workers are on zero hour contracts & many are immigrants and they speak a lot of different languages, so they've been lining the hallways to watch them as they leave shifts and lying about the union by saying the union is threatening people and beating them up, all to pressure them to stay silent and be too afraid to communicate so they don't go on strike with their colleagues. But they wont win - the strike was national news, from Philip Schofield talking about Jeff Bezos only offering a 50p raise from his billions on This Morning to major news coverage throughout the day. At one point we were live on Channel 4!

I told workers and union officials that over a thousand people from tumblr who are mostly queer/trans/nonbinary/otherwise lgbtq+ wanted them to know that they support the Amazon strikers.

One striker seemed surprised by this and I got to talk to him about how lgbtq+ people are working class too, how lgbtq+ rights are working class rights, how none of us are free from exploitation until we all are, so no wonder the gay website supports you, and he seemed to really take that on board.

All the workers were grateful for everyone who showed up and thank you all for your support - this is just the start.

Fuck Jeff Bezos

[uncharismatic-fauna]

heya, in regards to that ask requesting intersex/hermaphroditic animals for pride month to weed out ter.fs:

when you make those posts, please acknowledge that the animals in question are intersex (hermaphrodism is a different thing, species-wide instead of individuals like intersex (at least thats how i was taught)), and not trans.

intersex people have asked us trans folks so many times to stop calling intersex animals trans, because it just further contributes to the erasure and alienation of intersex people. we as a group have a history of using intersex people as a convenient "gotcha" or as proof that trans people are natural, without actually supporting or considering the intersex people were making use of, and ignoring that an animal is intersex to say that its trans instead, even if its just to be silly or just as a joke, does contribute to that. (im not saying you, personally, have done this, but that us trans people as a whole need to do better)

if its an animal that goes female to male or vice versa, ive not seen anyone have a problem with calling them trans, but if they are intersex (like the lionesses that start growing manes & roaring like males), i feel its important to respect and acknowledge them as such. i very much understand the desire to say an animal is trans or gay or queer, to show that we are not unnatural, but lets include our intersex siblings and allies in this as well, and call intersex animals what they are.

🩷🩵🤍🩵🩷 🫶 💛💜💛 trans-intersex solidarity forever

Hey! Thanks for sending this.

In the posts specifically about one species in particular, I do try to avoid calling them trans-- and please let me know if I've misworded anything. I am aware that gender is very much a human construct, and labeling hermaphrodite species as trans is inaccurate and can be seriously harmful for intersex people. Frankly, when I first started making posts about those species, I was hesitant to label them as hermaphrodite at all because I know how much weight that term carries in the intersex community. That goes double for species that are not traditionally intersex, like the lionesses with male characteristics.

That said, and as you've pointed out, I do include them in my queer pride collection because A: queer-intersex solidarity forever

And B: the existence of these species, along with those that display homosexual behavior, was denied for a very long time specifically because it legitimized both the queer and intersex communities. Even today there are plenty of people that don't want to acknowledge those parts of nature because it goes against what they believe is the "correct" way to be.

So yes, trans-intersex solidarity forever! 🩵🩷🤍💜💛💜 and again, I'm only human so if I get something wrong please let me know!

[lycandrophile]

i typically don’t post “off topic” since this is a blog with a very specific focus, but i can’t just post on here business-as-usual as if i didn’t just spend a significant amount of my afternoon learning about and crying for the family of a palestinian girl who just learned that most of her loved ones are dead.

a common refrain on this blog has been “we are hurting, we are dying, please pay attention.” so i feel the need to stress now that if you’ve ever heard and listened to that sentiment coming from me about my community and the violence we’ve faced, i need you to hear it now and listen to it now when it comes a thousand times more desperately from the mouths of palestinians in the face of the atrocities that are taking their homes, communities, and lives away. i need to make it abundantly clear that if you see what i talk about here and agree and support it but you won’t extend that same solidarity to the palestinians who need it now, you’ve entirely missed the point.

i also want to stress that you cannot let yourself fall for the propaganda that tries to pit queer and trans people against palestinians. there are queer and trans palestinians and their lives are also being destroyed. they exist and they are part of this family and we need to show up for them and their families. so please keep in mind that every time someone says “if you were queer or trans in palestine you would be killed,” what you’re hearing is an attempt at distracting you from who’s actually killing the queer and trans people in palestine.

i’m one of many people who feel incredibly out of their depth thinking about all of this, and i know that even once i’m better educated, i’ll never stop feeling deeply unqualified to talk about it in depth. i get feeling like you don’t understand it, i get feeling like you can’t do anything about it.

but you don’t need to understand every nuance of the politics or know every bit of the history or feel like an expert in it to give a shit. you can and should(!!!!!!!) learn more and find ways that you can contribute, but in the meantime, the absolute least any of us can do is not look away from this. you don’t need to be an expert to see the tragedies unfolding in front of us and know that they are wrong.

i’ll never forget that girl’s family. i’ll never forget the beautiful babies in those pictures who never got to grow up, or the aunts and uncles and grandparents who were taken before their time. i never knew them, but i felt their loss and cried for them and i will never forget them. they and the countless others like them deserved so much better, and those who are still surviving deserve freedom.

so if you’ve ever fought for my community or any other community facing violence, i better fucking see you fighting for palestinians now.

[velvetvexations]

Trans people and the 4b movement and solidarity from cis women: a vent. I was just scrolling through tiktok and saw a video from Kay Poyer (popular trans woman on tiktok) about how terfs are going to try to convert other cis women into conservatives and that now more than ever cis women need to have sisterhood and solidarity w trans women. And the comments were FILLED w cis women agreeing and pledging their unconditional and unwavering support and saying how they all must protect eachother and what not. And that was very beautiful and moving dont get me wrong!! But.. theres was no mention of trans men (or any other trans people) which I understand! Kay doesnt usually ever even talk about trans men and she was just looking out for herself and her fellow community of dolls, I wasnt really expecting her to bring up trans men. But I also made a video, and my video was about the 4b movement and how ive already seen countless cis women turn their backs on trans men and excluding them from conversations about reproductive care while simultaneously lumping us together w “inherently evil” cis men and including us in the 4b movement (as in dont sleep w or date transmen/whatever the 2 other bs are). And my comments are filled with only 3 types of comments. Either trans men who feel very left out and isolated by the whole thing who are also explaining that the 4b movement is gender essentialist terf shit and how the og movement is horrible to trans women OR cis AND a minority of trans men alike who are going on “men are men” speeches and justifying why we should isolate trans men along w cis men in these dire times. And just. Im so frustrated. Im so disheartened. Im so tired. Im watching EVERYONE turn their backs on trans men, even other fucking trans men. And I dont know what to do. Im sorry for this venty ass wall of text but ive had a rough few days w the election and watching how willing everyone is to give me such unnuanced half baked ass takes about transmascs and men is genuinely kind of fucking me up like. I dont even know what to say like i dont even know why im surprised but FUCK

Hey, it's okay. <3 I got you anon. I love you and I'm here for you, promise. You matter, trans men matter.

[a-queer-seminarian]

Hello, sibling. Do you have resources for intersex Christians? Anything counts, trust. I'm an intersex Catholic and feel very alone in my community. I know God loves me and made me perfectly, but I would love to see fellow intersex Christians talking about our bodies, identities and faith. God bless you

Hey there. My heart goes out to you in your loneliness; you are beloved by God, and you are perfect as you are, even if human beings deny and erase you.

I am also sorry that the broader queer community also too often fails to remember intersex folk and include y'all in our efforts towards justice. You deserve solidarity, deserve to have your pain and your joys listened to as much as any of us.

And, I am happy to tell you that yes, I've got some intersex faith resources for you!

Let's start with intersex Christians talking about their experiences, and then we'll get to some intersex-resonant scripture.

...below the readmore.

Intersex Christians sharing their stories

Stories of Intersex and Faith — a documentary! I have not watched it yet because it costs $20 for an individual to rent it, but if you are interested but the cost is prohibitive, please let me know and I'm happy to rent it for you! .

"I'm an Intersex Christian — and It's Time the Church Listened to Me" (article, major trigger warning for discussion of medical abuse & trauma on a young child; to avoid it, you can skip to paragraph beginning: "The heart of the issue is that church still sees me as problematic...", after which are discussions of trouble with church but also suggestions for improvement) .

Interview with Sara Gillingham, author of the previous article (video, 51 minutes) .

And here's a Facebook video: "What do you wish more Christians knew about intersex people" (video, 2 minutes) .

Another FB video by the same person on how churches can be more supportive of intersex people (video, 3 minutes)

An intersex Catholic Saint?

If you haven't heard of Madre Juana de la Cruz, who would point to her pronounced adam's apple as proof that she had been "male in the womb," check her out!

Now let's check out some intersex-resonant Bible stories, plus intersex theology

For a concise, accessible look at intersex readings of various biblical figures, check out my webpage here... . as well as my webpage here for interpretations of Jesus himself as intersex (and trans)! (The intersex part is fairly brief, but includes links some scholarly essays if you want to learn more about intersex Jesus) . Please note that the focus of my site is trans theology (because that's my focus most of the time), but where a passage is also applicable to intersex folk I make sure to bring them in too, with links to further reading. For instance, did you know Abraham and Sarah were considered intersex by some rabbis in the Talmud?? .

"Male, Female, and Intersex in the image of God" with Lianne Simon and Megan DeFranza (video, 1.5 hours) — great intro to some intersex theology if reading isn't your thing

Intersex in Christ: Ambiguous Biology and the Gospel by Jennifer Anne Cox (book) .

"Intersexuality in Scripture” by Sally Gross (essay free online) . Note that this essay is from 1998 and the language used reflects that, but Gross is one of the foundational intersex theologians. . Also if you want to skip over all her intro paragraphs defining intersex, skip to the paragraph starting "As a brute physical phenomenon, the bodiliness of people who are born intersexed challenges cherished assumptions...")

Sex Difference in Christian Theology by Megan DeFranza (book)

_______

I hope some of those resources can help you feel a little less alone. There are other intersex Christians, including many who lead, write, preach!

I'll close with a regret: I was trying to find any kind of virtual community for intersex Christians, or even just intersex people in general. I wasn't able to find such a place.

If anyone knows of some online intersex support groups or communities, please share! Or if you have other intersex Christian resources you wanna add, share those as well.

I can suggest that you check out this webpage of intersex advocacy groups across the world. If there happens to be one by you and you get involved, I wouldn't be surprised if you met some other intersex Christians there.

Wishing you well, sibling. When you feel alone, may the intersex Christ enfold you in love. When you feel like "the only one," may the stories of faithful intersex people past and present bring you encouragement.