thenorthinmyveins

[thenorthinmyveins]

“A TERF is a white supremacist whose gateway to white supremacy is anti-trans bigotry, instead of anti-Semitism or anti-Blackness or anti-migration or misogyny. As with any gateway, many people engaging in this ideology may not be aware of their proximity to white supremacy. This is the standard radicalization pathway that we have seen over and over and over with, for example, anti-Islamic sentiment. Personally, [I] find it is most comparable to how anti-Semitism gateways are used. Often, we see white supremacists exploiting legitimate grievances with the financial systems by turning into an anti-Semitic issue. White supremacists take legitimately frustrated and class-oppressed people’s anger at banks, and carefully plant the seeds of anti-Semitism. They’ll point out the irrefutable fact that there exist Jewish people in executive positions in banking and vilely twist this. TERFs take a legitimate grievance: patriarchal oppression of women and homophobia and turn it into a movement based on systematic exclusion of a specific class of people. This is the redpill. [We] need to stop the good-faith engagements with their ideology and start treating it like the gateway to white supremacy that it is.”

— Emily Gorcenski, Source: https://twitter.com/EmilyGorcenski/status/1088180524504571908

[thenorthinmyveins]

If you’re genuinely interested in learning more about settler colonialism and answering questions like “wait what does land back look like?” “What can I do?” and “What are the contexts informing this and why do Indigenous people reject being part of the US/Canada?” there are free syllabi online which can answer these questions (they will not answer it directly, the point is to get you to think for yourself and ask more questions that can lead you to thinking more deeply about this and how you can personally take action towards better practices of solidarity) 

Here’s the Standing Rock Syllabus: 

https://nycstandswithstandingrock.wordpress.com/standingrocksyllabus/

Allyship and Solidarity Guidelines of Unsettling America:

https://unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com/allyship/

Towards Decolonization and Settler Responsibility:

https://unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com/2016/10/04/towards-decolonization-and-settler-responsibility-reflections-on-a-decade-of-indigenous-solidarity-organizing/

Sample Syllabi of the DEcolonization Resource Collection:

https://nationalhistorycenter.org/decolonization-resource-collection-sample-syllabi/

Further Readings:

https://decolonization.wordpress.com/decolonization-readings/

These are limited resources that mainly deal with North America and English-speaking countries, because that’s the context I am coming from. If you have resources from other regions and other languages, I welcome them here, or anything from your local context. 

[thenorthinmyveins]

Listen up. There is literally an app that can help you avoid self harm and I don’t know why we aren’t talking about it.

Calm Harm can be tailored to your needs and will provide strategies to help you get past those crucial moments of wanting to harm.

It’s also totally FREE.

once again, it’s called CALM HARM

[thenorthinmyveins]

hey you guys know what’s shitty!!!!

my ace/lesbian friend went to a pride festival today!!! im super happy for her!!!

the shitty part is that she left an hour in because she was scared of getting punched. for carrying an ace flag. at pride.

someone threatened her. at pride. because she was ace.

i dont wanna dabble in ~discourse~ but hey!!! maybe don’t make people scared of the community that should make them feel safe!!!! thats my hot take!!!!

[thenorthinmyveins]

From IndigenousAction on Instagram~

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Trans rights is an Indigenous issue. Innumerable gender identities and systems were thriving in Indigenous communities prior to colonization, genocidal, and erasure of our spiritual connection to this genderless body we call the earth. Fight for trans peoples rights. Make space in your organizations, institutions, communities, and families. Give your money and resources! 

burymyart.tumblr.com instagram.com/RISEindigenous

[thenorthinmyveins]

Reminder that our people never had a bias against two spirit or wiŋkte (trans) people, and that most tribes thought wiŋktes were sacred! Keep calling your relatives out on their colonized homophobia.

[thenorthinmyveins]

“Saw men dressed like women; Balboa learnt that they were sodomites and threw the king and forty others to be eaten by his dogs, a fine action of an honourable and Catholic Spaniard.” –Antonio de la Calancha, a Spanish official in Lima, Peru (1610)

“This is one of the most unaccountable and disgusting customs, that I have ever met in the Indian country, and so far as I have been able to learn, belongs only to the Sioux and Sacs and Foxes—perhaps it is practiced by other tribes, but I did not meet with it; and for further account of it I am constrained to refer the reader to the country where it is practiced, and where I should wish that it might be extinguished before it be more fully recorded.” –George Catlin on his painting, Dance to the Berdache (1830)

“Strange country, this, where males assume the dress and perform the duties of females, while women turn men and mate with their own sex!” –Edwin Thompson Denig, American fur trader (1851)

“During a visit last year to the Crow reservation, in the interest of the Field Columbian Museum, I was informed that there were three hermaphrodites in the Crow tribe, one living at Pryor, one in the Big Horn district, and one in Black Lodge district. These persons are usually spoken of as “she”… and they are highly regarded for their many charitable acts… A few year ago an Indian agent endeavoured to compel these people, under threat of punishment, to wear men’s clothing, but his efforts were unsuccessful.” –S. C. Simms, American Anthropologist (1903)

“The Indian agent wrote to Victoria [the provincial government], telling the officials what she was doing. She was taken to Victoria, and the policeman took her clothes off and found she was a man, so they gave him a suit of clothes and cut off his hair and sent him back home. When I saw him again, he was a man. He was no more my sweetheart.” –Anonymous Kwakiutl chief (1900)

“The agent incarcerated the Badés, cut off their hair, made them wear men’s clothing. He forced them to do manual labour, planting these trees that you see here on the B.I.A. [Bureau of Indian Affairs] grounds. The people were so upset with this that Chief Pretty Eagle came into Crow agency and told the agent to leave the reservation. It was a tragedy, trying to change them.” –Joe Medicine Crow, historian (1982)

There are important cultural and spiritual aspects to identifying as Two-Spirit. Many Two-Spirit peoples traditionally held and hold important roles within the community. A Native lens is needed for a full understanding, and as such, Two-Spirit is not an identity for Non-Natives to use. People who want to call themselves Two-Spirit because they think it sounds cool have no idea how rude that is on many levels, especially given the centuries Two-Spirit peoples have spent in fear of being punished for being themselves from settlers. Significant efforts were made by colonizers to destroy these views and traditions. Variance in their strict gender roles were not tolerated, and punishment ranged from death to incarceration. These are just some records of the views from settlers and violence Two-Spirit peoples were subjected to. All this led to Two-Spirit identities going underground.

[thenorthinmyveins]

native gay & trans/two-spirit flags!

these flags are for any native gay & trans as well as two-spirit people! ive seen such a lack of indigenous related lgbt things on this website and had an idea to make these after seeing black gay & trans flags similar!! 

if used, credit is appreciated but not at all required! 

[thenorthinmyveins]

[thenorthinmyveins]

[thenorthinmyveins]

Historical Indigenous Two-Spirit & LGBTQ Figures:

White Cindy: Twentieth Century Klamath Tw!inna'ek medicine woman, who was respected for her power after having demonstrated her ability to conjure lightning We’Wha: Famous Zuni Ihamana, who was a prominent cultural ambassador for Native Americans in general, and the Zuni in particular. Their cultural work and interactions with anthropologists allowed for multiple publications of Zuni culture. Osh-Tisch: A Crow Badé, who earned her name “Finds-them-and-kills-them” after  rescuing a man named Bull-Snake and shooting a Lakota warrior during her participation in the 1876 Battle of Rosebud, alongside her friend and fellow female warrior The-Other-Magpie. Thunder-Woman: a powerful Cree doctor and medicine Ayakwew, who was the sibling of Chief Fine-Day. They are the namesake of Chief Thunderchild, who received his name after being saved from death and doctored back to health by Thunder-Woman. Ozawwendib: Ojibwe niizh-manidoowag who encountered multiple fur traders, such as Alexander Henry and John Tanner. She was noted as being an excellent guide in her assistance to trappers and fur traders. Hosteen Klah: a Navajo artist, medicine man, master weaver and Nádleeh. He co-founded the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa-Fe, New Mexico alongside Mary Calbot Wheelwright, and his anti-assimilation efforts led to documentation of Navajo religion to be made available to future generations. Bíawacheeitchish: A Gros-Ventres two-spirit who was orphaned and taken in by the Crow after being raided, and took up traditionally male activities, and was encouraged in her pursuit by her foster father. She gained renown during a raid, fighting off multiple attackers and turning the tide of fortune, earning her name “Woman-Chief”. She married four wives and gained leadership after her foster father’s death. Kauholanuimahu: a King of Hawaii and Māhū, born circa early 15th century to nobles Laʻakapu and Kahoukapu. He succeeded his father as High-Chief, and Kauholanuimahu was then succeeded by his own son Kihanuilulumoku at his death.

Happy Pride, and Happy National Indigenous Peoples History Month <33 Homophobes/biphobes/transphobes/etc are not welcome on my posts and need not reblog.

[thenorthinmyveins]

to lgbtq+ indigenous youth:

just a reminder that you are under no obligation to label yourself according to the western-centric + white-centric labels of gender and sexuality.

lgbtq+ identities existed long before colonization touched our land. You do not have to exchange one type of conformity for another to fit in with other lgbtq+ folks.

If labels like nonbinary, genderfluid, etc feel good to you, go for it!

If two-spirit feels right, that’s awesome! If not, don’t sweat it.

If you have an identity specific to your indigenous heritage, you are under no obligation to translate your complex, nuanced identity into terms that non-natives understand.

You are under no explanation to explain your identity to non-natives.

(ok for non natives to reblog!)

[thenorthinmyveins]

And we come full circle on the racism. 🤷🏻‍♀️ good bye colonizer.

[thenorthinmyveins]

Ah, because you couldn’t care less whether or not using the term Native would be offensive.

The original tweet was sent to me in a private group. First Nations/American Indian/Native American/Indigenous people took offense to the use of the term Native. Especially when Two Spirit is being accepted again after colonialism erased it from tribes histories and culture. Where elders have to be reminded that the erasure happened and that they need to be accepted because our oppressors do not want us to welcome them with open arms and accept them. But you assumed POCs, better yet, BIPOCs didn’t take offense to the use of the term Native in this way.

Ask yourself why intersectional radical feminism was created. Was it because other groups were under represented in the movement? That possibly traditional radical feminism tends to ignore the struggles of BIPOC women? And thus was created to fill the gaps? And that radical feminism might need to change because modern women have different struggles (and the same) that de Beauvoir wrote about? That a moment is a living creature not a strict ideology that never changes?

And ask yourself if it’s really worth correcting someone with Troll in their bio and an avatar pic as such? What I see is a 20 something year old wasting her time.

[thenorthinmyveins]

Before I ask or respond to anything else. What race, culture, religious, and ethnically background do you assume that I am?

[thenorthinmyveins]

Read the first line of my last reply, read it slowly and repeatedly.

Because I am speaking about TERFs, but you are the one projecting that speaking about TERFs means speaking about radical feminism in its entirety. Which is not what this post and what my replies have been about.

🤷🏻‍♀️ I don’t know what to say sis, I see lots of skirting around the fact that TERFism is the subject. Seems to me you need to do some soul searching and possibly voluteering.

I’ve had some radical feminists (whether they align themselves as TERFs, I do not know) come into the women’s shelter preaching to women as to why this and that happened to them, but that’s all they did was preach, they never once lent a hand or actually put their “money” so to speak where their mouth is. The vibes you are giving me, remind me of them.

I also did have a boss and several co workers who also consider themselves to be radical feminists, but they knew it was better to actually help the women, donate time, petition, and speak to government representatives than it did to preach to women who were already in vulnerable places. We would also take in trans women when they were kicked out of their houses, beaten by anti trans sympathizers, raped by people who thought they could “fix” them. Funny enough the other women at the shelter never saw them as a threat, they saw them as other women in terrible situations that needed help.

But stay inside clinging to your books and claiming to help other women when it seems to me all you do is want to harm other vulnerable individuals.