Blog
What we can learn about Helen Joyce in two sentences
That second paragraph on the book jacket of ‘Trans’. Whose feelings matter? It’s a premise of Helen Joyce’s book ‘Trans’ that cisgender people’s feelings matter the most. It’s right there on the book jacket.
On the 3rd anniversary of J.K. Rowling’s pledge for trans rights
She ‘would’ have marched with us, but when? Her supporters insist she can’t be transphobic, citing her tweet: ‘I’d march with you…’ Well, her tweet is three years old today. She hasn’t marched.
I’m disappointed in the ‘Witch Trials’
J.K. Rowling’s image-polishing podcast doesn’t grapple with the real problem. When someone accuses Rowling of transphobia, her team’s refrain is: When has she ever been transphobic? At this point, I hear it as a running joke.
‘Cis’ or ‘biological’?
They’re both adjectives, but we have preferences. No, ‘cis’ doesn’t imply that trans people are better. ‘Cis’ implies that trans people are equal. People who object to this equalization are transphobes.
Biologicals first!
OK, said the pack of hungry tigers. A slogan like ‘Biological first!’ might not work out so well for them. If we’re tied up by hungry cartoon tigers, our best bet is to untie each other.
‘Labels are for cans,’ yet you do see ‘trans’
The ‘soup can logic’ of using ‘trans’ but not ‘cis’. When people aren’t comfortable observing that some people are cis, often their discomfort rests in a belief that trans people aren’t people but soup cans.
3 strategies to fight transphobia
From ‘El terfismo en América Latina,’ an article in Volcánicas. Expose TERF connections to the Religious Right, multinational companies, neoliberal regimes & white supremacy. Give trans people platforms. Keep at it.
Nervous about sharing your uninformed opinion? Then don’t
Feel relieved? Good. But it was never about your feelings. “Just asking questions!” isn’t credible when the speaker is demonstrably not naive. Lots of people know lots of real information about trans kids.
Human rights don’t ‘trickle down’
Why must some discussions be silenced in favor of others? The commission’s name itself is peak Orwellianism. I must admit, sadly, that many rights are alienable. The Commission on Unalienable Rights has come to take them away.