#for global queer solidarity

[transfloridaresources]

[Photo ID: An illustrated side view of a dove against a white background in the colors of the Palestinian flag. It's holding an olive branch in its beak with wings spread. Multiple logos surround it. Text reads: 'Free Palestine. Ceasefire now. We stand in unwavering solidarity with the people of Palestine and demand an immediate ceasefire. No one is free until we are all free.' /End ID]

We stand in unwavering solidarity with the people of Palestine and demand an immediate ceasefire. As a queer led organization, we understand that our identities and Israeli pinkwashing cannot be used to justify genocide. No one is free until we are all free.

Please follow cflqueersforpalestine for local actions.

(Post with tags for all orgs is here)

#palestine #free palestine #ceasefire now #global strike for palestine #strike for palestine #florida #queer #trans #transgender #lgbt #solidarity #pinkwashing #described

[andromerot]

saw a silly take today i dont understand how people don't see anything weird about saying "misogyny is bad, but sometimes men are trans/gay/poc/disabled" like what are you even talking about. we can discuss how misogyny impacts different communities in specific ways but you're basically two leaps away from saying not all men. cmon.

#this also goes for global north people talking about being queer or working class or whatever #like i love international solidarity but for that to happen you needed first recognize the ways in which your country exploits mine #and the part you play in it #que rabia los gringos a veces

[that-gay-jedi]

Seeing things like gay marriage and abortion rights being under threat south of the border should scare everyone in Canada shitless because this shit can sure as hell happen here, it has before and for many Indigenous nations it still is, and everyone who could or would be affected by the rise of evangelical neofascist WTF-ery should be banding together.

We need to be forming networks of solidarity that span national and provincial/state borders to consolidate power for resistance and we need to be doing it right fucking now. Not falling for homonationalist pinkwashing and other conservative lies.

#politics #solidarity #reproductive rights #marriage equality #pro choice #bodily autonomy #queer liberation #american politics #canadian politics #global politics #please we need to be working together #trans healthcare #trans rights #pinkwashing #no pride in pinkwashing #abortion #collaboration

[genderqueerdykes]

The Trevor Project needs help holding upper management accountable for sudden devastating layoffs, and silencing those attempting to speak up about it!

The Trevor Project is a US-based nonprofit organization that provides support for struggling queer youth, providing 24/7 phone and text lines as well as other resources and community for many queer youth who are struggling to find support and a sense of stability. For those who work for this project, their jobs have meant everything to them, and the layoffs came suddenly, without the employees being able even so much as give feedback during this announcement.

"On the morning of June 14, The Trevor Project sent a meeting invite for 1:30 pm EST (2 hours before the meeting start time). The meeting was titled "988 Updates." In this brief meeting, staff at Trevor Project and staff contracted through Insight Global working for Trevor Project were informed that almost half of this 988 staff would be laid off and the last day for those folks would be July 2, 2023. Coordinators of the meeting from both Trevor Project and Insight Global turned off the chat feature and opened the Q&A, but have yet to still answer the questions asked by the staff. Leaders were stiff, emotionless, and cold while reading off of a script as if they were not destroying lives by what they were saying. 988 counselors and staff were also told not to stop taking crisis chats while this was happening, leading to our own self-crises while trying to support contacts. This was a highly unprofessional and inconsiderate meeting with life-changing news."

This has been utterly devastating for both the project, and those who are losing their jobs. Those affected were given a two week notice. As this is a primarily queer organization, many of those affected by these lay-offs face discrimination in their careers and have struggled to find jobs outside of queer affirming organizations.

As of writing this post, this petition only needs 255 signatures to pass, please sign if you agree that those in charge need to be held accountable and provide answers and solutions for the problems and damage that has been caused. You can also share this post, or the link to the petition itself to increase visibility. Thank you for reading.

We stand in solidarity with The 988 Trevor Project Team United.

#lgbt #lgbtq #queer #gay #lesbian #bisexual #trans #transgender #pansexual #queer activism #trans activism #the trevor project #our writing #trans punx #trans punks #lgbtqia #lgbt+

[palms-upturned]

But you can take direct action AND vote harm reduction as much as possible. In fact, you SHOULD be doing that. Yeah there are too many people whose stance ends at "vote for the least bad" but the problem is the worst of the politicians have dedicated followers who will aggressively vote their guys into the office to the detriment to everyone else. So, yes, get involved and march and everything else but please still vote harm reduction. That's all most of us are asking. Because the worse side of this is still going to be doing genocide, they're just going to be sure to bring some of that genocide home and use it to ensure immigrants and queer people here are killed as well.

I think you need to sit with that last sentence you wrote. The point of my post was that if you cast a vote for people who actively participate in genocide in another country because you think their domestic policy is better for you, then you have to be able to understand and sit with the fact that you are breaking solidarity with colonized people. You are voting for the “leopards who promise to only eat the faces of people in the global south” party. You have to be prepared to accept what people extrapolate about you and your politics from this rather than take it as a slight against your morals that you need to defend yourself from.

Immigrants and queer people are already dying here. The Biden administration has not curbed the sudden rise in homophobic/transphobic legislation we’ve been seeing. Roe v Wade has been repealed, and we very nearly lost the Indian Child Welfare Act, too. We’re seeing a covid surge with numbers rivaling the very start of the pandemic, but none of the protections that we had at the start, which weren’t even good to begin with. And now that people are mobilizing across the country for Palestine, this administration is actively making it more difficult to even express anti zionist sentiments in public. Palestinian communities here are facing increased policing. You can talk about harm reduction all you want, but I struggle to see the value in supporting a party whose only appeal is “at least we’re not the other guys,” who can brazenly go against the majority of the American people over and over and over because they believe that they’ll remain in power no matter what because hey, what’s the alternative, let the republicans win? If there are no stakes for them, then what’s the fucking point? Why would they ever accede any demand that their constituents ever made of them? And if not, then what good is it to put them in positions of power?

Personally, I will never forget any of what I’ve seen as long as I live, and you will never catch me voting for any of these people. I won’t legitimize their strategy. I think it’s a fucking bad one, and I think that these people are never going to do anything but toe the colonial line. I can’t stop you from voting however you want to vote, but I genuinely fail to see how trying to rally people to vote against their better judgment is a better use of your time and energy than trying to rally your party to do something that people would actually vote for. In the meantime, regardless of who’s in what seat, the work laid out before us remains the same. It is always the same. We have to protect each other separate from and in spite of the state.

#asks #anon #genuinely in awe that ppl are still sending me asks like this

[decolonize-the-left]

To all the trans people in Palestine and Sudan the DRC and every other place being attacked by imperial powers, you are not forgotten or unseen!

Global solidarity!!

#TDOV #trans day of visibility #transgender day of visibility #lgbt2s #two spirit #non-binary #trans women #trans men #queer solidarity #Instagram

[northern-passage]

Liberation is a Daily Practice also during Christmas

This year, the holiday season arrives with the hardships of displacement, homelessness, starvation, and lack of shelter from the cold. Churches across Palestine have cancelled their historic Christmas festivities in protest of Israel’s settler-colonial genocidal campaign against the people of Gaza to pave the way for grief and political action.

While succumbing to the sedative of consumerism is commonplace during the holiday season, this year, such distractions will not halt our commitment to our values of freedom and justice. We pledge to counter the colonizer’s Christmas capitalism with our mobilized solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The Israeli regime and its imperial abettor, the United States, rely on the general public to remain distracted by consumerism so that they can continue to profit off of the genocide of the people of Gaza.

We, Queers in Palestine are steadfast in our presence in the streets and on our land, strategic in how we consume, and focused on the road to liberation. We are calling on everyone to join us in action:

Keep Palestine central during the holiday.

Keep countering the hegemonic colonial narrative: talk about Palestine in the family, friends and community gatherings.

Resume the disruption of the flow of commerce: commit to a sustained boycott of Israeli products, institutions, and corporations complicit in genocide. Where we spend our money shapes our reality.

Attend actions, keep taking to the streets and bring your loved ones with you.

Raise the flag of Palestine wherever you are.

Remember all those whom we have lost, support and aid the injured survivors and the grieving, and stand behind the ones who are steadfast in their resistance by all means possible.

Empires and colonial entities spend billions in the hopes that we may reach a moment of frustration and to convince us that we have no agency over our fate and political future. Capitalism sells us instant gratification, and we reject that notion which aims to pacify and debilitate those who are committed to the struggle.

The Palestinian liberation struggle is cumulative of the past 75+ years, and this past month we have witnessed massive ideological shifts in the global narrative, as well as heightened political mobilization around the world, as a result of the dedication of those who have remained steadfast and committed to fighting for justice. 

Yet, it is imperative that we keep going, and to remember that no normal life and “business as usual” can go on while an entire population is being wiped out of the face of the earth. So we urge those standing in solidarity with us to commit to the daily practice of organizing which doesn’t take a break even during the holiday season.

-- Queers in Palestine

A Liberatory Demand from Queers in Palestine | No Pride with Genocide

#palestine

[orkbutch]

So, I'm not really in the weeds of Transgender Discourse on the internet (I have a life and also care about my mental health) but I've seen something discussed here about trans masculinity and I wanna talk about it.

I'm very masculine. I'm butch, I'm trans masc, I've always wanted to be masculine and I feel most comfortable when I'm presenting as such. Without much effort or any intention on my part I am read as a cis man day to day. Because I don't present more fem, in queer spaces I am read and recieved as a man, maybe trans, probably into other men. People do not even consider if I'm a butch lesbian unless there's Significant context indicating it. Because of this I'm viewed through 'Man Lens'; It feels a different if I say 'bitch', if I talk about my attraction to women. I don't get smiled at, people put physical distance between me and them as much as possible.

This is familiar for a lot of trans masculine people and trans men that aren't androgynous/fem leaning in their style, and it is an upsetting change to happen. It makes us feel judged or misunderstood to suddenly be causing this wariness in others; it feels prejudiced. I've seen people putting words to this like transmisandry. This is something they want to lessen in their communities, so they don't have to experience this anymore.

Now, here's my opinion part: That's not going to happen. You cannot tackle the "problem" of people responding to your masculinity with wariness. They aren't controlling the wariness, they can't. More importantly, their wariness toward masculinity and what registers in their brain as "man-like" is well founded. It's based in lifetimes of experiences and trauma that has told them men can be very unsafe to be around, and that is true. Most men are cis, and cis men are the most threatening thing in this world to non-cis men. They are usually* socially privileged above others, more likely to inflict violence, more likely to abuse and murder others, are typically physically more powerful than others. Everyone thats not a cis man DEEPLY internalises a very rational wariness of men, and masculine presentation as an extension. Especially men that are strangers. (*This is of course different when we consider intersections of race, colonialism, classism, ect. But globally this generalisation is still pretty accurate.)

Honestly, I don't think this wariness towards masculine presentation is something thats useful or realistic to challenge. Like many internalised processes it's probably a good idea to examine it and consider its usefulness, but I think it'd be easy to conclude that it is a useful wariness for people to have. Women have lots of reasons to be wary around men, including the unique threats of transmisogyny. Queer and gender deviant men have lots of reasons to be wary around men. This is The Reality of patriarchy.

Personally, the place I've come to with how women and queer people react to my masculinity (which is not entirely negative btw, the wariness is just one aspect) is that... I understand their wariness. I have it too, toward those my brain assumes are cis men. I cannot control how they feel or what they think about me. I can only be respectful to others and to myself and live my life. I flag my butchness where I can, I make my gender clear to those it matters to, and the rest I accept as largely beyond my influence. All of us have to do this in some places in our lives.

Even though my masculinity makes other queers wary, I have lots of friends! I've had no real trouble dating or finding intimacy. Initial wariness is just that. Once you understand each other, break the barrier, its usually settled. For anyone who finds my masculinity so offputting that we can't break the barrier, I'm glad neither of us put each other through that discomfort. I understand where a fear like that comes from. I will still hold community with them because that's what solidarity entails.

Anyway thats my ramble about masculinity in queer community, good bye until another. who knows how long

#back on the tumblr diary #personal #edited the section about women having reasons to fear men and transmisogyny; poorly phrased lol.

[autolenaphilia]

The average tumblr queer hates fascism and terfs, and they should, but because they have zero understanding of what those ideologies actually is, they end up repeating such ideology anyway.

They have zero understanding that it is the transmisogynist bioessentialism that makes radfemism so poisonous. So they call trans women mentioning the words "misogyny" and "patriarchy" a terf, while their use of "afab/amab" reveal that they haven't unlearned any bioessentialism and transmisogyny. I've written about this at length before.

And this intellectually lazy acceptance of reactionary thinking goes far beyond that.

Criticize the institutions of religion and the family on this supposed queer communist site, and you'll get massive cries of protest from these queer leftists. And in content if not form they are basically indistinguishable from fascist rhetoric about how "queer leftists who read too many jewish writers (like Marx and Hirschfeld) are trying to eradicate the vital institutions of tradition, religion, family and community with their soulless materialist globohomo." (Note that the link is to a critical glossary of the alt-right on rationalwiki, so there are slurs galore)

And yes, that is what i'm doing, and I'm very proud of it. Abolishing religion and the family, and all of their sanctified traditions is a very important part of the communist project. The main Jewish writer who convinced me of this is Marx, read him.

"The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness." Literally read The Communist Manifesto, which openly calls for the abolition of the family. A lot of suppose leftists repeat what the manifesto calls "The bourgeois clap-trap about the family and education, about the hallowed co-relation of parents and child"

It's especially ironic to hear such things from self-described queers, as if family, religion and tradition aren't the most common tools used to oppress queer people.

A lot of reactionary garbage with a superficial anti-capitalist veneer has gotten into the left, which is not new. The just mentioned manifesto spends a whole chapter criticizing reactionary forms of socialism. I have myself used Marx's still valid analysis as my basis to criticize reactionary anti-capitalism.

There has been so much nationalist garbage absorbed by the left at this point that fascist thinking crop up all the time in the left. This is because planting the roots of 19th century romantic nationalism tends to bear the same fruit. And tumblr leftism is the most intellectually lazy kind of leftism.

Like your average pseudo-leftist position on nations is basically ethnopluralism, a neofascist ideology originating in the European "New right" that is trying to sell the old wine of blood-and-soil nationalism in new bottles for a postcolonial world. It's creator Henning Eichberg spent decades trying to sell his Völkisch ideology to the left. With some success, it seems like. Like the neofascist in ethnopluralist clothing position that "every culture has the right to preserve their own culture and tradition from the onslaught of global capitalist culture" is something that you'll see all the time regurgitated by supposed leftists. The one 19th century european/western concept that is seen as universally applicable is nationalism. It's bleak.

I can't even say the far-left cliché of "read theory", because a lot of theory is garbage. Not all of it though. This list comes from my libertarian marxist/"councilist" biases but Nationalism and Socialism by Paul Mattick is good, as is "Third-worldism and Socialism" an excerpt from an early 70s pamphlet by the British organization Solidarity, and the 1989 essay The Universality of Marx by Loren Goldner.

#my writings #pseudo-leftism

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

Read Palestine Week

🇵🇸 Good morning, my beautiful bookish bats. Can I start by saying a huge THANK YOU for sharing my Queer Palestinian Book post? Seriously, thank you so much. Let's keep that momentum by observing Read Palestine Week (Nov 29 - Dec 5). I've compiled a list of books to help you, along with a list of upcoming events and resources you can use this week and beyond.

🇵🇸 A collective of over 350 global publishers and individuals issued a public statement expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people. Publishers for Palestine have organized an international #ReadPalestine week, starting today (International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People).

🇵🇸 These publishers have made many resources and e-books available for free (with more to come). A few include award-winning fiction and poetry by Palestinian and Palestinian diaspora authors. You'll also find non-fiction books about Palestinian history, politics, arts, culture, and “books about organizing, resistance, and solidarity for a Free Palestine.” You can visit publishersforpalestine.org to download some of the books they have available.

POETRY 🌙 Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear by Mosab Abu Toha 🌙 Affiliation by Mira Mattar 🌙 Enemy of the Sun by Samih al-Qasim 🌙 I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti 🌙 A Mountainous Journey by Fadwa Tuqan 🌙 So What by Taha Muhammad Ali 🌙 The Butterfly’s Burden by Mahmoud Darwish 🌙 To All the Yellow Flowers by Raya Tuffaha

FICTION 🌙 Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury 🌙 Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales 🌙 Men in the Sun by Ghassan Kanafani 🌙 Morning in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa 🌙 Gaze Writes Back by Young Writers in Gaze 🌙 Palestine +100:Stories from a Century after the Nakba 🌙 Wild Thorns by Sahar Khalifeh 🌙 Out of Time by Samira Azzam

🌙 The Skin and Its Girl by Sarah Cypher 🌙 You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat 🌙 A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum 🌙 Salt Houses by Hala Alyan 🌙 A Map of Home by Randa Jarrar 🌙 Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa 🌙 Minor Detail by Adania Shibli 🌙 The Woman From Tantoura by Radwa Ashour

NON-FICTION 🌙 Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour 🌙 Strangers in the House: Coming of Age in Occupied Palestine by Raja Shehadeh 🌙 Palestinian Art, 1850–2005 by Kamal Boullata 🌙 Palestine by Joe Sacco 🌙 The Hour of Sunlight: One Palestinian’s Journey from Prisoner to Peacemaker by Sami Al Jundi & Jen Marlowe 🌙 Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History by Nur Masalha 🌙 Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine by Noura Erakat 🌙 The Words of My Father: Love and Pain in Palestine by Yousef Khalil Bashir

🌙 Traditional Palestinian Costume: Origins and Evolution by Hanan Karaman Munayyer 🌙 Mountain against the Sea: Essays on Palestinian Society and Culture by Salim Tamari 🌙 This Is Not a Border: Reportage and Reflection from the Palestine Festival of Literature 🌙 We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir, by Raja Shehadeh 🌙 Les échos de la mémoire. Une enfance palestinienne à Jérusalem, by Issa J. Boullata 🌙 A Party For Thaera: Palestinian Women Write Life In Prison 🌙 Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, 🌙 Voices of the Nakba: A Living History of Palestine

#free palestine #save palestine #books #book list #book recs #book recommendation #booklr #book blog #batty about books #battyaboutbooks #arab american heritage month #arab american writers #palestinian writers #palestinian poetry #poetry #poetry books #nonfiction #fiction books #queer fiction #queer community #queer books #muslim writers #read palestine week

[intersectionalpraxis]

I just realized that this month's Strike for Palestine coincides with Aromantic Awareness Week. As someone who is Actually Aromantic, is it ok to reblig Aromantic posts and Palestine posts or should you only talk about Palestine?

Hello! Thank you for checking in about this.

The global strike for Palestine is coming up folks! It's from February 18th until February 25th, 2024. I know many of us are already actively boycotting, creating and sharing content about what is happening in Palestine, and many of us are demanding ceasefires through varying forms of activism -this global strike is, once again, to concentrate our efforts of protest and the original thread I created addresses some of the ways in which we can all participate.

The global strike for Palestine is focused on boycotting brands that are either profiting off of or are benefiting from the genocide of Palestinian people -our commitment to this strike and ongoing is by continuing not to support these products/brands; the heart of this strike is not to contribute to the economy in many ways (such as not working, making non-essential purchases [only if absolutely necessary of course], organizing protests and demonstrating support for Sudan, Palestine, and the Congo, and more.

The OP who started this protest spoke about buying groceries in advance as well as paying our bills and rent prior to the strike, and apart from donating when we are able to -to buy esims to send to Gaza. The OP of this thread highlights solidarity and community during this strike, and for folks who are interested in learning more, I have attached the original post I made.

And a part from the fact there are Palestinian folks who are part of the queer/ace community, posting about Aromatic Awareness Week doesn't conflict with the goals of the Global Strike for Palestine. Of course you can re-blog content about this, just as I will continue to post content about many issues and events around the world. If someone is posting getting their lattes at Starbucks (which is a pressure boycott right now), or buying from Puma or hp (those are part of the consumer boycott lists right now) -they're the one's who are complicit in supporting companies and brands that are unethical, have blood on their hands, and with whom are complicit in the dehumanization and deaths of many people in communities around the world.

#feminist #social justice #free palestine #palestine #free gaza #current events #global strike for palestine #palestine will be free #global news #boycotting #feminism #boycott #bds movement #free sudan #free congo #activism #abolish capitalism

[comradeupdog]

Reminder that Queer Solidarity is more than Solidarity with other Queer people (although that is certain a major part of it). It is solidarity with all oppressed people all over the world. The colonized people of the Global South and the hyper-exploited minorities in the first world are all deserving of our solidarity. We are struggling against the same system which is oppressing all of us in different ways and to different degrees.

[ID: A picture of a black and white design printed on fabric, with a trans symbol in the center, with three raised fists alternating with the individual gender symbols, with a Black fist on top. Text above and below reads, "One Struggle - Stick Together" End ID.]

#communism #revolution #lgbtq #socialism #queer liberation #solidarity #lgbtqia+ solidarity #solidarity forever #pls reblog updated version with ID tag kindly provided by rjalker #Comrade does politics

[girlactionfigure]

One of three women convicted of a terror offence for displaying images of paragliders at a pro-Palestine march is a Palestinian author and drill rap fan who was granted asylum in the UK because her family were critical of Hamas. 

Heba Alhayek, 29, and her fellow protestor Pauline Ankunda, 26, attached stock images of paragliders to their backs on October 14 - just seven days after Hamas terrorists used paragliders to enter Israel before randomly slaughtering 1,200 people. Noimutu Olayinka Taiwo, 27, stuck one to the handle of a placard.

Alhayek, who grew up in Gaza before being granted asylum in the UK, is described in an online profile as an ‘author, creative and facilitator’ who studied an MA in Social Anthropology at SOAS and has a creative writing qualification.

The biography says her thinking is ‘rooted in anti-nation-state, decolonial, queer, Afrikan feminist thought’ and ‘navigates topics such as disposability, Global South solidarity movements, land justice, Palestinian drill music, and more.’ 

She, Ankunda and Taiwo were charged under the Terrorism Act with carrying or displaying an article to arouse reasonable suspicion that they are supporters of banned organisation Hamas,

After they were found guilty today following a two-day trial, the Crown Prosecution Service said displaying the images amounted to the ‘glorification of the actions’ of Hamas - despite a veteran Guardian journalist appearing to give evidence in their defence. 

@antisemitismtoday2

#UK #Pro Palestinian #Terror Offense

[racharii]

coming from an enby whos tme (tho i myself am not transmasc), i feel like a lot of transmasc people are doing this "have their cake and eat it too" thing where they want to be perceived as men or men adjacent, in our society a part of the oppressor class, while also still wanting to benefit from structures meant to protect against said class. specifically ones that have been set up in queer spaces. ive met quite a few trans men who were just as vehemently misogynysitic as your average dude bro. and (this is speculation based on convos ive had with trans men im not in every transmascs head) a lot of transmascs have a lot of internalized misogyny that they project onto trans women. ive had an irl ex friend of mine say something that i think encapsulates this particular issue fairly well. this was like 8 years ago, we were talking about trans rep in media (specifically orange is the new black iirc) so im paraphrasing; 'its messed up that we (afabs in this context) are sidelined for people who used to be men, we cant escape the patriarchy.' that was horribly transmisogynistic, so lets unpack it.

it assumes that trans women are just men

it assumes sex essentialism, that they and i were just women. that we were just poor Females having 'our space' encroached on by mean 'former men.'

im not saying that all transmascs think like this ofc. #notallmen. im saying that some do, and enough transmascs have internalized misogyny and not enough self reflection.

just because you are trans doesnt mean you are immune to bigotry and recouping oppressive structures. none of us are free of Sin™️. you as an individual have to make an effort to reflect on your thoughts and actions and how they might affect yourself and others, so that you are not a willing participant of our communities oppression.

for example, ive talked a lot privately about my journey to being a better person, (and pobodies nerfect, its always a learning process, you always will have things you can improve on. and thats okay, were all just human) i initially hated it/its pronouns. 'it' gave me the ick. i was called 'it' as a kid incessantly to make fun of my gender presentation, i couldnt fathom someone else finding peace and even euphoria in using it/its. i bought into the conservative talking points about neopronouns and it/its being detrimental to the trans community. they were "the bad transes" and me? well i use they/them but shakespeare used the singular they so im fine :), im one of the good ones. then one day, i was listening to some video essay idr what or who, but something they said stuck with me, "if it/its makes me happy, why do you care? how does 'it' hurt you really?" my trauma is not everyones trauma, people will find comfort in things that i wont, and thats okay. 'it' hurt me when i was young, by cruel kids and uncaring adults. why am i hurting my community, my fellow transes, by continuing to deny them their autonomy to identify how they like? so i got over 'it.' i saw the real harm was the fucking wedge being driven between us by conservative grifters trying to pick off the weakest in the herd before they go in for the rest of us.

visibility isnt necessarily a good thing for marginalized people. transfemmes are the biggest target of hate in our community atm. they unfortunately serve as the canary. global fascism is on the rise and to be frank, a targeted hate campaign against a trans woman is asking for her to be killed. outed, paraded as a freak, doxxed, swatted, killed. protect trans women, fascism doesnt stop with one group nor will you be saved by being "one of the good ones." trans solidarity, even the people you dont like, even if you think theyre icky or gross or whatever the fuck else you do Not give up trans solidarity. you dont make callout posts, you dont send death threats, you dont send hate mail, if you dont like someone Block Them and move on.

we stand together or we will be eradicated.

#sorry this turned into a rant about impending fascism #but its all connected #rach rants #real cut a liberal a fascist bleeds vibes here recently #also im not proof reading this so sorry for typos #trans

[nightwingsnightblog]

It’s okay to change your identity over time! I am queer, I know what it’s like to try and find a label that fits you. Current day Palestinians used to consider themselves as Syrian or Jordanian, or just as Palestinian Arabs. And there were Palestinian Jews, and Palestinian Christians, and Palestinian Druze, and so on! If you lived in that region known at that time as Palestine, you were Palestinian.  All people have the right to self-determination and a safe and comfortable life. It’s okay that the Palestinians call themselves Palestinians, even though it is the colonized name of Israel. Even Jews used that name. But now the Jewish Palestinians and diaspora have reclaimed their land and chosen to identify it and themselves as Israel. It was after this point, in around 1964-1968 that the current day Palestinians chose to become the Palestinian People as a nation. Unfortunately, this was done in some part to undermine the Jewish right to Israel and self-determination, fanning the flames on an impossible conflict. Some Jews even forfeit their right to self determination out of love and respect for the Palestinian people. It does not mean that Jews do not have the right to self-determination, and it does not mean that Jews are not indigenous to Israel. It is a testament to the depth of humanity that we can all possess.

Did you know that I am sick of having to speak like this? That you afford me no humanity, but I have to get onto my damn knees to placate you? Of course I believe in the humanity of every single person on this planet, of course I believe we all deserve, by merit of existing, to have our basic human rights met, and to go well beyond them as well. The fact that the majority of the left cannot hold two truths in their mind at once is sorely disappointing. Imagine what the world could be if you stopped yelling and started caring. I have been doing a lot of learning recently, about Israel, and Palestine, and the history, and the claims. I keep coming back to the same conclusion that I have come to for years. We both have a right to Israel, to live there and be free there. But how can we live there and be free there when organizations like Hamas and the general antisemitism of the Arab and Muslim world governments leaves Jews vulnerable to violence and dispossession time and time again. We have been facing war, genocide, and expulsion from before ‘Palestine’ was even a name. Show some compassion, show some grace.

Find me a solution that isn’t a globalized intifada or driving the Jews into the sea. Show me a Palestine where there is safety and equality and human rights. Show me true indigenous solidarity. Israel is not perfect. But it is a hell of a lot closer than many Arab countries. Maybe if you shared support instead of hatred, we could move forward to a better version of a mixed country like Israel already is, even thought the majority are Jews. This doesn’t seem to bother you when it is majority Muslim or Arab countries that Jews were ethnically cleansed from by colonizing Muslim/Arabs. For some reason, it is the one place in the whole world that having a majority anything demographic is a problem, even though Jews are a worldwide minority everywhere but in the indigenous Jewish land. Or, we could have a two-state solution, like all the ones that never happened because of the hatred, and violence, and wars of the Arab world. Stop clutching your western pearls and open your eyes. It’s okay to change your identity, or your mind, over time.

#israel #palestine

[hussyknee]

Regular reminder that if you don't live in the Global North, nothing they have to say applies to the rest of us. Actually most things they say have little value anyway since the Global South and Eastern folks are afterthoughts to them, much less center us in their social justice.

- The USAmerican cultural hegemony has fuck all to do with us. Be aware of what they're trying to peddle you, but they have more power to harm and radicalise you than you have ever could to harm them. This applies to both the Western left and right wing. They are both equally racist, colonial and imperialist.

- Global North issues around capitalism, exploitation and piracy have nothing to do with us. Consumer activism might work to some extent over there idk, but if anyone brings it up over in the lands of the Black and brown people, you can laugh them out of the country.

- Their queer history is not ours. Congrats to Stonewall and all but that's just some shit that happened in the US. We need to dig past 18 different strata of cultural genocide and colonial garbage to mine our queer histories back into the light, and designing microlabel flags and fighting over colonizer language acronyms have fuck all to do with that either.

- Always pirate everything within reach. Save up and buy from authors and creators you really like (that's what I do – esp when it's a BIPOC creator), but people who can't afford to buy shit in the first place ain't stealing food out of anybody's mouths. Pirating is praxis and always has been since the days of the East India Company.

- Don't buy into the USAmerican theories of race. They aren't universal. "BIPOC" especially is a USAmerican specific term, it is not used in the UK or other settler colonies. Constructs of race and the tribal Other far predated European colonization; race as a colour system that exists today is simply one variation of it. The global apartheid against the mellanated takes many forms, histories and terminology. There are especially no "people of colour" in Asia, Africa, Caribbean and Polynesia. There are only people who live there, and "people of white".

Race is a fake, made-up conceptualization imposed by whoever has power within each region. It's ethnic, cultural and casteist, with no biological basis whatsoever. There is no uniformity, no universalism, no rhyme nor reason to any of it; the only people who know exactly who doesn't belong are the oppressors. I'm seeing concepts like "unambiguously black" floating around the terminally online Western left; any dark-skinned person of the Global South should split their sides laughing at it. Whites have no ambiguity on who the darkies are.

- Read, watch, listen to, play whatever the hell you want, just have the sense to pirate it, and to be very conscious about the narratives they try to smuggle.

- When the US and UK speak, listen with compassionate interest, offer what solidarity you can spare for their downtrodden, and then go back to reading and following your own fucking news. Focus on our own women's and reproductive rights, trans rights, queer histories, rise of fascism, militarisation, anti-blackness, class warfare, nationalist violence, imperialism etc. That is decolonization, that is emancipation from the Western cultural hegemony. Everything else is the bread and circuses of empire, in which both the left and right wing of the West are complicit.

We owe the Global North nothing more than we can each individually afford to extend to them on grounds of common human decency and compassion. Which is a lot more than they will ever reciprocate.

#racism #colonialism #western imperialism #american exceptionalism #american cultural hegemony #decolonization #lgbtqia #queer history #trans rights #us military #disability #ableism #women's rights #reproductive rights #fascism #global south #eastern europe #africa #asia #caribbean #polynesia #oceania #landback #indigenous sovereignty #anthropology #classism #elitism #capitalism #knee of huss #piracy