dirtylibrarianthoughts:

Members of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, including Sylvia Rivera (seated in middle). (photo: Ellen Schumsky)

Queer Prehistory

In August 1966, there was a riot at Compton’s Cafeteria, a 24-hour San Francisco eatery popular with drag queens and other gender-benders, hustlers, runaway teens and cruising gays. The Compton’s management had begun calling police to roust this nonconformist clientele, and one night a drag queen precipitated the riot by throwing a cup of coffee into the face of a cop who was trying to drag her away. 

Get it right, because the Stonewall Riots were not the first acts of queer rebellion against the State.

Joan Armatrading : The Weakness In Me (by Spenlove79)

why do you come here, when you know i’ve got troubles enough?
why do you call me, when you know i can’t answer the phone? …
are you so strong or is all the weakness in me?

caricapapaya:

“If you ask most people what the most pressing issue for queers is in America today, they will say “marriage.” Inherent in this is the assumption that everything else is great for gay people, and only marriage remains. Yet there is no national anti discrimination law, and marginalization in publicly-funded institutions like schools and the New York City Saint Patrick’s Day parade is firmly in place. There is no integration of lesbians of all races or gay men of color’s perspectives into mainstream arts or entertainment. Familial homophobia is the status quo. We are not integrated into education curriculum or services. Being out is professionally detrimental in most fields. Most heterosexuals still think of themselves as superior and most gay people submit to this out of necessity or lack of awareness. Basically, in relation to where we should be—we are nowhere….

…The AIDS crisis made gay people visible. For the first time we were on prime-time news programs, in newspapers, while dying and death made the closet more difficult to maintain. I’ve gone into this process in depth in my book Stagestruck: Theatre, AIDS and the Marketing of Gay America, but in short, the visibility created by AIDS forced the dominant group to change their stance. They could no longer insist that homosexuality did not exist. What they could do is find representative homosexuals with whom they were comfortable, and integrate them into some realm of public conversation. If they didn’t, the gay voice in America would be people with AIDS disrupting mass at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. It was crucial to the containment crisis that acceptable gay personalities be identified and positioned as “leaders,” even if they had no grassroots base. It’s kind of like the CIA setting up a puppet government.

This is a classic gentrification event. Authentic gay community leaders, who have been out and negotiating/fighting/uniting/dividing with others for years, the people who have built the formations and institutions of survival, become overlooked by the powers that be. They are too unruly, too angry, too radical in their critique of heterosexism, too faggy, too sexual. The dominant culture would have to change in order to accommodate them. And most importantly they are telling the truth about heterosexual cruelty. The dominant culture needed gay people who would pathologies their own. Supremacy ideology could not tolerate the confrontation with the heterosexual self that is at the core of gay liberation.

So instead of the representative radicals, there was an unconscious but effective search for palatable individuals with no credibility in the community, no accountability to anyone, with no history of bravery or negotiation with other queers, who were then appointed in their stead. This replacement process, facilitated by the straight media, really became visible in the late nineties. It was the first time that i noticed a crew of guys being interviewed on television as emblematic gay men whom I had never seen in a community capacity. It was the moment when the corporate media was creating its own gay personalities, who were entirely different from the people featured in the gay-owned press. And eventually, the grassroots voices were drowned out completely, as gentrification co-opted the gay media, and tehg ay liberation movement, dialogically, was demobilized.”

—

Sarah Schulman - The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination. (via tremblebot)

Swiftly and graciously accepting rejection is a cornerstone of radical consent. It hurts, but if you really believe in sexual autonomy, you just have to suck it up — without pleading or wheedling or demanding answers. You need a reason to be with someone, not to reject them.

Of course, rejection can be based on prejudice. It can be cissexist or racist or fatphobic or biphobic or ageist or ableist or anti-virgin or whatever else. And if someone voices those sentiments, you’re right to call them up on it. But nobody owes you an explanation on why they don’t want to fuck you or date you. I’ve been hearing people assume prejudice in situations where no reason was given, and I tend to think it’s likely no reason was given because no one wants to say “I’m just not that into you”.

In an existing relationship, pressing for a reason can be used to get someone to stay with you under the promise that you will change. But though it’s widely acknowledged that rape and sexual assault occur within established relationships, conversations about consent can tend to focus on the beginnings of things. Even when consent education explicitly resists the idea of perpetual consent, or conclusive negotiations (eg in this questionnaire), people can assume that certain ideas or questions aren’t applicable to their situation. The communication style and power dynamic of an established relationship can complicate negotiations, as much as it can facilitate them.

But coercion can come from a place of disempowerment — eg using your body image or mental health issues to manipulate someone into having sex with you — as much as it can come from the abuse of power. When you feel utterly powerless, it can be hard to imagine that you’re exercising coercion, but that’s exactly what’s happening when you try to beg and trade in the face of rejection. One of our Basic Rules of Flagging is that we need to be open to suggestion and open to rejection.

Consent depends on both — if you are too polite to proposition, too precious to be propositioned, too evasive to reject and too insecure to be rejected, how are you negotiating consent?

This really resonated re: passive aggression as a method for masking either abuse dynamics, or residual defensiveness about sex between women. Rejection can be dissapointing + learning how to express what you want, when you can’t fall back on ‘men are such bastards, women are from Venus’ stuff is intimidating to some women. 

freececemcdonald:

Today, Monday, April 30, 2012

at the CeCe McDonald Trial…

• -The first day of CeCe McDonald’s trial had national support from Mara Keisling, founding executive director of the National Center of Transgender Equality, and Leslie Feinberg, renowned author of Stone Butch Blues, both of whom flew out to Minneapolis to attend today’s proceedings.

• -In court, the judge ruled on several remaining motions. The defense moved to exclude a photo of the t-shirt Dean Schmitz, the deceased, was wearing June 5th on the grounds that it could unfairly prejudice the jury. This motion was denied.

• - In the discussion of this motion, the prosecution stated no weapon had been recovered from the scene. They also acknowledged it remains unclear what the weapon which caused Schmitz’s wound was.

• -The defense continued with a motion to sequester, or isolate from the proceedings, three Hennepin County Witness Coordinators during the examination of the witnesses they had interviewed because they were also potential witnesses. This motion was granted.

• -The defense moved to allow other expert witness testimony on transgender issues. The judge will make a final decision about allowing expert witness testimony after further deliberation.

• -The defense moved to allow CeCe more than the one change of clothes generally permitted. This motion was granted. (Today she wore black skinny slacks with a magenta button-down, black and grey paisley sweater and absolutely superb grey pumps.)

• -We are not aware of a decision that has been made regarding whether Dean Schmitz’s swastika tattoo will be admitted as evidence during the trial.

• -Jury selection will begin Tuesday, May 1st.

(Picture is of Rai’vyn Cross, CeCe’s sister & Leslie Feinberg, some random activist that showed up the first day of court. ;P Thanks Leslie!)

vizzz:

(part of my ongoing series commemorating trans women killed in hate crimes)

Paige Clay was only 23 and was just killed a few days ago. this shit needs to stop.

(via sex: unknown / a digital zine by and for intersex folks / call for submissions! « Jai Arun Ravine)

So I suck, because when i was offline a while i left this in the queue until after submissions had closed *doh*. want to share anyway so ppl. know about it and the organizing artists.

This project is put together with love by a group of queer POC writers and activists living in Oakland and Berkeley, California. Chi Mei Tam is an intersex genderqueer Chinese American immigrant who grew up in Oakland. She is a passionate organizer for social and economic justice, specifically for immigrant and queer communities. Dylan Casama is a tomboyish boy Pinoy. He writes intersex love and ghost stories. See him published here. Jai Arun Ravine is a trans-identified mixed race Thai American artist and ally to the intersex community. They are excited to support Chi Mei and Dylan in the production and design of this zine.

wonderwomanproject:

“The femme identity is always treated with suspicion and disdain precisely because it invests itself into the qualities most commonly associated with weakness and powerlessness. Even across queer communities, we, too, are often convinced that relying on masculinity is the only way to be commanding and threatening in the face of the powers we seek to challenge. To Hollibaugh, the femme identity is always a radical one, no matter who dons it, because it works to command and threaten without reifying male status or masculinist hierarchies. It challenges power on the terms which power most fears, and refuses to forfeit any of its own desires, tendencies or passions in the process.”

—Amber Hollibaugh, My Dangerous Desires: A Queer Girl Dreaming Her Way Home. Found and well-substantiated on We Are All Subversives.

garconniere:

crankyskirt:

This is gonna be good.

OKAY i was wondering where all the followers came from all of the sudden! i was waiting to put a bit more work into this baby before sharing it with the world but yes FEMME FLAGGING IS A THING, i had to make this tumblr! working on a mission statement but basically i want it to be as open and submission based as possible so start tagging your awesome manicures “femme flagging”, click the follow button, and stay tuned for more sexy femme flagging details. message me if you want to be an admin!

dumbthingswhitepplsay:

poemsofthedead:

dumbthingswhitepplsay:

alexandraerin:

freedominwickedness:

dumbthingswhitepplsay:

So here is the list I gave them:

—being outright racist

—stealing terminology from black people

—using that bullshit ass “I don’t date people of your color”

—being covertly racist and using their transness to excuse it

—comparing transness to racism

—forgetting that non-white trans people exist

—complaining every time they have to include non-white trans people in anything

—discounting the opinions of non-white trans people WRT trans issues

—yelling at non-white trans people with narratives based in cultures they don’t understand or know and insisting they’re “sucking up to the kyriarchy”

—insisting that everyone use white trans created rhetoric for all trans people and getting insulted when we choose to use our own rhetoric

—insisting that gate-keeping isn’t right while ignoring that they don’t suffer the same violence as non-white trans people, who need gate-keeping to stay alive

—pretending they suffer the same violence as non-white trans people

—saying problematic shit and then standing behind other white trans people to protect them against the meanie trans PoC

Wait, what? How exactly do nonwhite trans people “need” gatekeeping to stay alive? The rest of your list totally makes sense, but that one doesn’t.

Gatekeeping as in the right to control their own spaces (community gatekeeping), not as in having their access to resources controlled (medical gatekeeping).

Have I told you I love you lately?

Because I do. 

Hells YES. I’d add:

• appropriating terminology/identities from indigenous people and being generally shitty when told that our terms are not for their use
• appropriating not only language but other culture markers from Black (especially, but also other Brown) cultures and taking them outside their cultural context
• consistently centering conversations around their own experiences/narratives at the expense of allowing POC experiences/narratives to be heard
• making coded accusations of “reverse racism”
• setting up hierarchies of oppression to continue to claim they have it worst and be able to deny the benefits of their whiteness
• being generally condescending and/or paternalistic towards POC
• suppressing the stories, histories, and role models of QPOC movements that are explicitly non-white, and on other occasions holding up a token QPOC as “proof” that they acknowledge us
• exoticizing & fetishizing non-white trans* (and cis) people
• telling trans* poc that their experience isn’t “really a trans* experience”
• generally exhibiting and upholding whiteness in interactions with POC

Adding:

—Making racism out to be a cis white people only issue while simultaneously complaining about their own erasure.

Ok this shit is ugly but.

especially this last, going in WAY to much IRL. And anyone who wants to be all “OMG, you are oppressing me because I’m some inner suburban Sydney genderqueer [READ CIS GENDER WHITE] activist - fuck you already. With allies like you, who needs a really high suicide rate.

No, really. Because in 2011, there were 3 Sistergirls following me, 1 in Brisbane, 2 in Sydney. In 2012, they are all dead, as suicides. They were all in their early 20’s [i think].

And only 2 texted me to let me know how bad they were feeling. And only 1 was I able to meet with IRL. And that was not enough.

Yeah sure I questioned my own role in that, and what I could/couldn’t do. Do you really think anyone wouldn’t? But

WHY DID THEY TEXT ME? As some older white lady who is intersex not trans or genderqueer,  and they really hardly knew, in another state? What worth does all this online posturing translate to, in terms of who they thought might PICK UP A PHONE and talk to them as people ?[rather than bullshit on their blog. God, you have no idea how much I’m coming to hate certain hypocritical cisgender genderqueer allies/suicide parasites* - since I realized their constant, intense righteousness, their obsession with finger pointing at others real and perceived opportunism and imperfect organizing - stems from ‘spot it because you got it’ syndrome.  They are the ‘activists’ online most guilty of the conduct they criticize, outside of those they criticize. Which is typical of petty politics in small, self conscious scenes. The hate comes at how wrong it is to just assume any POC transperson or ALL of queer POC history, representation, anything - are there tokens for the taking, to erase or claim for those games. 

For all the righteous talk online, where are you at 3am on any given weekend, and would you be available to recognize what a friend is going through as something based in their specific human experience, and act based on them being a valued peer in reciprocal relationships - rather than self affirming posturing on your blog, or for your angle - and only your angle - in a wedge politic? Consider that all this “trans ally” posturing which has no comittment IRL, and is in massive denial about queer racism, is HARM - not help, if IRL you still can’t/won’t see a Sistergirl as human.

It’s all circulating notions to huge audiences that POC transpeople are victims, or are the eternal Strong Women, or are so oppressed that your 101 self is being PROFOUNDLY radical and brave championing these helpless creatures [by saying nothing they aren’t already saying better year round at multiple POC, LGBTI and queer POC blogs]. It perpetuates prejudice by the method chosen to fight it - being presenting the subject people as caricatures, while presenting selves as complex people who are also champions ‘helping to include’ the caricatured people and their histories - not more priviliged people being included, and also erasing or dividing histories to suit their agendas.

Another trade off is, it implies they have tonnes of friends now, all these people really have their back.  Which can hurt worse, when it’s not romantic to be the subject POC transperson, when they get even more stigma from people expecting them to be victim/superhero caricatures, expectation them to be strong and not ‘impose’ by calling anyone when things are down, because people think they have LOTS of support already [i mean you saw it on 1000 tumblrs right?]

-i see you all brand build on the dead who weren’t white cisgender like your bullshit ass. You know what happened to the boy who cried wolf. don’t think i or other queers will mistake your opportunism for sincerity for a second.

anotherjen:

If you poke around the internet trying to find out how common it is for a person to be intersex, you may well wind up frustrated that nobody seems to have a precise figure to give you. You’ll probably encounter some commonly-cited odds: 1 in 2000, or 1 in 2500. People have passed these figures around for a number of years, until, by repetition, they’ve come to seem generally accepted. I used to repeat these figures myself, before I learned more about how they were generated. Being born intersex is presented as rare; less common, say, than being born with Down’s syndrome.

These estimates are off by more than a factor of 10.

A true, conservative estimate is that more than 1 in 150 people are born with intersex bodies. In this post, I’m going to explain why the true commonplace of intersexuality is so widely underestimated. And yes, I’ll justify my 1 in 150 estimate by the end.

Well worth a read, and the rest of the blog, too

I heart intersex roadshow.

A photo of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, as described on the National Portrait Gallery’s Web site, says, ‘Beginning with Stein’s radical haircut of 1926, the women created an homme-femme style, a lesbian mode of dressing still in fashion today.’

via stein | CNSNews.com