this white feminist idea that “no man will ever understand what its like to walk down the street in constant fear” okay but gay men, black and brown men, trans men ……
“Be extremely critical about what people say about trans people, especially things said in vagueness. The rumor mill that keeps trans people out of spaces isn’t even so much about people believing what is said, it’s about people choosing the safest option—a staining that plays on the average person’s risk aversion.”
It’s been 2.5 years since this essay came out and the instinct to inflict exile as retribution is as prominent a problem as ever within lgbt spaces, especially online. I encourage everyone to read it.
“Let marginalized people be flawed. Let them fuck up like the Real Humans who get to fuck up all the time.”
“Fight criminal-justice thinking. Disposability runs on the innocence/guilt binary.”
“If it is easier to kick someone out than to go through a difficult series of conversations with them, it is not a community. Among the societies that had real communities, exile was the most extreme sanction possible, tantamount to killing them. On many levels, losing the community and all the relationships it involved was the same as dying.”
This Pride month & anniversary of Pulse, please consider donating to orgs that serve LGBTQ people of color and immigrants, and Miss Major’s retirement fund!
on june 12, the same mainstream gay media that has remained silent on the close into 5,000 deaths in puerto rico, which included lgbtq boricuas, will dominate and erase queer & trans boricua voices in their coverage of the 2 year anniversary of the pulse massacre. this is why we must remain to speak our stories to each other. always. every gawd damn day.
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so on this day of the national puerto rican day parade, i raise up all of the queer and trans boricuas i shared time and space with during my time in puerto rico. they continue to remind me of the resiliency and pain of the queer and trans boricuas on and off of the island.
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photo taken by @lou_rok during the san juan pride parade on june 3, 2018.
alder-knight 