bite snarl hiss

One of my friends in high school changed his named as soon as he turned 18, so that the ethnic name his family gave him was finally the name reflected on all of his paperwork. He told me that he understood why his parents had given him an “English” name, but that he felt that if he needed to assimilate in order to succeed, then that was a type of success that he didn’t want.

When I was on my way home from the courthouse after changing my own name, I got into a conversation with my rideshare driver, who was extremely interested once I told him what I was in court for, and wanted to know how I’d done it, how much it cost, was it difficult, etc. It turned out that his girlfriend had chosen the name “Yo-yo” when she came to the United States, unaware of how rare that was as a name, and that she was frequently made fun of because of it. Neither one of them had realized that a name change was so easy, and he told me he was excited to let her know that she had options.

There was an intern at a summer job I had once, who changed her name to be the same name, but a different spelling. She said that she had no idea why her parents had spelled her name so oddly to begin with, and suspected that it was just an honest mistake either by them or by some nurse, but it had been a headache for her entire life, and it was a huge relief to not need to be correcting people’s spelling on important documents anymore.

One of my exes legally changed his name to have an exclamation point, because he liked to sign his name with an exclamation point.

I didn't go through the bureaucratic process of changing my Norwegian personal ID number, which encodes gender in it, because having an odd number there made me feel bad.

I did it because for someone with my name and outward appearance, having "man" on my IDs reveals private medical information to everyone who sees the document, information that they aren't entitled to know, which they might act on in deeply undesirable ways.

Taking HRT also isn't something I'm doing to be affirmed, it's something I'm doing because the biological processes signaled by having high levels of estrogen and low levels of testosterone are both something I want, and something that helps my overall well-being and functioning in daily life. Material, real, physiological effects that are well understood, easy to look up, and not about some vague sense that putting estrogen in my bloodstream is a badge of validity handed out by the doctor.

Like at some point I just want to ask these people if they actually believe trans people exist or if they just feel obligated to humor the idea to be nice. Have they actually understood that there are people walking around today with the full effects of transition care already sorted? Have they comprehended that the surgeries exist beyond the occasional picture of someone who's still in recovery?

Over thirty years of movement history, analysis, strategy, philosophy, and arts from all around the world are archived on our site for the benefit of the general public.

We've recently updated the introductory reading lists on our Library page for your convenience. Enjoy!

https://crimethinc.com/library

Hi, we need help with our internet bill please help a couple disabled trans people out. We also take care of @rickybabyboy if it helps.

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Venmo: AGIEF

Paypal: [email protected]

Ko-fi:

It's black history month in the UK, but no child I know of has been taught about black queer history.

So join me in learning about it.

Learn about Pearl Alcock who set up the only gay bar in brixton at the time as a refuge for black gay men.

Ted Brown one of the organisers of the first UK pride rallys in 1974

Justin Fashanu the first openly gay footballer in 1990.

The fact that the UK GLF was inspired by the black panthers revolutionary convention in 1970.

Or Ivor Cummings "the gay father of the windrush generation"

For Presidents Day, rather than celebrating George Washington, we invite you to learn about how the people that he enslaved or indentured sought to escape from captivity, and about the Native Americans who defended themselves against his attacks.

Sampling rights becoming prohibitively expensive to use by small artists

Musicians being forced to sign over sampling rights to their record company, making any benefits they would hypothetically gain moot.

The Digital Milennium Copyright Act leading to the vidmaker-stomping nightmare that is ContentID

The DMCA leading to making it harder than ever to preserve media due to the way it prohibits tinkering with any locks the megacorps put on it, meaning it's way easier for artists' hard work to end up vaulted and lost.

The way basic chord progressions and musical styles have become copyrightable thanks to various lawsuits by the Marvin Gaye estate

The fact that the artists of the past used to be able to remix; adapt and iterate on art made within 56 years of them, likely created in their lifetimes, and now artists can only do those things with art produced nearly a century ago by people long dead.

New and independent artists being crowded out of the market by megacorp-owned IPs that would be public domain (and thusly convey less of an overwhelming advantage-via-marquee-value to megacorps) if the US had its pre-1976 copyright laws.

Times That Copyright Expansion Has Actually Materially Helped Artists On An Institutional Level:

“the gay community was never racist”

When the Feds Come to Your City: Standing Up to ICE

A Guide from Chicago Organizers

https://crimethinc.com/StandUptoICE

Are masked agents stalking your town, looking to kidnap your neighbors? Want to do your part to protect each other, but don’t know where to start?

This guide is based on the knowledge that an array of people have accumulated in Chicago over the past several months during “Operation Midway Blitz.”