I'm Wrong When I'm Right

Pride Knight Vol. III

Times are fucking scary for us trans folks and it's getting worse by the day. At every turn we meet animosity, moral panic and outright violence - it's more important than ever that we can count on our queer family to have our back.

We cannot be legislated out of existence but we can't fight back all by ourselves.

medieval pride parade!

Here's the full transcript and an unedited video or her speech. Also, don't forget in your transcript that she spoke through boo's and jeers and that's why she had to tell them to quiet down to start. Those boo's died down as her speech continued and the crowd felt shame.

Sylvia: "Y’all better quiet down. I’ve been trying to get up here all day for your gay brothers and your gay sisters in jail that write me every motherfucking week and ask for your help and you all don’t do a goddamn thing for them.

Have you ever been beaten up and raped and jailed? Now think about it. They’ve been beaten up and raped after they’ve had to spend much of their money in jail to get their [inaudible], and try to get their sex changes. The women have tried to fight for their sex changes or to become women. On the women’s liberation and they write ‘STAR,’ not to the women’s groups, they do not write women, they do not write men, they write ‘STAR’ because we’re trying to do something for them.

I have been to jail. I have been raped. And beaten. Many times! By men, heterosexual men that do not belong in the homosexual shelter. But, do you do anything for me? No. You tell me to go and hide my tail between my legs. I will not put up with this shit. I have been beaten. I have had my nose broken. I have been thrown in jail. I have lost my job. I have lost my apartment for gay liberation and you all treat me this way? What the fuck’s wrong with you all? Think about that!

I do not believe in a revolution, but you all do. I believe in the gay power. I believe in us getting our rights, or else I would not be out there fighting for our rights. That’s all I wanted to say to you people. If you all want to know about the people in jail and do not forget Bambi L’amour, and Dora Mark, Kenny Metzner, and other gay people in jail, come and see the people at Star House on Twelfth Street on 640 East Twelfth Street between B and C apartment 14.

The people are trying to do something for all of us, and not men and women that belong to a white middle class white club. And that’s what you all belong to! "

I originally wanted to post this zine, which is a beginner-friendly introduction to what "intersex" means, but tumblr did that funny little thing where the post was invisible from dashboard, presumably because it was deemed nsfw. Sorry for using real words on my educational post instead of censoring myself I suppose.

So yeah. Instead you get this zine, which I made because I am pissed off that every single time I look up "intersex" anywhere I run into misconceptions that could be corrected by reading the wikipedia page on intersex people. Because I fucking guess "making a post about a group of people and actually looking up said group of people" is too much to ask.

And because this is the "piss on the poor" website: yes, I am well aware that most people are genuinely ignorant and don't mean any ill. Yes, I know it must feel really bad to see a post about a random person yelling at you about an issue you weren't aware of until now. This isn't about you. This is about me. This is for me, because every six months I make the blandest most sanded down "btw remember that intersex people exist :]" post and I feel like I'm yelling into the uncaring void. I am tired. I am so very tired of being the "friendly educational blogger who is understanding of everyone's circumstances." I'm more than that. I should be allowed to be more than that.

Image One: a simple drawing of a person from behind, the progress pride flag hanging from their shoulders and slightly bellowing. Text reads: “One of the most used queer flags / Features our symbol /Bright and purple for all to see / How many of its bearers know what that circle means?”

Image Two: a compilation of search results for intersex. For Tumblr they are: ‘[trans-focused post with no mention of intersex people], [post making fun of cis people for being confused by gender with no mention of intersex people]’. For Twitter they are: ‘[trans-focused tweet with no mention of intersex people], [Futa porn], [Futa porn], [trans-focused tweet with no mention of intersex people]’. For Amazon the search for ‘intersex romance’ results are four ‘Futa porn’ and a ‘Mpreg porn’. The top games and comics tagged intersex have three results while for books tagged intersex there's only one result.

Image Three: a drawing of a featureless person with their hand to their chin and a question mark near their head as text reads, “When does ignorance become a crime? Fumbling is expected from people who have never heard of us. It's frustrating, but I understand. But if you use our words, our symbols, if you know of our existence...”

Underneath ‘words’ are ‘intersex, AMAB, AFAB’, underneath ‘symbols’ is the progress pride flag, and underneath ‘existence’ is three sentences: “Those cis people who get hormones,” “The living proof the gender binary is a societal construct,” “The I in LGBTI+”

Image Four: a drawing of a roaring purple dragon with yellow tufts of fur. Text, in all capital letters, next to it reads: “Then why do you never use those to talk about us. Why do you use those if you don't know what they mean."

Image Five: another drawing of a purple dragon, a yellow bit keeping its mouth shut. Text above it reads: “This is no longer ignorance. This is erasure. This is actively making it harder for us to find each other, to discuss our human rights, to spread awareness, on our conditions, because looking us up only returns loads of unrelated shit.” Capital letters underneath it continue: “To steal our words is to steal our voice.”

Image Six: two drawings of people with horizontal lines over where their eyes should be. One person is on the right while the other is on the left, mirroring each other in pose and design entirely. Text next to them read: “Cis people are so silly, thinking there are only two genders!” and “Lol, straight people are so stupid, getting confused by other sexualities.” Underneath them is capital text: “And yet here you are, perisex person. Acting the exact same towards intersex people. Do you not know a mirror when you see one?”

Image Seven: Capital text that reads: “Everyday my brethen is mutilated in the name of social acceptability. Our human rights are a fucking joke.” Between the two sentences is a compilation of several screenshots to display some of the abuse intersex people face. They follow:

The first image is a passage from the Wikipedia article for ‘intersex’ that reads: “Human rights and legal issues. [Further information: Intersex rights by country]. Human rights institutions are placing increasing scrutiny on harmful practices and issues of discrimination against intersex people. These issues have been addressed by a rapidly increasing number of international institutions including, in 2015, the Council of Europe, the United Nations Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the World Health Organization (WHO). These developments have been accompanied by International Intersex. Forums and increased cooperation among civil society organizations. However, the implementation, codification, and enforcement of intersex human rights in national legal systems remains slow.”

The second image is the table of jump links from the Wikipedia article ‘Intersex Human Rights’ that read: Intersex and human rights, Physical integrity and bodily autonomy, Right to life, Protection from discrimination, Remedies and compensation claims, Access to information, Legal recognition, Intersex rights by jurisdiction

The third image is an article headline from Open Society Foundation that reads: ‘Why Are Doctors Still Performing Genital Surgery on Infants?’

The fourth image is the body of an article from Human Rights Watch that reads: ‘Healthcare providers are an important source of information and comfort amidst such confusion. But in recent decades, many doctors have defaulted to advising early irreversible surgery on intersex children. These operations include clitoral reduction surgeries procedures that reduce the size of the clitoris for cosmetic reasons. Such surgery carries the risk of pain, nerve damage, and scarring. Other operations include gonadectomies, or the removal of gonads, which result in the child being forced onto lifelong hormone replacement therapy.

The fifth image is the headline of an article from the New York Times that reads: “This Intersex Runner Had Surgery to Compete. It Has Not Gone Well.” The body of the article follows: “Annet Negesa, Uganda's 800-meter Olympic hopeful, says she was advised to undergo an irreversible surgery because of naturally elevated testosterone levels. Her career has never been the same.”

Image Eight: all capital text that reads: “Why do I have to stay calm? Why do I have to educate you? You use our words, our symbols, our existence as a gotcha, but you couldn't be bothered to Google up a fucking definition? When is it my turn to be angry?” The last sentence is in bold text.

Image Nine: all capital text that reads: “I am tired of begging like a dog just so you remember our existence. I am tired of people acting like reading a Wikipedia page is too much for them”

letter from a mother of a gay man. sent to ONE magazine, 1958.

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like you try to bring it up with a conservative white man and he'll say, "my life wasn't easy. I grew up in a trailer park, raised by a single mom who was also a drug addict, and I have never had things handed to me. I struggled." and it's just. yes! you were subject to classism! your mother also faced misogyny, and institutional medical obstacles regarding addiction/drug treatment. you were disadvantaged compared to people who didn't have to endure any those things, and what happened to you was devastating and real.

all that "white privilege" means is that you were also not dealing with racism on top of that. that's it. that's what it means.

but if you push on this point, the reaction then pivots to: "but i'm not racist. i haven't used that privilege to hurt black people. i don't 'wield' my privilege against them."

great! interpersonal conflict is very much not how privilege largely manifests, it's exercised by systems and institutions that are beyond the reach of you and your friends. you may not have done anything to your black friend, but if you both applied for a loan at the same bank, all other things being equal, there is a historical precedence for you, a white man, being given better terms and resources. that is white privilege. neither of you are the banker, the banker is exercising power over both of you in making this decision.

and so ostensibly progressive people on here, who experience marginalization along one axis, will still reject any assertion that they have certain privileges - "I can't experience white privilege fully because I'm autistic" - there's a word for what you experience alongside white privilege, and it's called ableism. these two things very much coexist, because you are not also experiencing racism's intersection WITH the ableism you face. "I haven't used my male privilege against anyone, I don't oppress the women around me" - I never said you did, now if you and a woman both worked the same job, who is your employer (who wields the power in this situation) likely to pay more?

a blessing, a wish, a talisman

take it with you 🌈🐝✨

Over fifty years of data show a peak in PFAS (also known as "forever chemicals") content in seabird eggs in the 90s, followed by a decrease as regulations went into effect. The most recent findings show a 70% decrease of most common PFAS.

We are making genuine progress! Producers are dramatically altering how much they use PFAS and how much gets released in effluent, but also there's a lot better understanding of how to remove PFAS from the environment!