—like, if the argument is that "patriarchy" leads to women being trafficked, abused, exploited, raped, killed, &c., isn't it trivializing to reduce it to something that explains a man being rude to you?

or else, is the argument that the impacts such a system has on how people speak and behave to each other should be analysed with a completely different framework than the one used to analyse the "system itself"? why?

another Black woman lost to intimate partner violence. another Black woman lost to transfemicide. Black trans women are some of the most visible among us, statistically face the highest rates of violence, and are still at the bedrock of every trans community, holding up half the sky. Black trans women deserve to be loved out loud and uplifted and appreciated while they're still here.

rest in heavenly peace and pride and power Eryka. i know she's being welcomed with open arms and so much love by her late mother. but Eryka should still be here.

if anyone is able, please donate to or share around her family's fundraiser, they are raising money for the funeral, travel to NY to identify and claim Eryka, as well as transportation of her back home to Kentucky.

"The problem is that there’s no way to reliably verify someone’s age without verifying who they are. A platform cannot magically discern that a user is 16 without collecting identifying information, whether through government documents such as a passport, payment information like a credit card, or other identity-disclosing data. Whether that data is stored by the platform itself or outsourced to a vendor, the result is always the same: A user’s offline identity is forever linked with their online behavior.

I dont know what solutions might be on a broader scale, but its absurd for one country to have this much power and for their private corporations to be handed this amount of authority from literally world governments demanding "safety for children". This power structure is absurd.

As facism grows more ascendant globally, fighting for privacy is increasingly urgent and crucial in every single other important cause.

it's not only pointless but actively harmful that blogs exist dedicated to telling people that any and everything that makes them feel bad or excluded in any way is the result of systemic bigotry against their identity groups. like take a look at this one:

this is someone who got made fun of for their music taste and is now embarrassed to talk about it. which sucks. thats a very understandably upsetting thing to happen to you! most of the people who interact with these blogs seem to be teenagers and i understand that shit like "other people think my music taste is cringe" is dead serious at that age.

but there is no actual bigotry happening in what's described here unless you believe that either the music of lemon demon and will wood actually have some innate tie to transmasculine identity, or that being considered to have a lame and embarrassing taste in music is unique to a transmasculine experience.

i am sure everyone in the world in every demographic has experienced an instance where they have felt like they can't be open about their interests or hobbies because they've watched other people get bullied for the same things. or been otherwise given the impression that liking those things reflects on them poorly in some way. this person does not need to be told "you are being subjected to targeted bigotry," this person needs to be told "anything you like will be thought of as cringe by somebody, so you should try and find social groups that are less judgemental or have similar interests."

the biggest problem with these blogs is they have no interest in degrees of severity. nothingburger stuff like this is presented with equal legitimacy as evidence of bigotry alongside stuff that's like, an actual problem. like literally sometimes its just just "an individual woman expressed a negative opinion about men as a category"

back to back with stuff such as talking about being subjected to medical neglect by their doctors, transphobic abuse by their parents, or being rhetorically excluded from discussions of their own reproductive rights.

and im sure the intent is for the weightier complaints to legitimize supposed "microaggressions" like these, but it instead has the opposite effect where it just delegitimizes you entire way of framing things by instead making even the legitimate complaints about real problems look like the insular griping of people with persecution complexes. and that's bad! that's a very bad thing!

obviously anyone actually dismissing legitimate complaints as overblown because of their proximity to illegitimate ones is in the wrong, and instances of that happening are not the fault of these kids who are trying to deal with their issues via questionable blogging choices. but it sure as fuck does not help anyone's case to conflate real problems and fake ones to this degree.

and to be clear even though the screenshots here are from the this-is-transandrophobia blog because thats the one i was just looking at, this isn't unique to them, this is not A Transmasc Problem, it's the whole format. this doesn't help anyone actually understand their own or anyone else's problems, regardless of to what degree bigotry is actually factoring into any discrete example.

More info from GLAAD:

https://glaad.org/fcc/

They have some good tips about writing a comment and protecting your privacy which, fuck it, I'll just paste here:

Providing an email address is optional. If you have concerns about privacy, you may use your initials or public address in your local area, such as City Hall. Do not use a joke name. It diminishes the comment’s credibility.

Your submission does not need to be long. A single, well-reasoned paragraph is sufficient.

Do not copy/paste a template comment. The FCC values unique perspectives, and an original comment carries significantly more weight in the public record. You can explain why this matters to you without revealing private or sensitive personal information.

Here's what I said:

“Free speech is a fundamental American freedom. I do not need a warning about seeing queer people, much like I do not need a warning about women, veterans, or any other group of people.”

Here's the link to submit your comment by May 22:

I haven’t seen anyone on here talk about her murder but maybe that’s because I don’t follow a lot of people. Regardless, I just don’t want her death to be erased or forgotten. There’s of course nothing that can be said to quantify the weight and gravity of her loss and I’m praying for her beloved family and friends.

Please consider increasing your contribution to The Sameer Project. They have several campaigns on Chuffed that support different areas across Gaza. I encourage you to choose any campaign and contribute regularly, increasing your donation whenever you are able to.