Today is the National Day of Action to Protect Trans Women of Color. What will your GSA do? #ProtectTransWomen

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Today is the National Day of Action to Protect Trans Women of Color. What will your GSA do? #ProtectTransWomen

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GSA Network is proud to join #CommunitiesAgainstHate, a national initiative to collect data and respond to incidents of violence, threats, and property damage motivated by hate around the United States. Read more: http://ow.ly/UibB309P9K3Â
Trans and queer youth have reported escalating hateful rhetoric, discrimination and violence from peers and administrators in schools. Yet, youth are showing their resilience and belief in a just and tolerant society by reporting these incidents and creating positive school climates. Call 1 (844) STOP-HATE for resources or visit communitiesagainsthate.org to report an incident.
28 Days of WoC (Part 1)
Celebrating Black History Month with portraits of some iconic modern Women of Color who have personally inspired me and people across the world.Â
In order:
Jessica Williams | Michelle Obama | Gabby Douglas | Kamala Harris | Beyonce | Ruth Negga
@amandlastenberg is a force to be reckoned with. The actor, musician and activist best known for her portrayal of Rue in the âHunger Gamesâ film series, was born in Los Angeles to an African-American mother and Danish/Inuit-Greenlandic father. Her name means âpowerâ or âstrengthâ in Zulu and Xhosa. Stenberg helped further the topic of cultural appropriation in the public discourse when her school video project, âDonât Cash Crop My Cornrows,â went viral through her Tumblr in 2014. For her heart-wrenching performance as Rue, Amandla earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. While she has been singled out as one of Hollywoodâs young stars to watch by @rollingstone, @papermagazine and @ebonymag, Stenberg has also been making her mark as a fashionista earning kudos on the red carpet for her style. A gifted musician, Stenberg also plays the violin, drums and guitar. In 2009, she performed the violin with the Los Angeles Unified School Districtâs Honors Orchestra at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex. Stenberg also co-authors the comic book âNiobe: She is Life,â a coming-of-age tale set in another world. @dazemagazine declared âone of the most incendiary voices of her generationâ when they featured Amandla on the cover of its Autumn 2015 issue. @timemagazine named her one of The 30 Most Influential Teens of 2015. Amandla appeared on the cover of @teenvogueâs February 2016 where she was interviewed by Solange Knowles. A consistent conversation starter, Stenberg recently spoke out on her Tumblr on what she calls the internal conflicts of being a non-binary feminist explaining that  â⌠something we are struggling with is understanding the intersection of feminism and gender identity. weâre both people who donât feel like âwomenâ all the time - but we claim feminism as our movement.  basically, weâre trying to understand the duality of being a non binary person and a feminist.â She posed the question, âhow do you claim a movement for women when you donât always feel like one?â
Stenberg also serves as youth ambassador for @nokidhungry and supports the Ubuntu Education Fund, which nurtures children âfrom cradle to careerâ in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. This year, Sons And Brothers is honoring the heroes and hundreds of individuals that have fought and continue to fight the injustices faced by our communities. Over the month of March, we will recognize their journeys and the ways in which they have made TODAY possible and are working to create a more just FUTURE. ⪠𨠠by @melaniecervantes, check out more of her work here: http://dignidadrebelde.com/gallery/list/portfolio
2/22/2017 Twitter Chat for GSA Day for Racial Justice
Check out the #storify from last week's #GSAResistChat. Thanks to everyone who participated! http://ow.ly/LGt0309ubmy #GSADay4RJ

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As a part of our 2017 Plan of Resistance, we have launched the Trans Legal Clinic Calendar. Learn how update your ID documents at an event in your area.
Feeling for the Edge of your Imagination: finding ways not to call the police
Dear friends, family, acquaintances and people with whom I share house party dance floors and supermarket lines,
A few weeks ago, an acquaintance of mine attended a police lineup, pointed at someone, and sent them to jail or prison. Last night, a friendâs roommate called the cops about something happening outside, and the effect of that action was a young man getting tasered.
So Iâve decided to write you a letter. All of you, but especially those of you who, like myself and the two people mentioned above, are white and/or grew up middle class and/or didnât grow up in NYC. Iâm writing to you, also, if youâve smiled your way out of a speeding ticket, if youâve been most afraid of cops at mass protests, or if you generally feel safer when you see police around. If these things are true for you, itâs possible that you are more distanced from the real impact of policing on low-income communities of color. But whether people in your life experience those impacts regularly or not, whether youâve spent a night in jail, done work to support political prisoners, or havenât thought much about police brutality since Sean Bell⌠if you hold a commitment to making the world a better place, Iâm writing to you, because thereâs work to be done.
I, and many people I know, want to see a world without prisons, we want the whole industry of keeping people in cages (the Prison Industrial Complex) abolished, we want no more police.* We want a world where responses to harm are community-based, transformative and actually create safety. Where that safety comes from strengthening relations of community, where interpersonal violence dissolves along with the structural violence that facilitates it.
Many of us donât believe in calling the police. Right now, right here, even before weâve sufficiently built all the alternative structures for responding to harm. Both in an attempt to create the world we want to live in, and/but also because the impact of prisons and policing is brutal, oppressive, racist, traumatic. We see almost no good coming of it, certainly no transformation, no making things better. We donât trust police, we donât think of them as the âgood guys,â and we donât think calling them is going to change anything.
After the above-mentioned acquaintance pointed out the person in the lineup, my partner and I took a long walk. Neither of us could imagine sending someone to jail or prison, and certainly not for the act in question (a mugging). We were shaken, appalled, angry. How could he do that? How could he send someone into a cage, especially when no oneâs safety was being threatened in that moment â when he (the finger-pointer) wasnât backed into a corner by the situation? It felt crystal clear to us how little positive impact this will have on our world, on the person who is now going to be in jail, on the woman who was mugged. It wonât fix anything, and for the person going to jail things are probably just going to get a lot worse. Prison causes harm: people locked up are subjected to abuse, assault, humiliation and torture. Thinking through the possible consequences, we wondered if the man who our acquaintance had pointed to had immigration papers. What will happen to the people who might rely on him for support or resources? Whose heart is being broken right now?
As we paced in the cold night, we moved through our questions, anger and frustration. We thought about how everyone we knowâeven in a community that mostly wants a world without prisonsâhas had different experiences with harm and violence, different experiences with police, and, most likely, has a different âthresholdâ at which they can imagine not calling the police.
I believe in a world without prisons. Iâve spent some time and effort working to address harm through non-state responses that are meant to create real change (for example, addressing partner abuse through facilitating a community-based accountability circle). However, as the conversation my partner and I were having turned to ourselves, our safety, and our worst nightmares, I wondered, in what situation might I find myself calling the police? I acknowledged that there would be situations in which I might call the cops because I havenât yet imagined an alternative. I half-suggested we go down that road: finding those worst-case scenarios, and then starting to envision alternative responses. We didnât have it in us that night, but something about it seemed smartâlike knowing how to stop-drop-and-roll in a fire.
We live in a world thatâs deeply damaged by policing, in which immediate and effective community-based responses donât necessarily exist, or we donât know how to find/create them. Our imaginations have atrophied, our resourcefulness has withered. There are moments when immediate intervention will save someoneâs life, and it needs to be fast, and the readily available structure for that immediate intervention is the police.
We live in a world in which we can feel deeply powerless or afraid. It feels terrible when we, or the people we care about, get hurt or experience harm. When I think of the moments in which I could possibly imagine calling the police, I think of people I love, and of things I hope they never experience. Why do we feel afraid? Sometimes we feel afraid because we have experienced harm, because we have experienced trauma. Sometimes we also feel afraid because we have bought into aspects of racism, classism, and media-perpetuated images of danger. Sometimes itâs the complex combination of all these thingsâimagination, memory, and prejudice. For women, our experiences with physical safety are complex and painfulâwomen in my life have understandably chosen and sought police intervention when it has seemed like the only available safety measure in situations of interpersonal or sexual abuse. So given these complicated realities, how can we assure that if police are called itâs an active, intentional and reluctant choice, not a knee-jerk reaction? What can we do to push ourselves further, to take another step towards a world without prisons, without police, and without the racism and brutality they reproduce?
I started to think about the choking posters in restaurants. Iâve never done the Heimlich maneuver, and itâs not something I can practice on someone unless theyâre actually choking. I canât know how it feels to do it, or if it will really work, or if Iâll have the confidence to pull it off. But Iâve taken first aid classes, and I can feel under my rib cage for my diaphragm, and I stare absentmindedly at those restaurant posters all the time. I started to think about practice and preparation, about pre-thinking our possible responses. Theoretically, if someone beside me in a restaurant starts choking, Iâll feel brave, my mind will be clear, and Iâll remember what Iâve thought through. Hopefully my response will be helpful, instead of causing additional harm.
So, when that roommate of my friend called the police and a young person got tasered, I wondered if sheâd ever thought about not calling them before. In a moment of fear or confusion, we default to what weâve practiced. Did she have practice not calling the police? Probably not. What would it take for her to do something different next time? Most likely, she thought someone was in danger and that she was helping. Maybe whatever was happening outside her window was loud and it was scaring her and the only thing her sleepy brain could think to do was dial 911. Maybe she doesnât know her neighbors. Maybe the only alternative she could imagine was running outside in her nightgown, which didnât feel safe or useful. Maybe her experiences with police have felt orderly and professional, and her first association is one of trust, not of violence and abuse. Whether these things are understandable or not, when you call the cops, you participate in a regime of violence against poor and working class people of color in this city. Itâs part of gentrification, itâs part of racism and itâs part of genocide. If weâre calling the police, weâre voting for that systemâinstead of putting time and effort into creating real and new responses to harm and engaging with the people around us in that process. Next time, how can you do differently? I believe we can teach ourselves skills, do some unlearning, and find ways to not call the police next time. This letter isnât about someday-visions, this letter is about what youâre going to do tomorrow.
So whether this is all pretty new for you, or youâve heard this one before, or you think of yourself as a prison abolitionist, I have a suggestion: I think we all need to think through not calling the cops. We need to explore our own personal thresholds, we need to create the Heimlich Maneuver posters that will inspire us to be brave, avoid knee-jerk dialing 911, and take the steps to create the alternative responses we wish were more common, more available.
In this spirit, there are some questions and activities below. Please do them soonâthis weekend, tomorrow, tonight. Make a little window of time. Donât wait for some magical day when thereâs nothing left to read or clean or check off your âto doâ list. Think about it this way: you could save a life.
With love and respect,
Caroline
Suggested Activities
1. Read a poem, article or story you havenât read before about prison/prison abolition, policing/police brutality, or alternative responses to harm. Then share the article with a friend. (Some resources and articles are listed at the end of this essay).
2. Find someone you can talk with about heavy stuff, or grab a pen and paper. Ask yourself:
> Have you ever called the police?
Why?
What did you gain from calling the police?Â
Do you know what the result of your call was for the other people in the situation?
> Have you ever chosen not to call the police when it seemed like an option?
Why didnât you call them?
Did you find an alternative response?
What did you gain from that response?
Do you know what the effect of that response was for the other people in the situation?
> Feel for the edge of your own police-calling âthresholdâ:
In what situations can you not even imagine calling the police? What is it that seems obvious to you to do instead?
Are there any situations in which you feel like itâs necessary to call the police?
Name the situation (or type of situation) in which you think you would call the police, where that response is the only thing you can imagine doing, or would be automatic.
Sit with that threshold for a minute. Imagine the creative response that would allow you to move that threshold back a bit and generate a more creative, community-based response. What would you need? Who would be involved? How can you start to build that possibility?
> Are there situations where you and your friend disagree on whether or not you would call the police? What can you learn from your friend? What can you push them on? > Would you call the cops on an institution (like a loud business, a safety violation at a school, etc)? Do you think this is different? How? What might alternative responses look like for you?
> What about times when youâre a bystander to police activity? What do you do when you see a cop stop someone on your block? Think through an action plan for spontaneous cop-watching and for ways you can support people who are being detained by the police. For more information about cop-watching, check out: http://mxgm.org/web/people-s-self-defense-campaign-psdc/mxgm-copwatch-video.html and http://www.berkeleycopwatch.org/Â
3. Collaborate and Share: Pass this letter along. Bring it up over dinner. Ask these questions to your family, friends and roommates. If you have a story of a community-based, non-state response to harm, consider sharing it with the Story Telling Organizing Project: http://www.stopviolenceeveryday.org/have-a-story/ .
4. Keep learning about privileges you may have and the ways they manifest, keep listening and working to be a better ally to the people around you.
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Click here or go to the previous post for Resources, Poems, Stories & Articles
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* If this is a new idea for you, it might seem outrageous. You might be thinking, âSure, too many people go to jail for nonviolent offenses, but⌠no prisons at all? What about murderers/rapists/child abusers?â Itâs a good question, and one that is worth exploring. When I imagine a world without prisons, I see lots of transformation: transformation in the way we prevent harm and build healthy communities, transformation in the way we respond to harm and create safety for each other, and a commitment to supporting the transformation of individuals who have caused harm. There are lots of people who have been thinking hard about this, and there are resources listed at the end of this letterâcheck them out.
Since the election, we have gotten emails and calls from many GSAs voicing concerns about club membersâ safety and general security of GSA clubs. We have created this resource for you, with tips and advice for keeping your members safe.
As we go forward in the coming years, know you are not alone. This movement and our history of victories and justice are on your side. Stay strong, keep vigilant, keep safe. Please repost! #GSAs4Justice
Read our statement and find the resource here. http://ow.ly/Fwrd307lA70
In 2015, the California Healthy Youth Act became law....
Hey California students - rate your sex ed! You deserve inclusive, clear, accurate, and comprehensive info. <3 #GSAs4Justice
We all know we need to do self-care. We know this. But, honestly, self-care takes time and time isnât something organizers and activists tend to have in abundance. For anyone with marginalized identities or at the intersection of marginalized identities, self-care is something that may just not feel possible, even if itâs more needed than ever.
Kaelyn, Be the Change: Take Care of Your Community, Take Care of Yourself (via autostraddle)

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At this point, at least three trans women have been confirmed dead.
In what has already been a terribly dark year for so many, weâre grief-stricken over the deaths of 36 people and counting in a fire at an artist collective called Ghost Ship in Oakland. As many reports have pointed out, Ghost Ship was a hub for underground culture in Oakland, and some of the victims were LGBTQ.Â
The Autostraddle piece linked above does an excellent job reporting on the lives of those lost, the importance of spaces like Ghost Ship, and the role of societal factors like economic inequality in this particular event. One excerpt:
Warehouse parties and other underground events have been âa central part of Oakland for decades,â Nihar Bhatt, a DJ who survived the fire, told The Guardian. He explained how spaces like Ghost Ship âare particularly vital for LGBT artists and people of color often excluded from the mainstream industry.â Specifically, âthereâs a movement in Oakland of experimental black and brown and queer people who donât necessarily want to be in a bar or a club.â One of Friday nightâs performers, Russell E.L Butler, was an experimental artist/DJ whose music âdraws from a rich cultural of history rooted in their island and the black, queer diaspora.â
The residents and artists and musicians who lived or worked or visited Ghost Ship knew that seeking relevant permits and commissioning inspections would lead inevitably to eviction. The city would sell the building to real estate developers, itâd become market-rate housing, and the punks who sought refuge in Ghost Ship would have one less place to be themselves. âIf you canât afford to buy a million-dollar home, then you canât afford to live in this city unless youâre willing to risk your safety,â housing rights activist MarĂa Poblet told The Guardian, âAnd thatâs unconscionable.â
It is unsurprising and heartbreaking, then, that the list of the confirmed dead includes members of the LGBT community. On 48 Hills, Marke B., whoâd been to similar shows, describes the dead and missing people as âdenizens of a tight-knit scene, much of it queer and of color, that nourished itself on DIY dedication and a true family spirit.â
This story is devastating and difficult to read, but itâs good, important journalism. My heart is heavy for all of those who lost someone; Iâm sending thoughts of comfort and community.Â
Our thoughts and love are with our Oakland siblings.
I made a lil something after watching this TED talk by Clint Smith (x) Itâs quite short but its message is so so important. I promise that the 4.18 minutes you spend watching it will be worth it.
ANNOUNCING THE GSA NETWORK HOLIDAY GIF EXCHANGE
We know that the holidays can be a rough time for some folks in our community. To give you a little extra cuteness in your life, weâll be doing a holiday gif exchange now through January 1st!
Hereâs how it works:
-You send us a gif via Tumblr
-We send you a gif backÂ
Let the gif exchange begin! #TQyouthpower
Next Friday, November 18th, is the first ever GSA Day for Gender Justice. With everything going on recently, it is more important than ever to have conversations about justice, celebrate trans and GNC folks, and honor those we have lost.
Use #GSADay4GJ to join the conversation. We'll be sharing more info next week about how you can participate in online spaces, and what your GSA can do together. #GSAs4Justice #TQyouthpower
Please repost and share with your GSAs and communities!
The transgender community is much larger than most people think. The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law estimates 1.4 million transgender adults are living in the U.S. Youâre not alone. bit.ly/2fC3hpHÂ #TransAwarenessMonth

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Calling all queer and trans/gnc folks! Join us TONIGHT at 5 pm PST--see this as your warm-up for livetweeting the debate at 6, we see you--to chat about being QT in the U.S. Chime in using #TRUTHtownhall.Â
Happy National Coming Out Day!!!Â
Whether you recently came out, have been out for what feel like forever, have come out many different times, are not out at all, are only out in certain environments/to certain people, are unable to come out due to safety concerns, or any other possible situation -Â know that you are valid, you matter, and this day is a celebration of you <3