take it from a dyke: this pride month, dump him!

quotes from Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson on the position of trans women within stonewall and U.S. Pride (statements from Rivera unless stated otherwise)

'I’m glad I was in the Stonewall riot'

I met Huey Newton at the Peoples’ Revolutionary Convention in Philadelphia in 1971. Huey decided we were part of the revolution - that we were revolutionary people. I was a radical, a revolutionist. I am still a revolutionist. I was proud to make the road and help change laws and what-not. I was very proud of doing that and proud of what I’m still doing, no matter what it takes. Today, we have to fight back against the government. We have to fight them back. They’re cutting back Medicaid, cutting back on medicine for people with AIDS. They want to take away from women on welfare and put them into that little work program. They’re going to cut SSI. Now they’re taking away food stamps. These people who want the cuts-these people are making millions and millions and millions of dollars as CEOs. Why is the government going to take it away from us? What they’re doing is cutting us back. Why can’t we have a break? I’m glad I was in the Stonewall riot. I remember when someone threw a Molotov cocktail, I thought: “My god, the revolution is here. The revolution is finally here!” I always believed that we would have a fight back. I just knew that we would fight back. I just didn’t know it would be that night. I am proud of myself as being there that night. If I had lost that moment, I would have been kind of hurt because that’s when I saw the world change for me and my people. Of course, we still got a long way ahead of us.

'Bitch On Wheels'

At the time, there were many demonstrations. They were fierce demonstrations back then. I don’t know how many people remember those times, or how many people read of the struggle in this whole country, what was going on. So then the tactical police force came and heads were being bashed left and right. But what I found very impressive that evening, was that the more that they beat us, the more we went back for. We were determined that evening that we were going to be a liberated, free community, which we did acquire that. Actually, I’ll change the ‘we’: You have acquired your liberation, your freedom, from that night: Myself: I’ve got shit, just like I had back then. But I still struggle, I still continue the struggle. I will struggle til the day I die and my main struggle right now is that my community will seek the rights that are justly ours

Queens in Exile, The Forgotten Ones

The reason we, right now, as a trans community, don’t have all the rights they have is that we allowed them to speak for us for so many damn years, and we bought everything they said to us: “Oh, let us pass our bill, then we’ll come for you.” Yeah, come for me. Thirty-two years later and they’re still coming for me. And what have we got? Here, where it all started, trans people have nothing. We can no longer let people like the Empire State Pride Agenda, the HRC in Washington, speak for us. And it really hurts me that some gay people don’t even know what we gave for their movement. It’s like I was saying all this year during pride month: “It’s not my pride, it’s their pride. It’s your pride, not mine. You haven’t given me mine yet.” I have nothing to be proud of except that I’ve helped liberate gays around the world. I have so many children and I’m still sitting on the back of the bus, still struggling to get kids into proper housing, and to get them education, to get them off drugs.

Rapping with a Street Transvestite Revolutionary

Interviewer: I remember when STAR was first formed there was a lot of discussion about the special oppression that transvestites experience. Can you say something about that? Marsha P. Johnson: We still feel oppression by other gay brothers. Gay sisters don’t think too bad of transvestites. Gay brothers do. I went to a dance at Gay Activist Alliance last week, and there was not even one gay brother that came over and said hello. They’d say hello, but they’d get away very quick. The only transvestites they were very friendly with were the ones that looked freaky in drag, like freak drag, with no tits, no nothing. Well, I can’t help but have tits, they’re mine. And those men weren’t too friendly at all. Once in a while, I get an invitation to Daughters of Bilitis, and when I go there, they’re always warm. All the gay sisters come over and say, “Hello, we’re glad to see you,” and they start long conversations. But not the gay brothers. They’re not too friendly at all toward transvestites. Interviewer: Do you understand why? Do you have any explanation for that? Marsha: Of course I can understand why. A lot of gay brothers don’t like women! And transvestites remind you of women. A lot of gay brothers don’t feel too close to women, they’d rather be near men, that’s how come they’re gay. And when they see a transvestite coming, she reminds them of a woman automatically, and they don’t want to get too close or too friendly with her.

Queens in Exile, The Forgotten Ones

Oh, yeah, we mixed with lesbians. We always got along together back then. All that division between the lesbian women and queens came after 1974 when Jean O’Leary and the radical lesbians came up. The radicals did not accept us or masculine-looking women who dressed like men. And those lesbian women might not even have been trans. But we did get along famously in the early ‘60s. I’ve been to many a dyke party. And transgendered men back then were living and working. I met many who were working and living as men with their female lovers. They were highly respected. The lesbian community today has a lot to learn from the old ways of the lesbian community

Street Transvestites for Gay Power

STAR: This is the question that is running through our minds. Do you really want Gay Power or are you looking for a few laughs or maybe a little excitement. We are not quite sure what you people really want. IF you want Gay Liberation then you’re going to have to fight for it. We don’t mean tomorrow or the next day, we are talking about today. We can never possibly win by saying “wait for a better day” or “we’re not ready yet” If you’re ready to tell people that you want to be free, then your ready to fight. And if your not ready then shut up and crawl back into your closets. But let us ask you this, Can you really live in a closet? We cant.

Shira is in the emergency room with a very bad infection after being forced to live on the street after surgery.

We are approaching the beginning of the month, and she urgently needs the €600 for the house rent before the 1st. Please, we kindly ask for your help and support. We are truly in desperate need of assistance at this difficult time.

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Come on folks, every little bit helps. Lets not put her back out on the streets!

i don’t think any of this is incorrect or disrespectful to point out— because yes, a LOT of cis women share traits with trans women. it makes sense! both cis women and trans women are women, and there will obviously be a lot of crossover in experiences. many women, cis and trans, are subject to violence and degendering for having traits that society associates with “maleness”— the conception of which is inextricably tied to white supremacy and european beauty standards.

but the unspoken assumption in a lot of these well-meaning tags is that trans women sharing traits with cis women is what makes them women. this line of reasoning, while clearly not malicious, still implicitly associates womanhood with sex assigned at birth. that is dangerous for all trans people, and ends up making many trans women feel that their acceptance and legitimacy as women is conditional on the basis that they share a majority of traits with cis women.

i am all for finding common ground between cis and trans women, and love sharing experiences with my cis women friends and realizing how similar we are. but in discussions that specifically center transmisogyny, i think it is important to consider the pitfalls of using cis womanhood, or worse, the quality of having been AFAB (i fucking loathe the language around sex assignment and how frequently it’s weaponized against and used to misgender trans and intersex people, but it does come up frequently in these discussions, so i’m reluctantly using it here) as the metric by which the legitimacy of trans womanhood is measured.

love love love this way too much to keep hidden in the tags, i hope you don’t mind me highlighting your tags and rambling a bit lol

womanhood (much of this applies to gender writ large, but i’m focusing on womanhood here) is, to me, something that is performed, practiced, and embodied by an individual every moment of every day, and the positionality of “woman” emerges as a result of those interactions with the outside world and society. the tautology of “trans women are women because they are women” is unhelpful because it denies further inquiry and analysis into what it actually means to move through the world as a trans woman. it’s a thought-terminating cliche. trans women are women because we perform and embody our womanhood every day, and when we refuse to grow up to be cis men and enforce and reproduce patriarchy, we are misogynized and subject to patriarchal violence far more aggressively than cis women are, with absolutely none of the scant protection that cis womanhood affords. this is not to say that trans womanhood is rooted inherently rooted in suffering or whatever alternate interpretations of my words the reading comprehension website will conjure up. rather, in a patriarchal society, the positionality of “trans woman” is constructed by both our joyous assertion and embodiment of our womanhood, and the material reaction to that assertion by a society that considers us disposable sex objects and targets of ridicule, harassment, and violence.

i dream of a future where trans people embracing and embodying their authentic selves is met with love and enthusiastic support instead of violence and subjugation. a future where transness, and particularly trans womanhood, can be entirely free from its relationship to patriarchy. but we’ll never make it to that future if we don’t put into words our current conditions, and use that awareness to inform political action.

If you nonblack keep ya muzzle on for once and just reblog it when you see it. Ain’t need you out here like

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You have all watched some of the worst crimes against humanity be livestreamed to you for years. Do not compromise with this.

i know that a lot of trans women struggle with comptop and being pigeonholed into being the "hung, virile dom" despite the fact many, if not most, trans women aren't interested in using their penises (or at least aren't interested in using them that way) due to dysphoria. and we do have to be honest and acknowledge that a big part of transfem supremacy is the sexualization of that transmisogynistic stereotype! ik that's not representative of all of the kink but be for real it is like 95% of the content out there.

a lot of kinks (rape, misogyny, incest, ageplay, etc etc etc) are about sexualizing these power dynamics in our fucked up societies and i do not think that's ever going to stop being a thing that humans do, nor do i think it's inherently a harmful thing. but genuinely if we want to make sure we're not harming people we need to acknowledge that's what's happening. i do think that the "risk aware" part of RACK when you're playing with these kinks includes making sure you're aware that 1.) these are the social dynamics you're playing with and 2.) you are capable of reinforcing these harmful dynamics if you're not careful.

this is mainly aimed at the cis women (i am one) who engage in this kink. i honestly think that if you cannot acknowledge you're capable of harming the trans woman you're playing with-- yes even accidentally and yes even as the submissive in the dynamic, then you're simply just not a safe play partner. and good god do not assume that any trans women would automatically be into transfem supremacy.

and for the trans women who're into these kinks please do not feel like you have to subject yourself to mistreatment just to get sexual attention. i know that is easier said than done, as a black woman i see it happen all the time in regards to black people and race play. but you deserve better than being used as a kink dispenser and being thrown away the minute you become inconvenient. please be picky about your partners.