LVX FOKS VM~

After repeated attempts to demoralize, criminalize and suppress global solidarity, israel succumbs to its own failures and releases our 428 activists. Palestinian liberation is inevitable. We call for the world to rise up agains the genocide, blockade, imprisonment and occupation of Palestine. We won't stop, we won't be deterred.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2011/10/21/target-forensics-lab

The US, like a week later:

This is key to why George W. Bush was so quick to stand up for Muslims-as-such while railing against “Islamic fundamentalist terrorism”, it’s key to why he so confidently committed the country to “winning Muslims over to Americanism” abroad and his party to “winning minorities over to conservatism” at home.

Second, what conservatism means in Texas. Texas has a reputation as very conservative, very Republican, and very rowdy so it’s tempting to think of the Tea Party and Trump-era Republican Party as just Texas carried to its natural endpoint.

But that’s not really right - the core of Texas conservatism was an older conservatism, pre-Eisenhower, a conservatism of frontier land barons and resource extraction, defending not the bourgeois 50s against the upsets of the 60s but rather the aristocratic Gilded Age against the Roosevelts’ Square and New Deals.

And even if that conservatism had captured the state Republicans, the Republicans didn’t capture the state until the mid-90s; for most of the 20th century Texas was a thoroughly blue state with a political culture of agrarian populism.

So Texas was very Republican but it was business Republican; it was very conservative but it was business conservative. Some chest-thumping broke out in the periphery like the school textbook commission, but it was a state firmly under the go-along-to-get-along country club leadership of ranchers, oilmen, bankers, land developers, and executives.

Until now.

In 2014, Dan Patrick, champion of the firebreathing, cultural-populist wing of the Republican Party, was elected Lt. Governor. (Texas Lt. Governors, who control the state Senate, run separately from and are effectively more politically powerful than Governors, who oversee administrative agencies.)

The business Republicans hate him, and by controlling the state House in the figure of Speaker Dan Strauss they had leverage to push back. Patrick called the legislature back into session to demand a bill firming up the preexisting implicit gender enforcement regime of public bathrooms as a cultural defense against gender fluidity

(The Texas Legislature meets every other year for 140 days, about 100 of which they spend on meaningless formalities and then rush to pass everything before the deadline comes, with opponents bargaining by calibrating their delaying tactics to run out the clock - Wendy Davis’ “pink shoes” filibuster was actually pretty significant in eating up a full legislative day near the deadline.)

but they turned him down; Patrick pushed for a conservative tax plan and they balked at its implications for rural school districts.

So the firebreathers targeted more seats and got some in the 2018 election. Strauss didn’t run for reelection but the Speaker’s gavel passed to his designated business-Republican heir, but the caucus knows the firebreathers have a close eye on them, and a talk-radio whip in their hand.

during the 2000 election campaign, gwb actually ended up championing his case and sort of tying it in with waco and the like, both as an example of democrat-driven government overreach against decent religious family men, and more specifically as a campaign of racist harassment against arabs. palestinian voters went for gwb in 2000 more strongly than for any other presidential candidate in any other american election to date because of this. his son was a congressional intern and ended up getting racially profiled after gwb was elected but before 9/11, and gwb wrote a specific letter of apology to him. it was very clear that republicans wanted to get the muslim vote in those days and were working hard for it.

Tara Reade came forward a couple weeks ago sharing that she was sexually assaulted by Joe Biden in 1993. The news media has barely covered the story. 

Since then, Biden’s campaign staff have been deleting tweets that are contradictory to their current stance on the issue. 

This past week, it was revealed that Reade’s mother anonymously reported the incident in 1993 after it happened to Larry King. CNN has since removed the clip from Google Play. 

and not Socialist Deprivation

I am sorry I am the one who has to tell you this, but yes, you are transphobic

Yes, you are transphobic. Let me explain why:

No one is forcing you to love anyone

1. Not wanting to date a specific woman does not make you bad. Love and sexual attraction are anchored in deep psychological forces which we can hardly control. Whether a woman is cisgender or transgender makes no difference in this respect. No one can force you to love a person.

2. Many people have “types” they fall for: Sporty or intellectual, outgoing or shy, curvaceous or athletic, dark haired or blonde... There is nothing wrong in that either. There is no transgender type, however. Trans women are as diverse as cis women. 

3. If you walk down the street, you are in a club or at work and you see an attractive woman that fits your type, the chances are that you will be drawn to her, regardless of whether she is cis or trans. Given that you cannot see what she has between her legs, that attraction is clearly not determined by genitalia.

A disturbing focus on what’s between women’s legs

4. Because of this I must admit I find your obsession with trans women’s sex organs more than a little disturbing. The fact that you have searched the internet for photos of neovaginas is a bit creepy. It is as if you are deliberately  looking for an excuse to invalidate trans women based on the shape of their vulva. 

5. Vulvas come in a wide variety of shapes. Researchers have actually classified some six to eight different types. I know that the porn industry has caused some anxiety in this respect. Some cis women are now undergoing surgery to have their vulvas look more like the arbitrary norm, but to be honest with you: This is not something I like or condone. To judge a woman by the shape of her genitals sounds sexist and misogynistic to me. 

6. The shape of trans women’s vulvas will vary, as well. Unless there is much scarring, I doubt very much you would be able to see the difference between a transgender woman’s vulva and the one of a cis woman. Not that it matters.

7. As for not liking the penises of pre-op transgender women: By all means, if you do not want to sleep with a woman with a penis, don’t do so! No one is forcing you. Keep in mind, though, that as far as transgender women who are undergoing hormone replacement therapy go, this penis is nothing like a male penis. These women are, for instance, unlikely to have an erection.

8. Furthermore, the presence of a phallic object does not in itself invalidate the womanhood of a trans woman. There are, as you perfectly well know, a lot of lesbian women who are fascinated by such objects too, to the point of packing or using strap-ons. I understand that this is not your thing, and that is OK, but we cannot use your preferences to generalize about what lesbian women want. 

9. Just to be clear: I know of many lesbian and bisexual women who date or are partners of transgender women.

Benefit of the doubt

I am always trying to give people who ask me question the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes people are asking me offensive questions because they genuinely try to understand and help. So I will, for your benefit, disregard the distinct possibility that you are a “gender critical” TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist). Still, you have sent your question to a transgender blog, and you must have understood that this kind of invalidation of transgender women will be hurtful. In other words: You are not only negating trans women in general, it seems like you are deliberately trying to get your views seen by trans women on a site addressing transgender people and trans issues.  Well, you succeeded! 

You might wonder why I have given you this space, though, given that your comments are both transphobic and hurtful. The reason is that you have given me an excellent opportunity to discuss some of  the many arguments transphobes bring up in order to exclude transgender women. 

Given that I have given you the benefit of the doubt, and you say that you feel bad about what you have written here, my response may possible also help you rethink your position. Who knows, the next time you meet lesbian women who say similar things, you can be the one to correct them. We can always hope.

This article includes a pretty thorough summary of trans exclusionary feminist ties to anti-choice conservatives. Here are some highlights of these connections (emphasis mine), but the article as a whole is worth the read: 

_________

WoLF has made no bones about partnering with misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ organizations like the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) in order to oppose the livelihoods of trans people to the Supreme Court. […] WoLF’s relationship with ADF extends beyond just filing briefs in key cases. LGBTQNation reported in fiscal year 2017, the most recent year for which the feminist group’s financial records are available, WoLF applied for and accepted a $15,000 grant from the ultraconservative group. The LGBTQNation report additionally revealed in 2017 that WoLF contracted with Imperial Independent Media for help with fundraising, promising a 20 percent commission. At the time, IIM was run by Zachary Freeman, who made a name for himself over a lawsuit to leak abortion clinic employee names to the Center for Medical Progress, an anti-choice group known for propagating heavily doctored videos purporting to show Planned Parenthood profiting off the sale of fetal tissue.

[…]

Though it’s unknown who funds another prominent gender critical group, Hands Across the Aisle, one of its co-founders is Kaeley Triller-Haver, an anti-choice conservative who has reportedly admitted to committing statutory rape of a teenage boy when she was a youth counselor. What’s interesting about Hands Across the Aisle is how many journalists are seemingly involved with the activist group. A web archive from June 2018 suggested that former New Statesman editor Helen Lewis, recently hired as a writer for the Atlantic, as well as ultraconservative outlets the Federalist, the Daily Caller, and the Daily Signal are associated with the group.

[…]

During the Irish referendum on abortion rights in 2018, some British gender critical feminists withheld support for pro-choice campaigners citing the trans supportive attitudes of Irish feminism, going so far as to schedule an anti-trans meeting in Dublin at the height of the campaign season.

[…]

In February, the conservative Heritage Foundation held an event in Washington, DC, featuring prominent British anti-trans feminists Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (also known as “Posie Parker”) and Julia Long, who came together to denounce the trans rights movement at large as well as a medical community that’s increasingly becoming more open to supporting trans children. The next day, the anti-trans feminists, who had allegedly been flown to the US on Heritage’s dime, stormed a Capitol Hill office where Human Rights Campaign national press secretary Sarah McBride had just concluded a meeting between parents of trans children and legislators. They filmed themselves yelling and taunting McBride with their personal gripes with the trans movement, accusing her of not caring about “lesbian girls.” McBride, to her credit, didn’t take the bait, remaining stone-faced and focused on her computer screen while a coworker attempted to de-escalate the situation.

[…]

In the US, Baltimore gender critical feminist Julia Beck has made a name for herself in conservative circles, appearing on Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News and testifying before the House against trans inclusions in the Violence Against Women Act and the Equality Act.

[…]

Just this month, gender critical feminists who have been banned from Twitter for extensive transphobic harassment have recently organized under alt-right message board Gab to form “Spinster,” a social media platform for TERFs. It remains to be seen whether British message board Mumsnet will remain the epicenter for gender critical messaging, but the movement’s growing connections with anti-choice and violent misogynist movements should concern both cisgender and transgender women.

[…]

‘Queer’ was reclaimed as an umbrella term for people identifying as not-heterosexual and/or not-cisgender in the early 1980s, but being queer is more than just being non-straight/non-cis; it’s a political and ideological statement, a label asserting an identity distinct from gay and/or traditional gender identities.People identifying as queer are typically not cis gays or cis lesbians, but bi, pan, ace, trans, nonbinary, intersex, etc.: we’re the silent/ced letters. We’re the marginalised majority within the LGBTQIA+ community, and‘queer’ is our rallying cry.

And that’s equally pissing off and terrifying terfs and cis LGs.

There’s absolutely no historical or sociolinguistic reason why ‘queer’ should be a worse slur than ‘gay.’ Remember how we had all those campaigns to make people stop using ‘gay’ as a synonym for ‘bad’?

Yet nobody is suggesting we should abolish ‘gay’ as a label. We accept that even though ‘gay’ sometimes is and historically frequently was used in a derogatory manner, mlm individuals have the right to use that word. We have ad campaigns, twitter hashtags, and viral Facebook posts defending ‘gay’ as an identity label and asking people to stop using it as a slur.

Whereas ‘queer’ is treated exactly opposite: a small but vocal group of people within feminist and LGBTQIA+ circles insists that it’s a slur and demands that others to stop using it as a personal, self-chosen identity label.

Why?

Because “queer is a slur” was invented by terfs specifically to exclude trans, nonbinary, and intersex people from feminist and non-heterosexual discourse, and was subsequently adopted by cis gays and cis lesbians to exclude bi/pan and ace people.

It’s classic divide-and-conquer tactics: when our umbrella term is redefined as a slur and we’re harassed into silence for using it, we no longer have a word for what we are allowing us to organise for social/political/economic support; we are denied the opportunity to influence or shape the spaces we inhabit; we can’t challenge existing community power structures; we’re erased from our own history.

I’m not kidding. Cis LGs have literally taken historical evidence of queer people’s involvement in the LGBT rights struggle and photoshopped it to erase us:

Pro tip: when you alter historical evidence to deny a marginalised group empowerment, you’re one of the bad guys.

“Queer is a slur” is used by terfs and cis gays/lesbians to silence the voices of trans/nonbinary/intersex/bi/pan/ace people in society and even within our own communities, to isolate us and shame us for existing.

“Queer is a slur” is saying “I am offended by people who do not conform to traditional gender or sexual identities because they are not sexually available to me or validate my personal identity.”

“Queer is a slur” is defending heteronormativity.

“Queer is a slur” is frankly embarrassing. It’s an admission of ignorance and prejudice. It’s an insidious discriminatory discourse parroted uncritically in support of a divisive us-vs-them mentality targeting the most vulnerable members of the LGBTQIA+ community for lack of courage to confront the white cis straight men who pose an actual danger to us as individuals and as a community.

Tl;dr: