I am complicit in the election of Donald Trump.

I voted for Hilary in the general. I think I even gave her money. But I let my fear of being dragged for not being far enough Left keep me from engaging at a deeper and more active level. Because of the admittedly fucked up things she's done and said and the positions she was taking, I didn't take the risk of looking uncool and urging people to support her. I didn't canvas, I didn't phone bank, and I could have given a lot more money. I ignored the part of me that knew Trump would win, and so I failed to use the platform and tools at my disposal to prevent a dystopian future that I saw coming.

That dystopian future is now. And I *still* see people saying "it wasn't my fault." I *still* see people saying "it was your fault."

It is ALL of our faults.

We, collectively, did not do enough. It is on us as a collective and we are all in this together. At different stakes, yes. But none of us are getting out unscathed.

We have to move past a frame where the thing we believe is at stake is our own personal guilt or righteousness. Your innocence and purity do not matter. Results matter. Getting out of this alive matters. Keeping each other whole enough to keep up the struggle for liberation after Trump is gone matters. We needed your vote in 2016, but we needed more than that. We needed your passion, your effort, and your money. We needed your enthusiasm.

It is too late to fix 2016. Trump has already done incalculable damage, and there is future damage we will not be able to prevent. But this is not the moment we give up and let Trump bring Hell into being on Earth--this is the moment we step up. Because whether you’re a radical, a progressive, or a moderate, you have something you can contribute. Something only you can contribute to the struggle for liberation, the struggle for a very literal survival.

We're paid less than cis women. Our unemployment & poverty rates are umpteen times higher.

We have less access to a cis man's income than het/bi cis women do (through marriage) We are judged on our appearance more than cis women Cis men exhibit greater entitlement to our bodies than cis women's We are fetishized and exoticized, our value reduced to how a cis man wants to fuck us. We suffer street harassment as much or more than cis women. We experience alarming levels of sexual and intimate partner violence, while being excluded from the resources to deal with them. Huge portions of our healthcare costs aren't covered, even by plans that supposedly are trans inclusive. Doctors don't take our pain seriously. Our reproductive rights are not respected under law in most countries in the world.

Transmisogyny is a thing. We experience it. Be thankful for the cis privilege that allows you to believe we have male privilege.

Why the fight for trans restroom access has to be intersectional.

It's crucial to center trans people of color in our resistance:

1)Because black people are more likely to be perceived as threatening, black trans people are more likely to be policed in restrooms under the logic of someone being a threat.

2)Because black people and other people of color are often seen as devious or fraudulent, and the central logic of transphobia is the logic of fraud vs real, people of color's genders are more likely to be policed.

3)Because people of color are generally subjected to heightened scrutiny, BIPOC trans people are more vulnerable to bathroom surveillance.

4)Because the current focus of these efforts is on schools, and (in general) it is more difficult for people of color to transfer schools than it is for white people if their school decides to be gross about it.

5)According to the US Trans Survey, 3.2% of Middle Eastern and Asian trans women had been sexually assaulted in a restroom *in the past year*, along with 2.8% of Native and 2.4% of multiracial trans women, compared to 0.6% overall (which, as far as I can tell, is still significantly higher than cis women--I can't find *any* statistics on the incidence for cis women).

6)4% of undocumented trans people and 3% of Native trans people had been physically attacked in a bathroom in the past year, compared to 1% overall.

7)50% of undocumented trans people have had problems accessing restrooms in the past year, and 36% of native people. 23% of undocumented trans people and 18% of native trans people had been flat-out denied access to a restroom in the past year--double the overall rate (9%).

5)Trans people of color--and especially black trans women--are most frequently targeted for hate violence. As bathroom panic increases, so will hate violence.

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It's important to center youth:

1)Because the current locus of this shit is schools

2)Because the degree of surveillance common in k-12 schools makes it almost impossible for trans youth to use restrooms without the permission of school authorities.

3)Because trans youth are likely to be surrounded by people who know their trans status and have free reign to target them for bullying and harassment.

4)Because, in general, youth have little agency to change their circumstances compared to adults (moving, finding a new job or social circle, accessing medical care, etc).

5)Because the totality of the previous 4 points means that trans youth getting high school educations at all will be dependent on getting *every single school in the country* to give trans students equal restroom access. Without an education, long-term economic prospects are harmed, and trans youth are funneled into the school-to-prison pipeline.

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It's important to center trans women:

1)Because trans women are being explicitly demonized and targeted for harassment and violence.

2)Trans women are more likely to be perceived as trans, due to the heightened cultural stigma and surveillance.

3)Trans women are more likely to be sexually assaulted in restrooms. (the USTS only gives data about the racial background of trans women who are sexually assaulted in restrooms, but doesn't explicitly say that that's because trans women are more likely to be.)

4)Trans women--and especially black trans women--are most frequently targeted for hate violence. As bathroom panic increases, so will hate violence.

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It's also important to include trans men. Trans men are the most likely to avoid public restrooms (75%), compared to 59% of trans people in general.

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It's important to center gender non-conforming people, and all trans people who are consistently seen as trans:

1)Because it's generally true that there are no gendered bathrooms visibly trans folks can use without fear.

2)45% of trans people whose trans status was usually visible had problems accessing restrooms in the past year.

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It's important to center sex workers.

20% of those working in the street economy had been denied access to a restroom in the past year, and 39% had had issues accessing bathrooms in the past year. 4% had been sexually assaulted in a bathroom in the past year.

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A reminder: all trans people are affected by policing of restrooms. Those who are not being centered are still way vulnerable compared to cis people. There needs to be room for everyone who's affected, which--again--is all trans folks. But we are not all affected equally, and it's crucial to lift up the voices of the most marginalized among us.

We have a right to safety and education. Milo's speech acts target us for harassment and violence, and as such it denies us those rights.

Trans people's, black people's, immigrants’, and Muslims' rights to education and safety, to staying out of jail and out of poverty? Those things *matter*. They can’t trump speech every time, but they ultimately they matter more than a bigot's speech matters.

Systemic tolerance for individual harassment is a form of state violence and a driving factor of trans poverty and criminalization. The state permits harassment that keeps us out of education and jobs, and then criminalizes us for surviving through the street economy. 

Everyone who said Trump:

1)Was just trolling, 2)Was just saying he'd do this shit to get votes and not serious about it, 3)Didn't really want to be president and would just let Pence run things, or 4)That the GOP wouldn't sign on and let him do it,

I am seeing nospace "transwoman" more and more often these days.

Stahp.

We're not 5th gender, trans is a thing about us but not about our womanhood. The only difference between my womanhood and a cis woman's is that mine is invalidated and made to seem less real at every turn.

1)Yes, it's abuse.

2)YOU ARE NOT HELPING. Making it a freaking hashtag *puts her in danger*. Now she has to be even more hypervigilant, be even more careful to school her expressions perfectly at all times, not just when he’s looking. She might get beaten because of this hashtag. 

3)Y'all better not be pulling this shit on your friends or acquaintances in abusive relationships, you are making their lives so much harder.