Another thing I find interesting about this latest tumblr drama is the CEO outlining his "beliefs and principles". To me it's a striking example of how cis people do not understand us and make no real effort to understand us, which of course kneecaps their ability to see things from out perspective or even have real genuine compassion for us.
For one thing, I think trans women are not going to be won over by outlining your anti-transphobia principles, we don't give a shit that you've read the yogyakarta princples or how many LGBT people you have on staff (especially since it is still unclear whether or not there are actually transfems on the moderation team which is what would actually matter here), or what sort of benefits you offer your trans employees. All good stuff to be sure but that doesn't absolve you of wrong doing and we are so used to people doing this sort of thing to be like, "see, I'm one of the good ones! Don't be mad at me!"
Like, to use an unrelated example, the former head of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that has done enormously important civil rights work and taken down many powerful hate groups, had to resign a few years ago for racism and sexual harassment, both of which are antithetical to the work he was doing. You can be doing things that help was with one hand while the other hand actively harms us.
Furthermore, trans people are always reading between the lines, we have to as a matter of survival. There are a number of things photomatt has said in his beliefs in principles that will read very very differently to a trans woman than it would to anyone other person reading it. For instance:
I bet any cis person reading that is nodding their head in affirmation to this but to a trans person the headline here isn't "I support the right to medically transition," it's actually, "I don't support transition care for trans youth." And whenever a cis person specifies they support transition for adults that tells us more about what that person's actually believes than they realize.
So all of Photomatt's attempt at establishing his pro-trans bona fides are absolutely hollow when you don't even need to read between the lines here, not when he's followed her to a different social media platform to continue throwing a tantrum at her. Matt's "principles and beliefs" are nothing more than a meaningless genuflection because it's motivated not by the selfless desire to make us feel safer here, it's motivated by his need for us to think he's actually a "good boy" and this all just a misunderstanding.
We aren't stupid Matt, we encounter schmucks like you every👏single👏day.













