👋 to all of my #trans & #LGTBQ friends. We need to talk about the cis-het progressive/liberal problem, and I hope that you might be able to help me get through to the ones in my life.
I spent a few days with some old friends that I haven't seen in a while. At one point, Jason Aldean and #TransRights both came up in conversation. These people are solid #Democratic voters that hate all things #MAGA. They also happen to be Jewish, which I would think should make them sensitive to #fascism.
They don't watch #FeauxNews or any other right wing bullshit. They do, however, consume #Facebook & #Instagram feeds daily. It was their impression that trans people are forcing other people to use pronouns and make special arrangements for them. They also think that people uncomfortable with trans people should be free to bunk at camp in a cabin without trans people in it.
I 💯% know and believe that #TransRightsAreHumanRights but how can I more effectively pierce their myopic bubble?
The Telegraph - "Tory backlash as children set to gain gender-change rights at school"
>"Education Secretary says guidance will recommend pupils be able to 'socially transition' to a pronoun of their choice with parental consent"
>"Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, is facing a backlash from Conservative MPs and figures in Downing Street and the Equalities Office over plans to allow pupils to choose their own pronouns if their parents give consent"
Interesting, better than months of dogwhistles may have suggested, let's watch closely. Keegan is a more moderate conservative than Badenoch, and civil service lawyers will have been involved. This article suggests some sanity prevailing & an intra-factional Tory spat with the far right, transphobic types quoted like evangelical Miriam Cates MP, the (Un)Safe Schools Alliance
[Edit: this is draft guidance for a public consultation]
Gender Dysphoria: I deliberately stopped using this term or dysphoric (whenever possible) a while back. I have been incredibly uneasy as a trans woman how loaded the term still is with medical diagnosis and mental health connotations. It is imho:
a term of our oppression
a phrase of 'symbolic violence' (as Judith Butler might say)
a weak dilution of 'gender identity disorder'
I do not deny the experience, I deny the medicalisation, weaponisation and causes
IF in rejecting this term at every level I lose my ability to get a UK Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), then so be it.
No compromise
I keep my pride, my full trans agency and that - for me - is far more priceless :butterfly_trans:
Gender dysphoria isn't something I have
Gender, now this I do have in spades :Fire_Trans:
Update: Although the guidance says they wanted responses by yesterday, it looks like the consult remains open until 1NOV
The NHS is holding a public consultation on the use of puberty blockers in trans kids. Please respond if you are able.
I'm not putting this under a CW because I want to ensure everyone with capacity and inclination to help sees it. But I will hold the details until further down the thread.
As a follow-up on something @Elodie_lyra tooted, I logged an FOI on why the UK Land Registry would ask for a GRC on gender change, but won't accept a UK Passport (as would seem logical)
** I just got a reply back saying HMLR is now reviewing this:**
Coincidence?
FOI QUESTION:
"... the processes are duplicated:
a. One needs the same requirements for name change ie a UK Deed Poll, or a Statutory Declaration
b. Changing Gender on a UK Passport has exactly the same process as the Land Registry and can be done simply via a GP/doctor letter
REPLY:
"Our searches have not revealed any recorded information held in relation to why a UK Passport is not included as accepted evidence of change of gender, however, HMLR is in the process of reviewing the Change of gender (CNG) form. This will include a review of the current evidence options required in panel 2 of the form, and consideration will be given to whether this can be extended to include a valid UK Passport"
When we were out on the road releasing my friend's ashes, one of our comrade's partners got attacked for being a transfemme on her own and had to defend herself.
Check out this preorder form for stickers and potentially greeting cards of my trans rights skull design (pictured below as a holographic sticker mockup): https://forms.gle/uFG4jZKwWAAKCw4A7
Remember how my previous employer denied my WFH request so that I could flee the state of Ohio to take care of my trans kid while still working for a company I loved?
I just heard they did it to someone else today.
When you insist people come in to an office a few days a week because you want a "hybrid culture" not a "remote culture" and then tell them to just fuck off when all they want to do is get their kid somewhere safe that makes you an absolutely shitty person.
I'm done hiding who it was.
The company is #OverDrive, based in Cleveland. They make ebook lending software for your local library called #Libby. They say they care about their LGBTQIA+ employees and families but that is clearly a lie.
Ohio lawmakers are turning my home state into absolute garbage and companies like this one are playing along.
[Edit, since this is doing numbers: The reason my request was denied a little over a year ago, despite me explaining in detail why, was because they "want a hybrid culture, not a remote culture." (a quote from a senior leader to my face)
In both 2020 and 2021 while the whole company was working remotely I won two annual employee excellence awards for my work on their Security team, while the company had record growth.
Meanwhile, one of my teammates moved out of state to be closer to family and continued to work remotely.]
I’m Dave, I live in Te Whanganui-a-tara, Aotearoa New Zealand with my wife, our two children, and our two cats Monty and Stevie. We emigrated from the UK a few years ago, but NZ is my heart and home.
I like to help people find their way in tech. I mentor people looking to get into the industry, and particularly like to help those going into iOS and Swift development. The more the merrier!
happy pride, if you wanna shop small and buy from a very queer and trans aspiring artist hmu. I don't have a lot of pride designs (I mostly do birds atm) but I do make these cool cards to congratulate ur gays and I have this lil trans rights skull that can be a card, patch, print, or (running low on stock, but still available) sticker
besides the obviously gay stuff I have a lot of secretly gay bird and flower designs that can be patches, prints, shirts, anything that can be stamped on!! And I make little handmade journals and sketchbooks as well.
Online discourse: "You have to convince me to vote for Joe #Biden"
Why? I don't like Joe Biden. The idea that anyone has to convince you to fall in love with Joe Biden is as absurd of a #political assertion as the #MAGA cult and #Trump, that #politics is about #passion
“I’m a middle aged cisgender gay man who has seen all of this before. It sucked growing up with this level of hate in the 80s and 90s, and it’s scary that the UK is becoming increasingly hostile to queer people.”
Anti-trans protests happened on Sept 20 in almost every major city in Canada. It’s fucking terrifying, to be honest.
Hate doesn’t stop by itself. It has to BE stopped.
You can help in small and big ways: change your user photo to this, explain why to your family and friends, and go support the side of diversity & equality on Sept 20.
Look around your corner of the country and you’ll find the counter-protest. Stand with them.
Je tiens à le dire, (je le dis pas assez car pour moi ça va de soi), quand je pouete des trucs en disant "les femmes", je parle de toutes les femmes, donc aussi des copines trans.
Car au delà des subtilités d'état civil et autres, du moment que vous êtes une femme, vous entrez direct dans la catégorie des êtres les plus choubidoux de cette planète, en vertu du proverbe ancestral :
"Les filles les plus belles, les garçons à la poubelle !"
So wait, let me get this right. Creatures have been roaming the planet for millions of years, thousands of years ago humans come along, and around three hundred years ago capitalism kicks in with its "endless growth" and "endless extraction" bullshit and already the planet is wrecked, there's climate chaos, and we're experiencing our hottest years ever and people are getting burns from touching the fucking pavement, and the capitalist class and their spokespeople in power don't give a shit because they're confident they and theirs will hold out on resources way longer than the rest of us, at the barrel of a gun if they have to, since there'll be enough desperate fools to accept scraps to keep protecting them from us. And in the meantime they'll continue to promote the same old filthy industries and agriculture, de-fund public transit, buy up social media to openly and proudly promote misinformation, and use their state and corporate media hierarchies to ensure ignorance towards the climate emergency like they have the ongoing pandemic, or just keep pushing back already-laughable environmental "targets" while they keep laughing at us, extracting resources and profits, filling their coffers, fucking the planet, and introducing sweeping surveillance and protest bans, to the point where someone like me, even with my privileges, will end up in prison just for existing or for anarchist thought; someone who never did shit to anyone, just dared to engage in (shock!) noncompliance in their wretched little system, doing no harm and taking no shit. Take care of one another! Organise! We can't aid and abet these policymaking mass murderers in sharp suits. We can't lose our humanity. After all, humanity never was compatible with capitalism. #GlobalWarming#ClimateChange#ClimateCrisis#ClimateEmergency#CapitalismIsADeathCult#Capitalism#anarchism#solidarity#organise#unionise#unions#RentersUnion#RentersRights#TransRights#LGBTQ#RefugeesWelcome#WeAreThe99Percent#ACAB#Abolition#FuckCars#PublicTransit#community#urbanism