This Week In The Trans World. – A Magneto Perspective

Recently Chelsea Manning publicly confirmed what myself and many other transgender people had been saying for years, that she was in fact a trans woman. We knew her as Breanna due to the social media accounts created under that name, but we in the community know that sometimes the first name we pick isn’t the one we wind up sticking with. So we are more than happy to call her Chelsea, unlike the mainstream media who seemed to take the news as an excuse to further misgender her. Mainstream media tries to tell us we should vilify her, all while quoting a trans veteran who is using her platform to deny the very identity of a fellow trans person. The irony of this infighting is not lost on me, and I feel the oppressor deliberately sets out to turn trans person against trans person in this manner.

Remember that our identity is not a reward to be won, but a right to be claimed.

I personally do not put faith in the voices that support the system that oppresses us.

This includes that billionaire who just came out as trans, all while she is pouring money into seeing transgender people die for the very system that oppresses them. No thanks. Thats not equality. And don’t think I didn’t notice you coming out right on the heels of Chelsea Manning, as if to try to distract everyone from it.

All while this is going on, in the background a debate rages within the trans community about the politics of “nice” versus expressing anger and around the world more trans women die due to violence and nobody seems to notice.

To me it tells me we do not have the time to sit around playing politics with those who oppress us. We do not have the luxury to sit and wait while trans people are murdered one by one so that one day we can beg for scraps at the table of the ruling class. People, human beings are dying right now and there is no justification for it.

Let this sink in.

A human being is the sum of billions of years of stars exploding and reforming, creating heavier and heavier elements across billions of miles and eventually coming together into our star and planet earth, eventually all of that matter evolving life and that life evolving into a myriad of complex forms and one of those improbable forms has the luck to be self aware enough to recognize its own existence, and each member of that species is lucky because they have this awareness, and they are all different and unique. There is only one you, there never will be another and that loss is always a tragedy.   

And people want us to wait and play games over stopping this.

There can be no middle ground on this, no neutrality.

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor  – Desmond Tutu

Either you want the dying to stop or you do not. If you want the dying to stop you have to stand up to the forces that cause this, and the apathetic who allow it. If you don’t care enough to lift a finger, then at least stop pretending like you are a good person. This isn’t to say that everyone has the power to do something, some of us are not in any position to help others and those people i do not blame, but there are plenty of people who do have that power and who choose not to use it. It is them that I call out.

This isn’t even limited to transgender people either. tragic pointless deaths happen everywhere every day all over the world and most people seem content in allowing it to happen. We are seven billion strong and we still cannot stand up to the few who oppress the many. I find this bothers me, and I think it should bother other people too. While there is growing unrest, far too many people are still complacent.

I’m not sure what it is about people that makes them complacent to the suffering of other human beings, but we need to find out and we need to do it quickly. There have been studies that give us some possible explanations but we definitely need more research in this area.

This point may seem unrelated but bear with me.

A visualization of  all protests since 1979 became available to the public today, it was very eye opening.

http://www.ultraculture.org/watch-a-jaw-dropping-visualization-of-every-protest-since-1979/

View it here.

This tells me of the growing discontent with injustice all around the world and the fact that we are soon to reach a breaking point, trans* activists would be wise to attempt to take advantage of this momentum especially given the recent very public media exposure we have gotten. While many people are still apathetic, a growing number of folks have begun to rise up against what they see as injustice and trends seem to show this number will only rise. Now is indeed the time to make our voices heard. If we do not take advantage of this momentum we may not have a chance like this for decades.

Some things we could all work on or things id like to see happen.

This section is mostly for ideas, to generate topics of reader discussion in the comments section.

I would like to see more homeless shelters that are aimed toward helping transgender and gender variant people.

I would like to see a public restroom system that has gender neutral single stall facilities with locking doors. That way everyone can use it in safety.

I would like to see programs for trans* youth to encourage greater education and job training opportunities, i would also like to make sure the military industrial complex stays the hell away from transgender people.

I would love to see us create outreach programs that do real world good in our local communities, for example community gardens or public infoshops or food co-ops.

I would also love to see us culling out the fake allies among us. You know what i’m talking about. We don’t need these people and we never did, in fact they are only hindering us. The ones who are true allies and those of us who are sick of waiting for our rights I urge you to organize in your local areas and begin the push to claim our rights as human beings. Remember, this isn’t a request on our part or a negotiation. We need to take what is rightfully ours.

I would also love to see more trans folk coming out and being open and proud of who they are, while i know for some folks it just isn’t safe and I understand doing what you have to to protect yourself. It would be great if those folks who aren’t in a dangerous situation to come out, it makes life easier on the rest of us in the long run.