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Resistance Strategies

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What It’s Like To Attend an Anti-Trans Conference As a Trans Researcher

Originally posted on Medium.

Content notes: discussion of conversion therapy/practices, murder/transphobic hate crimes, suicide, parental transphobia, and insensitivity regarding detransition. Some links include misgendering of trans youth or references to incest and childhood sexual abuse.

Being a trans researcher of anti-trans mobilization is a trippy experience. It’s one thing to get glimpses of a person’s or group’s views through random tweets, but going to their events for a deep dive is a whole other level. You’re immersed in a sea of disdain for people like you, or your future generations, only for you get slammed with premonitions as they drop hints about (or even outright announce) their plans for our social eradication. It’s even worse when you know what’s going to come next, even if they’re not quite forthcoming about it, only to be proven right just days later. It’s emotionally and physically draining work, with a degree of impact that I feel like all of us trying to understand anti-trans organizing should approach with both respect and gentleness.

Let me give you an example using my experience at Genspect’s ROGD conference last November. Unlike my other work this won’t be a thorough analysis of the event itself or what threats it poses. I’m building up to that, learning from the aforementioned lesson of being gentle with myself. But right now, I need to work through the emotional impact it has, and hopefully this will help others work through their own to appreciate that it’s okay to care for ourselves too. And, crucially, as TGNC people doing or consuming this kind of work, we must normalize collective care to keep all of us going in this horror show. Because by G-d, some of us need to be in this for the long haul, so we’d better get ready together because shit ain’t gonna stop anytime soon.

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When Ex-Trans Worlds Collide

Content notes: discussion of conversion practices (both secular and faith-based), suicidal ideation, child kidnapping, pedophilia, and child abuse.

Disclaimer: This piece is published by advocates in the name of public interest. It should not be construed as legal advice. If you’re from the US and need legal or other supports related to conversion practices, you can find information at Born Perfect.

Ideologically motivated detransitioned activists joined forces over the summer with leaders of ex-LGBT ministries to target class action suits demanding equitable health coverage for trans people in Arizona. Filing an amicus brief on July 7th,[1] notable figures such as Keira Bell, Sinéad Watson, and Carol Freitas collaborated with Kathy Grace Duncan of Portland Fellowship, a group that has been under fire for practicing faith-based conversion therapy on gay and trans people.[2] The brief was filed alongside one from Society for Evidence Based Medicine (SEGM), whose membership is closely linked with conversion therapy groups and practitioners.[3] The collective effort signals an organized attempt to undermine access to gender affirming care in ways that leave both trans and detrans people with limited medical or psychological support, all while conversion efforts towards trans people are on the rise.

Click below to read online or via PDF.

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Team America- Terf Police: a Message to US Organizers from Blood and TERF [Transcript]

Editor notes: Following is a transcript of Episode 13 of the Blood and TERF podcast (audio format) based in the UK. We have graciously received permission to host a copy of the transcript as a warning and breakdown of resistance strategy to US readers. Credit for the podcast goes to M and E, and the labor of the transcript to a third comrade working with them.

This message pairs with Harry Josephine Giles’ Medium article Trans in the UK: What the Hell Are We Going To Do?, which is referenced in the podcast. We also received permission to mirror said article in full. We remain ever grateful to our trans comrades in the UK and their efforts to outreach resisters of organized transphobia stateside. With solidarity comes strength. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.

Content notes for QAnon cross-over and all of its transphobic, antisemitic, and pedophilia-obsessed nonsense. This is a connection that we have noticed as well and are in the process of writing about in more detail. There’s also references to Islamophobia. Take care of yourself accordingly as you read.

M  0:25: Britain’s fucked. Every week we get bizarre updates about the latest maneuvers in the culture war. The situation has become so bad that the state is now explicitly anti-trans on a level of policy and totally beholden to fascist reactionaries. For many liberals this was a shock, because we always see ourselves as America’s progressive cousins, where a benign liberal technocracy would legislate the LGBT movement’s ideals into reality. This hasn’t happened. The counter-campaign has totally outmaneuvered us, and the reformist option isn’t really open anymore. Many of us had seen this as a uniquely British phenomenon. The Terf Island was so isolated that it could be considered a distant nightmare.

E  1:15: However, deep down we all knew, you all knew, that it could happen there too. After all, the American right in the age of QAnon, Pizzagate, Trump, Proud Boys, and triumphalist dominionism could always be counted on to pick up any weapon it could find for fighting the class war.

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Trans in the UK: What the Hell Are We Going To Do?

By Harry Josephine Giles

Originally posted on Medium. Cross-posted with permission.

In UK trans social spaces, the emotions I encounter most often are fear, uncertainty and exhaustion. I meet many trans folk stuck stewing over political defeats and obsessive media coverage. I see a physical response: a frantic hand-wave at “everything that’s going on” and a scream. That’s fucked up!

On the one hand, a lot of bad shit has happened and it is right and rational to feel miserable in the face of that, especially in times of pandemic social murder and rising fascism. On the other hand, this doesn’t have to be the only way to react. Trans social spaces and political movements can get trapped in negative reaction to all the bad stuff and then fail to campaign for and celebrate victories. The fixation with every bad thing that’s said about us and that’s done to us is a self-defeating cycle. We’re stuck always reacting, never acting, always miserable and never liberating ourselves. I saw a tweet from an American trans journalist recently that, quoting a news article about Keir Starmer on making Labour “the party of the family”, said only “Trans people in the UK are so fucked.” Believing only that, dwelling on only that, is what fucks us. We’re not fucked, we’re fucked over, and we can fucking fight back, and fight for fucking liberation.

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Transforming Systems of Care for Gender Dysphoria: Whose Responsibility Is It, Anyway?

Originally posted on Embrace Imperfection.

One of the critical components to providing effective services or resources for people with gender dysphoria is understanding how they may be impacted by trauma. Trauma from a variety of domains disproportionately impacts members of the LGBT community, including those who experience gender dysphoria. As such, the call to implement trauma-informed care within transgender health care systems has been present for some time. It’s noted in academic research, as well as some standards of care. However, despite communities and resource providers putting a theoretical emphasis on supporting those who seek transgender health care, that theory hasn’t carried over into practice. Why have our systems failed to adopt such a crucial component when attempting to provide care? Subsequently, in light of that failure, whose responsibility is it to ensure that this system is changed? Are there ways that community resources can better support survivors of trauma that are not getting their needs met in other areas? Finally, how can we as a community hold each other accountable for being more considerate of the needs of trauma survivors?

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