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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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Detransition Awareness Day: Inconvenient Truths and Community Building

Apparently today, March 12th is Detransition Awareness Day. Today is supposed to be a day for informing people about detransitioning in the name of creating more and better resources. Well then, here are some things I want people to be aware of concerning resources for people who detransition and why they’re in the state that they are today.

As someone who played an important role in creating one of the first communities and support networks for detransitioned women, who worked in that community for close to seven years, I have a lot of regrets now. I and others in that community made many bad, misguided choices that lead to the formation of a detrans community that is better at radicalizing people into transphobic ideology than it is with helping people access the resources they need to live a good life. We created a community that often encouraged people to use their trauma to attack the trans community and trans healthcare rather than helping people heal and get on with their lives.Read More »Detransition Awareness Day: Inconvenient Truths and Community Building

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?

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