Screenshotted this thread because you all need to see it.
(Cis LGB, I’m expecting you to reblog this.)
Little Light:
Let us assume that
our opponents are competent and have been studying our defenses for
some time, looking for vulnerabilities to exploit. They put out
little feints and test attacks, seeing who will defend who, who can
be divided off from the group, and so on. We’ve seen this. All of
these questions they need answers to: will Jews defend Muslims? Will
Asians support Black struggle? Where can the wedges be put in? The
Alt-Right 4Chan types are always talking about observing and
infiltrating online anti-oppression communities for intel and laughs.
All these little tests. What if they make up a pretend pedophilia
orientation? Will people defend it? Will they tight and divide over
it?One vulnerability
they’ve consistently turned up is transmisogyny. Lots of groups can
be induced to vilify or wish away trans women. Useful! Remember a
little while ago when Milo put out that petition? “Remove the T
from LGBT”? They watched who signed and promoted that thing. It
was couched in anti-oppression boilerplate. And look! Cis gay men
promoted it. Some feminists and womanists promoted it. Useful intel.
They learned helpful info there: many cis LGB people were raring to
turn on trans people. They’d even say it was for their own
protection. They counted up who signed on, who elaborated on it, who
was excited about it. I’m looking at you, TERFs and enablers, in
particular. (They even discovered that some fanatical anti-trans
feminists would happily join forces with homophobic Christians, to
hurt trans women.) Nobody thought that T-out-of-LGBT petition was
going to DO anything. There’s nobody who DECIDES that. It was a
solidarity test balloon. So these laughing nihilists went
looking—along many lines–for cracks in solidarity, joints in the
armor, people who could be attacked 1st.Why do I point this
out now? Because this week the rumor mill floated a general
anti-LGBTQ EO or bill was coming, & they gauged opposition.
Supposedly they decided that opposition to this anti-LGBTQ
legislation would be too much for now, and put it in the not-yet
column. And yet: Now the word is they’re paring down to a
specifically anti-trans EO. One focused on legal documents, probably
framed as for nat’l security. (After all, mismatched documents are
fraud, right? Terrorists could be using fake ID. And there’s all that
voter fraud to address. Right?)Previous Intel
operations (& polls) have told them that the majority of the
country has turned to support LGB rights—but NOT trans rights. They
know from watching our intra-movement arguments online that there’s a
long history of cis LGB folks throwing trans folks under the bus.
They have tested to see if cis LGB people will readily abandon trans
people to save themselves. (Yes.) If they’ll outright attack us.
(Yes.) They’ve tested if there are blocs w/in the cis LGB community
so dedicated to hurting trans people that they’ll ally wtthe right
wing. (Yes.) They’ve watched some of these anti-trans fanatics STILL
obsessing over eradicating us, prioritizing that, even while the
country is on fire. Lo and behold: the regime floats anti-LGBTQ
legislation, withdraws it for now. Now they’re floating anti-trans
legislation. Right on time.Their research
indicates that the general public will happily let trans people burn
first as expendable. That cis LGB people will, too. The plan? To
remove our ability to get legal ID documents. There goes voting,
travel, med. care, having an answer to “your papers, please.”
That and support for keeping us out of public bathrooms, away from
schools, away from gendered spaces, out of jobs and housing. Public
life.I’m saying this
because they have good reason to believe they’re right that they can
come for us and no one will stop them. Their little intel operations
indicate that not only will no one stop them hurting trans people,
many will even help. Even cis LGB people. I’m saying this especially
for everyone who gave them reason to believe this. Who looked the
other way when trans lives were on the line.When they come for
us. (They will come for us. They are about to come for us.) Prove
them wrong. Prove them wrong. Prove them wrong. Please.Remember that the
specter of trans women was already a useful wedge issue &
get-out-the-vote driver in the 2016 campaign. There’s precedent. We
will be used as a weapon and a vulnerability against the rest of you
for as long as our opponents know we won’t be protected by the Left.
One of our lessons from fighting the anti-Muslim E0s in the last week
is this: we have to deny them every victory. Each one counts.
Whatever we teach them about who we will leave behind will be used to
hurt all of us. We have to show them we will abandon no one. not ever
Now is a time when it is clear & stark: solidarity saves us.
Together, we outnumber them. Together, we can win. Let us not be
broken apart. All of you responding with pledges to have our backs:
thank you. Bring your friends on board. As Octavia Butler said: So be
it. See to it.
Fuck yes