Notices by Joscelyn Transpiring (joscelyntransient@chaosfem.tw)

Now that I have red hair, I feel like the blond girlie may not be an accurate representation…and I am left in the ambiguity of Simpsons-colored emoji person, unable to be visualized!?!

Wait…I just realize that the person emojis have a variety of skin and hair colors….but no redheads? Gingers don’t even get an emoji??? 🙍♀️🙍🏻♀️🙍🏼♀️🙍🏽♀️🙍🏾♀️🙍🏿♀️

Or is it that I’m beyond the false dichotomies and arbitrary boxes the oligarchs have imposed?! I am incomprehensible to the machine and its masters! I am…a redhead.

Some good trans news: We just helped defeat a local measure in San Diego County trying to ban trans youth in sports!

So many people came out to oppose the measure and stand up for trans kids, and thousands of e-comments opposing the item. There are people who see us right now and will stand up for us. More and more people are putting their own comfort and necks on the line for trans people and especially trans kids.

More and more, I genuinely believe we can win, especially in local areas.

Friends, I have a favor to ask: please start doing something to help the trans community.

One of my mentors finally said it to me today: when you step back, you give someone else the opportunity to step up.

My dayjob allows me to do things that most folks never get a chance to do to help and make a difference. This is where I can do the most with what limited time and energy I have. But I still feel like I'm falling short, because there is so much work that needs doing right now to take care of each other or that allies can do to help out.

So please, if you are cis and care, get involved in the local groups that are organizing to push back and resist the attacks on trans and queer folks. Help organize a fundraiser for your local LGBTQ center. Get involved in local organizations like PFLAG or GLSEN where you can help push local school boards, city councils, and others to make a difference.

If you are trans, we all gotta step up to care for each other right now. I need others to step up and help with the emotional labor we give each other - reach out and make yourself actively available to talk to and support. Organize a local trans potluck and get folks talking about what you can do to make a difference. Have whatever queer friends you know over for a game night and start building up connections.

I know we are all struggling right now, but I am pushing myself too far and need to step back more. Please, take this opportunity and step up my friends. 💖

Also, if you need help generating ideas of what you can do or don't know who to reach out to, feel free to ask below or even DM me! I have a lot more capacity to help brainstorm and share my knowledge on organizing things like this. I have specific plans on how to do logistics, like verifying new people to join a trans park day or picnic, or how to build networks.

And if you're doing something already, share with us all in the replies about what you're doing to help. It can be big like organizing a protest or phone bank, or it can be small like reaching out more to friends lately. Just....let's share and see each other and feel how we're all working together right now to help our community survive and thrive.

It's always funny when a toot like this breaks containment and reaches comfortable, middle-class, cishet white men. They assume I mean what they would mean by this - that we shouldn't do things that break unjust laws - and then jump into my replies to be like, don't comply in advance, what if they make an unjust law like making it illegal to say certain things are you just going to comply????

And I'm like...they literally have decreed it's illegal to talk about my existence as a trans woman in federal government documents, and I am out here still being trans and talking about it. You realize I'm already way past that point you think you're being brave about, right?

And all of this to say that they fail to realize that the meaning of the above isn't "be afraid and don't do things" but me talking to fellow anti-fascists saying "don't upload proof of things that could land you in jail in a publicly accessible place while resisting the rise of fascism."

Just a reminder friends: never write or talk about doing crimes on social media. Probably avoid joking about them right now too, at least in any way that seems overly literal.

So, um....just reading about the Nazi process of "Consolidation" of power, and all the hairs are standing up on the back of my neck given the way the current EOs are playing out.

Reading this, I think I was able to more precisely identify my red line, or south bank of the Rubicon, than ever before. Definitely encourage others to read the "legal basis" section. Notice how quickly these laws were passed and how closely some of them seem to align with the aims and functions of these new EOs. Think about what differences there still are and what changes would mean we have slipped into "consolidation" fully.

For me, I'm looking at the Enabling Act of 1933, and thinking about what happens if the courts actually allow Trump to continue to legislate via decree. If there is an act of Congress or a Supreme Court ruling that enables these EOs to just be the law automatically, that is when I am either going to act or get out. That's my plan for now at least.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleichschaltung

This is really common, especially for those of us who care, who have empathy, and who have a sense of justice and injustice. We want to lash out. The systems we are being harmed by are designed for us to lash out at anyone who is convenient and safe to do it towards - maybe a fellow member of your community who is slightly more prominent but has no real power or resources, and thus can’t really protect themselves from you or retaliate in a meaningful way. I have seen this happen sooooo many times. I’ve had it happen to me.

What you really want is either a feeling of power and agency back or for your mom to hold you as you cry and rage and throw a tantrum. This is what it actually is, a tantrum - letting out those feelings out at whoever you know you can get away doing it to. The problem is that you are actually a grown ass adult and you are lashing out at other hurt and powerless adults, and destroying each other.

This is one of the mechanisms current systems rely on: stress us and overstimulate us so much that we undercut each other and our solidarity. This makes us more powerless. Stop. Just fucking stop.

Name your emotions, own them, and do something else with them like giving each other radical love or organizing something that helps each other or punch a Nazi. Don’t destroy each other.

#Trans #Queer

You get access to someone with real power, like a politician or CEO or a cop: give them a fucking earful and disrupt their peace. That’s who is hurting you and who has the power to choose differently when it comes to these things.

But a trans person holding a local event, a queer who some people watch on YouTube or is read by some folks on Reddit, a Black person working as a teacher or a community organizer: just fucking leave them alone. They are not the reason you’re hurting and hurting them won’t help.

Hurt the people who are actually hurting you by disrupting what they are doing and making sure they can’t operate in peace or ignore the harm.

#trans #queer

Piece of advice friends: you are going to feel powerless and impotent in the days and years to come. There will be times you want to scream at someone or tear someone down because of your rage and despair at things you can’t control.

When this happens: DON’T JUST FUCKING ATTACK WHOEVER IS CONVENIENT.

#Queer #Trans

@deilann Oh, you're right...that....what? The only sperm and eggs at conception are the parents! I just...these absolute creeps and weirdos, what even blarghity blargh? blargh. Blargh blargh. ....my head hurts.

@xavier_ftm yeah, I’m very much of this approach - I will put most of my energy into grassroots mutual aid and community organizing, but we gotta be tactical in the years to come. There are some fights that will be worth having despite being below the basement of suboptimal, much less ideal. It’s easier to make progress than to rebuild after losing ground. And with something that has this scope of impact, we gotta be ready to not give an inch if we can.

And yes, there are better ways to do all of this and I want to see them built. I am an anarchist and have been involved in grassroots mutual aid around healthcare access too, and long-term would prefer that.

But if the ACA gets overturned, almost all of us, even in "safe" states, will lose access overnight to almost all gender-affirming care. The harm-reduction is just too damn important.

For context, I work for a trans-serving nonprofit that advocates for us in insurance and healthcare settings. We have actually been the ones that pushed insurance companies in the US to start covering many different kinds of gender-affirming healthcare for adults and minors. And one of our biggest pieces of leverage was being to say: Hey, you all aren't in compliance with the law and we'll report you if you aren't covering the care you are required to.

Let's be prepared to fight and not cede ground on this. It's something we've come to take for granted and a major target this year.

I suspect a lot of US trans folks who started transitioning in the last decade don't realize how big the Affordable Care Act has been in our access to care.

Almost no insurance companies were covering HRT or other care before the ACA - it was out of pocket or treated as a pre-existing condition, potentially blocking us from all medical care. I don't know that we would have the lively and open trans community today if it wasn't for that. It's also the reason people can access it for cheaper in other settings and why Medicare/Medicaid covers it.

I know it seems stupid, but we might need to do what we can to muster a defense of the ACA (which I hated when it passed because I was advocating for single payer, universal healthcare). It might be one of the most important levers and wedges against efforts to destroy our ability to embody ourselves in the next 4 years.

#trans #transgender #queer

Mastodon question: How does one read an exported archive of their account's activity?

I am doing some saving of writing I've done on here, and potentially reorganizing it to do something with it. And I thought maybe exporting and reading my archive would be easier than going post by post manually on here.

Any easy to use applications or resources that don't require me to be a programmer? Would be nice to have it as a backup.

Something I was reminded of today while hiking at a state park - we can have nice pedestrian infrastructure in the US. We can have habitable spaces, benches, public restrooms and have it all be nice. But our governments keep actively deciding against it for 95% of public spaces. Like…half the neighborhoods in my area don’t have sidewalks or basic infrastructure. Why can’t we just fund the rest of our infrastructure the way we do our parks?

Rant rant seize the means of production rant rant grumble grumble.