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Aug. 6th, 2006 11:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ginoushkaWe, the undersigned, want to speak out in love and support of the trans women in our community.
That's right: trans WOMEN, male to female. While debate rages about whether trans-masculine people belong in women's spaces, we must not forget that there are many communities that claim to be by and for women but shun and exclude one group of women: trans women.
* We've witnessed women being misunderstood and treated like outsiders -- just for being trans. We've seen women being ostracized for having relationships or sleeping with trans women. That's bullshit! If a community wants to call itself pro-woman, that needs to include ALL women, regardless of class, race, size, ability, how we express our gender, who we love, or what gender we were assigned at birth.
* Trans women have been a part of queer, lesbian, and dyke communities since the beginning. Trans women have been marching alongside other women since day one, and still are today! It's ridiculous that, all too often, trans women are silenced and forced to suppress part of their experiences and who they are, in order to fit in.
* Our community should be smart enough to see through the few narrow stereotypes our society offers about trans women. Trans women are just as diverse, complicated, and individual as non-trans women. There are butch trans women; there are femme trans women. There are trans women of all kinds and experiences. Generalizing about trans women is just as asinine as perpetuating stereotypes about any other group of women.
* Society encourages women to compete with and hate each other. To resist this, we must work to support all women. We have to examine and deal with our own misogyny and transphobia, and stop projecting our biases onto other women -- including trans women, who are not only devalued and objectified as women, but often excluded by other women.
* Women's bodies and genitals come in all shapes, sizes, and configurations. That's awesome! We are all more than the sum of our body parts. We believe in self-determination over our own bodies and how we use them, and we know that making any kind of assumption about someone based solely on the shape of their body is deeply foolish.
Trans women are our friends, our lovers, our co-workers, our neighbors, and ourselves. Trans women are not strangers to our communities. We sign this petition in support of the women of all kinds of experiences and bodies: women we value, appreciate, and love.
Signed,
1. Ariel Federow, New York, NY
2. Naomi Clark, New York, NY
3. Jess Snodgrass, Pittsburgh, PA
.... Gina de Vries, San Francisco, CA
if you want to sign the petition now, send your name and address to dykeplustrans@gmail.com
view the list of signatures and the website here: http://www.halfrobot.com/dykeplustrans.html
That's right: trans WOMEN, male to female. While debate rages about whether trans-masculine people belong in women's spaces, we must not forget that there are many communities that claim to be by and for women but shun and exclude one group of women: trans women.
* We've witnessed women being misunderstood and treated like outsiders -- just for being trans. We've seen women being ostracized for having relationships or sleeping with trans women. That's bullshit! If a community wants to call itself pro-woman, that needs to include ALL women, regardless of class, race, size, ability, how we express our gender, who we love, or what gender we were assigned at birth.
* Trans women have been a part of queer, lesbian, and dyke communities since the beginning. Trans women have been marching alongside other women since day one, and still are today! It's ridiculous that, all too often, trans women are silenced and forced to suppress part of their experiences and who they are, in order to fit in.
* Our community should be smart enough to see through the few narrow stereotypes our society offers about trans women. Trans women are just as diverse, complicated, and individual as non-trans women. There are butch trans women; there are femme trans women. There are trans women of all kinds and experiences. Generalizing about trans women is just as asinine as perpetuating stereotypes about any other group of women.
* Society encourages women to compete with and hate each other. To resist this, we must work to support all women. We have to examine and deal with our own misogyny and transphobia, and stop projecting our biases onto other women -- including trans women, who are not only devalued and objectified as women, but often excluded by other women.
* Women's bodies and genitals come in all shapes, sizes, and configurations. That's awesome! We are all more than the sum of our body parts. We believe in self-determination over our own bodies and how we use them, and we know that making any kind of assumption about someone based solely on the shape of their body is deeply foolish.
Trans women are our friends, our lovers, our co-workers, our neighbors, and ourselves. Trans women are not strangers to our communities. We sign this petition in support of the women of all kinds of experiences and bodies: women we value, appreciate, and love.
Signed,
1. Ariel Federow, New York, NY
2. Naomi Clark, New York, NY
3. Jess Snodgrass, Pittsburgh, PA
.... Gina de Vries, San Francisco, CA
if you want to sign the petition now, send your name and address to dykeplustrans@gmail.com
view the list of signatures and the website here: http://www.halfrobot.com/dykeplustrans.html
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no subject
Date: 2006-08-07 07:05 pm (UTC)