Content Notice: Trans writer discussing cissexism and invoking the t-word slur
This post title comes from another delightful piece on trans issues from autostraddle, written by Vivian. It’s one of those posts where there’s no one piece to focus on, nothing I want to cut, because this is exactly what I want to shout from the rooftops:
Jason “I don’t get caught up in the details” Kenney receives another endorsement from a gold star asshat conservative pundit, Sheila Gunn Reid. But this endorsement is a bit… erm, shall we say roundabout?
If you don’t support Jason Kenney’s bid to lead Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives, some of Kenney’s allies might launch gender-based attacks on you.
Just ask former Alberta PC MLA David Quest who expressed concerns about Kenney’s leadership bid on Ezra Levant’s right-wing Rebel Media website last week.
Shortly after, fellow Rebel personality Sheila Gunn Reid took to her YouTube soapbox to tar-and-feather Quest, denouncing him as a Liberal and even taunting the former MLA for losing to a “gender-queer Colombian immigrant” during the last election.
…Sure. Roundabout.
Basically, David Quest criticized Kenney’s bid for the “Progressive” Conservative leadership, citing Kenney’s history of being the political equivalent of cucumbers pickled in gasoline. So one of Kenney’s biggest fans, suspected garbage fire Sheila Gunn Reid, decided the best way to discredit Quest was by pointing out he lost his election to a, quote, “genderqueer Colombian immigrant.”
The Star profiled the Stocker-Witterick family back in 2011 when they decided not to assign a gender to their child based on the child’s genitals. Now in a follow-up interview, they discover the shocking truth of this parental abuse, this destruction of the fabric of society, this insanity!!!!
Now 5-and-a-half years old, Storm confidently says her preferred pronoun is “she.”
-Shiv
Transistor brings us an unusual cocktail of electropop and… bossa nova?
Transistor is one of those delightful postmodern games that pleases my inner hipster. There’s a lot of story about well-intentioned extremism, crisis of identity, solitude and solipsism–plus a neat action game with very satisfying gameplay. I strongly recommend it, as well as its techno-bossa nova soundtrack.
-Shiv
BuzzFeed hits the mark with “If Trans People Said The Stuff Cisgender People Say.”
-Shiv
A black trans woman by the name of Deeniquia Dodds was shot on the 4th of July in Washington D.C. She passed away on Thursday after 10 days in the hospital.
The devastating trend continues: Today, NBC News reported that Black trans woman Deeniquia Dodds was shot in Washington D.C. on the fourth of July. Deeniquia, known as “Dee Dee” to her friends, was taken to the hospital where she was kept alive on life support for ten days before passing away yesterday. According to Dee Dee’s Facebook page, she attended Woodson High School in the greater D.C. area and graduated in 2012. She was 22 years old.
Autostraddle’s trans editor, Mey Valdivia Rude, stated better than I ever could why we need to double down on our protests, our activism for trans folk and especially trans women of colour:
Things are supposed to be getting better. Cis people are noticing us and writing about us and making TV shows and movies about us. But really it just seems like things are getting better for our “allies.” Trans people, mostly trans women of color, and again, mostly Black trans women who sleep with men, are being murdered at a higher rate than any measured year before. It’s hard to look at all the articles being written about how this is our time and our moment in history and not explode in anger when so many of our Black and Brown sisters and elders aren’t being allowed to see this “historic moment” happen by the same cis society that is supposedly giving us this moment right now. Trans people, trans women of color, Black trans women need to be protected, prioritized and not fucking murdered.
I strongly recommend additional reading here, from this trans WoC.
-Shiv
Jason “I don’t get caught up in the details” Kenney, Canadian Trump-wannabe extraordinaire and prospective leader of the Albertan “Progressive” Conservatives, has a few ideas on abortion:
But now, now: Kenney claims his position on abortion has been “consistent since I first ran for Parliament in 1997,” and boldly alleges that “in my 20 years in Parliament I haven’t given a speech about this, let alone proposed a motion or a bill.”
That’s a creative interpretation of his record:
• According to Campaign Life Coalition, Jason Kenney has a perfect voting record on “life and family issues,” voting on a number of occasions in favour of legislation criticized as attempts to undermine the reproductive rights of Canadian women.
• In 2012, Jason Kenney voted in favour of Motion 312, a failed bid to redefine Canada’s legal definition of a human being, viewed by many as a backdoor to reopening the abortion debate – that motion that was even rejected by Stephen Harper.
• Kenney voted in favour of Motion 83, a failed bid to examine “the medical necessity of abortion.” In the House of Commons, Kenney delivered a speech arguing many abortions are “medically unnecessary” procedures and that with “scarce and shrinking dollars” for healthcare, tax dollars would be better spent on MRI machines.
• Kenney delivered another speech in the House of Commons claiming “the right to life” is “inalienable” because constitutional rights are “granted to us by our Creator.”
And let’s not even get into how Kenney thought a women’s group spreading awareness of abortion rights at his old university campus was in some way comparable to allowing the Ku Klux Klan, pedophiles or the Church of Satan peddle their ideas too.
This is the same guy who received a prize from Michael Gove and started the niqab manufactroversy in the last federal election. The same guy complaining about hipster communists as the true threat to Alberta?
I’d like to think that even the members of Alberta’s “Progressive” Conservatives aren’t so fucking thick as to elect Kenney.
At least we know he has the endorsement of forced-birther Alissa Golob, the woman who distributed photoshopped gore on anti-abortion pamphlets distributed when Trudeau announced his platform on abortion.
Class acts, all around.
-Shiv, still a Fashionable Communist
Shiv in 2016
Have some more cats:
-Shiv
Black Lives Matter has been asked to marshal the upcoming Dyke March in Vancouver. This announcement has been made following the decision of BLM to not participate in this year’s Pride at Vancouver: (all emphasis original)
A Pride flag does not shield us from racism, discrimination and violence. In fact, as researchers and activists are well aware, being queer makes PoCs more vulnerable to interpersonal, institutional and structural violence. Because there are relatively few queer Indigenous and PoC folks (particularly those who identify or are read as Black) represented in Vancouver, it is imperative that Pride makes space to actively include these groups. There is a difference between “diversity” and “inclusion”. Tokenistic representation is different from intentional, self-motivated participation in an organization and an organization’s events. We encourage the Vancouver Pride Society to take action in pursuing the latter.
At our vigil on Sunday we successfully negotiated a basic police presence from the Vancouver Police Department. We acknowledge that in certain contexts police presence to perform a job of civil service may deter acts of homophobia and violence, especially at designated queer events such as Pride. However, we cannot divorce the policing institution from its historical and continued violence against Indigenous and PoC communities, racial profiling, or inaction around our missing Indigenous women. We stand with BLM-Toronto and many other BLM chapters in their discontent with police being involved in the parade itself.
BLM-Vancouver had not directly heard from the Vancouver Pride Society before the statement was released publicly online despite the Society’s stated intentions of inclusion and a desire to reach out to us.
We will not be taking part in the Pride parade, by participation or protest, and have instead chosen to focus our energy elsewhere. The Dyke March responded positively to the recent events in Toronto and, with compassion and dignity, have invited BLM-Vancouver to lead as Grand Marshall this year as part of their contribution to Pride. We have responded to that positive message of solidarity and humanity and are pleased to be involved with several other QTBIPoC-centred events as well. We do this not only because we feel that Pride no longer represents community action, resistance and revolution but also as an act of solidarity with BLM chapters across North America to whom Pride parades have been made inaccessible. We wholeheartedly support the actions of other BLM chapters such as BLM Toronto and BLM San Francisco and although we may not face the same immediate threats of police brutality, we refuse to participate in the whitewashing, armament and exclusivity of any Pride Parade unless concrete and explicit commitments to the contrary are made.
In case you’re wondering, the Vancouver Dyke March is also trans-inclusive, and recently committed in its trans-affirmation policy to including trans folk among their leadership positions. Remember my bit about BLM being better at intersectionality and trans affirmation than the mainstream cis gay movement? Thank you Vancouver Dyke March & Black Lives Matter for demonstrating my point.
I’m a little too broke to go this year… but damn, I can’t wait to go next year.
-Shiv
Over on the You’re So Brave podcast, two trans men share stories of how nearly every time they try to access medical treatment for something unrelated to transitioning, the topic is inevitably changed to transitioning. This can be a particularly harmful practice since it often involves leaving the problem as originally described untreated. In some cases, it can even exacerbate the problem by throwing in invasive trauma on top of whatever the trans person was trying to get help for:
You can also find them on SoundCloud at @youre-so-brave-podcast
-Shiv