”Trans people are not a threat. We just want to exist and be left alone. Our dignity cannot be taken. But the #Texas Legislature is in danger of trading away its own.”

From April Maria Ortiz in 2023: Coming out in small town Texas ... https://www.texasobserver.org/i-am-a-trans-texan/

#trans #LGBTQIA+ #transphobia #Uvalde #TXlege #politics #USpol #TDOV #TransDayOfVisibility #news #culture

Hey everyone, you can already see me in my intro post (rtx-on model) and videos/streams (mostly rtx-off model), so I figured I'd do something a little different  

I want to cover two things: why it matters, and what non-trans people can do to help  

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 Queer folks are, for the most part, not raised within the community. We're most often born in non-queer families and often go through a large chunk of our lives not even knowing queer folks exist, that anything outside of the cis-het structure even exists.

Racial representation gives us role-models, shows us that it's ok to be, in my case, mixed-race, that our struggles are seen. Queer representation, on the other hand, shows us that queer folks exist, that that is something even *possible* to be. I went 3 decades without realising that the feelings I was feeling were gender dysphoria, without realising there was something I could do about it, without realising that doing those things about it would finally make me feel like I was me, not just a husk of a meat-mech I was piloting around waiting for some unknown thing to happen  

However, trans visibility can be deadly to trans folks  Being visible in our current society isn't just a physical danger to us, it can often be a danger to our social lives and financial stability. Trans people are homeless at a staggering rate, both due to families often shunning them as well as jobs firing and not hiring them.

In fact, even here on fedi, where some of the space is decently protective of trans people (though major servers tend not to be), every few months, there is a wave of posts talking about how "2D 'anime' (read: anything including picrews) profile pics (pfps) mean bigots and nazis", which, if you've read the last 3 paragraphs, you can see why a first-name-last-name-real-face account might be existentially dangerous to trans folks.

Being able to be out, to even show our faces, on trans day of visibility is a risk to every person who does it. It's a risk taken with the hope that it will help make the world survivable for all other trans folks, both currently existing and every one who will exist in the future  

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Now, what can you do about it if you're non-trans? Stop falling for transphobic talking points. Stop letting a person use another marginalisation as justification for being transphobic. Stop supporting organisations that support (or Lyssa fuckin' forbid, are *run by*) people who espouse transphobic rhetoric.

But more than that, if you have some money to spare, help trans people not starve. I'm not saying "send one $500 a month" (I will not object if you do, as a note), I'm saying maybe find a few trans people that need it and contribute $10 or $20, something within your means. Super bonus points for setting aside a little every month.

I know ko-fi and patreon allow for it in an automated way to make it easier, too, though on ko-fi, you usually have to click from single-time to monthly  

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If you've read this far, thank you. I hope this has been interesting to read, and hopefully, given you tangible ways to help  

#Queer #Trans #SocialJustice #TransDayOfVisibility