in/appropriate.

[subjective]

today is the transgender day of remembrance & all i can feel is ambivalent & critical.

i want to recognize the awesome power of seeing a link to the gender.org site on about a third of my friends list today. i don't ever want to take community & allies for granted.

but i want us to think about when transpeople are discussed on days that are not today. and i want us to think about when transpeople are seen & heard, and not just "remembered." i guess i keep coming back to that sticky question: who is the we? who is the we that needs to be reminded to remember that transpeople die violent deaths? who is the we that needs to be "familiarized" with these murders?

i feel like the bad tranny for putting these questions out there, for demanding more of allies i already should be fucking grateful to have. of course i will be at the vigil tonight, to seek some healing from collective mourning, as i have the past two years. but then who is going to remind "us" to remember tomorrow?

Comments

[adrienmundi]

As shocking as this undoubtedly is by now, I tend to agree with your assessment. I want a hell of a lot more than "Well, A is oddly trans, and trans people tend to suffer violence more than most, so lets take a moment for our friend to keep that in mind today". Sure, sympathy is nice, but I don't want to be cast as a victim in anyone's mind.

If it makes you a bad tranny to ask important questions, can I join your camp?

[subjective.livejournal.com]

i think we've been camping together for a while now, actually. take care, a.