Pardon me for a moment but I need to rant.
Hey. Young Activists and SJWs. STOP. TREATING. PEOPLE. LIKE. THEY. ARE. DISPOSABLE!
I am so sick and tired of queer community treating people who are trying to learn and improve, ESPECIALLY trans women, like they are disposable. In my mind if you aren’t including rural queers who are still catching up on the quickly evolving language we use in the city and binary trans people who have been doing this a whole lot longer, then your movement is fundamentally flawed.
Trans women, especially ones who are binary and/or straight, NEED community just as much if not more so than you. And yet they are constantly either scared away by the transmisogynistic rhetoric that you subtly incorporate or actively driven away by being slapped down the moment they say the wrong word. We need queer and trans elders in our communities! They have invaluable knowledge to impart if only you would take a moment to listen without looking for “problematic” elements. And the vast majority of them are very teachable if you just use some compassion and patience.
The “purity” culture in social justice circles is unacceptable and harmful. You are creating a world where only people who have the privilege to spend all their time online and in community get to continue to engage in community. You tear anyone who steps up to do the work of leadership apart because you don’t know how to differentiate between imperfect but improving leaders and ones who are irredeemable. Within our communities there is no one who has all the privilege and there are very few who have none. But you treat privilege like it is a black and white have/have not type situation. You preach intersectionality and then when the rubber hits the road you show that all you really care about is performing your activism to look good in front of the popular kids.
STOP MAKING PERFECT THE ENEMY OF GOOD!
<end rant>
Finding Haven 