I love this new video from TENI (the Transgender Equality Network Ireland). And not just ’cause I know almost all of the awesomers in it (although yes, it’s partially that). I love that everyone on the video’s story is so different. From the person who always knew, to the person who rejected people’s attempts to force him into another gendered box.
TENI
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Who’s for trans rights?
SolidariTy is a joint initiative by LGBT Noise and Transgender Equality Network Ireland. It’s all about getting cis people- in particular LGBs, but straight cis people should get their butts on board too- to stand up and be counted and support trans people’s rights. They’ve just released a video (yep, that’s me in the blue). Check it out:
I love that something like SolidariTy is happening. It’s not enough for cis people to give quiet thumbs-up to our trans friends and then go on about our lives. Trans people in Ireland don’t have the same rights as cis people do. Trans people are at terrifyingly high risk of being fired from their jobs, having an even harder time than the rest of us actually getting work in the first place, ostracised from families and communities, denied necessary healthcare, and of suffering from mental health difficulties, self-harm and suicide. Trans people are denied legal gender recognition in this country, and the government’s proposed legislation to remedy this is outdated and damaging. That legislation would force people to divorce, it would force trans kids and teenagers to spend years with documents that don’t match their identities, and it would enshrine the idea that to be trans is to be mentally ill.
That’s no way for our country to treat its citizens, and no way for our society to treat its members. If you’re here in Ireland, keep an eye on SolidariTy to see how you can help change things.
STAD: Stop Transphobia and Discrimination
The Irish for ‘STOP’ is ‘STAD’.
Transphobic harassment and violence is endemic in Ireland. People are harassed and abused at home, in public, at work, in school and college. But it’s also largely invisible and unreported, and problems that you can’t see are notoriously hard to deal with.
The Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI) are doing something about that. Their latest campaign is STAD: Stop Transphobia and Discrimination. STAD’s purpose is to map transphobic hate crime in Ireland. They want to know what is happening, to who, and where.
If you have experienced abuse because of your perceived gender identity or expression, or if you have witnessed someone being abused, let TENI know. It doesn’t matter if the incident was major or (seemingly) minor. Microaggressions matter too, people. TENI need to know about it all, because this is the information that they- and we– can use to create strategies and plans for ending our society’s shameful abuse and brutalisation of its transgender members.
You can report incidents online, over the phone, or on paper. TENI are looking for reports both from victims and witnesses of transphobic abuse. It’s anonymous. It’s safe.
I’m sick and tired of stories of violence. I’m sick and tired of people I love- and people I think are okay, and people I honestly couldn’t stand, and people I’ve never met and never will- being brutalised and shamed and belittled and laughed at and pointed out and ostracised and hurt and killed and driven to mental illness and suicide and pain, because of their gender and how they express it. It’s gone on too damn long. It’s been too damn accepted. It’s got to stop.
Now.
So get off your ass, bookmark STAD and every single time you experience or see transphobic violence? Report it.
Related articles
- Dail Eireann and the Amazing Time Travelling Gender Recognition Legislation
- Recognition not Pathologisation: How bad could it be?
- Julie Burchill and trans women
- Poverty. Happiness. Nice things. A side of transphobia (of course).
- #MeteorShame
- On Another Transgender Day of Remembrance
- An Open Letter to Roseanne Barr, from a Feminist Sister (feministire.wordpress.com)
- From school to society, the intolerance transgender people face | Jill Filipovic (guardian.co.uk)
- Quebec’s campaign against homophobia, lesbophobia, biphobia and transphobia. (gayguidevegas.wordpress.com)
- There’s no point in online feminism if it’s an exclusive, Mean Girls club (newstatesman.com)
- Latin America’s violence against transgender women hinders HIV efforts (voxxi.com)
Elsewhere this week: Julie Bindel and the Trans Health Forum
Over at Gaelick, I wrote a response to Julie Bindel’s latest biphobia:
TENI held a Trans Health Forum in Dublin this week. I livetweeted (check out my twitter in the sidebar!) and blogged about this over at Feminist Ire:
Also, I’ve been playing around with the look of this place. What do you think?
Enjoy!