In light of today's tragedy, trans folks will need support more than ever, please take care of yourselves, sibs
For folks unaware, the identified shooter in today's Minneapolis Catholic school shooting appears to have been a trans woman. There are a lot of uncertainties at this time and this isn't the thread to discuss the shooting*, but regardless it seems clear that trans people, perhaps particularly trans adults this time (and unfortunately my trans sisters always) will be the target of increased bigoted and violent rhetoric. Even if you're not in the US the words being spoken already have an impact on people worldwide.
Be safe, take care of yourselves and each other and find ways to get involved and speak out when and where you can. And look out for the trans kids too.
💜🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈 𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊
*Please don't make this thread that, nor tag it as such. It's purely a support thread with context. Ty
I hope this information is inaccurate. Without getting into "that" too deeply, all I will say is that I would be concerned about trans folks's safety if things were normal right now. Things are not normal right now. Stay safe please. Use the buddy system.
My plan as a straight white guy is just to speak up loudly if I hear any nonsense. But if there is more I should be doing, let me know.
Using your voice and privilege to call out bullshit is great - I'd also see if you can volunteer with, protest with, or otherwise support your local LGBTQ community. That may be as simple as checking on folks you know, making a point to have a kind word for visibly queer folks you see, or more complex like attending your local city/town council meetings and speaking there to address any local bullshit.
We all do what we can, so this isn't a judgement of anyone who cannot just suggestions.
There are a lot of us who love and support trans people. We're more quiet perhaps, but I want to believe there are more of us just quietly being supportive and choosing to not support the bigots in money and votes.
Wishing everyone safety and peace, in a dangerous time
I think quiet support matters but silence doesn't. Because it's impossible to tell silent support from apathy. Trans folks in Canada aren't unaffected by the rhetoric circling in the US, the UK, and elsewhere.
I'm not saying you're silent, you spoke here, but I think it's important for folks who would be allies to stand alongside those targeted right now. And that's not just on behalf of trans folks. Our communities all need us.
That's a very good point. I only say anything when the topic is brought up, but in these communities it rarely does -- heterosexuality is just assumed here. Hmmm I'll have to give more thought to how to express it in a way that shows support and invite others who are also supportive to show it too
Seems to be confirmed, so that fucking sucks.
One of my best friends is a gnc person that works at the hospital where the victims were sent. I'm really at a loss for what to do and say after this senseless violence.
Edit: And the shooter was a Nazi. Lovely.
"Shit sucks right now, how are you doing with.... Everything?" Isn't a bad place to start. And an offer to talk, or play videogames or play basketball or drive out to the country and scream and eat ice cream. Whatever helps them cope.
Just being there for folks, and acknowledging the awful can open the space for them to say the things that might be to difficult to speak otherwise
Everything is terrible and more and more of everything seems to suck.
All my hobbies and my safe spaces have been invaded by enshittification, so I don't know.
I really don't know.
That's pretty much what I did, and it was appreciated. I'm usually the stable person that friends can talk to. Though, my empathy skills still need work.
It's so easy to get empathy burnout these days, but I can't just tune out my best friend's pain.
Yeah instantly had a bunch of transphobic bigotry spring up at work. Do we have a reliable source on that?
I probably need to step away from this cause I'm just getting more mad.
I don't want to make this a news thread but I've seen the reporting in multiple legitimate sources. Ultimately trans people will be targeted even if it turned out the shooter no longer identified that way. The likely, IMO, mental illness of the shooter will only perpetuate the transphobic narratives that have already been circulating.
I'm very worried. And I didn't think I could be more worried these days.
Big internet hug to every trans person reading this.
You deserve so much better. You deserve love and support and understanding and peace.
It's very interesting that my local News (Switzerland) never disclosed or said anything about the person beeing trans. Which is just odd. And I don't know what to think about it. On the one hand it's good, since then Trans people aren't blamed??
Honestly it's probably better for news orgs to wait for more and accurate information to come out. This one is... Complicated. But we never succeed at not focusing on the killer in these situations here.
It's why I'm trying to redirect the attention to communities that need support
From what little I know about them I wouldn’t be surprised if they pretended to be trans just to cause more social harm.
I don't want to really get into speculation, personally. There's no winning there. If we ever get a whole picture, then that's perhaps useful info. But none of it will protect trans people from being harassed, or further targeted politically, medically, etc. The shooter will just be used as proof of trans regret, transgenderism as a mental health problem, the danger of trans people to children, the victim of gender ideology, etc.
We're losing transition care resources for youth and adults throughout the country. The level of anti-trans vitriol in online spaces has spiked horribly just from my anecdotal experience so far.
So it doesn't matter. Not really.
To add on to this:
When the shooter isn't trans, people still spread misinformation that they were as a way of inflaming bigotry.
Hateful people will use any pretext they can to justify hatred and try to make it look virtuous. And, in the absence of a valid pretext, they will simply invent one themselves to create the same outcome.
Once prejudice gets people to reject truth in service of hate, there's little you can do to counter it, because each situation will turn out the same way regardless. The hate always wins and can't be countered by truth.
(Sorry to be a downer with this -- if this isn't the right place for this, let me know and I'll delete it)
No it makes sense. I do think hate can be countered by truth and love but it won't be countered by correcting the facts being used to justify the hate. Because they're only the justifications. You have to target the fundamental error.
It's like the Sikhs who were targeted after 9/11 for hate filled retaliation - pointing out the fact that Sikhs aren't Muslims, or that the turbans look totally different, or whatever is the wrong angle. That's just saying "target the right people.". The right angle is "this is bigotry, not justice. These are innocent people and killing people out of your rage and grief solves nothing. These are our neighbors, this is unacceptable." Just redirecting the wrongness isn't better.
The wrong angle here is "this person wasn't even trans/they detransitioned/or whatever the truth turns out to be, so stop hurting trans people." It's "stop hurting trans people because it's wrong to do so. This is causing harm. Targeting any group like this would be and is bad, etc.". Because the next most likely target is people with mental illness (and this is already happening anyway).
Idk I'm not the most eloquent today, but that's how my brain is thinking. While this thread is about supporting each other, and our community is key, we can't think we save ourselves by redirecting the hatred, we have to try to stop it entirely, ultimately.