neuracnu
joined 2 years ago
The decades of creative, thoughtful non-violent protest and soft influence that followed is what gave rights.
When it’s just “we meet up for an hour on saturday, sing, and go then home,” that’s just not very effective on its own.
That's where the "creative" and "thoughtful" parts come in.
Showing up to yell in a park, or on a busy street, or at an empty building are thoughtless protest actions. Creative disruption captures attention in a non-destructive way and encourages reflection by those who witness it. Blocking traffic or throwing paint on priceless works of art certainly captures attention, but not the kind that encourages reflection.
ACT UP was really good at this sort of thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACT_UP
Violence was the spark. The decades of creative, thoughtful non-violent protest and soft influence that followed is what gave rights.
Four years is a long time, especially after prevailing conservative media converged on transgender people as their punching bag du jour. Effective capture of the once-considered thoughtful, left-leading media landscape (see Washington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic, etc) and using it to flood the zone with biased, horseshit talking points does a lot to nudge public opinion.
Remember all those Iraqi WMDs that everyone said were totally there?
It's going to take time to turn people around, and the work is going to fall onto the backs of transgender people being oppressed and victimized until those media sources can no longer deny the inhumanity they facilitated.
Not that they'll apologize for it or anything.
...and then what happened as a result?
The Liberty Hotel released a follow-up statement on Tuesday, May 6, saying that the security guard in question had been suspended, and that all staff were being "retrained on inclusive practices and guest interaction protocols."
The statement went on to say:
"The Liberty Hotel is and always will be an ally of the LGBTQ+ community and a place where everyone is welcome and celebrated."
"We will continue to educate and train of our team to ensure that everyone feels safe and accepted within our four walls and guests who do not show tolerance and acceptance towards others will be removed."
In addition, the hotel said they were making a charitable donation to a local LGBTQ+ organization on International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia on May 17.
Baker and Victor have also shared their experience with the office of Boston Mayor, Michelle Wu.
Good catch. I'll update the post text to correct this.
The person they're referring to, Beyond Reflections' CEO Gillian Russell, is trans and uses they/she pronouns according to the charity website's about-us page.
The BBC article has no "by" line, so it can't be attributed to any specific author. There's one reference to a “Mr Russell”, yet the article otherwise uses "Ms" and "she" when referring to them.
The BBC’s website seems to be blocking vpn traffic from outside the UK.
Here’s the archive link and post text:
University hosts pioneering trans+ research event
A university will host a free pioneering gathering of trans+ researchers on Thursday.
Bournemouth University will host a hybrid conference organised by trans+ charity Beyond Reflections, aiming to unite researchers across disciplines including healthcare, science, cultural studies, and the arts.
It comes just weeks after the Supreme Court ruling that the definition of a woman in the Equality Act should be based on biological sex.
Charity CEO Gillian Russell said they wanted the event to be "a beacon of hope for the trans community".
She said researchers of different stages would be presenting their work, as well as looking to collaborate and share data and feedback.
"We wanted to create a foundation for really good, qualitative, trusted trans research," she added.
"At the moment, when research is taking place, trans voices are not heard, so we wanted to create a place where that is possible."
[Ms Russell, corrected] said they had chosen to host the conference at Bournemouth University, which which they had had "ongoing relationships for many years".
Topics would include facial feminisation and facial masculinisation surgeries, the non-binary experiences and transgender representation in film.
"It's sort of a cultural thing to see trans people as villains all the time, especially in the horror world, so we've got someone coming in from the [United States] to talk about how trans horror is moving.
"We will also talk about what we call gender euphoria - the hope for the future, the way that gender can be a liberating and enhancing experience".
Ms Russell said trans healthcare would also be explored and "how the community gets though the various political and health challenges".
"I think we exist at the moment in a sort of environment which is quite negative for trans people," she added.
"We want this to be a bit of a beacon of hope and light to the trans community, showing that the vast majority of trans people just want to get on with their lives, they want to be students researchers, going to conferences, sharing practise, sharing experience.
She said one would need to be an ally or a researcher of the trans world to benefit from the conference.
Ms Russell said the event, which was planned last year, was "not political" and the trans people attending were "the victims" of the legislation.
"Their job is showing that we are normalising trans lives as trans lives have been for the last thousands of years and people are just getting on living their lives."
If I recall correctly, they had their flag at their team booth after their performance, and (maybe?) brought it on stage after the votes were finally tallied and determined them to be the winner.
I do have a strong recollection of them cheerfully waving their flag during the long vote tallying process.
Eurovision has seen the participation of many LGBTQ+ artists over the years, most recently, in 2024, nonbinary singer Nemo from Switzerland won the competition. Nemo revealed at the time of the competition that they were told not to bring the non-binary flag on stage, however, the artist was able to smuggle one in, according to PinkNews.
I was going to ask about Nemo and their NB flag. I had no idea that this was already an existing rule and that they were breaking rules to sneak it in. Good for them! Their song was legitimately the best one from last year, too (video).
Having left, now Josh Hawley holds the mantle of the US Senate's evil twink ex parte.
This is fine messaging, but it will be little solace to trans folks when their HRT stockpiles run out.
I've been to Berlin. I would never describe it as "affordable."