Cis People: It's Up To You Now

I find myself unable to write this week due to the immense stress of being trans in America right now. So, this week I will point you towards my resource guide for those wanting to get started with helping out my community.

With every day this past week being a new day of seeing high-ranking government officials calling to make trans people into terrorists, I find myself coming back to the same thoughts I had last April: that people with power should be speaking out for the powerless, something which has always been the case, but especially now that the powerless are no longer able to speak out.

White people should speak up for people of color (which I will continue to do). Citizens should speak up for non-citizens (ditto). Non-trans people should speak up for trans people. So on and so forth. And, arguably most importantly, those with more power and influence (those with more money, social/political connections) should be doing the most of all. At the end of the day, for all the philosophizing we can do (and I have done) about why the far right is obsessed with trans people (discussions of how it intersects with racism, sexism, colonialism, and other mechanisms of control), the most powerful people don’t even really care about trans people. We are just the current pawns by which the powerful are using to gain even more power; in other historical contexts, it’s been Jewish people (who, like trans people today, were only ~1% of the population of Germany at the time), some ethnicity that’s been deemed inferior, or literally whatever works to rile up the working class to divide itself. So while socioeconomic identities do matter (bigotry still exists and bigots are more likely to listen to those they are not bigoted against than those they are), it’s in fact a slim minority of people (rich assholes) who are enacting these violent policies against the lowest-status members of society.

The t-shirt version: Trans people are not the “1%” you should be mad at.

I call on all non-trans people to take it upon themselves to help out the trans community, to the extent to which they are able (we are all economically struggling!) People need to be coming together and taking it upon themselves to learn more about these mechanisms of societal control. Which is why, back at the beginning of this year, I made a resource guide for those who want to get started.

The guide, which gives action items in order from the least effort to the most effort, can be found on my website: https://www.thatannamarie.com/help

There’s even an activity sheet version of the guide for those who want to plan their actions out.

For the anti-racist version of this guide, which is also always kept on the link tree on my website, check this out. You are also feel to give me feedback on any of these educational materials!

For me, with everything going on both in academia and the rest of the country, I’m going to be seriously considering how I carry out this project from now on. I’ll add that what trans people need is not to “feel valid”, it is health care, employment, and housing. So, if you want to help me pay my bills, you can hire me to speak at your place of work. My portfolio can be found here: https://www.thatannamarie.com/speaking

If you want to read more about my thoughts on trans issues, you can find them here: https://thatannamarie.substack.com/t/trans

That’s all I got for today. Other than your weekly Koko.

In solidarity,

-Anna