i have thought a lot about the twoc/nola clinic flare up and there is one thing that i cant shake…
to make an argument that because an issue is a ‘life and death issue’, that people are dying! right now as we type! blah blah blah. that means that whatever issue is so important…
bull. shit.
bull. shit on so many levels.
as if everything that is a life and death issue should be treated like an emergency. well, plenty of us who have been in emergency situations know that often times the best thing to do is to slow down for a second and breathe. take a look around at your circumstances. figure out where you are and where is every one else. and figure out who isnt there. because in emergency situations you dont have time to panic. you dont have time to fuck it up. you dont have time to start moving as fast as your adrenaline.
that is a life and death issue.
and this. melissa abducted and tortured for the crime of being a journalist. this is a life and death issue.
and so so so many more. issues. going on. all the time.
and so why did one little nola clinic cause so much furor?
and i am not saying that trans women’s anger is not justified. it is. exclusion can be deadly.
2 i am thinking about the sudanese refugee women here in cairo who struggle just to get basic medical services. whose children arent allowed in egyptian public schools so they go to seperate refugee schools. where is the internet furor for them? the refugee situation here in cairo is desperate. and egyptian is the second largest recipient of usa aid. (the first of course being israel) we us citizens have a lot of responsibility for the refugee situation here. and we have a lot of responsibility for the reasons that sudan is so decimated and unsafe that refugees stream into cairo in the first place.
and considering that israel and egypt are the two largest recipient of us tax dollars, the gazan situation is hugely our responsibility. and rather than us as us citizens taking on that responsibility in any meaningful way, a small boat of volunteers sit in israeli prison for daring to see gazans as human beings deserving a dignified life.
where is the outrage over that?
and while there was plenty of furor over the nowhc being exclusive to trans women. and yes that is fucked up. where is the furor over the conditions in new orleans? i mean my family is from the 9th ward. i know what it was like before katrina. when decent healthcare was inaccessible to alot of women as was education, healthy food, day care, etc. and i dont remember too many folks talking about it other than folks from new orleans.
3 and when im talking about women, i mean cis and trans, because i dont assume that i know who is who. and i know that trans women are global.
4 but everytime we exclude women of color from a space, we are excluding trans women of color. and if you see yourself as working in solidarity with trans women (who are an incredibly diverse group of people) and you felt outraged about trans women being excluded from women of color spaces, then shouldnt you be even more outraged when it turns out that even more women are being prevented from accessing health care?
i guess what i am saying is: if you see yourself as being in solidarity with and centering trans women of color because trans women of color are women of color, but grow less interested when it turns out that just women of color are being denied. then arent you exoticising/fetishizing trans women of color? because you arent working in solidarity with them because they are human beings or women of color…you are working in ’solidarity’ with them because they are trans women.
something seems a bit fishy to me.
5 is it because it is easy to phone and fax and email a clinic than it is to take on us neo colonialist empire or the israeli military or the egyptian dictatorship or the united nations.
is it because taking on post-katrina seems daunting? might require more time energy and resources than pressing send?
6 i remember the first time i met a couple of the ladies form the nola clinic at an incite! conference. they played with aza and i shyly (i am so shy when i am standing in front of goddesses and super heroes!) asked them if they would be interested in a doula/student midwife working in the clinic. they told me some basics about their clinic and we discussed what kind of support would i need. i liked them instantly. they had those series of qualities, twitches, self-deprecation, thoughtfulness, morbid humor, and straight talk approach that community builders often have. (btw i am digging this phrase community building much more than community organizing…)
and incite! was not a perfect conference. they excluded mothers (and their children) from some of the important events by holding the conference in venues that were 18 and older. so we mamas and children went bowling instead.
and the first workshop i went to at the conference was led by trans and genderqueer folk and they talked about the bumpiness of incite! making alliances with trans communities of color.
7 and so i was surprised at all of these folks a couple of weeks ago digitally yelling about how trans women of color needed to be centered in the conversations about the nola clinic’s exclusion of twoc without bothering to talk to the twoc in incite!
i mean how are you in solidarity with twoc but you dont bother to talk to the twoc who are connected to incite! before you decide what you are going to do? i mean what you decide to do is going to effect a lot of twoc that you dont know. shouldnt you at least talk to a few of the ones who will be most effected? before you decide for them what they need for you to do?
dear god, with allies like these…who needs enemies?
i mean seriously? isnt it like community building 101 to talk to the population (that you claim to be allies to) that is going to be affected by your actions?
8. oh and there were a lot of comments that were like: oh this is making cis woc look bad. well, seriously, who gives a fuck about appearances when dealing with life and death issues? it doesnt matter how cis woc looked. it doesnt matter about our reputation. what matters is that women get health care. that women in new orleans, poor women, trans women, immigrant women, women with disabilities get health care. that refugee women in cairo, and gazan women, and activist women and mothers get health care.
i’ve had enough with women and gender queer of color issues. i want our lives.
i mean how are you in solidarity with twoc but you dont bother to talk to the twoc who are connected to incite!
I would love to hear an answer to this as well.
the thing is, a lot of people admitted they fucked up. They should have done their research before speaking b/c it was life and death, life and death for women of color (cis and trans) if NOWHC goes under over completely uninformed and slanderous statements about how their clinic runs and why. But they didn’t. And the ones who actually talked to women in NOLA or were women in NOLA have apologized to Incite! and NOWHC. Other people, who consistently center themselves when we are talking about trans women have not only refused to apologize, they’ve taken no accountability for their actions and are still openly mocking people critiquing their approach. You’re not gonna get an answer from them, tho you might get called names.
I also want to point out that not only does Incite! work very hard to include ALL women (tho clearly there is work to be done for a lot of different women) but there are also already two online archives of trans women’s experiences of health care done by trans women, there are two annual conferences on trans women’s health that produce video for provider ed and there is a recent study on aging trans women’s health needs online that was done by aging trans women and includes many of their personal stories.
Often effective organizing means not re-inventing the wheel or disparaging people actually currently doing the work. A lot of the people slighted by me-centered organizing are the ones on the ground fighting those life or death battles for the whole community.
@woc
may i post your response here? seriously.
this couldnt be said too often:
it was life and death, life and death for women of color (cis and trans) if NOWHC goes under over completely uninformed and slanderous statements about how their clinic runs and why.