Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Our African Descended Cis Community Must Treat Our Trans People Better

One interesting conversation I had during the recent gender conference at HCC was discussing the observations of one of the sponsors as to how white transwomen were treated by their cis compatriots and noting the negativity aimed at them by gay and straight white cis people alike..

In a conversation I had later with Professor Baggett, she remarked that Black cis people must learn from that history and treat Black transwomen better than what we have observed has happened with the white cis community and their problematic interactions with white trans people .

Well, I'm trying to do my part along with other Black transwomen and transmen around the country to lay the educational foundation down. We're also diligently working to facilitate the dialogues that need to happen to ensure we African descended transpeople are integrated into the kente cloth fabric of African-American life.

We don't need to be repeating in the African American  community the anti-trans hate we have observed being aimed at white transwomen for decades in terms of the rabid transphobic hate from rad fems, fundies, gay and lesbian people and the scientifically illiterate transphobic cis masses. We also don't need to have our academics espousing ignorant psychobabble like autogynephilia. 

What we do need as African descended transpeople is more of our clergy and legacy civil rights organizations getting on board with helping us not only stopping anti-trans violence aimed at our community, but helping us push trans human rights laws through.

Our African descended cis community must be an example to others in how to treat their trans populations with dignity and respect.  We need that to happen so that we can do our part to uplift the entire African American community.    

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