Comment on the blog post about Trans - Jacking

Audrey - Kenya

There is something of interest that you commented on

"Seriously.  There is no subject that trans people are not affected by.
 No posting that doesn’t directly impact trans people’s lives.  And
anything that affects trans people’s lives can be used to describe
issues and concerns of importance to trans people."

The matter at hand is the fact that lesbians gays, bisexuals normally
view our issues from a homosexual lense. Here is an example: There is
this rubbish of gays and lesbians saying LGBT people are criminalized
in Africa. But in the actual sense is being a transgender person
criminalized? Is the act of changing sex; medically, legally and
socially criminalized? The answer is a simple NO.
But what do these people go around telling the public and the police,
transsexuals are criminalized. But, asked about this misinformation
about transgender people, what do gays and lesbian say?
I had the pleasure of asking one of the leaders of a Kenya leading
gay, lesbian, bi, trans and intersex organization that question and I
wasn't shocked at what he said: transgender women who have anal sex
are criminalized.
But why is it that when a transgender person is mentioned they resort
to scrutinizing our sexual practices? Who gave them that right?
Infact, aren't they the same people who go around telling our
governments that their sexual practices are private and should not be
scrutinized by anyone?
And why are they so fast to represent us in meetings and workshops?
Talking of sexual minorities? Have we ever asked ourselves what sexual
minorities are? They are people who are marginalized because of their
sexual practises and sexual orientation. But, being transgender is not
an issue of sexual practices or sexual orientation; so who gave them
the right to do that to us? Shame on them.
Then it never ceases to amaze me the way they twist our issues to be
theirs and against heterosexuals. They will tell people and the media
that the LGBT movement is the gay movement and the heterosexuals are
against us. But, aren't they provoking the society at our own expense?
Who bears the blunt of the whole provocation? Transsexuals. And since
when did we become gays or men who have sex with other men (MSMs)?
I know most trans people will feel helpless at the thought of telling
homosexuals to stop twisting our issues to fit their struggle or to
allow us to represent ourselves or to tell them to f*** off with their
gay labels.
And why do they ignore the oppression of themselves against
transsexuals? The last two days have been hectic. There is this gay
guy which I will call a f***ing faggot and he has been calling me
every now and then telling me he wants to fuck me. Despite my efforts
to explain to him am not one of them and even if I was to date a man I
would not date a fag like him, he keeps sending me some obscene
messages and the stress is killing me. I plan to report the matter to
the police and I hope I will get some help. Its so depressing to read
a message of some fag telling you how he wants to suck your c*** and
f*** you in the ass. So depressing yet the gay activists I have
reported to have not done anything to stop their kind. Its sickening.

Mean what you claim you do or back-off!!!

Just been visting various trans blogs and something really captured my attention; TRANS-JACKING. I am posting a very interesting piece about the topic after what I have to say. I was fired up when I first read about it and in fact it was one of the things that inspired me into blogging on trans issues.

Trans people allover the world are fed up! Fed up of all the hypocrisy, pretense, hate, the accusation of confusing others, TRANSPHOBIA. Transphobia stinks out there but it sucks more when you experience it within the LGBTI movement. Ever been told by a so called LGBTI activist that you are confusing them with your gender identity? Ever been told that “before we deal with your issues as a trans person we need to understand your gender identity”? Now this is a human rights defender to whom you are reporting violations committed against you and they want to first understand your identity! Even when they write proposals for funding, I mean LGBTI activists, they will ask for “funds for outreach to our transgender communities”. When you pay them a visit, they will ask you what transgender means after leading LGBTI organizations for 10 years. I call this exploitation and theft.

Today the trans movement in Africa is awake and up in arms to deal with this nonsense. We are claiming spaces and coming up with our own initiatives. We are fed up of thieves and users. Apologies to the few allies that we have here in Africa. I am speaking to all those who silence transgender people and pretend to work on their issues. Transgender people have brains, fully functioning brains and cannot sit and watch as this keeps happening. Enough of the exploitation and hard work towards the extinction of our kind. We will tell off every transphobe, thief and user and will act on what we say. We will expose them until they either do the right thing or back-off.

Below is a post I found on one of the blogs. It fired me up.

Trans-Jacking

On January 9, 2011, In Advocacy, Diversity, Empowerment, Erasure, Gender Expression, Genderqueer, Language, Media, Politics, Sexism, World, news, resentment, By Antonia D'orsay

I am rather vocal about how one does not separate the T from the LGBT.  I don’t mince words about it.

However, that argument is a different one from what I’m going to suggest here.  I am upset.  I am angry.  I am also in the middle of a fundraising campaign where I generally have to be nice to people.

Well, fuck that.

Allies are not the people that lead a fight.  THey are the people who follow in a fight.  THis is something that seems to escape people constantly when it comes to dealing with Trans issues.  One does give allies a certain amount of leeway.

However, let’s face a very simple fact: not all cis people are our allies.  This is especially prevalent among cisLGB sites, organizations, and so forth.

Recently, I was reading one of those  fuck-ups that always happen on sites that generally think saying “LGBT” means talking only about cisLGB issues.

And a person who is a frequent commentor and who uses the tone argument as an excuse not to get involved accused someone I like (even though we don’t always agree) of “trans jacking”.

For clarity, Trans-jacking is a tone argument.  It is an attempt to silence someone. It is an act of oppression.

And this little thing, when combined with the recent expereince over at the RENWL blog, tells me something has to happen, so I[‘m going to make a suggestion to all trans people who participate in online blogs.

Let’s trans jack every single thread.

Seriously.  There is no subject that trans people are not affected by.  No posting that doesn’t directly impact trans people’s lives.  And anything that affects trans people’s lives can be used to describe issues and concerns of importance to trans people.

So here’s the thing:   let us make sure that every single posting on any major LGBT issue is specifically and intentionally used to discuss the way that trans voices and experiences are erased, silenced, and ignored.

You don’t have to be nice about it.  But talk about it.  Constantly and everywhere. Until they start to talk about it.

Trans voices are unique in the LGBT universe.  Our comments create more discussion and spark more thoughtful stuff than any other.

It is time that the usual suspects realize that we are fucking sick and tired of people thinking that our needs are secondary, That when they say LGBT that they can mean just the cisLGB.  That when people talk about marriage being more important than ENDA that they are literally enganging in an act of oppression against trans people.

They will deny it.  It doesn’t matter — it is true.  To prioritize marriage over employment discrimination is oppressive.  It is transphobic, it is erasure, it is a statement that promotes the continued suffering and hardship of trans people.

It is a concept that literally says that what I do, every single day, is worthless, and that the money I’m trying to raise to make life better for trans people is wasted.

And I am no longer willing to allow that.  The LGBT community has to start looking towards trans needs, and they have to start doing it now, and the best way to do that is to make them aware that until they start to pay attention to our needs, we will not only not shut up, but we will not let them talk about anything without having to deal with our displeasure at the same time.

The single most important thing that the LGBT orgs and communities can do over the next two years is focus our energies.  On one single and vital concept.  Ending discrimination in employment, housing, education, and opportunity is the most important issue.  It will affect all LGBT folks. It will change the game, make available more money, improve lives, make the movement stronger.

We don’t need a divorce.  We need to tell the dumbasses that they are dumbasses and we need to tell those people who think we are new, we are “just coming into our own” or whatever else, that we are no longer going to just sit back and let them run things.

They thought 2010 was the year of the trans people.

THey ain’t seen nothing yet.

Trans-jack every thread.  Every single one.  Make them aware that we not only have a voice, but that we are going to kick some ass with it.

No more oppression from the LGB.

We’ve got enough of it from the bad guys.

African Trans Organizing

The transgender movement in Africa is relatively young but very vibrant. For many years, African trans people have been silenced within their communities, including in LGBT spaces and organizing.

Until 2008, Africa had only one transgender organization, Gender DynamiX (GDX), which was founded in July 2005 by Liesl Theron (Mama Trans) and Lex (who deserves to be called Papa Trans). Thanks to those 2. The organization, whose vision is to create awareness and visualize transgenderism has done a lot of work within South Africa and has in the past 3 years extended this to the rest of Africa. In fact many trans activists on the continent were inspired by GDX.

In 2008, Africa saw the emergence of a trans movement as well as more organizing. Thanks to GDX and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC). It kicked off with the formation of Transgender, Intersex and Transsexual (TITS-Uganda) and Transgender Education and Advocay (TEA) in Kenya.

Following the first African Gender Identity Workshop for East and Southern Africa held in Cape Town and organized by IGLHRC in collaboration with Gender DynamiX in December 2008, several other trans organizations have been established in the 2 sub regions;
- Trans Bantu in Zambia
- TAMON in Namibia
- The Rainbow Identity Association in Botswana

In addition to that, several LGBTI organizations have set up Transgender Desks. Among them are; Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG), Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) while others give support to trans organizations and individuals (Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya, Outright Namibia, Lambda in Mozambique, among others).

Voice of Trans Africa

Who says African Trans people do not exist? Who says we have no voice?

We are everywhere including on the WWW. Now we are even blogging.

Welcome to Voice of Trans Africa. It is one of many spaces where you will find African trans people and issues. Come here everyday to learn something new about Trans Africa. News, testimonies, jokes and more - All Trans Africa.

Enjoy!!!