bust it out | Femdelic
- Funk
- Boogie
- Experimental
November 20th is Trans Day of Remembrance, a day to honor all those trans siblings we have lost to anti-trans violence, which takes so many forms.
A beloved trans femme friend once said to me of the day, "Can we please just call it Trans Day of Pizza, eat some pizza, and not think about it? I already have to think about anti-trans violence every day."
That's the funny thing about being trans. On the one hand, I think a lot of us who have come out would say that transition saved our lives. For me, and I know many like me, a lifetime of inauthenticity had been slowly killing me from the inside out. Coming out as trans made it possible for me to live.
Still, coming out can open trans folks up to harms from the outside, from those who do not understand us, and perhaps who do not yet understand themselves. It can open us up to great losses — of security, of safety, of access, of loved ones, of care, of family, of homeland. This is even more true for those who come out as trans femme, who suffer from the transmisogyny running rampant in both queer and heteronormative cultures alike.
And yet, for me personally, coming out as genderqueer and presenting and moving through my world in ways that felt more authentic to who I really am, meant that — for the first time in my life — I could finally find a home within myself.
So, as we honor the trans siblings we have lost, we also have to ask ourselves — what are we doing to celebrate and protect the ones who are still with us? What are we doing to hold tight and love on and amplify the joys of all of our trans siblings who have made it to another day? And most importantly, how might we co-create a world in which every trans person can feel safe, cherished, and connected?
So, with all that in mind, I'd like to explore a remembrance also of trans joy in this episode. Let's see where it takes us.
I dedicate this episode to our friend and community member rafi, who — among so many beautiful creations during his time on this weird ass planet — gave life to the TS Raver "collective tranarchy" peer support crew, a project which taught so many of us the depths of what true community care and peer support can look like.
Rest in power, papi. Damn, we miss you.
SUPPORT TRANS LIFE. DONATE TO TRANS*XWORKS TODAY: https://spenden.twingle.de/berlin-collective-action-e-v/trans-sexwork/tw6450f2de38d7c/page
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aequa stands for social equity. We are an intersectional network of people and projects connected by our shared vision of a world in which everyone can thrive. Together, we explore hope as a practice, becoming more capable together and growing our collective power in the process.
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