Injustice at every turn…

This is the article you should expect a full blown rant on, because a survey was given to trans and gender non-conforming people by The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to ask them about the quality of their lives. The results are every bit as grim as I've come to expect. Our people are more likely to live in extreme poverty, to live in abusive situations, and to be drug abusers. We're also much more likely to commit suicide, and no other group comes close to us for attempted suicides. This is not a record to be happy about. It's like being the state with the highest number of people killed in one shooting spree, a statistic you're really rather not have anyone bring up, ever. Sadly, though, this kind of report needs to be brought up, often. Or else the next report of the same type will have even worse numbers to report.

Trans people are abused by the police routinely, and trans POC are even more likely to be profiled and harassed, even if they have never committed any crimes. It's good enough to be black and trans to be arrested. Once they're arrested, they may be harassed, tortured, or sexually assaulted, usually without any hope of finding justice. In fact, I'd like to quote the NGLTF's detail on black respondents to help you understand how bad this is:

The National Transgender Discrimination Survey [NTDS] measured transgender people's experiences of discrimination. The survey results showed that transgender people faced bias that affects all areas of life. However, one of the most important findings was that the combination of anti-transgender with structural and individual racism meant that transgender people of color experience particularly devastating levels of discrimination. Therefore, this document, Injustice at Every Turn: A Look at Black Respondents in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, produced in collaboration with the National Black Justice Coalition and the National Center for Transgender Equality, is the first of a series of factsheets designed to specifically shine a light on the experiences of transgender people of color.

So, it's still possible in this day to be discriminated against for being trans, or for being black, but combine those, and you've got hell on all sides, even racism from your white trans and gay allies. So you run to your black family and former friends to complain about racism, and they tell you "We don't care what you think cause you're a queer." Nice, huh?

But I've pretty much blown myself out on rants, and there's nothing in this survey that I haven't already bitched about last year. If you weren't paying attention and you'd like to see an itemized list of how bad things are for the trans community, go look at the abstract, and if you're really brave, go for the full reports. When you combine this story with the other stories I have to show today, you begin to notice, however, the main problem isn't that our enemies got stronger. It's that our straight white allies on the left stopped fighting. They didn't change over to new fights. They just stopped caring about civil rights. The closest many can come to caring is thinking really hard about how unfair life is for others. But they feel no need to get up and join protest rallies, or to write letters to elected bigots. They feel no need to join the fight again, even as the news delivers daily updates that the other side is making gains in all forms of prejudice and discrimination. At best, they say, "This is terrible. Somebody should do something."

No, not somebody. You should do something. You know that to win this fight, you have to actually be willing to fight. You can't sit down and talk it out with prejudiced people. You fucking argue with them every day, every step of the way, or else they'll take your silence as your acceptance of their views as right.

And when I tell a lot of you people this, you get mad at me for "rocking the boat." That wasn't me rocking it. That was someone being violently raped. I shout, "look at that rape!" and you shout back, "shut up, I'd rather stay ignorant and happy!"

So let us review: I am the activist telling you that you have to stay mad and stay committed to fight for full equality, or you're not an ally, and you're the couch potato complaining that ally should mean "I tolerate your existence" and nothing more. It shouldn't be hard to see that you're the one here who needs to make improvements. But hey, isn't it just easier to get pissed and shoot the messenger for pointing out, again, "You're not doing so great in the humanitarian department"?