if you have people in your communities who make you feel unsafe or like you cannot criticize them, especially if they have risen to positions of assumed authority and leadership, question that.
people don’t make you feel uncomfortable for no reason. talk to other people in your community about them. you will likely find other people who feel the same. you may find the reason why you feel that way.
question people’s actions in an individual context. be critical of anyone who values ideological purity over kindness. be critical of how people use their identities to assume intellectual authority or silence others.
be critical of people who wield academia and intellectualism to gain power within our spaces. just because someone speaks eloquently or uses big words does not mean what they say is right.
abusers exist in every space. they exist within safe spaces. they exist within radical spaces. they exist within friend groups. they assume the language and behaviour of any group they are in and use it to their advantage. they will make you feel ignorant, they will make you feel like youre being oppressive if you question unsafe behaviour, they will make you feel “less radical” or less deserving of space. they will make you feel like your feelings and opinions and autonomy is unimportant.
be wary of this. please. i have started seeing this too much within trans/social justice/radical spaces.
if someone is making you feel uncomfortable, no matter who they are, even if you feel like you “dont have a good enough reason” to feel that way - talk to someone about it.
Health News - Western University study finds that risk of suicide in transgender community may be reduced by changing policy and societal factors
Greta Bauer, PhD, professor in the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, led the study published in BMC Public Health. The findings present the first evidence of the connection between viewing gender recognition as a human right and the reduction of suicide amongst transgender people.
Bauer said. “People often think that it is being transgender itself that is causing suicidal thoughts or attempts, but it’s not that simple. It’s the social marginalization.”
‘Domestic Violence: A resource for trans people’ was produced in 2009 by The Greater London Domestic Violence project, in collaboration with the LGBT Domestic Abuse Forum and NHS Barking & Dagenham.
The resource has been written primarily to assist trans people who experience domestic abuse. There is information as well as links to UK resources.
To view the full booklet, click here.
For anyone who would find a US-based resource helpful, here’s a PDF from the American nonprofit FORGE:
