Given That It's Both Black History Month And Transgender Hell Era I Recommend People Go Read About Frances

given that it's both black history month and Transgender Hell Era i recommend people go read about frances thompson, the first black trans woman to testify before Congress. her bravery and defiance in the fact of targeted government oppression is so admirable, as is the love from her community. she transitioned while enslaved and lived her entire life as a woman, more or less openly trans. she was outed and jailed by police who had always been aware she was trans entirely because her testimony of being raped by anti-black rioters was inconvenient for Congress and they needed an excuse to ignore her. and yet she never wavered in her conviction of her womanhood. when a reporter questioned her on why she wore dresses, she told him "none of your damn business." she died young but she was cared for by her community to the end. it's both an interesting look at how people historically engaged with trans people (even the West has a more complicated relationship with gender & sex than transphobes want to admit) and like. idk. her going through everything she went through and still being like fuck you. i know exactly what you are doing and it's bullshit. i am what i've always been and you are cowards relying on hatred to maintain power. and no matter what i'm not legitimizing your bullshit. i love you frances thompson

Never Want to Hurt Again

Over one hundred years ago, everyone, even the children were killed. Many were scalped, and the scalps were more or less traded for money. I say this not to make a spectacle. Or to pretend that I understand the kind of pain felt. This is to acknowledge a difficult truth, because it is so much worse than my words could ever describe. And then, over a hundred years later, I was born on that land. So I never want to hurt again

Over one hundred years ago, but now also; children, young adults, adults, and elders are being hurt again. In a cycle, that the most violent, most foolish want fixed in place. A Wheel Within a Wheel that they worship as themselves and the evil they do unto others. So I never want to hurt again.

If it could be true, I would wish pleasure and love for you. A simple life, free of distraction, from the terrible world we must participate in. I still wish this for you, although, we both know it cannot be. I hope that if you hurt again, you learn and get better. This goes for me in turn. What flows from our grief; alienation, desperation, deprivation, whatever it is. I hope we feel the sweet relief that we may never hurt again.

Eleni R