So, Renegade was just asked to cease and desist from volunteering at a DV shelter because of her real world job in sex work and pr0n.
Trin has another pal that was turned down because of her BDSM bent.
Others are noting similar stories in the comments.
Oh yeah, and there was always the whole Vancouver Rape Relief business, wherein some people decided that preserving a "women only space" was so much more important than allowing a transwoman to continue to volunteer that they took their case all the way up to the Canadian Supreme Court--and won, setting, by the way, a legal precedent in which it's okay to discriminate against trans folk, pretty much.
Remind me. Are domestic violence and rape crisis centers so overflowing with eager volunteers and support that y'all can afford to turn away hard workers because your dogma -doesn't approve- of something that frankly was none of your damn business in the first place? For that matter, do you think rape and domestic violence victims are never transgendered, or might want to talk to an active sex worker or someone who knows about BDSM, on account of actually sex workers and kinky people can be abused and it might not necessarily be as simple as "get out of that patriarchal set-up right now?"
But mostly: jesus christ. Are you feminists? Or are you Victorian charity ladies?
One of the hardest working volunteers (including, but not limited to, being on call for rape crisis counselling) I've ever known was a submissive who hung around (oh noez) with sex workers. As far as I know no one ever tried to kick her out. Maybe we're a little more enlightened in New York. Or, maybe, she just didn't -tell- anyone. And no one asked. Maybe.
"Don't ask, don't tell," right? Maybe that's the solution.
Or, maybe some people would rather put their selfish, bigoted dogma over the real needs of the people they're supposedly serving as well as the "fee fees" of the volunteering women they're -turning away.-
p.s. hi, witchy-woo!!! HI!!! have you sacrificed your son for the Cause yet?
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19 comments:
the purity of the movement must not be questioned.
i'm beginning to be troubled by your tone here. Has your womb-based solidarity device failed?
/headdesk
Heh. A friend of mine wasn't accepted into an online community of activists against child abuse because she's bi.
swell. i presume that wasn't a particularly feminist organization, though, or was it?
(good to see you!)
Wouldn't it be, in some cases, more likely that sex workers were being abused? Not to say that sex work is inherently abusive, because I don't think it is at all, but just that it seems in a lot of cases connected to that spiral of poverty, abuse, and patriarchy? Sooooo, wouldn't it make sense to have someone safe who knew the biz talk to these women?
...Yeah, I hate fundamentalists too.
yeah, meredith, i agree. and, welcome.
Thanks. I've been lurking here and a lot of other places for a while, commenting occasionally, but I decided, especially in light of everything that's gone down in the blogosphere recently, that it would be a good idea if I stepped up my commenting. Yay solidarity.
w00t!
I wouldn't think this ____s' space phenomenon a big problem, if there were other avenues for trans people to get help if they were abused. I think the Michigan Womyn's Festival is as significant as you'd expect an event that uses the word "Womyn" non-ironically to be. But the shelters that turn away trans people remind me of a certain segment of populism that's all about helping the poor as long as they're of the right skin color.
"Victorian charity ladies." HA!
Yeah, that whole Vancouver Rape Relief thing makes my blood boil. In one fell swoop, the Canadian court endorsed the dehumanization of trans people, especially transwomen.
I had looked upon Canada as a place to go should the US become even more hostile to trans people than it already is, but I guess I'll have to throw Canada onto the trash heap.
And, yeah, like trans women are never, ever raped or abused. Pffttt!!!!
I forgot to add, since blaming is so popular in certain places these days...IBTRPF (I Blame The Reactionary Pseudo-Feminists)
me, IBTA (I Blame The Assholes)
IBTF (I Blame Twisty Faster)
...actually, I don't blame Twisty. It just needed to be said :)
"when you point a finger, three more point back at you"
blaming is getting old, anyway. okay, then what?
I'm really glad to have found a trans-positive, BDSM-positive DV organization to volunteer for. They totally rock my socks.
That's great! ...mind if I ask whereabouts? I've been thinking about volunteering, too...
rachelphilpa: Australia is generally pretty good when it comes to transpeople and anti-discrimination laws on these sort of things; we've got pretty much universal coverage either now or will have soon down the whole east coast.
Some wingnuts tried to start up an Australian equivalent of Michigan a few years ago, and it went down in flames in the courts. We did lose a case concerning a shelter a couple of months ago, but that was after some not-particularly sensitive behaviour on the part of a transwoman at said shelter, and seems to be the exception rather than the rule.
Well when we moved to BC last year I was not impressed - not when two gay dads have to spend several years sueing the BC government to have ANY inclusion of LGBT people in schools (they won, four parents groups were immediately formed to oppose them, and the class that was supposed to be introduced on diversity in high schools last year is still awaiting implimentation).
Vancouver Rape Relief, beyond their strange spitefulness continue to claim they are being "Victimized" by T people who refuse to admit they aren't equally human so Vancouver Rape Relief must spend money proving such in court and NOT helping rape victims....which oddly was what the volunteer was trying to do - Working with one of the experts in sexual abuse - native women and sex workers are targetted at unbelievable levels (which is why a man abducting 60+ of them from downtown Vancouver to sexually abuse and kill could keep doing it for over a decade) - but I suppose there is no "life experience" requirement at VRR for sex and/or native discrimination/institutionalism.
I live in a town where people say the brand "lip service" in hushed OMG, "those people" tones so I am thinking that BDSM wouldn't be something you want to bring up if you want to keep your job - and certainly not in Oak Bay (which refuses to both admit PFLAG into the schools or even admit there ARE LGBT students in Oak Bay)
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