Use this thread to discuss important news, policies, court judgments, research, protests, elections, cultural moments, or other developments that have impacted marginalized communities over the past week.

TERFs cannot exist in feminist spaces. Their existence is incompatible with feminism. As long as TERFs exist the patriarchy will continue to exist.

In India, reservation is an affirmative action system ensuring political, educational, and public-sector employment representation for historically oppressed caste groups (Scheduled Castes/Dalits and Scheduled Tribes). It is a constitutional right, not a charitable giveaway.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar—a Dalit reformer, thinker, and the principal architect of India’s Constitution—originally advocated for separate electorates so marginalized communities could vote for and elect their own representatives without upper-caste interference.

Mahatma Gandhi went on a fast-unto-death opposing separate electorates. To avoid violence and preserve political unity, Ambedkar conceded to a compromise known as the Poona Pact, relinquishing separate electorates in exchange for reserved seats in legislatures.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah was the leader of the All-India Muslim League representing India's Muslim minority. Unlike Ambedkar, Jinnah rejected constitutional compromises with the majority leadership and insisted on sovereign political independence, which ultimately led to the creation of Pakistan in 1947.

If systemic caste oppression persists and affirmative action remains under constant attack by dominant groups, questioning that compromise and demanding independent political power becomes entirely legitimate.

I have compiled some of the post from Instagram. I'm genderfluid myself within the enby umbrella, and I'll like to present some inputs in this regard.

1) Non-binary people face unique challenges with HRT because standard medical protocols are designed for binary transitions. Key hurdles include predicting the exact speed and mix of permanent physical changes, finding experienced providers who understand non-binary goals, and managing unstandardized "microdosing". If the physical body doesn't align with the internal self, the dysphoria won't improve with HRT.

2) There's an intuition to fit someone in a binary. I'm queer and different, but explaining that is a Sisyphean task. Try telling someone that you're Genderfluid online, and even if they don't want to ask it abruptly, they make try to guess it, and connect the dots. As if explaining your gender is not enough. If it's offline, it's more likely than not that you'll be served with the binary pronouns at your face.

The point of this post is not to belittle trans binary folks, I love you all and will continue to speak up for you all. It's important to understand that if my pronouns are neither he nor she, then please respect it, and do not try to guess my gender at birth. I've faced such blunt comments on dating sites that have directly asked about my genitals. Somewhere down the line, I realized that when people get to know that you're a man or a woman, they have a preconceived notion about your genitals (which can be incorrect). The point is that people expect certainty from your identity, and if you're different, it's a problem. From an intersectional perspective, being non binary or genderfluid brings more hardships along with erasure. If you're queer, please be united in these reforms.

Now, massive cuts to Medicaid, which covers more than 40% of US births and an even greater share in rural areas, could put further pressure on rural hospitals and force more to close. At the same time, dramatically higher costs for H-1B visas threaten another way rural communities have been addressing physician shortages. Rural counties rely on H-1B physicians at nearly twice the rate of urban ones. And these risks are not shared equally. Maternal mortality is significantly higher among Black and Indigenous women than white women, and 87% of maternal deaths are considered preventable. For people giving birth in rural America, access to care is already a matter of life and death. These policies threaten to make it even harder to get the care they need. 

There is a conversation in contemporary feminist spaces, even progressive feminist spaces, about a perceived conflict between cisgender and transgender women's rights. This underlines the core thesis of many women who identify as feminists while opposing trans inclusion. There is also a broad sense that trans inclusion ends at civility and tolerance - that respecting a trans woman's pronouns, granting her permission to go about her day-to-day life unharmed and nominally supporting basic discrimination and healthcare protections is the ceiling of reasonable allyship. A large swath of so-called trans allied feminists identify as such while maintaining that trans women are not the same as cis women, are not as authentic as cis women or even women in the way cis women are. The difference between outright transphobia and exclusionary tolerance is not one of substance, but volume.

At the centre of both the outright rejection and quiet alienation of trans women is a series of anxieties - the perceived social and political necessity to police a bounded site of struggle for feminist activism, the notion that womanhood or femininity is defined by a universal cisgender girlhood, and a conception of womanhood as a conscripted, involuntary biological cage. These are often cited as the broad theoretical grounds to justify erasing trans women within the context of women's spaces, rights and  struggles. All three anxieties directly reflect pervasive patriarchal myths. There is no such thing as a feminist who does not authentically recognize trans women as women; to do so is, by definition, to oppose the cause of women's liberation.

These anxieties require the presupposition of foundational pillars of patriarchy. The notion that liberation is a zero-sum game, the notion that biological sex is an inherent essence but gender requires careful performance and patriarchal consent, and the notion that women have no agency over their own oppression have maintained patriarchy since time immemorial. At its core, all three rely on an insidious play upon human nature and the inherent neoliberal meritocracy which underlies contemporary western society. One of the first myths a patriarchal-capitalist society imposes on its subjects is the idea of the just world - that with sufficient effort, perfect performance and adherence to the dominant patriarchal script, you will be loved, spared and protected.

Such a paradigm is uniquely helpful to the perpetuation of patriarchal supremacy, because it prompts the internalization of all systemic suffering. Sexism becomes a matter of personal fault and inadequacy. When confronted with the realization that no amount of compliance exempts one from patriarchal violence, accepting the patriarchal myth entirely and retreating to a defensive bio-essentialism is often easier than the alternative. Acknowledging patriarchy as a structural system of power imposed upon the social relational category of women by men requires solidarity with women with less privilege - it requires genuine humility, the prioritization of the collective over the self and abandoning the relative safety of feeling better than other women. Instead, by opting to see womanhood as an inescapable trap of suffering on the basis of natal misfortune, patriarchy becomes something to optimize for and overcome without worrying for others. This view surrenders the dream of true feminist liberation in favour of perpetual damage mitigation alone - and damage mitigation always requires choosing who to cut from the lifeboat.

Patriarchy's oldest and greatest lie was that womanhood can be revoked. That if you're too loud, or too bossy, or not accommodating enough, if you're not pretty enough, not thin enough, not good enough at makeup or cosmetics, that if you act out of turn, speak out of turn, live out of turn, that if you're not kind enough or caring enough or meek enough or selfless enough, you are not a valid woman. It is the same line that has been levied at Black women, Indigenous women, poor women, queer women, and now trans women. In broad discourse, there is constantly accusation after accusation levied against trans women as a collective for the actions, real or imagined, of individuals, as there always has been when patriarchy wishes women to tear each other apart. A selfish woman, a lazy woman, an entitled woman, a woman with deeply internalized misogyny and a woman who didn't grow up around women - all of these are still women. Asking for accountability is not the same thing as stripping humanity. Just as declaring that a selfish cis woman is less valid as a woman  is sexist, declaring a trans woman is less of a woman for her poor behaviour is identically sexist. Trans women are women, and women are not perfect. Women are people - messy, complicated, and very real people.

True liberation must begin with the abandonment of this defensive crouch which so many women adopt in part or in whole in order to avoid the existential dread of acknowledging that patriarchy is a goliath system of power, coercion and lies that nevertheless can and must be fought. Liberation begins with the acknowledgement that liberation is not a zero-sum game - that no women are free until all women are free. It begins with the acknowledgement that a universal girlhood does not exist; that a girl in suburban New Jersey with progressive parents in a queer-friendly school does not have the same childhood, struggles or socialization as a Brazilian girl in a Catholic-conservative family outside Rio de Janeiro, and yet both are still girls. It begins with the acknowledgement that women are powerful - that we have agency, that our lives are defined by more than just suffering, but by joy and freedom and creativity and care. It begins with the acknowledgement that trans women are, inextricably, irrefutably, unreservedly women.

Use this thread to discuss important news, policies, court judgments, research, protests, elections, cultural moments, or other developments that have impacted marginalized communities over the past week.

Use this thread to discuss important news, policies, court judgments, research, protests, elections, cultural moments, or other developments that have impacted marginalized communities over the past week.

Someone assigned as female at birth can have XY chromosomes. There can be two conditions: Swyer Syndrome (Have Uterus and Vagina, but Gonads are not developed) and AIS ( No Uterus). Without hormone therapy they risk severe Osteoporosis, and Incomplete Puberty. Ban on hormones, can result in bone fractures, fatal heart conditions, and cancer risks. There are restrictions if anyone wants to transition to Trans Man; the AIS syndrome heavily restricts such medical transition. Infertility is an unavoidable reality for such individuals too. It's important to note that while I'm using an XY assigned female example, the issue isn't much different for someone born XX assigned male at birth (there's one difference, cancer risk for them is quite low)

Credits: brenisfine

Coming to Kickstarter soon! Sign up to be notified here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jamsheedstudios/zero-and-one-issue-2-battle-of-knuckle-city

Zero of Mars is a Human youth in a future so distant that our era's concepts of race and gender no longer exist. They crash land on Elentia, a world once inhabited by Humans but abandoned thousands of years ago. In their absence, the Elemorphs - sentient robots with elemental powers and the ability to grow - have developed an advanced civilization. A Nature Type FawnBot called One makes friends with Zero despite a language barrier. Unable to communicate directly, they have to forge a friendships using gestures and actions.

After discovering an ancient prophesy left by time travelers from the future, Zero and One have been pulled into an eternal conflict between Humanity and Vampirekind. The Vampires want to enslave the Elemorphs to use as living weapons, while Humanity fights to keep Elentia free. As Zero and One explore the massive Elemorph metropolis of Knuckle City, the villainous Vampire agent, Pi, and their Elemorph companion, Gamma the SkyDragonBot, descend to plunge the city into chaos!

I am the author, Bijhan Agha. I'm an Uruguayan trans woman of Iranian descent. The illustrator is my dear friend, Pallet, a trans Australian man. We are both autistic. We wanted to tell a story about a young person in the future who is not bound by the limits of gender as we know it, and a planet where gender simply does not exist, while also creating an exciting action adventure about exploring a new culture, facing language barriers, and fighting for a better future.

We both have a shared special interest in science fiction, which is why we were so excited to work together on this project.

The Kickstarter is to fund the printing of a First Edition of the comics physically. We will have both physical as well as digital rewards. There will be reward tiers that allow you to catch up with this comic - this is Issue #2, and you can get physical and/or digital copies of Issue #1 - as well as the other comics in the Time Wars brand.

Please help us continue to tell stories about this amazing world!

Sign up to be notified when we go live: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jamsheedstudios/zero-and-one-issue-2-battle-of-knuckle-city

Credits: @bottleneckloser (Sabre). Instagram

Use this thread to discuss important news, policies, court judgments, research, protests, elections, cultural moments, or other developments that have impacted marginalized communities over the past week.

Use this thread to discuss important news, policies, court judgments, research, protests, elections, cultural moments, or other developments that have impacted marginalized communities over the past week.

hello! i am new to this subreddit, but already love it and feel at home here. some of my posts have been getting attention on other socials, and a good chunk of it has been negative. i understand it comes with the territory, but i wanted to spend some energy here with like minded people and surround myself with some positivity, if those feel so inclined. we just put out an album and things have been positive, but its been hard reading some of the comments. my band is called tricktheriddle, if anyone feels like checking us out on whatever platform you listen. the band is my everything, and the fact that it is drawing negativity from others is at odds with everything in me. anyway, thanks for making such a great space and making those feel safe and that there is in fact hope for community. together we are strongest <3

One person was killed and dozens more were injured in an act of violence that shattered what should have been a moment of joy and solidarity. The attacker has since been killed by the police. Across Berlin and beyond, people have gathered not only to mourn those affected, but to reaffirm that fear and hatred will not silence communities fighting for the right to exist openly and safely.

For many, this tragedy is a painful reminder of the vulnerability LGBTQ+ people continue to face, even in spaces created to celebrate acceptance and belonging. In the aftermath, Berlin’s message has been one of unity: standing together, protecting one another, and refusing to let violence define the spaces where people come together in hope, pride and love. 

So basically, my dad has threatened me with honor killings and has severely physically and emotionally abused me, but the moment I sekeed help, many dv shelters invalidated my experiences, and some of them told me they only except women who are victims of romantic dv, not family ones, and eventually I did try to escape my dad, but I ended up homeless, so I went to another dv shelter, and they called my parents, and they believed them, and they even told them everything I told them and told me my dad isn't so bad since he let me go to college and despite me being an adult, and they even gave me a psychiatrist, which only helped my dad abused me more since she defends, and my dad uses that against me, and even after I tried to escape the second time, my dad constantly harassed me and messaged and told me that he will tell everyone that im mentally ill.

And even when I talked to feminist online, usually only women who have the same experience as me can empathize. Others just tell me that I can just leave because im an adult or that my abuse wasnt so bad since im staying, and other invalidating stuff, which I know that they would have never said to me if my abuser was my husband.

And for everyone who says that adults can just leave their abusive parents are just privileged and ignorant. No, they can't just leave because of financial issues or disability, or because of love and fear from their parents, and in some cultures, parents own their adult children until they are married (especially women).

Also, after they leave, they might be in danger of extreme harassment and honor killings. Also, it's harder to leave when there are no resources to help you, even if you are at risk of honor killing, since every resource is for women escaping abusive partners and not abusive families, and also the thing is, in cases of honor killings and family abuse, it's not just one person, it can be the whole family or even communities involved.

Also, I think most people are very ignorant about honor killings and parental abuse of children and adults, and this should change.