Solidarity

So one of the things that caught my attention during the Ten Days was that bootstrapcook posted a Twitter thread declaring that they refuse to be a bystander [to anti-semitism] any longer because to do nothing is to be complicit. I advise against reading the comments. I was surprisingly moved by their posts; basically, my expectation is that people who actively identify as leftist generally don't care about anti-semitism, whether because (some) Jews are rich and white, or because Israel is oppressive and colonialist.

I think the right thing for me to do is to return the favour. I don't have one percent the audience that Jack does, but still:

Transphobia / transmisia is one of the most dangerous threats facing our country today.

I refuse to be a bystander because to do nothing is to be complicit.

I choose to reject the subtle and blatant ways that transmisia is diseasing the fabric of our society.

It's not enough that I am broadly in favour of trans people having equal rights; I need to start actively pushing back against the rising tide of trans hatred. Including the hatred coming from the left and from people calling themselves feminists. I'm not saying I understand all the nuances of trans issues (and there are as many different experiences as there are individual trans people). I'm not saying I'm completely free of my own anti-trans prejudice or at the very least ingrained cis-sexism. But still, this is the year I'm getting off the fence, I'm no longer prioritizing intellectual debate and trying to see the merits of both sides over the safety and wellbeing of actual trans people.

( rejecting transmisia )

I still have lots more to learn, and like Jack Monroe I'm going to make sure I get most of my information from trans people talking about their own lives, not cis people theorizing about them. And I'm going to start treating trans hatred as the dangerous bigotry it is, not as a reasonable difference of opinion.

Aside from that, I finally got round to coming out on FB. Facebook is odd because it contains a lot of people from my childhood and other eras of my past, and quite a few people with whom my connection is more professional or pastoral than personal. I wasn't exactly hiding the fact that I'm poly, and bi is buried in the small print of my profile somewhere nobody ever looks. But I made a post updating what's going on in my life, including that I'm in a quad relationship. It was a bit scary, but so far it's mainly led to people I haven't spoken to in ages getting in touch, which is delightful. But now I'm properly out everywhere, work, all my various Jewish communities, and the bits of the internet where I use my wallet name. More love, more openness, more keeping going anyway in spite of fear.