Revoluciana

Excerpt:

"Tomorrow people will continue to call it the land of the free, but I will still be "anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist," a trifecta of some of the greatest threats identified by the US Counterterrorism Strategy in 2026*, 250 years since the first US Independence Day. In the land of the free, where anti-fascism is considered a terrorist threat."

Excerpt:

"Tomorrow people will continue to call it the land of the free. My kids will still get scolded for not standing for the pledge to promise their unconditional allegiance to their government authorities."

Excerpt:

"My ancestors used to use it, too, for thousands of years. The weed, I mean, that I use to roll my joints. Although, for most of that time they didn't usually smoke it, they ate it. I started with edibles, too, before I started smoking it. The first time I smoked it was on the beach at Coney Island with a lesbian friend of mine, up to our knees in the water, the waves getting the bottoms of our skirts wet. After that, she took me to the lesbian bar for the first time. The second time I smoked it was the next night as we walked to Stonewall, and I thought about how many of us have smoked on that walk to the bar over the years, how many of us smoked that day, when they arrested people for being queer in the land of the free. My friend told me that trip that these were my spaces, like she was welcoming me home."

Excerpt:

"My grandmother was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. My other grandmother qualified, but never applied. In order to qualify, a person must be able to trace a familial line to someone who fought in the USian Revolutionary War these 250 years ago as of today. The DAR just took a vote on whether or not to disqualify trans women from membership. I was shocked to find out that the measure failed, and trans women are allowed to become members.

I still won't. The organization has historically been a very conservative one. Which is why I'm so shocked that the vote went the way it did. Nonetheless, I'm not interested. I take no pride in my relation to these ancestors. What pride should one take in this?

This is N'dakina.

My goddess I hope I'm getting that right. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is N'dakina."

Excerpt:

"We bought this land from someone Native. US dollars, of course. We pay the property taxes in US dollars, too, of course. It was bought and sold by white people before that a few times, but it was stolen before that.

An individual tribal member selling us a house and land under colonist rule hundreds of years since their genocide started doesn't change the fact that this is still N'dakina, and this land was stolen from the Abenaki. One Native person selling it to us does not speak for the tribe from the time it was stolen, nor the tribe of today. The only thing it says is that we live here now, and under conditions that are inextricably linked to violence, as is all land on Turtle Island."

Excerpt:

"Linden and I were watching a hummingbird just now in the lilac bush as we smoked. So many other birds on our property. Chickadees, goldfinches, woodpeckers, so many I can't remember. There's an oriole. We think there might be some Purple Martins nesting in the sailboat trailer. They're so rare, but the oldest species of birds managed by humans in North America, as I recall. Native people would hang dried out gourds for thousands of years for the specialized rounded housing the birds prefer. There are only nine colonies left in Maine, but they're close enough that it might be the case.

On this land that would have been the Abenaki, of the Wabanaki Confederacy. They called this land N'dakina. That's where I live. I live in N'dakina. They never ceded this land."

Go ahead and read the whole thing for free at the link at the top of the thread, you can even subscribe for free to more of my writing via email or RSS, either from that link or at my homepage https://www.revoluciana.net

I write lots of stuff about power, queerness, revolution and sometimes tentacles, all from a trans anarchist perspective.

Excerpt:

"Look, if sports really were about overcoming adversity, about community, and about supporting each other, about working together and becoming better people, then what argument is there against trans girls playing sports with other girls? Because if that's what sports were about, then this would be one of the best arguments for including and encouraging trans girls on girls teams. Trans girls need community with other girls, they're desperate for it, I would know. They need support, especially with overcoming adversity. In what way is a team learning to become better people by excluding such a marginalized girl from their team and throwing her to the wolves?

Even if you're skeptical of my argument, go back and read the decision handed down by SCOTUS. Then read what Justice Sotomayor wrote.

They all said the same things I'm saying here."

Excerpt:

"The entire purpose of institutionalized competitive sports is to win, but it's more than that.

It's about domination.

It's about domination of team against team, but it's also about player against player. Adversary against adversary, but also teammate against teammate."

Excerpt:

"Every person who has ever won a sports competition had a "biological" advantage over someone else.

Despite the fact that 9% of all people throughout human history over 7ft tall have played in the NBA, and there are only about 2800 people over 7ft tall alive today (far more rare than trans people), yet we don't ban people over 7ft tall from playing basketball. We don't ban them in the NBA or in schools, anywhere else, or at any age. Not in women's or men's sports. Instead, their height is celebrated and rewarded."

Excerpt:

"Let's start here: every argument against trans people in sports is an argument about the supremacist core of what competitive sports truly are."

Excerpt:

"I'm criticizing an institution of specifically competitive sports that reinforces specific reactionary ideals.

I am also not criticizing you for enjoying sports. That's not the point at all. I'm a #queer woman and I'm keenly aware that I would never be allowed in a #lesbian bar again if I criticized every person who enjoys sports. Please don't kick me out."

Excerpt:

"Competitive sports are inherently supremacist. They are sexist, racist, ableist, classist, and perhaps above all, they are eugenicist. Moreover, they are a tool that indoctrinates and reinforces these reactionary ideals.

Just.

Hear me out. I know how it sounds."

Excerpt:

"Admittedly, I've intentionally avoided writing on this topic for quite some time, and for good reason. I have something a bit thorny to say. Here it is."

Excerpt:

"I'm not going to rehash the same old arguments defending the right of trans people to exist, my own right to exist, because that's what this is about, that's what this has always been about, and it's never had anything to do with sports, and we all know it, and so do they."