to move up and down
Portrait of Sylvia Rivera (1951-2002) posing in front of her altar to Marsha P. Johnson (1944-1992), by Valerie Shaff, ca. 2000
In the early 1970’s Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson co-founded S.T.A.R., Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, an organization designed to achieve rights for her community, and provide social services to this largely ignored and stigmatized group. For a short while she and Marsha P. Johnson ran S.T.A.R. House which provided shelter for homeless young street queens. Lack of funds and problems with the certificate of occupancy for S.T.A.R. House, forced the abandonment of the venture at that time, but Rivera never lost the dream of creating a supportive and safe living space for young transgender people.
Rivera was greatly disillusioned with the desire of many early gay and lesbian activists to distance the gay movement from transvestites, drag queens, and other gender variant people, in spite of the fact that these people were often the “shock troops” for the entire gay community.
The Sylvia Rivera Law Project notes,
A veteran of the 1969 Stonewall uprising, Sylvia was a tireless advocate for all those who have been marginalized as the “gay rights” movement has mainstreamed. Sylvia fought hard against the exclusion of transgender people from the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act in New York, and was a loud and persistent voice for the rights of people of color and low-income queers and trans people.
(via afrodiaspores)
(via mattachinereview)
Fifteen Minutes To Fame: "Are you a REAL woman?"
Well, let’s see.
I go to school as a woman. I work as a woman. I live and move through this world as a woman. When I have to go to the bathroom, I go to the women’s bathroom. Random people who’ve never met me before call me ma’am. I also get random misogyny from dudes on the bus…
Transgender woman sues police, city over treatment during detention
A transgender woman claims she was pulled from her vehicle at gunpoint and mocked for her sexual orientation by Winnipeg police officers who mistook her for a criminal.
Nikki Cox filed a lawsuit earlier this month against the officers, the police service and the City of Winnipeg. She claims her rights were breached through the “unlawful and unjustified detention, false arrest and abuse of authority” and is seeking unspecified financial damages.
…
Cox claims she was driving her vehicle just after midnight last June 14 when she pulled into the parking lot of the St. James Civic Centre and stopped to have a cigarette.
She was alone in the car but quickly had company in the form of the police helicopter hovering above and two cruiser cars which boxed her in, according to her statement of claim.
Cox says several officers emerged with their guns drawn, forced her from her vehicle, kneed her in the back and handcuffed her. She was then placed in the back of a police car while officers allegedly began searching her vehicle, believing there was another person inside.
Cox claims she was sitting inside the vehicle when she heard “some officers talking in chuckling voices saying, ‘He’s a tranny.’”
Cox says she was released a few minutes later without charge. The only explanation given to her was “Sorry, you were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” as part of an ongoing police search for a suspect in a break-and-enter that had just occurred.
Cox says she suffered physical injuries, humiliation and anxiety during the incident, along with being “subjected to humiliating comments as to (her) sexuality.”
(Source: transfeminism)
The Trans Women's Anti-Violence Project: A trans woman is a WOMAN.
A trans woman is not “really a man”.
A trans woman is not a “guy in a dress”.
A trans woman is not “in drag” when she’s merely presenting as herself.
A trans woman is not a “trap”.
A trans woman is not a “deceiver”.
A trans woman is not a “privileged sexist appropriating…