Tonight Meghan Murphy is speaking at the Toronto Public Library with the blessing of @vbowlestpl whose own policy should deny space to Murphy for spreading her kind of hate.
Here is a thread about why this matters.
Here is a thread about why this matters.
(Much love and huge kudos to everyone who has been organizing on this!)
The far right is obsessed with gender for a very obvious reason: because gender is the most intense way in which we are all policed. Everyone is policed for their gender expression. We either fit or we are punished.
The policing isn't even, of course. For trans and gender non-confirming people, the battle lines are drawn across their bodies. They say: here we are, we exist. TERFs say: you do not and your existence is an affront to my personal identity and safety.
Because gender is the most powerful force keeping us all in line, dividing society, diving our economy, deciding who is worthy and who isn't (and then compound that with colonialism, racism etc.), it becomes *imperative* that gender isn't disrupted. That rigid gender norms stay.
If people can see that gender as a social construct can be weakened or even upended, that means every assumption that society is based on can be too. And trans and GNC people's existence (their pride, their success, their happiness, their thriving) poses an existential threat ...
... that power must confront. TERFs are stooges in this fight. Their obsession with their grade 2 understanding of biology allows them to be useful to right-wing forces. This is why they are natural bedfellows.
But, this is also why Jordan Peterson made himself famous over opposing gender identity and expression -- because he became a voice of the *alt-right* and the English world's biggest supporter of the patriarchy. It's why he's obsessed with the role of women.
As one judge said when he ruled in a human rights case in favour of Morgane Oger -- the transphobia that was leveled towards her would be (no question) considered hate speech. But for transpeople, this hatred remains ubiquitous.
So -- solidarity with everyone attacked by MM's bullshit. Solidarity with everyone who has been talking about this and condemning Vickery for choosing to support a fascist event. Wish I were with you all tonight.
