Can a nation conceived in violence, dedicated to the proposition that straight white men have a god-granted right to the land, labor, and lives of every other type of person, redeem itself? Today, even more than most days, I am not sure that it can.
One thing I know for sure is that we will never be better if our conversations about bias continue to be centered on intent rather than impact. It doesn’t matter if a white man says he wasn’t racist or phobic or whatever. It matters that he felt entitled to end peoples’ lives.
It matters that Asian people are being killed in this country, that sex workers are being killed in this country, that trans people are being killed in this country, that Black people are being killed in this country. That’s the impact. That’s who I want to read about in the news
We’ll never have equality in this country if our entire conversation around bigotry is “did you use a slur?”

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More from @AriDrennen

18 Mar
Do cis people talking about "rapid-onset gender dysphoria" honestly not know how stupid they sound? Like, the entire thing about being in the closet is that you don't tell the general public about it.
And then when you're finally ready to come out, the changes you want to make to the way you present yourself feel horrifyingly overdue. They might seem sudden to an outside observer, but they've been building in your head for decades.
Here is a list of people I told I thought I might be trans before I was 28 years old:
1) my high school girlfriend
2) my parents, who still claim I said nothing
3) my best friend, when I was extremely drunk
And all of that happened when I was like 20.
Read 7 tweets
18 Mar
There is no debate about the best way to treat gender dysphoria. A year and a half into hormone therapy, I genuinely don’t think I would ever experience dysphoria at all if not for fear that people taught to hate trans people might spot me. I love my body. It’s home.
Probably gonna regret saying this but I’ve had zero surgeries to get to this point and I’m not sure I will have any, and it is so frustrating to hear my rights debated by people with literally no idea what they’re saying who invoke surgery over and over again to scare people.
A year before coming out, I did have a bunch of procedures to correct some horrible varicose veins on one leg. It made me feel SO much more confident in my body and it was empowering to live in a society with the technology to make that happen.
Read 4 tweets
14 Mar
Honestly, the droves of men demanding evidence that has been provided over and over again for years who appear in my mentions every time I criticize the only reasonable man - Jesse Singal - are more exhausting than the people who just call me a man.
Here’s Katelyn Burns talking about how Jesse threatened her employer with legal action until she lost her job
Here’s Julia Serano talking about how Jesse dismissed and slut-shamed her juliaserano.blogspot.com/2017/12/my-jes…
Read 9 tweets
14 Mar
Assimilationist trans people who waste the beautiful opportunity for perspective they’ve been given by defending transphobia, capitalism, and the patriarchy make me so sad
Being a white trans woman is like living through your own version of A Christmas Carol. Your previous privilege and power are suddenly revealed to you in no uncertain terms as the result of oppression. Imagine clawing to have it back.
Something I think white trans people are too willing to let ourselves forget is that other people *still* see our whiteness first. If you transition and oppression doesn’t touch your daily life, it doesn’t mean the system is fine. It means you’re white and it’s built for you.
Read 6 tweets
25 Feb
Not one single trans person is quoted in this @nytimes article about the Equality Act passing today, but they did give three extreme anti-trans bigots a chance to spread hatred. Do better.
Not one single trans person is quoted in this @washingtonpost article about the passage of the Equality Act, and it also gives an extreme anti-trans bigot a platform to spout falsehoods about trans healthcare
Not one single trans person is quoted in this @NBCNews article about the House passage of the Equality Act, but they did allow give the Heritage Foundation a platform to claim without evidence that it would somehow promote sexual assault
Read 13 tweets
24 Feb
Holy shit the lady at Safeway asked for a date of birth and phone number to buy beer and then was like “you have weird parents, DEADNAME” and my brain just completely seized up and stopped functioning
I’m like honestly unsure she ever figured out I was trans, she had so many follow up questions about why I don’t use that name and what name I use and then asked if I was an Aries??? Weirdest interaction I’ve had all year.
I struggled with alcohol consumption before coming out and it’s like the world is working to make sure I never drink again, no matter how moderately. No beer tastes good enough to be worth getting deadnamed at the grocery store
Read 4 tweets

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