i-sauntered-vaguely-downwards:
Ok, but can we stop with the whole “tokenizing” discussion pls????
Like, a shit ton of bisexuals and trans/nb people have allied themselves with aces. Get fucking used to it.
We cannot tokenize ourselves. We literally introduced the discussion that compares our history of exclusion and discrimination; we continue to make these comparisons, as you continue to use TERF rhetoric and recycled biphobic arguments.
“"Cishet”“ aces and aros reblogging these posts, or fuck even amplifying our voices by repeating what we’ve said, is not fucking tokenizing.
As a matter of fact, this is a free invitation to all my ”“cishet”“ aros and aces to ”“"tokenize”“” my experience with the LGBT. You have my explicit permission to use my exclusion and the previous Discourses hurled my way as comparisons for the bullshit they’re pulling now.
Sincerely, a very tired bisexual trans person.
Things I’ve seen cis LG ‘sga discoursers’ do repeatedly
Use the lgbt acronym and yet completely ignore the existence of bi/panphobia as a thing distinct from homophobia.
Talk about ‘cishets’ as a distinct, singular group rather than the overlap of two separate privileged IDs, declare them their ‘oppressors’ despite being cis themselves, thereby using trans people’s oppression to ignore their own privilege
Declare the ‘lgbt community’ to be exclusively or primarily about combating homophobia and transphobia, while ignoring, glossing over and/or refusing to talk about the rampant transphobia and transmisogyny in the ‘lgbt community’
Redefine bi/pan/m-spec identities (insisting that bi/pan/m-spec identities but inherently include ‘same gender attraction’) for the express purpose of furthering an anti-ace/aro argument
Using non binary people’s existence to further aphobic and bi/panphobic arguments (insisting that bi/pan/m-spec people not being sga but being attracted to non binary people is inherently transphobic, keeping the ‘bi/pan/m-spec inherently includes sga’ premise intact, and through that keeping the ‘lgbt = sga or trans’ premise intact)
Using the oppression trans/non binary non cis people and/or bi/pan/m-spec people face to further their aphobic bullshit while still centering the discussion and ‘community’ around cis LG people and declaring any oppression affecting anyone in the ‘community’ is a subset or offshoot of homophobia.
And yet somehow we are tolkenizing ourselves?
And being honest here, the overwhelmingly vast majority of people I see pointing out the recycled bigotry, comparing the rhetoric and such are bi/pan/m-spec and trans/non binary/non cis people. And a very significant portion of those people are not ace/aro themselves. In fact I’ve seen several people who started off or frequently talk about some of the major points that keep getting brought up now (the comparison to TWERF rhetoric for example) explicitly say ‘don’t put this on ace/aro people this was me. Which of course gets ignored in favor of demonizing ace/aro people.
And while this is entirely personal, the ace/aro people I’ve been around and have seen, who are not bi/pan/m-spec or trans/non binary/non cis , are often way more cautious and careful about speaking over bi/pan/m-spec and trans/non binary/ non cis people than I’ve seen the cis LG ‘sga discoursers’ being. The people in this whole fucking mess who’ve been loudly insisting that my experience as a bi/pan non binary trans person is just like theirs and telling me to shut up when I say it isn’t….. have pretty much exclusively been cis LG people
- Leon
You’re not alone in that experience. Thanks for the addition!
Seconding absolutely everything Leon says there. I’ve been one of the louder voices pointing out that literally every bit of aphobia I’ve seen has been recycled from earlier fights against my identities. And not only do a-spec people get blamed, I get mislabelled as ‘cishet’ (read: a-spec) to further the blame.
No. This is me, speaking to my own experiences as a bi trans woman. It’s not tokenizing. If it maked you uncomfortable, it should - hopefully it’ll make you think about whose weapons you’re using.
(via yourlocalangryqueer)
