I wanted to be responsible to those voices. So after time I responded to people saying i fucked things up. because I had thought things through. And then Piny responded and then I realized that even though I was responding to directly to stuff on this thread which included people saying they hope that I respond to where I was wrong, etc–me responding at all was still being distracting and stupid. and then I didn’t realize that Holly had posted something at feministe and that the conversation at voz’s continues–I was so caught up in myself and thinking through what I had done wrong and what I think was wrong on this thread–I didn’t even realize that there were two knew posts on my own blog.

SO, I decided you know what? Piny is right. Even though I was trying to show people my thought process as it stands right now and I was trying to show I was committed to continuing to working through my thought process and continuing to unpack things–really, who the hell cares. It’s just doing what I have already done, continuing to take away from the more important point and writing my voice all over the entire discussion.

As such, I am closing this thread. And in doing so, I am redirecting people who want to be a part of a conversation that is vastly more important than How BFP Thought Process Works, they can go to these places.

http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2009/06/27/women-and-trans-health-care-really-ought-to-mean-it/
http://questioningtransphobia.wordpress.com/2009/06/24/nowhc-more-discussion/
http://www.raveneye.org/?p=750
http://voz-latina.livejournal.com/13030.html

And if there are any other ignorant slobs like myself on any of the other threads that are being opened right now, please, head them over here and tell them not to be me. And for people who are confused, like how HOlly was, as to what all started this to begin with–see raven’s eye.

Now, threads closed.
Thanks.

I know you can’t answer, so this feels extra mean, but:

If you were on the other side of this, as you have been, is this what you’d want to hear? Or would you just be kind of bored at this point?

while bfp’s writing has been formational for me in the past few years as a young woman interested in social justice issues, no one is infallible. we all have obligations to call people out if they are contributing to something harmful, even if they are (especially if they are) our closest friends. and people should be prioritized over institutions. it makes me very uneasy to see people closing ranks this way.

But still, when I saw their policy after following a link from Queen Emily, I was floored. INCITE!, in my experience, has pretty good trans politics even as they struggle with how some participants and allied organizations are in a different place along the process of understanding trans issues. So I was like, HOLY WHAT?! Women and trans and genderqueer but oh wait not YOU. And my reaction was like what (I think? post is deleted) bfp’s was — there must be some mistake. This needs to get clarified. This isn’t like INCITE!, I’m gonna call someone who knows someone and find out what the heck is going on!

But yeah — I also know I can’t expect anyone else to know or trust INCITE! or give INCITE! the benefit of the doubt. I can speak what I understand about them, and maybe people trust my opinion to some extent — but that’s about it. People gotta find out for themselves. I understand really viscerally why this is so totally upsetting, that QE got turned away at the front door (the website) like that.

Um ok, I haven’t been able to read all the comments yet and I don’t want to just barge into an ongoing discussion like a relative stranger, so I’ll keep it to that. I will say that I really agree that since INCITE! is a WOC organization, this should be about the intersection of racism & transphobia, and center the needs of trans woc, especially in NOLA for obvious reasons. I don’t speak for all trans woc, and I hope that we can speak for ourselves and allies can hang back and support.

(Oh one other thing — this was a little confusing to read and understand because the original post was gone. I really admire what bfp said about “I feel like in the future, people can point to this conversation and say, Look–THIS IS HOW DEFENSIVE POSTURING HAPPENS.” But like, I couldn’t read the beginning of the conversation! Had to piece it together, muddled.) thanks

It’s really confusing, because I’m not sure if people noticed that the exclusionary language is on the sexual health page and not on the health services front page, or any of the other pages. So it’s possible that many health services might already be available for trans women, but that they might be talking about only a few specialized sexual/reproductive needs.

They have been contacted but I haven’t heard any answers yet. I do know that they are very small run by like only 4 WOC, and of course they still have patients and clients to take care of, no fancy public relations department, so I think it might take them at least a few days to answer the emails, faxes, and phone calls they have gotten. Well, I guess unless they have been inundated in protest, that might take much longer with so few people to handle it all and their other duties.