I don’t think reina and I could laugh any bigger while sharing space at SRLP’s super successful art auction, “Small Works For Big Change.”

mocosyamores:

Hi everyone,

I’m getting over my shame and internalized ableism and asking for help. I’m a chronically ill unemployed trans gurl who just left sex work (as in, yesterday) because I finally lost my shit. I’m also moving out of my abusive household in June, around the 15th or so. I don’t have a place to stay yet so the more money I have saved up, the more likely someone is going to trust me to move in with them.

Thanks to sex work and friends donating, I’ve saved up $2,000 for deposits, first/last month’s rent, housing applications, etc. I’m trying to raise another $2,000 to get me through the summer. Starting September/October, I should be receiving financial aid from my university, so that will help.

To give you an idea of where the money is going:
- Rent for a shared room is $500-$550/month
- Utilities are anywhere between $20-$60/month
- I’m limiting myself to $100-$125/month for food
- Gas is $40 a full tank, so about a $80/month if I do this right

I’ll also be looking for a job at this time. I have an open interview tomorrow so hopefully I’ll get called for a second interview!

Important to note! My memoir, Trauma Queen, is aiming to be published on May 31st, 2013. It’s going to cost $20, so if you want to hold off donating to buy the book, that’s totally understandable. I have a collection of writing and art here (x) that you can read/watch, and a zine here (x). I’ll also be selling various articles of clothing, shoes, collector’s items, etc. in the next week or so.

Signal boosting would be appreciated, and any donations would be very helpful. <3

¡Gracias! / Thank you!,
Lovemme/Sirena

- 

P.S. (if the link doesn’t work, there’s a donate button on my page.)

Give what you can in love + solidarity + struggle. Can’t wait for Trauma Queen when its release this month!

sistahmamaqueen:

The L&L Show Episode 3 - Follow Up Questions to Janet Mock

1. How do you feel about RuPaul’s Drag Race?

I enjoy it as a form of entertainment. I practice being a critical fan (I discuss it here) which involves me not promoting the show or live-tweeting due to its problematic issues involving trans women (this could be a dissertation, I’m sure) - though I do think RuPaul is expanding his idea on trans women, realizing that the lines between drag and trans womanhood does in fact blur, with fierce ladies like Carmen Carrera and Monica Beverly Hillz, who come from that world. We must also as a trans women’s community begin embracing our sisters who do work as showgirls or perform the art of drag. They are our sisters too.

2. re: TrannyPowah How do you feel about the T-slur? Will you submit?

I actually don’t use the word personally but do believe in its reclamation. My issue comes in when others, who may know a trans woman who reclaims the word or is friends with a drag queen (or merely watches Drag Race), believe they, despite NOT being a trans woman, can freely use it. I believe in self-determination and self-identification so I would NEVER tell another trans woman that she cannot call herself tranny, yet I would be careful of another trans woman calling other trans women trannies. (See how murky the waters are). Basically I believe this: Call yourself whatever you want, and call others what they want to be called (which may or may not be tranny). 

When my book is completely done, I promise to submit a piece to TrannyPowah.

3. Did you get tickets to go see Beyonce’s concert this summer?

FUCK yeah. I will be there at Barclay’s in Brooklyn in August. I am hoping that the pregnancy rumors are just rumors because my entire summer is centered on this concert. I’ll be attending with my best friend Wendi and we are going to twerk all night. Plus, I’ve already seen Bey perform with Blue Ivy in her belly at the Roseland - a week before she announced she was pregs. 

4. What are some of your guilty pleasures?

Channing Tatum, Ryan Gosling and TV! I watch too much TV: Scandal. The Real Housewives of (all of them except Orange County & Miami). Braxton Family Values. Homeland. The Killing. The Mindy Project. Mad Men. Currently marathoning The Good Wife. 

Yes, I have issues.

5. What are some longterm goals for yourself and for your project #Girlslikeus?

My longterm goals include but are not limited to the following: Successfully launching the release of my book (which will be out in Feb. 2014) and ensuring that it (and I) reaches young women around the country; setting up a TWoC collective in NYC with my dear sister reina gossett to establish communiTIES; networking nationally and intergenerationally with TWoC; and continuing to contribute to mainstream media to further amplify the voices of trans women. My spiritual guide has always been Oprah - so I’d love a conversation TV series one day.

As for #GirlsLikeUs: What #girlslikeus has done for me is create a pro-sisterhood space of visibility. I’ve seen it help women in their communities connect to one another. That has always been the goal: to get us out of our isolation and into pro-sisterhood relationships and spaces. I also hope to launch T-shirts (on my never-ending to-do list), which will fund smaller trans women-created websites, blogs + media projects that speak on intersectionality (all those DONATE buttons). 

#Girlslikeus is a visibility tool so I want it to be visible beyond Twitter. I see occupying space on Tumblr, Instagram, etc…so that’s great. But it also needs to spark real-life space. I don’t know if I have the bandwidth to create such a space but it is marinating.

THANK YOU both for the follow-up questions.

In love, sisterhood, solidarity + struggle,

Janet

elsabordelamorydeldolor:

TSQ is a new interdisciplinary academic journal that will change the way the world thinks about transgender issues.

Folks, I’m proud to be on the editorial board of this journal, please support this project and share with your networks.  

Yes! We need more for us, created by us publications. 

Just got the new issue of GOOD magazine, in which I’m recognized as part of the GOOD 100 2013, “our list of 100 individuals we should rally behind.”

Says GOOD: “The dazzling array that follows, curated from your submissions, consists of trailblazers and truth-tellers, defenders and disrupters, inventors and inciters, but they all share one basic trait: They are DOers.”

I’m part of the “disrupters” section. 

CeCe McDonald, in her new piece called, “Violence Against (Trans) Women Today” in which she discusses street harassment and violence and her being criminilized because she dared to defend herself. 

You are so loved, CeCe. Thank you for your leadership.

trannypowah:

TW: transmisogyny, racism, violence directed at camab trans people of color

There is a place in this world full of horror, untranslatable. Here, in the midst of violence inconceivable, we struggle. Would you envy us, if you knew?

As trans women and camab trans people of color, we inhabit a…

Learn it, and learn it well - from the brilliant minds behind a new space called Tranny Power which is ”a Take-Shit-From-No-One TWOC (trans women/femmes/genderescents of color) blog.”

And yes, this blog is a reclamation of a word that still stings many women - so please if you’re not a trans woman don’t go around shouting “Tranny” as your own. 

On May 12, 2012, the New York Times reported on Lorena Escalera’s death in the midst of a fire in Brooklyn apartment. It was a highly problematic and glaringly dehumanizing article that focused on her body, her alleged sex work profession, her sexuality and much more. GLAAD organized a meeting with some editors of the Times - a meeting they only agreed to after being publicly called out for writing another dehumanizing piece on trans and queer youth of color on Christopher Street. But that’s besides the point.

Nearly a year after Lorena’s death, her family, friends, activists and community members have rallied around Lorena, whose death was surrounded by sketchy details, yet was not investigated by NYPD. Those who knew and love Lorena are seeking justice.

Here are a few ways YOU can help. Please complete at least one of these action items in solidarity with the grassroots efforts being organized for beloved Lorena:

1. Write a message about Lorena to Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz via:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/martymarkowitz

Twitter: @MartyMarkowitz (suggest hashtags: #LorenaEscalera #TWoC #girlslikeus) 

Email:  askmarty@brooklynbp.nyc.gov

Mail: Brooklyn Borough Hall | 209 Joralemon Street | Brooklyn, New York 11201

2. Attend the May 12, 2013 rally in New York 

3. Sign and SHARE this petition 

I post this message in solidarity with Lorena, with Cemia Acoff, with Brandy Martell, with Paige Clay and with thousands of other trans women of color, whose lives have not warranted those who are charged with “protecting us” to utilize their resources to seek justice.

Video, June 2, 2012: In which I channel my anger to call out the dehumanizing, victim-blaming NYT article about Lorena’s death

Hello, Miss Major! Get into her everything. 

Visited the living legend, the Stonewall Riots veteran, the self-proclaimed Glamour Puss, the prison abolitionist, the Executive Director of TGI Justice in her NYC hotel room.

We shared space, talked shoes, discussed our girls, our future, our struggles, her living legacy, and what our collective lives as trans women of color really look like. 

If you don’t know her, I’m judging. (Google is your friend).