Archive for June 20th, 2006

ACTION ALERT: Trans Day of Action Denied Permit to March and Rally on 8th Avenue During NYC 2006 Pride!

Published at June 20, 2006 in action alerts, activism and organizing, nyc, people of color and trans/genderqueer. 7 Comments

(from TransJustice, a working group of the the Audre Lorde Project)

In the wake of growing violence against Trans and Gender Nonconforming (TGNC) people, as evidenced by the brutal attack on renowned Singer and Drag Performer-Kevin Aviance, the New York City Police Department and the City of New York have chosen to deny TransJustice’s applications to march and rally on 8th Avenue during NYC’s pride celebrations. Trans Day of Action would have been used to commemorate the death of Amanda Milan, a 25 year-old African-American transgender woman, who was brutally murdered on June 20, 2000, in the middle of an intersection near Port Authority Bus Terminal as onlookers cheered. However, during a 2nd meeting with Manhattan South Police Precinct on June 19th, we were told that Trans and Gender Nonconforming people, as well as allies, will not be permitted to march through Midtown Manhattan. Now we have it in writing! We received a written denial shortly thereafter.

We need activists all over the country to do these things!

  1. Inundate the following people with emails, calls and/or faxes:
    • Mayor Bloomberg – Phone: 311 (or 212-NEW-YORK outside NYC). Fax: 212 788-2460
    • Commissioner Ray Kelly – Email
    • Midtown South Precinct Community Affairs – Phone: (212) 239-9846
  2. Come to our 1pm press conference on Tuesday, June 20th on NYC City Hall steps.
  3. Alert elected officials and the press! Urge them to endorse the Trans Day of Action and attend the press conference.
  4. Come to our work session on Wednesday, June 21st @ 6pm. This meeting is being held in preparation for the June 23rd Trans Day of Action, and will take place at Housing Works – 320 West 13th Street on the 4th Floor.
  5. Be at Chelsea Park, in NYC, @ 2:30pm on Friday, June 23rd for the Trans Day of Action Kick-off Rally. The park is located on West 28th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues.

Now is the time to act. We call on ALL social justice activists to join us in showing the New York City Police Department that we will not be intimidated!

Historically, 8th Avenue has been regarded as the place that several LGBT and HIV organizations as well as LGBT nightclubs have called home. TransJustice selected this 8th Ave route to call attention to innumerable members of our communities that work, reside, play, as well as access supportive services, right in the heart of Midtown.

On June 23rd, Trans and Gender Non-Conforming People of Color and their allies will rally and march against police brutality, to oppose the racist and xenophobic immigration policies of the Bush Administration, to show our outrage at the lack of access to living wage employment, adequate affordable housing, quality education, basic healthcare for our communities, and to demand an end to the devastating impacts of US imperialism (the so-called “war on terrorism”) being waged against people at home and abroad.

Ultimately, TransJustice sees the denial of the march route and permits as part of the ongoing plan of the Bloomberg Administration to repress the progressive political movements of NYC. Now more than ever,
TransJustice calls on all social justice activists from the communities of color, lesbian, gay, bi, two spirit and trans movements, immigrant rights organizations, youth and student groups, trade unions and workers organizations, religious communities and HIV/ AIDS and social service agencies to endorse, build contingents and to help fight for the right to march on 8th Avenue on June 23rd.

I have smart friends.

Published at June 20, 2006 in activism and organizing, blogosphere, friends, linkage, polyamory and technology. 1 Comment

Many of them, in fact. Here’s some recent words from two of them.

My friend Dean writes about polyamory in “For Lovers and Fighters” on Make. This article really resonated with me, as a currently poly person, in so many ways. In it, he touches on many things: “how interrogating the limits of monogamy fits into [his] queer, trans, feminist, anti-capitalist, anti-oppression politics,” how we treat people we’re dating or in a romantic relationship with vs. how we treat our friends (and how we might do well to treat our friends more like our dates and our dates more like our friends, sometimes), and how polyamory is emergent in communities that question and break gender rules and norm. He also talks about the negative aspects of the relative popularity of polyamory in some communities – how sometimes polyamory is seen as more “radical” and right on, while monogamy is seen as a throwback; how poly people can hold themselves up to stringent and unrealistic standards of behavior, with any jealousy or insecurity yielding feelins of shame and inadequacy. Dean writes:

It seems like the best answer to all of this is to move forward as we do in the rest of our activism, carefully and slowly, based on our clearest principles, with trust and a willingness to make mistakes. The difficulty of having open relationships should not be a reason not to try it, but it should be a reason not to create new punishing norms in our communities or in our own minds. We’ve done difficult things before. We struggle with internalized oppressions, we chose to live our lives in ways that our families often tell us are impossible, idealistic or dangerous, and we get joy from creatively resisting the limits of our culture and political system that are both external and part of our own minds.

In a post entitled “The internet ate my subculture,” Anne writes about whether something has happened in recent years to “completely destroy american public culture,” and whether that something might be the internet. She writes:

Is it totally trite to blame MySpace? Or Friendster? Or hell, livejournal? The timing is right. They keep everyone “connected” without having to, y’know, do anything together except catechise our daily living and fuck. Memoirs are now the best-selling genre of new book. Coincidence? We can get all the kudos and sexiness we need without ever leaving the house, without ever extending ourselves beyond our individual choices of which job, which identity, which sound card, which sex act we prefer. Narrativize it, publish it, let the appreciative comments pour in…