Research Notes #22
Trans Rights are Human Rights
Hello again!
Although it is a cliche, I am going to embrace the fact that I live in the South and exclaim, HAPPY FALL Y’ALL! Autumn is my most favourite season and down here in Tennessee, it isn’t just a two-week span of time where the temperature goes up and down sporadically before the bottom drops out and Winter arrives. It goes on for a couple of months, gracing us with mild temperatures and a gradual move from summer to winter. This was also the case in Northern Alabama, which made it a really nice place to live climate-wise. We do get our share of severe thunderstorms and, at times, tornadoes, but the seasonal changes are wonderful.
With the arrival of Fall, I have been busy decorating for my favourite holiday (Halloween, of course), catching up on the news, working extra (extra) hard at my day job, and continuing to keep up with reading and writing. This past week, the internet was buzzing with stories, but there is one in particular that I felt moved to write about below.
Also - we are just two issues away from the one-year anniversary of this newsletter! I am not one to toot my own horn, but for this anniversary, I will admit - I am proud. Being able to publish the newsletter, twice per month, with meaningful information has been a highlight of my online writing career.
In December, the newsletter will be on hiatus to refresh, returning the first Monday of January with a new focus. In the meantime, I will be wrapping up the year with November newsletters that focus on end-of-year summations and new year directions.
Thank you, as always, for continuing to subscribe, and please share this newsletter with others!
Toxic masculinity hurts everyone
This past week, Dave Chappelle decided that he would go all in on the sexism by declaring himself a TERF (trans-exclusionary-radical-feminist) and aligning with people who are truly misinformed, or just don’t care about the lives of others, by putting toxic masculinity at the center of his Netflix special. If this was some random dude at the neighborhood comedy club, it would still be wrong, but it wouldn’t be quite as harmful as someone with the platform that Chappelle has cultivated over the years.
I say this is sexism because although it is also transphobia, I don’t feel like that is a strong enough term to denote the level of vitriol that is passed from comedian to fan, radicalizing an already on edge base of viewers. As a white, cis, woman, I am not the target (at the moment) of Dave Chappelle’s humour, but as an ally of the trans community, I can say with confidence that what Chappelle said in his special was detrimental to the lives of all LGBTQIA+ folks, but most especially trans women of color.
The statistics bear this out. Each year, the Human Rights Campaign tracks violence in the LGBTQIA+ community and “2021 has already seen at least 40 transgender or gender non-conforming people fatally shot or killed by other violent means” (source: hrc.org). The link between transphobic rhetoric and violence against the trans and gender non-conforming community is obvious to those of us who are paying attention. From the macro level, governments instituting measures to restrict healthcare or bathroom usage or high school sports participation based on the sex an individual was assigned at birth, to the micro level of cis folks who insist on using a trans persons dead name rather than the name that reflects their identity, these forms of hatred can become violent in an instant.
Comedy shows are not worth human lives.
For more information on the special, from LGBTQIA+ folks of color and additional information on trans rights and liberation, check out the links below. And please, if you haven’t already watched the latest special, don’t stream it. The only way to help TERFs understand that this rhetoric is harmful is by lowering their ability to profit from their hateful views.
Writing resources
Dave Chappelle’s Brittle Ego by Roxane Gay (nytimes.com)
Dave Chappelle’s Betrayal by Saeed Jones (gq.com)
Women, Pregnant People, and Fragility by Charlotte Clymer (charlotteclymer.substack.com)
Video resources
J.K. Rowling by ContraPoints (youtube.com)
How to come out as Trans/Non-Binary by Luxander (youtube.com)
The Trans Panic in Tennessee by Caelan Conrad (youtube.com)
What else happened last week?
Texas is at it again - this time launching a ‘both sides’ argument for teaching the Holocaust. Basically - if you teach about the atrocities you also have to teach about the upside? Um. Okay. Texas is giving Florida a serious run for it’s money in the ‘I don’t want my kids educated in this State’ race. Here is a great thread on Twitter (h/t to Chaz for the share) that shows examples of ‘bothsidesism’ across social studies curriculums in the United States. Click through to read the full thread.
For those who won’t click through on the full thread above, here is an egregious example of this trend in social studies educational curriculums:
Bright spot
If you made it this far, you deserve some good news.
Librarians are the best. This month, the Disorientation Guide to Librarianship, a ‘zine with 23 contributors, was released and “is designed to be an accessible resource for people who are unfamiliar with structural oppression and injustice in librarianship.” (source: violetbfox.info) This is one more step in the positive direction that librarians across the profession have been taking to call out injustice and call in for change. I know I might be bias, but I do believe that librarians are super heroes and this latest contribution to the field demonstrates this point clearly.
An online (accessible) version of the ‘zine is available here:
Disorientation Guide to Librarianship
Thanks for reading! Now it is your turn. If you have a comment, suggestion, or just want to chat, drop a comment in the thread below…