On Friday night, it became widely known that several links to gender affirming care and transgender resources disappeared from Whitman-Walker's website. Their stated reason is harmful to us all.
It’s one thing after another. Every time they are able to get away with something without massive pushback it enables them and emboldens them to continue to take the next thing away from us. They will continue to do this until either they are forced to stop or we are gone.
Correct. There are times that it is good to negotiate and potentially compromise, this is not one of those times. We CANNOT compromise when our rights are being stripped away, our representatives cannot give a single damned inch to the fascists.
It's literally "first they came for...." I recently read a testimonial by someone (purportedly) to be working for the passport office. This was at the start of the recent passport office problems, and everything she said then has since been verified. But people asked her, why haven't you refused to comply and just kept filling out passport applications for trans people? Why not just look the other way when you see a passport renewal come through that previously had a gender marker change?
Her answer was that if she did that enough, she would get fired, and that surveillance on them was tight. She said that ultimately she could still do a lot of good in her position. She could still help immigrants, disabled people, poor people, all sorts of people in need. She would reasonably be better for these groups than whatever conservative stooge would replace her if she was fired.
Yet, it never dawns on people, that this is the basic logic of "first I came for..." Beyond some very insane or depressed people, no one in life considers themselves the villain. Sometimes that means their work; sometimes that means their families. But people tend to believe that they are doing some kind of good in the world. If you lose your career, social position, or life, you can no longer do that whatever good things you do. So better to do good for some, even at the expense of failing to do good for all. I will not stand up for this group, because I can continue to help these groups by sacrificing that group.
It is not only fear that advances fascism. It's all too easy to stay quiet now, as there's always a chance of doing more good in the future. Or, at least it is easy to convince yourself of that. One can live in fascism without feeling oneself a coward, simply by convincing yourself that you're doing what you're doing for the greater good. Of course, you sacrifice one group, then they come for the next, the next, and the next...You sacrifice the first group, hoping to protect the rest. And soon you find that all those you told yourself you would protect are now gone.
You are 100% correct. That passport office employee just doesn’t want to lose her job - bottom line. She can try and justify it by saying that “she can still help these other groups,” but what is she going to do when the next group of people gets their rights stripped away? Is she still going to stay? Because “there are still people I can help?” When does she finally realize that the only people she is really helping are the fascists?
I'm seeing another strand in this (both WW's choices, and those of the passport-office worker): people pretending/persuading themselves that this is just a bump in the road, a hiccup; that we're not living in world-changing times, and things will return to 'normal' in a little while if we can just keep out heads down and ride it out.
I get why they do that - it's *fucking rough* on a person's mental health to realize that, no, it *really is* that bad - and feel some compassion about it. But in a true crisis, which I believe this is (in many respects, not just w/r/t us queer folks), that's ultimately a *dysfunctional* coping mechanism, and will (as you say) turn around and bite them.
('People' here referring not just to obviously-individual people but to the not-so-obviously-individual people who make up boards and other decision-making bodies of institutions like WW, to be clear.)
When this fascist shitshow of a Presidency is finally over- however and whenever that ends up happening- we are gonna have to make some serious fucking changes to how transition care is handled in whatever's left of this bloody country. That it's only taken a month for so many people across the entire nation to lose access to care entirely, or to have it suspended, even in "safe" states and cities... we have got to get cis folks' hands out of this particular pie, somehow, no matter how good they promise their intentions towards us are when the weather's fine again and the Nazis are back in the septic tank of history where they belong. I know it's not going to happen for years now, but... when the time does come to rebuild, 𝘸𝘦 need to be the ones controlling that part of the conversation. No peace until we have right-to-transition laws.
One fucking month, for fuck's sake. We 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘥 better allies than these.
We need to pressure medical schools and graduate programs to step up admissions for trans people, so that we can build our own community of gender-affirming care professionals, including surgeons.
Of course the content is what matters here, and it’s a booming call to action for us all. But I want to acknowledge- Erin, you have written this beautifully, devastatingly; the power and clarity of your voice and your choices here are incredible. So grateful for you.💙
Collaborators are perhaps even worse than the Fascists themselves, and must be reckoned with - get their home addresses, names of family members, description of vehicle they drive.
We must resist, resist and resist at any and all levels. Complying with dictators does NOT lead to them being compassionate or showing favor for your compliance. It would have been nice to learn this lesson from the 1940's
Ugh, sadly not surprised. It was also evident that they have been moving away from ensuring they provide care for the queer community and just care for “everyone”. In addition to how much they are dependent on federal funding despite them suddenly having all these financial assets tied up in their buildings. Ugh.
The time for compromise is over. If there is anything worse than MAGA it’s those people and institutions that acquiesce and become willing co-conspirators. These collaborators should never be forgiven or legitimized and in the end we need to make sure history remembers their betrayal of the oaths they swore as doctors and care providers.
"Yes, and how many deaths will it take till [they] know that too many people have died?"
And how many times will the mantra ("First they came for...") be repeated, till too many people have been disappeared (the old-fashioned Argentinian generals' tactics will seem *so* quaint...)?
These people didn't even try. I just wrote about the strategy that has a good chance of keeping us out of the abyss while other efforts evolve (thanks very much to Erin and her new assistants for some of the info!). The legal world, while no rose garden, offers organizations like Whitman-Walker a powerful weapon. But it has to be fired to do anything useful. A useful tactic would be to contact any such organizations local to you and connect them with legal support such as the ACLU and many others are offering.
For a trusted source of knowledge and support to suddenly turn its back on the people who rely on it, is worse than a betrayal. Imagine a trans teen, looking for the one scrap of information, a name, a phone number, that will prevent a desperate act of self-harm. I don’t think you need an imagination to visualize this. Just a bit of empathy. The lawyers who changed the rules don’t take the oath to do no harm. As happens every time I read this kind of story, I just die a little.
I remember receiving services there when I became hiv positive back in 2004. I would likely be dead without the care from the wonderful people there. This saddens me greatly, we must fight.
Wise words to live by, “One day someone will ask you to do the wrong thing for the right reason. Don’t. It just makes it easier to do the wrong thing.”
It’s one thing after another. Every time they are able to get away with something without massive pushback it enables them and emboldens them to continue to take the next thing away from us. They will continue to do this until either they are forced to stop or we are gone.
Negotiation is losing the game just by playing it.
Correct. There are times that it is good to negotiate and potentially compromise, this is not one of those times. We CANNOT compromise when our rights are being stripped away, our representatives cannot give a single damned inch to the fascists.
Shit, this isn't EVEN negotiation. All give, no take. 😒
It's literally "first they came for...." I recently read a testimonial by someone (purportedly) to be working for the passport office. This was at the start of the recent passport office problems, and everything she said then has since been verified. But people asked her, why haven't you refused to comply and just kept filling out passport applications for trans people? Why not just look the other way when you see a passport renewal come through that previously had a gender marker change?
Her answer was that if she did that enough, she would get fired, and that surveillance on them was tight. She said that ultimately she could still do a lot of good in her position. She could still help immigrants, disabled people, poor people, all sorts of people in need. She would reasonably be better for these groups than whatever conservative stooge would replace her if she was fired.
Yet, it never dawns on people, that this is the basic logic of "first I came for..." Beyond some very insane or depressed people, no one in life considers themselves the villain. Sometimes that means their work; sometimes that means their families. But people tend to believe that they are doing some kind of good in the world. If you lose your career, social position, or life, you can no longer do that whatever good things you do. So better to do good for some, even at the expense of failing to do good for all. I will not stand up for this group, because I can continue to help these groups by sacrificing that group.
It is not only fear that advances fascism. It's all too easy to stay quiet now, as there's always a chance of doing more good in the future. Or, at least it is easy to convince yourself of that. One can live in fascism without feeling oneself a coward, simply by convincing yourself that you're doing what you're doing for the greater good. Of course, you sacrifice one group, then they come for the next, the next, and the next...You sacrifice the first group, hoping to protect the rest. And soon you find that all those you told yourself you would protect are now gone.
You are 100% correct. That passport office employee just doesn’t want to lose her job - bottom line. She can try and justify it by saying that “she can still help these other groups,” but what is she going to do when the next group of people gets their rights stripped away? Is she still going to stay? Because “there are still people I can help?” When does she finally realize that the only people she is really helping are the fascists?
I've heard it said that "It's very difficult to get someone to understand something when their livelihood depends on their not understanding it."
I'm seeing another strand in this (both WW's choices, and those of the passport-office worker): people pretending/persuading themselves that this is just a bump in the road, a hiccup; that we're not living in world-changing times, and things will return to 'normal' in a little while if we can just keep out heads down and ride it out.
I get why they do that - it's *fucking rough* on a person's mental health to realize that, no, it *really is* that bad - and feel some compassion about it. But in a true crisis, which I believe this is (in many respects, not just w/r/t us queer folks), that's ultimately a *dysfunctional* coping mechanism, and will (as you say) turn around and bite them.
('People' here referring not just to obviously-individual people but to the not-so-obviously-individual people who make up boards and other decision-making bodies of institutions like WW, to be clear.)
*𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵*
When this fascist shitshow of a Presidency is finally over- however and whenever that ends up happening- we are gonna have to make some serious fucking changes to how transition care is handled in whatever's left of this bloody country. That it's only taken a month for so many people across the entire nation to lose access to care entirely, or to have it suspended, even in "safe" states and cities... we have got to get cis folks' hands out of this particular pie, somehow, no matter how good they promise their intentions towards us are when the weather's fine again and the Nazis are back in the septic tank of history where they belong. I know it's not going to happen for years now, but... when the time does come to rebuild, 𝘸𝘦 need to be the ones controlling that part of the conversation. No peace until we have right-to-transition laws.
One fucking month, for fuck's sake. We 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘥 better allies than these.
I hope more of us like Zooey Zephyr and Sarah McBride are elected to political positions.
We need to pressure medical schools and graduate programs to step up admissions for trans people, so that we can build our own community of gender-affirming care professionals, including surgeons.
Of course the content is what matters here, and it’s a booming call to action for us all. But I want to acknowledge- Erin, you have written this beautifully, devastatingly; the power and clarity of your voice and your choices here are incredible. So grateful for you.💙
As someone who started their transition at Whitman Walker many years ago I find this news heartbreaking.
Well, guess they won't be invited back to TransPride next year...
Compliance, appeasement, going along to get along, keeping heads down, staying off the radar screen. It's all indefensible and inexcusable.
Collaborators are perhaps even worse than the Fascists themselves, and must be reckoned with - get their home addresses, names of family members, description of vehicle they drive.
We must resist, resist and resist at any and all levels. Complying with dictators does NOT lead to them being compassionate or showing favor for your compliance. It would have been nice to learn this lesson from the 1940's
Ugh, sadly not surprised. It was also evident that they have been moving away from ensuring they provide care for the queer community and just care for “everyone”. In addition to how much they are dependent on federal funding despite them suddenly having all these financial assets tied up in their buildings. Ugh.
The time for compromise is over. If there is anything worse than MAGA it’s those people and institutions that acquiesce and become willing co-conspirators. These collaborators should never be forgiven or legitimized and in the end we need to make sure history remembers their betrayal of the oaths they swore as doctors and care providers.
"Yes, and how many deaths will it take till [they] know that too many people have died?"
And how many times will the mantra ("First they came for...") be repeated, till too many people have been disappeared (the old-fashioned Argentinian generals' tactics will seem *so* quaint...)?
These people didn't even try. I just wrote about the strategy that has a good chance of keeping us out of the abyss while other efforts evolve (thanks very much to Erin and her new assistants for some of the info!). The legal world, while no rose garden, offers organizations like Whitman-Walker a powerful weapon. But it has to be fired to do anything useful. A useful tactic would be to contact any such organizations local to you and connect them with legal support such as the ACLU and many others are offering.
https://jaynasheats.substack.com/p/transgender-survival-today-and-even
For a trusted source of knowledge and support to suddenly turn its back on the people who rely on it, is worse than a betrayal. Imagine a trans teen, looking for the one scrap of information, a name, a phone number, that will prevent a desperate act of self-harm. I don’t think you need an imagination to visualize this. Just a bit of empathy. The lawyers who changed the rules don’t take the oath to do no harm. As happens every time I read this kind of story, I just die a little.
This is totally disgraceful. Erin, as always, so glad for the reporting though. This has been a busy day for you.
If things continue to get much worse, we will need to have open discussions and inquiries about asylum in other countries.
It's not the first time I have cried over a post here, but I didn't think that this time would be over an editor's note.
I remember receiving services there when I became hiv positive back in 2004. I would likely be dead without the care from the wonderful people there. This saddens me greatly, we must fight.
Wise words to live by, “One day someone will ask you to do the wrong thing for the right reason. Don’t. It just makes it easier to do the wrong thing.”
For FUCK'S sake :(