Tell Monica Roberts To Remove Her Hit Piece(s) Against Black Trans Womn
This is an urgent message in solidarity from some Los Angeles folx who were at this past Creating Change conference whom stand with the group of Black Trans womn who disrupted a 'Trans Attracted Men' panel discussion harboring a known abuser in the trans community. These womn chose to disrupt (along with the help of other trans and cis womn and femmes alike) this conversation because this harm that happens amongst our communities isn't just persynal or individual. It is also a systemic harm just as important as State sanctioned violence, legislation aimed to repress trans folx, and the transphobic, but often trans attracted men who are killing us or helping to facilitate the criminalization of our self defense.
See more on the ground perspective from one of the courageous womn who disrupted this panel in this article written by L'leret as well as the group's intentions.
Monica Roberts is an award winning Black Trans writer with a great account on the herstory of the Black Trans Movement. But in her latest hit pieces titled 'Do You Wish To Be a Trans Leader or Trans Pariah?' and 'Why Were Y'all 'Scurred' Of This Trans Attracted Men Panel?' She erases the intention behind the disruption which was to center Black Trans Womn and to call out a known abuser in the panel, even after the organizers were called in to address such abuse.
Monica Roberts asks the same questions over and over. These womn have given the same answers to her. Not only did folx try to convince her that their was an abuser that was being lifted up and seen as some type of hero for trans womn, but the content of the panel didnt do enough to address the systemic harm that trans womn face on the daily, particularly the harm that one of the panelists had caused to an already vulnerable community!
Reconciliation is necessary. No one is disposible in our community. However, if you've caused harm and you haven't made the steps it takes to check your behavior so this harm doesnt keep replicating then call outs and sanctions are the last step in the healing process for victims and survivors of abuse. ALSO NEVER EVER CALL THE POLICE ON TRANS WOMN, ESPECIALLY TRANS WOMN/FEMMES OF COLOR. Survivors, studies, and researchers of carceral policies have shown that police officers are more likely to side with the man in such a domestic dispute, escalate violence regarding officer involved shootings, and incarcerate the survivors/victims of abuse.
We among many others are demanding that Monica retract her harmful public statements on these womn because these hit pieces align with respectibility politics, systemic oppression, violent tropes of trans feminine experiences, and chose etiquete over confronting harm done to black trans womn. She also chooses to villainize these womn and the tactic of disruption which is siding with the work of the State. The same kind of prelogics and works the MainStream Media, State appartus, and [In]Justice Cistem uses to criminalize the self defense of black trans folx like Cece McDonald, Ky Peterson, and Eisha Love. That often polices their bodies by placing them in holding facilities that do not match their lived gender identities and expressions.
When trans people are under attack our self/collective defense isnt always pretty, respectful, or proper! Not when the initial harm commited on our bodies is being erased, misidentified, or trivialized. Was Jennicet Gutierrez supposed to just wait on her one-on-one with the pres?!
So the collective question to ask is, whose side are you on, Monica? We are asking you to think critically about the practices and profit driven sensibilities, and violent neoliberal LGBTQ conferences you are aligning yourself with. We shouldnt have to fuel our energies and public pressure to get you, and other Black Trans womn like you, to see that their actions are moving us backwards. That the focus on our genitalia is often what our transmisogynist enemies spotlight. That people "paying good money" to see a panel continues to ignore low income, hxstorically looted, houseless LGB & TQIA2S+ peoples(of color usually). That police reports often lie when involving black, trans, or femme bodies, and especially those whom lay on the intersections of all these margins. That by you ignoring direct public requests, from the other cis TA men in this panel who supported these black trans womn's actions, for you to REMOVE AND RETRACT the statements you've made, make you look like you didnt really give a damn about their opinions either, and this is moreso a persynal vendetta against womn who you feel sleighted YOU and your professional position at said whackass violent neoliberal LGBTQ conference. We shouldn't be protecting our positions at these occupations, we should be protecting our sisters who are placed in the most marginalized positions in society. This shouldn't be persynal, it's systemic and political, but you've made it persynal by outing and labeling these womn as egotistical pariahs. You have had several days to stew on how your writings do nothing to support those in black trans femme struggle, but do more harm than good for our ongoing collective liberation.
See direct statements made to Monica Roberts from 'Trans Attracted Men' panelists Jose Monzon and Thomas Matt, requesting her to remove and or retract her hit pieces:
We shouldnt need cis hetero men to acknowledge our truths and we cannot depend on the morality of our oppressors to get free! I hope fierce actions like these inspire more fierce community and courage from all Femmes of Color to stick up for one another. Because our movement spaces are often dwindling in numbers because we're all still attacked and socialized under the social war of this white dominated cis normative hetero patriarchy, in the same world and its civil liberal society that de-centers femme labor and trivializes our struggles when dealing with intracommunal emotional and phsyical abuse. Just as we have witnessed in Monica's stances we have seen that it is necessary in our spaces to resist the culture of apologism that aligns itself with such colonization, with that which oppresses us.
We will celebrate our resiliance with or without you if we have to!
Call in or call out, check yourself! We comin'!
