#title Interlinking our Struggles in Gender and Queer Issues
#author Bandilang Itim
#SORTauthors Bandilang Itim Collective
#SORTtopics Queer, solidarity
#date July 2020
#uid Interlinking our Struggles in Gender and Queer Issues
#source Retrieved on 2021-01-12 from https://bandilangitim.noblogs.org/2020/07/25/interlinking-our-struggles-in-gender-and-queer-issues/
#lang en
#pubdate 2021-01-12T02:31:53
#language English
#publication Bandilang Itim
*** Silence is not golden
Some among us in Bandilang Itim are men who are cisgender and/or
heterosexual. As cis/het men in Bandilang Itim who are raised with the
privilege of being men, we are not experts on gender or queer issues nor
have experience as women or queer. This ought not mean we stay silent on
the issues that confront our sisters and queer siblings. As Adrienne
Onday declares in her important piece,
“[[https://friendshipanarchy.wordpress.com/2020/06/22/wrath-over-pride-a-call-out-post-to-radical-cis-het-men-and-their-inadequacy-in-gender-struggles/][Wrath
Over Pride: A call-out post to ‘radical’ cis (het) men and their
inadequacy in gender struggles]],” “*[Y]our silence is violence to us*.”
Our silence is violence to those struggling against gender-based
oppression. We have people we love—partners, family, comrades, and
friends—who are queer or who are women, and we owe it to them to speak
against cisheteronormative discrimination and patriarchal practices that
persist in our milieus and in our spaces. Queer people and women are
angry that they still experience discrimination, infantilization, and
oppression within our spaces. They are tired that they are consistently
alone when they speak out against their own oppression. Not having queer
experiences is not a reason for staying silent. If we do not have these
experiences or expertise, we then ought to defer to the experiences of
queer people and women. The issue of silence, censorship, or ignorance
of women or queer issues is also a violence itself. When we are silent
we are accomplices to the violence of the patriarchal system and the
intricate network of oppression. We must join women and queer people and
speak out for and with them especially in situations and spaces where
they may not be able to speak for themselves.
We must remember that our freedom is interlinked. Our freedom is
interlinked in such a way that if our queer or women neighbor is
silenced and subjugated, then that would mean our freedom is but a
privilege that can be revoked. “Freedom is but privilege extended,
unless enjoyed by one and all,”
as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVm8mEdVZtw][a version]] of *The
Internationale* is sung. Our freedom is interdependent and complimentary
with another in that the flourishing of one allows the flourishing of
the other. In the same way, if someone’s freedom is threatened, then all
our freedoms are threatened. Our freedom then relies on the freedom of
others in order for it to be affirmed.
Thus we cannot call ourselves free if those around us still suffer from
domination such as that of transphobia, discrimination, or misogyny. As
anarchist theorist Mikhail
Bakunin [[https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/1871/man-society.htm][wrote]],
“I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally
free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my
freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation.”
Black feminist and civil rights activist Audre
Lorde [[https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/speeches-african-american-history/1981-audre-lorde-uses-anger-women-responding-racism/][would
concur]]: “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her
shackles are very different from my own.”
Our attitude as allies ought not be as saviors. We must reject
patronizing attitudes behind helping women and queer people and reject
the a cisheteronormative equivalent of a “white man’s burden.” We
already know that women and queer people have their own agency; our task
as allies is then to support their agency, boost their voices, follow
queer and women leadership, and work together. As an Aboriginal activist
group in Queensland in the
1970s [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilla_Watson][said]], “If you have
come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come
because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work
together.” Liberation is a collective task and is not something that can
be given or granted.
Likewise, we ought not forward an “allyship” based on mere passive
support. As the indigenous provocation
“[[http://www.indigenousaction.org/accomplices-not-allies-abolishing-the-ally-industrial-complex/][Accomplices
Not Allies]]” suggest, we need to be accomplices in actively dismantling
the structures of oppression. This ties into following queer and women
leadership and in supporting their agency.
What ought our intersectionality look like? A model for
intersectionality comes from Dr. Angela Davis,
who [[http://libcom.org/library/dr-angela-davis-role-trans-non-binary-communities-fight-feminist-abolition-she-advocates][said]] that
women, queer people, and particularly the trans community have shown us
that, because they show that the normalcy of cisheteronormativity and
patriarchy can be challenged, the normalcy of police, jails, and prisons
can also be challenged:
So if we want to develop an intersectional perspective, the trans
community is showing us the way. And we can’t only point to, and we need
to point, to cases such as
the [[https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/tony-mcdade-shooting-death-tallahassee-1008433/][murder
of Tony McDade]], for example. But we need to go beyond that and
recognize that we support the trans community precisely because this
community has taught us how to challenge that which is totally accepted
as normal. And I don’t think we would be where we are today—encouraging
ever larger numbers of people to think within an abolitionist frame—had
not the trans community taught us that it is possible to effectively
challenge that which is considered the very foundation of our sense of
normalcy. So if it is possible to challenge the gender binary, then we
can certainly, effectively, resist prisons, and jails, and police.
Because women and queer people are able to radically question what is
perceived to be normal, they show us the way to challenge and resist
other norms that ought be questioned. If Dr. Davis suggests that by
challenging the gender binary the trans community makes it possible to
also challenge and resist systems of policing and incarceration, then
perhaps we can take steps further. We can then challenge other norms
that so casually dominate, whether it be Capital, the State, or the very
notion of hierarchy itself.To put it in another way, the notion of the
normalcy or orthodoxy is an instrument of control by the State and
Capital, and queerness—embodied and in practice—is an affront to that.
Women and queer people are then integral to the fight against systems of
domination like the state and capitalism. Without them, a liberatory
project will be woefully incomplete. As Onday reminds us in her piece,
“[W]e can create spaces of true liberation without you [‘radical’ cis
(het) men], but you cannot create spaces of true liberation without us.”
Support for queer people and women should not be predicated simply on
the integral place they have in the struggle against domination; our
support for them must be unconditional and for its own end. Just as an
ecology thrives and is more resilient in diversity, human society is
equally enriched and made stronger in diversity.
*** What must we affirm?
We affirm an opposition to patriarchy, that system of domination which
predates capitalism. We affirm that women, transgender people, and
gender non-conforming individuals all experience oppression due to the
patriarchy. Patriarchy as a system has not always existed. If patriarchy
had to be built and instituted, it can also be dismantled and abolished.
If there are cultures and peoples in this world that have not instituted
patriarchy, then we know for certain that a world without patriarchy is
a very real possibility. In the Philippines, patriarchy was
institutionalized in the colonial system that systematically erased
indigenous practices. Among the Bontok people of the Cordilleras who
resisted colonization until the 20th century, rape was
unheard of and did not exist until recently, as documented in the
documentary Walang Rape sa Bontok (*Bontok, Rapeless*). If
patriarchy is not a natural or eternal institution, then it can only
mean that patriarchy and rape culture had to be learned and instituted.
Similarly, if patriarchy, including cisheteronormativity, are forms of
domination that had to be learned and institutionalized, then it can be
unlearned and abolished.
We affirm an opposition to cisheteronormativity, that norm upheld by the
patriarchal order. Patriarchy as a social order privileges certain
bodies over others, even certain male bodies over other male bodies. To
counteract such privileges, we must platform, listen to, and follow
voices who are deliberately underprivileged by cisheteronormativity. We
must hold ourselves accountable to harms perpetuated and make real steps
towards reconciliation and the cessation of harms.
We affirm the need for intersectionality. We affirm that the struggle
for equality and justice is one with the struggle against oppression by
the State and by Capital. Issues that face women and queer people are
not confined to our own circles and organizations, but also in the
workplace and the streets. Discrimination continues to adversely affect
women, who face harassment and objectification in the workplace. Queer
people can be disqualified from jobs and face prejudice at the hands of
the government who refuses to recognize—and as such invalidates—their
identity.
As we affirm intersectionality, we then reject class reductionist
attitudes. The plurality of struggles does not distract from the
struggle in class; rather intersections of struggle are integral in
combating domination in all its forms. We do not think liberation from
Capital or the State can be complete without liberation from
cisheteropatriarchy.
We affirm that trans women are women, that trans men are men. We affirm
that while gender is a social construct, it has real material
consequences in the form of not just discrimination, but a positive
identity.
We affirm that gender is a spectrum, that other genders outside the
gender binary are valid. This means we explicitly affirm the validity of
non-binary genders and people who identify as non-binary.
*** How We Will Be Better
We have a sexist problem in our anarchist milieu as evidenced by the
lack of women and queer people who inhabit our spaces. If our spaces are
supposedly radical, ought that mean it is also radically inclusive? It
is an unfortunate fact that anarchist spaces in the Philippines have
been overwhelmingly centered around men. Or to put it another way, men
dominate anarchist spaces in the Philippines. Our spaces then are not as
inclusive as we claim. As cis/het men, we must acknowledge the space we
take up even in online spaces. We have to find a way to make our spaces
more welcoming for women and queer people. There are no easy answers to
this and we have to take the initiative to implement such changes
towards safer spaces because we have the privilege to do so: the
privilege to counteract our own privileges.
So what can we do to counteract sexism and make our spaces safer? For
starters we can listen to women and queer people when they speak up and
platform them so that their voices may reach farther. There is a certain
cycle in which women and queer people can get trapped in. They
experience oppression or are excluded, speak up about it, and then are
manspained to (that is, their experiences invalidated by men who say so
in so many words) which of course angers them, which then results in
their exclusion. Such a cycle only reinforces the predominance of men in
our radical spaces. We must break this cycle through listening to women
and queer people, platforming them in our spaces and platforms, and
following their leadership.
Another way we can counteract sexism and make our spaces safer is by
being mindful of the space we take up, how we—as men—are not bothered by
a certain macho tendency to talk over women and queer people. Being
mindful of the space we take up can be in the form of normalizing
pronoun checks as an acknowledgment that “he/him” is not a default
gender. (On that point, we can also use the Filipino pronoun form
“*siya*” which is already gender neutral, or if in English, the use of
“they/them” or a deliberate use of “she/her” in hypothetical examples.)
We need to develop the self-awareness to question if and when our
perspective are male-specific. Just as “he/him” is not the default
gender, so is the male experience not the default experience. Issues
like menstrual poverty, unpaid labor, rape and sexual abuse in
workplaces and prisons are all experiences we overlook if we default to
a male experience. Even experiences like poverty which men, women, and
queer people face, is experienced differently by women and queer people.
Such issues necessarily have different implications if a person is queer
or of a different gender
We can also be mindful of women and queer people in our spaces by asking
them “are you okay?” and taking considerations for their well-being. We
can ask them how we could help them feel more welcoming in the spaces
and take steps to eject people from our spaces who are dominating, being
creeps or acting in an abusive manner. It is the barest minimum to keep
our spaces free from sexual harassment or oppression.
If there is harm done within the movement, whether specific abuse or a
systemic issue like sexism, then these should be addressed by real steps
towards accountability. We need to be able to hold individuals
accountable and for individuals to hold themselves accountable.
Accountability is a recognition that a harm has been done and real steps
taken to be better. These sort of problems must be confronted up front,
with both hurt and those who did the hurting being able to acknowledge
the problem and take real steps toward reconciliation and doing better.
If the harm cannot be reconciled like in sexual abuse, then the milieu
is better off ejecting the abuser from their spaces altogether. Harm
done is not a matter of intent, and those who do harm must understand
that, otherwise we risk upholding individual reputations over the valid
experiences of those harmed. Regardless of intent, this happened and
these are the effects. The question now is: How can we do better and
prevent this harm from recurring and reproducing? Such accountability
measures are not there to destroy individuals or organizations—unless of
course the matter is sexual abuse and rape, which in case, such
individuals absolutely must be ejected from our spaces and organizations
that defend them similarly ejected. Except in the cases of rape and
sexual abuse we do not want to destroy anyone, we want them to be better
and to make our spaces safer.
The airing of critiques and of the demands to rectify harms are not
simply the airing of “dirty laundry,” so to speak. There will be people
whose gut reaction is to associate such critiques and demands with
malicious intent. We must resist this urge to dismiss these critiques
and demands as malicious as these are the defense mechanisms for
preserving the status quo of the patriarchal order and the intricate
network of oppression.
Another way we can make our spaces safer is by upholding an
anti-oppression stance that takes a proactive stance against misogyny,
rape culture, transphobia, and other harmful attitudes. We cannot
compromise on inclusivity. What would this look like? For example, we,
as Bandilang Itim, are very much willing to break with anti-trans
individuals and organizations even if this means forgoing cooperation
with larger groups. Cooperation with partners cannot be predicated on a
compromise with transphobia or any other discriminatory practice. We
absolutely cannot tolerate harmful behavior and we will very much cut
ties with people who persistently and unapologetically continue to do
harmful behavior. We must remember that such discriminatory practices
have real fatal consequences for higher rates of suicide and inflicted
violence (including murder) among and against women and queer people.
Exclusion from supposedly safe or radical spaces is a violence against
them that invalidates their identities and experiences which leads to
their isolation. Exclusion is then literally fatal in such
circumstances.
As a consequence, this means we cannot and will not work with groups
that have taken an overtly transphobic stance, such as Deep Green
Resistance (DGR). We then urge the anarchist milieu in the archipelago
to either ruthlessly demand associates like DGR to cease their
anti-trans positions and demand official apologies *or disassociate with
such anti-trans groups and persons altogether*. The DGR group’s
transphobia is well documented in articles such as
“[[https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/michelle-renee-matisons-and-alexander-reid-ross-against-deep-green-resistance#toc2][Against
Deep Green Resistance]]” published in the Institute for Anarchist
Studies. The primary author of *Deep Green Resistance* (the book) and
co-founder of DGR, Aric McBay,
even [[https://www.aricmcbay.org/2013/05/14/dgr-and-transphobia/][came
out and said that they left DGR due to its transphobia and
re-af]][[https://www.aricmcbay.org/2013/05/14/dgr-and-transphobia/][firmed
that need for solidarity and trans-inclusion]]. Numerous other articles
document DGR’s
transphobia, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Green_Resistance][including
its Wikipedia article]]. The transphobia of DGR is not merely a slip of
the tongue or a one-off event that can be apologized for, *it is a
recurring harm* and their trans-exclusionary feminism is enshrined *in
their ideological program itself*. Unless DGR removes their
trans-exclusionary ideology from their syllabus, they will remain to be
a transphobic organization. The continuing support and collaboration
with DGR is a compromise based on excluding trans women and men and this
is unacceptable. To continue to platform DGR *is to continue to platform
transphobia.* Ejecting DGR from our anarchist spaces or at least
demanding them to renounce transphobia is a very much achievable goal.
If they do not renounce transphobia, we must make it clear that they
will be isolated and atomized in their struggle; we can make spaces for
liberation with or without them. Rejecting harmful practices and
rejecting alliances with groups that perpetuate discrimination should be
the bare minimum. If our values is hinged on fighting oppression in all
its forms, then actively and loudly speaking up against these harmful
practices and ties ought be our norm.
Beyond the minimum then, we need to step up and amplify the voices of
queer people and women. As allies, our task is to listen to them and
support their agency. In the same sentiment, we must make known the
efforts of our sisters and queer siblings, recognizing their
contributions to liberatory art, music, and literature, and the actions
they take alongside us in struggle against the State and Capital across
the world. By raising the issues of systemic discrimination in labor, by
pursuing education on gender inclusivity in our communities, and
supporting feminist and queer movements and organizations, we can
overcome the status quo and give attention to issues that affect them,
and in turn, affect us too. We must also raise the issue of violence
against non-men committed by men like domestic abuse and rape and
absolutely eject abusers from our spaces and demand accountability where
there is harm.
In a case like the Pride 20 where members of the queer NatDem org
Bahaghari were warrantlessly arrested for organizing a Pride rally and
protest, the barest minimum would be to add our voices to the chorus of
rage. In a case like Fabel Pineda—who was raped by police and then
assassinated after filing cases against the rapist cops—we can highlight
the intersection of police violence and gender-based violence. In a time
when women are treated by police as commodities in exchange for safety,
and queer activists are brutally detained while their identities are
insulted, the least we can do is to show their captors the true meaning
of *bayanihan*: solidarity, regardless of sex and
gender; [[https://bandilangitim.noblogs.org/2020/07/01/to-be-queer-is-to-love-all-a-perspective-on-queer-activism-and-anarchism-in-the-philippines/][a
revolutionary love]].
We hope that this document can be part of the discussion to
fundamentally abolish the patriarchal and cisheteronormative norms
present even and especially among the anarchist spaces in the
archipelago. This is not an easy task, and doubtless there will still be
mistakes, but we must persevere in our commitment for total liberation
if we are serious about anarchy in the archipelago. We hope that other
infoshops and collectives both in and beyond the Local Autonomous
Network take similar steps in self-reflection and take positions as
allies.