butch mafia manifesto rationale

hmmmmm....

i had a meeting at a local rich-lez-bee-yun-social-club on thursday. they had asked me to be part of the steering committee for adult programming, so i went to the first meeting to determine if it was something i wanted to particpate in.

it wasn't.

the facilitator of the meeting spent the entire time i was there referring to me with male pronouns and not-so-subtly tokenizing me as a working-class transgender agitator.

that's strange.

I admire people who are any of those things. I'm maybe one of them. Don't tokenize me as something I'm not.

i have the utmost respect for trans folks - i know how much work it takes to inhabit an identity so very unrecognized, and i know that I haven't done that work. I may be butch, i may be genderqueer, but I'm not trans and I don't merit the label.

grrr.

The working class part was also interesting - in a similar way. yes, I work as a welder, and yes, that means I come home dirty and don't sit in front of a computer all day. i work with my hands, but that most certainly does not preclude me from having a head. Please don't assume that it does.

The agitator part is fine - I have a history of direct action, and i'll prouldly stant up and claim anarcho-syndicalism. But really, a token activist??!!??




So I'm starting a butch mafia. a discussion group and training program. A brunch club and biker gang.

I'll keep you posted.


this shit is bananas. B. A. N. A. N. A. S.