An Open Letter To A Transgender Prisoner In Turkey [Repost]

Original Post of Open Letter

In a Turkish men’s prison, there is a womin that does not belong there. Esra Arıkan is a transwomin who is serving a life sentence (for a crime she did not commit) and has been locked up for 11 years and the last 9 of them have been in solitary. She has endured sexual assault and has not been getting proper medical treatment. She recently managed to collect the semen from a rapist prison guard to prove the sexual assault and the guard was detained for one year before a judge ruled that she had “consented” to the prison guard. She has also been denied visits. According to sources in correspondence with her, there is concern about her considering self harm. She is demanding that she get transferred to a women’s prison, which is a reasonable demand as she is a womin.

Here is an open letter to Esra:

Dear Esra,

When I read your story, my heart went out to you. I hope you can keep finding the strength to keep on keeping on, to push through life even though life can be a struggle. Each day you continue living may be difficult but each breath you take is like a tiny act of resistance against those who have hurt you, those who oppress you. You are a brave womin who deserves the world’s admiration. What has happened to you is not okay. There is no justification to how you have been treated. The pigs that did you harm don’t even deserve the air in their lungs.

I may have never met you but you are my compañera and I admire you. Please try to stay strong and never give up. I believe in you. I hope that you get to taste freedom again. Keep on living and loving and never stop fighting for your freedom and dignity. You have comrades and sisters around the world. Someday, when we win we can dance on the ashes of prisons everywhere.

Solidarity and Sisterhood,

~Esperanza Orozco

Letters to Esra can be sent to:

Samsun E Tipi Kapalı Cezaevi
B-4 Koğuşu
Canik
Samsun
Turkey

I would like to encourage everyone to send Esra letters of support and solidarity and/or raise awareness about this blatant humyn rights violation.

#NoFlagChallenge Flags Drenched In Blood

Lately, I've been seeing a lot of confrontation over the confederate flag. A lot of people are speaking out lately about it's history with racism (...and rightfully so) making really great points about how that flag represents slavery. I do agree that the confederate flag is disgusting and that people should trash it. However, that isn't far enough. We need to look at the stars and stripes and the genocide and manifest destiny it represents. How many massacres of indigenous men, womyn and children soak the folds of the stars and stripes? How much of the land anglo america stands on did they steal from indigenous folks and Mexicans? The descendants of those people, my people are continuing to have to fight today. White people came to this continent, the plague of 1492, now they proceed to tell people whose blood was here first that our people are immigrants. That is what the US flag represents. So burn a US flag, burn a confederate flag, burn a bible, destroy a cop shop, burn and/or desecrate any symbols of colonialism and of oppression that you can!

The north during the civil war was also just as fucked as the south. The northern industrialists who backed the north just wanted to consolidate their wealth and power. Even during the civil war, the union troops were behind the sand creek massacre where unarmed indigenous men, womyn and children were slaughtered by northern soldiers. Aslo during the civil war union troops hung 38 indigenous leaders in a mass execution known as the Dakota 38.

Right now the American flag is stained by Iraqi blood and the blood of Mexicans who have died trying to cross the border and the blood of people of color gunned down in the streets by law enforcement. It's the same devil now.

Why I, As An Anarchist, Support The Brown Power Movement

As an anarchist, I get asked a lot why I believe in the brown power movement and I end up being asked this a lot. Well it is fairly simple, but let me break it down for the anglos who tend to ask this ridiculous question...
As an anarchist, I look at the hierarchical social structure and the various forms of oppression that come from it. The institutions that make up the power structure continue to exist because of, and thrive on, these forms of oppression. It is in the best interest of the oppressed to overthrow their oppressor and defend their autonomy. As womyn, we have every reason to defend our bodily autonomy from patriarchal oppression. Well, as xicanas, we have every reason to defend our raza and our communities from institutional racism and structural violence.
This structural violence comes from the power structure and that power structure cannot be broken down without oppressed communities and oppressed peoples fighting for, and gaining, their autonomy. I believe much the same for other oppressed communities (and have sympathy and solidarity for the black power movement for example) but I'm speaking on the brown power movement because it's more personally relevant to me since I am xicana that is my raza.
When white people conquered the Americas, they brought their oppressive social structures with them. They brought euro-centric ideals like misogyny, white supremacy, the gender binary and more. They set up white people's borders on our continent and set up their governments. Any act of defiance against them is a step in the right direction. I don't think the brown power movement is the whole answer, but it is a push in the right direction. We have had this white authoritarian power structure coerced upon us non-consentually and they continue to do it to us still. Any act of resistance against that may not always be inherently anarchist per se but is inherently in line with anarchism. It is an act of defiance against over 500 years of genocide and white oppressive authoritarian rule. You cannot be an anarchist and not support that.






#BrownPower #BrownLivesMatter #Anarchism

Colonizing Feminism: A Brief Critique Of "Shared Girlhood"

The notion of "shared girlhood" always seemed ridiculous to me. I have noticed that it was always white womyn who claimed that "shared girlhood" was actually a real thing. But lets look into what the notion of "shared girlhood" is, who benefits from it and who is marginalized by it...

Being raised in a collision of cultures, always caught between Mexican culture and Anglo-American culture, my upbringing and my experiences were shaped by culture. I find the notion that anglo womyn have some kind of shared experiences of oppression with me to be condescending at best. The fact is that the history of the feminist movement for the most part involves a history of white womyn working for white womyn while womyn of color got thrown under the bus. When I see someone advocating the idea of "shared girlhood" what that translates to underneath those words is "let me tell you what your experiences are and erase your experiences with racist oppression" but their two word version just sounds deceptively better. In reality, it only makes it appear more legitimate.

The idea of "shared girlhood" was created as a way for white womyn to colonize womyn of color. But you know what? I ain't a pawn for anglo womyn. It's not that I wouldn't fight alongside white womyn against patriarchy and all of the other hierarchies that are interwoven with patriarchy. However, if I fight alongside white womyn, I will do it on my terms. Don't condescendingly tell me that you understand my lived experience, instead acknowledge and take responsibility for the privilege you were blessed with by your white skin and your anglo culture. Don't sell me some anglo-centric notion that you can project your experiences on me.

Another group of people marginalized by the idea of "shared girlhood" are the trans folks that the idea of "shared girlhood" is most often used in a more blatantly malicious way. The idea of "shared girlhood" is used by so-called "radical feminists" to tell transwomyn that they aren't womyn and usually involves viewing transmen as some kind of gender-traitors. It is a way for trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs) to deny the identities of trans people.

What it comes down to is one group of white, cisgender, mostly affluent womyn telling the rest of the us what our experiences are. So if you believe in "shared girlhood" maybe it is time to check your fucking privilege, guera.

Transition: A Life Faced With Adversity

There are many things that are a result of the social structure that we live in. One of these catastrophic results is suicide amongst groups that are marginalized and stigmatized because for one reason or another they don't fit into the norms that the social structure was built on. I've had several friends who were part of LGBTQIA (alphabet soup) communities who've committed suicide. When you live in a social structure that is adverse to your existence and in a society where you are painted as the 'other', life can seem too difficult to be worth it. Sometimes keeping on can be a fight that looks eternal and hopeless. One of the communities that is hit hardest by such adversity and stigma is the trans community. The suicide rate is significantly higher than pretty much any other population. Many trans folks who come out lose their job, family and friends over it, but that is just the beginning...
...Then there is the insane level of threats, violence and harassment. Walking down the street becomes more dangerous for trans folks. People often feel threatened when their over simplistic understanding of gender is being challenged. Sometimes some people get violent because they fear anything or anyone they don't understand. In medical situations, trans people are often put through hell if the medical professionals who are supposed to take care of them happen to not have the knowledge on basic sensitivities when it comes to trans folks. Because of horrible portrayals of trans people in the media and humor at trans folks' expense, society treats trans people as something to gawk at instead of someone with their own feelings, dreams and aspirations. Trans people are treated as subhumyn in that sense.
My heart and prayers go out to trans folks who committed, attempted or are thinking about suicide. I pray that they don't give up on their lives. Someday we will have a world where gender roles are not forced on anyone, a world without the gender binary or the patriarchal social structure. I pray for and work towards a world without social stigma. I pray for a world where instead of having to face overwhelming adversity, trans folks have support and hope reinforced by the greater society. Someday cis privilege, male privilege, hetero privilege, white privilege, economic-affluent privilege etc will be recognized and broken down with all the hierarchies. In the meantime the trans community has my solidarity and support. If you know a trans person who is struggling I urge you to be there for them and support them. Transition can be hard enough for them as is, then they may also be facing the stigma and oppression in ways we might not even be able to imagine.