tw: misgendering, dehumanization, discrimination, mentions of fascist leaders...
what do you do when you never had a gender?
growing up, i only had a gender ascribed to me through my body functions and how my body looked. but i was never treated like my gender.
the only descriptors i had were "fatass", "stupid" and "disgusting". yet, when i tried to perform the gender put on my birth certificate, i was mocked, laughed at and told i will never be the gender i tried to perform.
similarly now, i am excluded from most language used within the trans community (transmasc, transfem, tme, tma etc.) due to being intersex first and foremost.
but also because i was never allowed to be one gender and now i am not really allowed to be the other in peace due to either being constantly told i am either an oppressor or predator, i have power over another trans person or, again, because i will "never be [xyz]gender" or do not try hard enough to be a binary, more "cis"-looking gender.
now, what if i tell you, dear reader, that the first time i have not been allowed to be whatever gender (not even performing the one put on my birth certificate!) i want to be was... in a cult?
yep, that's right: i grew up in a non-religious cult. i know that if i say that the people doing the same thing now are in a so-called "cult of personality" akin to the ones of history (stalin, lenin, zedong, mussolini) or more modern times (trump, kim family)#, i'd be burned on the stake. calling out people of your own community and telling them what they are doing is creating and spreading misinformation, keeping people in line with their thoughts/actions and ostracizing them if they do not go along with the hive mind would end in my reputation going down the drain and be "social suicide"!
yet... doesn't it strike you as that, reader? a very loud but popular minority of the queer community with a lot of reach and people willing to hear them out, infighting over who can call themselves what, who has it worse than the other, completely ignoring a seemingly erased part of the queer community and pretending that just because they arent mentioned, they didnt do anything? isn't it.. tiring?
notice how i also didn't mention a particular event or trend? it applies to a lot of things within the community, take your pick.
i'll leave you, reader, with something:
in your daily life, whether on social media or real life, take note of small injustices within your surrounding community. get the full picture, don't just blindly trust the majority. get your own read/picture, of the situation. i promise you, not only is this a good exercise in critical thinking, but also great to examine a bias you may have had or a misconception of something.
#: presidents and political leaders aren't the only one where a cult has formed around them like maga did with donald trump. any charming leader with ideas that speak to a large majority of people can suck people in and have their (fascist) ideology spread. if you want other, non-politics examples: dr. joe dispenza, neville goddard and dolores cannon have a huge following with sometimes harmful ideology within the self-help and spiritual community.