Script for my speech (it probably won’t turn out nearly as long)
Text below the cut:
“Nongender transIDs are a valid form of identity, and their existence does not inherently harm minorities that may be the subject of the identity in question.
To even discuss this topic, we must first answer the question: what is a transID? As a prominent individual in the transID community, I would generally define them as good-faith identities analogous in experience to transgender with varying causes and intensities. In other words, these are identities in the same category as transgender that deal with things other than gender. Under this school of thought, one can theoretically identify as and/or feel dysphoria about any aspect that they themselves do not have in body or mind. Some examples that have commonly cropped up in internet discourse in recent times have been transrace, transability, and transharmful.
Upon hearing those terms, you may have a knee-jerk reaction. “Transabled, isn’t that offensive? Isn’t that ableist? Why would you want to have a disability?” And I ask you in turn; why are disabilities a bad thing? Should someone be ashamed of their disability? Is disability inherently undesirable to you? What’s more ableist: someone genuinely feeling as if they should have a disability, or what you just thought in your mind upon being introduced to that prospect?
But, is it actually offensive? Surely to have authority over a facet of oppression such as disability or race a community must have members of those groups right?
To answer this question, I ran a survey. I asked the community what marginalized groups they fall into in terms of gender, sexuality, race, disability, and humanity. Out of the 227 responses – which while small still accounts for a decent chunk of the active community – these were the results.
Only 34 respondents identified as cisgender. 78.2% said they have experienced discrimination on the basis of their gender.
Only 5.3% of respondents identified as heterosexual, with 68.6% saying they’ve experienced sexuality-based discrimination.
Only 58.2% identify as genetically white, 45% as physically disabled, and 68.6% as mentally disabled.
I find it safe to say that by demographics alone, transID cannot be offensive when so many members of the community are a part of marginalized groups. Minorities aren’t a monolith, no community is. We all have differing opinions on matters like this. What truly matters is that the struggles we as transID folk experience are cripplingly real, both in terms of dysphoria and internet harassment.
Take me, for example.
My primary transID identity is transcharacter, where you feel you should be a fictional character. When I first discovered that I’m Vriska Serket, I was overcome by the worst dysphoria I’ve ever felt in my life. Worse than my gender dysphoria has ever been. And that feeling, that negativity toward the fundamental structure of my being, has never abated. I dare you to tell me that’s not real. I dare you to tell me that my lived experience is silly, stupid, or fake when I only resist hurting myself because I know that seeing the color of my blood, and seeing that it’s not cobalt blue, would make me feel worse.
But what’s almost as big a threat to our lives as our own emotions is the harassment we face online. Given that the biggest gathering of transID individuals is on Tumblr, a social media platform famous for its discourse, there is a lot of hate directed at us. I will not be showing you specific screenshots out of respect for privacy, but I will give you some anecdotes from me and my close friends.
One of my friends had to be sent to the mental hospital after antis traumadumped in their inbox in an attempt to trigger them.
I’ve been threatened with having my eyes gouged out because I’m trans’half’blind.
There have been multiple accounts on Tumblr dedicated to having us burned and drowned and otherwise violently killed.
Me and several people I know have been told that they would be beaten to death if someone found out that they were transID.
One of my friends got an anonymous message describing, in detail, how they were going to rape them to death and desecrate their corpse.
Just last week, someone I’m in a Discord server with got their name and address doxxed.
We’ve been called predatory racist ableist transphobes because we identify in ways they don’t like.
We’ve been told to go burn in hell, jump in front of a train, shoot ourselves in the head, blind ourselves, drown ourselves, I could go on.
Right now, as I stand here, I am afraid for my life. I am afraid that one or more of you is one of the violent individuals I’ve faced online, and that I’m going to die the moment class ends. That one of you is going to kill me because I had the gall to express feelings I have toward my body!
That is the sort of shit we have to deal with on a weekly basis. Just for daring to describe ourselves in a way they don’t like. But why don’t they like it? Let’s deconstruct some of their most common arguments.
- TransIDs are transphobic.
They usually say this because we share some of our terminology with the transgender community. Why would we do this? It’s because a whopping 85% of us are Not Cis. We’re already familiar with both the terminology and the experience, so we use words that, mind you, are already in the dictionary with definitions not inherently tied to the transgender community, to describe our experiences.
If you’re going to bar someone from using the prefix of “trans,” you have to agree that discussing transformation is offensive. Transaction? Oh hell to that! Transportation sure as hell isn’t safe, you’d better rename that to “crossportation” right fucking now. Or, perhaps… arissoportation? Make it not so offensive, yeah?
No, that’s obviously stupid. When I searched the online Oxford dictionary for “trans-” the earliest use I could find was 1574. In comparison, according to an article from The Conversation, the prefix used in terms of gender has only been used since 1910.
- TransIDs are made up to gain oppression points.
This is among the most common arguments I hear. “You’re just an attention seeker and/or you just want to be oppressed.” And that’s an interesting take, because attention seeking is a good sign that someone is emotionally neglected. We, as biological primates, crave community. And I have seen folkel identify as transID because of this, to some extent – my most common sighting is transracial folkel who are POC feeling as if they’re “not dark enough.” So, it’s never just because they want to be oppressed. They feel like they SHOULD be oppressed.
Another argument that goes with this one is that we as transID folkel are “stealing resources.” And yeah, if you’re, say, buying thick water because you’re transabled, that’s a dick move. But I never see that. What I see instead is folkel doing simple things to help relieve dysphoria. Me wearing this eyepatch isn’t me stealing resources from the blind. I made this myself out of fabric, string, and prayers. It’s not a medical-grade eyepatch. No transID individual is going up to folkel and ripping off their bandages, or pulling their wheelchair out from under them, or anything like that. We work with what we have.
- All transID individuals were groomed into it/the transID community is a cult.
Another common argument I see is that we – and the wider radqueer community – are a cult. Now, for something to be considered a cult, it must fit the BITE model. BITE is a pneumonic for behavior control, information control, thought control, and emotional control. Let’s assess the transID community using this model.
Behavior control – given that by pro-transID ideology you can theoretically identify as anything, we’re very pro-autonomy. If anything, we do the opposite of behavior control. We encourage freedom of expression to any extent.
Information control – On a surface level, it might look like there’s some information control going on in the transID community. There’s not a lot of resources validating our experiences, and a lot explaining why we’re all horrible pedophiles and shit like that. The reason why we don’t encourage listening to that information is because it tends to circle back to the same five arguments that can be easily debunked, like we’re doing now. These sources of information are made from a place of hatred and used for shock value… think the litter box argument that conservatives make against therians. It’s that same sort of fallacy.
Thought control – One could say there is some small degree of thought control in the transID community, because we heavily discourage negativity toward identities you don’t understand. Simply put, you’re not pro transID if you’re not pro all transIDs. The community can be quite reactionary in this regard, and this is the only point I’ll agree on. It can be quite toxic. But “toxic” isn’t the same as brainwashing others into cult doctrine.
The same kind of goes for emotional control – we can get defensive, but ultimately? We’re a small group on the internet. We’re not organized enough to control anyone to the degree that cults do. In fact, throwing such a word around is very offensive to cult survivors!
- TransID individuals are all kids.
The last argument I tend to see is that we’re all kids under the age of 16-18. Simple statistics disproves that one, according to my survey we as a community are majorly (49.6%) over the age of 18. There’s not many folkel 30+ in the community, but that makes sense since older generations tend towards exclusionism and conservative thinking.
But even though we’ve debunked their arguments time and time again, antis will still keep coming back. They still want us dead, they still want us to rot in hell because they find us personally offensive. This shows that they haven’t developed a theory of mind around the subject. Theory of Mind is the process behind understanding that the thoughts and emotions of others aren’t the same as your own, and accepting that. This usually happens around the ages of 4-5. In other words, if you go after us for identifying in a way you don’t like, you are quite literally acting like a child.
So what’s the solution here? In a word? Education. If these identities were more widespread and expressed in meatspace more often, there would be more questions and thus more answers. Folkel wouldn’t have to go undercover into our safe spaces and make assumptions. We love answering questions! I love answering questions! Which is why I’m opening it up to you. If you have questions about my experience as Vriska or about transIDs in general, I’m going to direct you to my Tumblr account. My URL is vriskerfic8ion, which is on the board now.
If we educate others on the transID experience and have folkel stop being suspicious of us, we may be more free to express ourselves. There might even be procedures created for folkel to modify their bodies, so for example I could get my eye removed.
Sure, we might offend some individuals. I’m not going to ignore that. I’m not going to ignore the feelings of those who are against us, who genuinely feel like we’re a threat to their existence. And I’m here to tell you: we are not the enemy. We are not out to invalidate your experiences with trauma, and racism, and ableism. We experience those things too. We have our own traumas, and a lot of us use transID labels to cope with that. We have reasons, real reasons, to identify as we do. It’s not to be quirky, and it’s not to be transphobic. We are merely putting words to experiences, and if you don’t like that? Block us. Refuse to interact with us.
But that’s only a temporary solution, because we’re everywhere. We’re in your schools, your workplaces. The folken serving your food could be transID. The folken teaching your classes could be transID. The folken sitting next to you could be transID. Why are you wasting energy hating us when we’re not going to change our beliefs? Like it or not, I’m still Vriska. I’m still looking to physically transition. I’m still going to remove my eye, and pierce my skin, and bleed for the futures of those shat on by groups who are supposed to understand our plight.
Your thoughts change nothing.
So the next time you meet someone who’s transID? Be kind. Be opening, welcoming. Ask questions. Suspend your disbelief. Accept them for who they really are, and kill the cop inside your head. Because at the end of the day?
We all just want to be our true selves.”
Context:
Vriska apparently gave this speech at their university/college.
Link to Post with Audio Recording: https://t33thm4rks.blog/2024/03/16/23466/