An open letter to the Spokane Trans* Comunity

An open letter to the Spokane trans* community:


I am asking everyone to re-unify and put aside differences.

Consider the troubles that have drove us apart over the last year. Every one of them is a minor issue in the grand scheme of things. Not a single one of the issues has been of the magnitude of a really serious issue. We never needed law enforcement to interfere and we haven't gone to blows. Nothing like those things has happened. Mainly we have had personality conflict that was informed by misunderstandings and hurt egos.

We can fix this. The rifts are repairable as they are not based in any major betrayals. Sure there has been some petty infighting, gossiping and back biting, but that is minor stuff.

I want to point out that it has been said many times (and it seems very obvious): You don’t go through life trans* and not come out with some amount of PTSD. Just the trauma of living in the wrong body, or in a society that does not accept us will result in PTSD. You don’t have to even transition to have this problem.
A large amount of us have issues with boundaries. A large amount of us have issues socializing in groups.

Every one of these things that we have issues with can cause friction. We are all dealing with varying levels of personal issues. We are a fragile community and as such we can break. But when you have something beautiful that breaks, you try and glue it back together and treat it better.

Also, we have to take into consideration that people tend to have trouble dealing with others who have the same flaws they perceive they have themselves. 

These things do make for a tough battle and have for us. But we can prevail and stay a strong force for the community.

 ~~~~~~~
Proposal:
We come back together and get back to the mission of supporting each other and saving lives, which I can assure you, we have saved lives.
We work with the understanding that most of us are flawed. There will be disagreements and issues in the future. But we have to work past those issues. Lives are literally on the line.
 ~~~~~~

I own my part in the troubles. I am not perfect and I do not fight fair at all. It is one of my flaws.
But nothing happens in a vacuum. I had my own reasons and I felt pretty passionate about them and my feelings were hurt also a few times down the road this last year.

I am totally committed to letting that go and moving forward for the community. My precious and tender ego will just have to get over it as I move on. I do not have time to let my hurt feelings take over my mission. Not over small shit. I can't stay mad over small shit. Can I talk you into letting bygones be bygones so we can move forward?

Now that Pride week is over we have a simple easy summer ahead of us. Due to Pride we will see a number of new people trickle in over the next couple of months. With visibility we attract more of our own.


In two weeks we will have our standard issue get together. I hope to see you there.

Have a great day and a better tomorrow,
Cynthia Lee

Spkane Trans* People

The group has started to draft by-laws for the committee that was just voted in.
We are moving forward and becoming a proper group.

We are hitching our wagon to OutSpokane as a satellite organisation.

Just a small update.

:)

Why we use the asterisk ~Sevan

So, if transgender is an "umbrella term"...what's the need for "trans*"? 

Simply put; there shouldn't be a need for it. However; there is. Transgender is often shortened to trans and can be interpreted as trans-male or trans-female, and many gender variant/non-cis identified people feel left out or unsure if their identity is included and being thought about. 

When I see a blog post, article or other written materials that don’t have the asterisk I wonder if they are including me and those like me. If I see a support group, brochure about transgender identities or an advertisement about a presentation that doesn’t use the asterisk I wonder if I’m welcome in that space.

My understanding is that the asterisk came from internet search structure. When you add an asterisk to the end of a search term, you’re telling your computer to search for whatever you typed, plus any characters after. Such as: trans*-gender, -queer, -sexual, etc. No idea if that’s the truth of the matter…but that’s the general “mythos” behind where the asterisk came from.

So if you, or your organizations is trying to be open and accessible by all trans* people; make sure to use the asterisk to verify to all people that you have taken the time, and intention to invite and welcome all trans* people.

Even within my local trans* support group; our name has “trans*” in it; Spokane Trans* People. All of our educational materials and presentations have trans* in it. We are committed to being open to all in the umbrella. 

Sam over at itspronouncedmetrosexual.com posted about this, and created this awesome graphic.  Click it to see his take on it.