Transfem

yeah, don't get me wrong, we absolutely need to fight back - but we need to do that in ways that aren't just CeCe McDonald pulling her little scissors out and desperately fighting off a man who smashed a beer glass on her face and pursued her when she tried to flee. The Black Panthers were an organized group who survived interactions with the police by showing up in force. Individuals on their own get targeted and victimized. When we form groups and fight back together it's much harder to do that.

So I don't really consider punching a bully a form of praxis, nor would I say my decision not to punch was some kind of MLK non-violence in practice - I reject non-violence, but I also reject stupid and risky violence.

Part of the reason we don't have a trans Black Panthers is that we are only 1% of the population, and we're evenly distributed across the population. Except in some rare cases like the Tenderloin in San Francisco or the Meatpacking District in NYC, trans folks have not generally been forced into ghettos together the way racial minorities have been, and that has limited our embodied collective action.

That said, I think trans people might still find protection in groups now through LGBT+ groups. Even if not militant, I do think showing up at a pride parade offers a sense of safety in numbers that connects with what I'm talking about.

Also, personally I lived in the southern US and in the context of an overtly hostile public and being visibly trans, I definitely was more careful about what spaces I went to, and I tended to choose to spend more time in LGBT+ spaces (e.g. there was a trans-owned coffee shop for a time where the community sort of congregated). Part of that is also about having "backup" in the face of random violence or bullying from the public - together we were safer.

Also, I'm not sure I necessarily recommend reading Stone Butch Blues; it's a classic work of queer literature, but it's also a traumatizing read, and not even a particularly trans-affirming book in my opinion. At the very least, read at your own risk.