this year really is an interesting year for the TO trans march.

previous years, the march went along illegally because they couldn’t get a permit to march along yonge street or some such, they’d been denied this in all past years but ‘allowed’ to march down church street. in the past few years, some have taken to marching down yonge without city permits. this year, they got the city to change its mind.

getting a permit means that they would expect some police resources to help block the street off, direct traffic, etc. i can understand why they would seek a permit (not that i necessarily agree) but holding a march without a permit opens up participants to arrest, which is not a good thing. it is also, without a doubt, not a good thing to have a heavy police presence (however, from what I understand of past years, the police showed up to surveil anyway, permit or no). in a lot of ways, obtaining a permit can be viewed as a necessary compromise to maintain a certain level of safety.

however, there is a difference between making necessary bargains with the system and between inviting these people in and treating them like honoured guests. and to do so with the express desire to build a ‘friendship’.

doing so renders the TO trans march nothing but an empty, symbolic gesture. and it is funny too since their honoured group is ‘the fallen’. orly? are you doing honour to the women who’ve been traumatized and slain and harassed by police? whose deaths go uninvestigated because the police truly don’t give a fuck?

ugh. i fucking am sick of shit like this. there was already so much wrong with the march. the theme ‘love is all you need’. the colour lavender ‘cause:

Why lavender? It is symbolic of the blend of the two gender binary colours of pink & blue.

which is bullshit white supremacist logic.

and, yeah, i checked into the ID’d leaders on the facebook event and they are all (from what it appears) white trans women. and i’m looking at the discussion on the facebook group about this, and it is definitely full of that bullshit white rhetoric:

Please note the open meeting aspect, voices for and against expressing their concerns in a reasonable non-alarmist manner. A group decision, made in a reasonable manner.source

what utter bullshit. i have no use for something like this. something like this does nothing. nothing at all.

(yes, i’ve posted a lot about this. because i’m fucking bitter. jaded and fucking grumpy about this shit. because it isn’t just about this march. it is about the fact that these white people, by being ‘leaders’, end up occupying space and eating resources. they end up preventing effective action because they present this as something meaningful and capable of change. they actually think this is the police extending an olive branch. that magically, the day after the march, police won’t be right back there traumatizing and harassing twoc.

this is nothing but a placebo that will placate the more privileged – and thus complacent – trans people. it allows them to take that morally superior position of ‘i’m doing real activism’. of saying, yeah, i’ve contributed to my community.

except that making bargains with our oppressor, begging them and seeking favour so that we might exist, only serves to entrench their power by legitimizing their right to oppress.

i guess in another sense… this is me officially done with any and all things where white people are leaders. always so fucking willing to work with oppressors. probably because you benefit the most from this. i can’t even think of a single white-led organization/group/movement that has done fuck all to benefit me. and, no, i don’t see the point in showing up at a march that literally does not give a fuck about making my life any better.)