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I might have gotten a bit ahead since mine doesn't have page numbers and page 50 was mid-chapter.

My fav quotes so far, on gender:

And if you do not identify as transgender or transsexual or intersexual, your life is diminished by our oppression as well. Your own choices as a man or a woman are sharply curtailed. Your individual journey to express yourself is shunted into one of two deeply carved ruts, and the social baggage you are handed is already packed.

Transgender people are not dismantling the categories of man and woman. We are opening up a world of possibilities in addition.

On the necessity of having solidarity with trans people, but also could be extended to any minority oppressed group:

People won't put their time, energy, and commitment into organizing unless they know that the movement they are building is defending their lives.

We need each other. We each need to know what it's like to fight back alone. We need each other's strength as allies. And we know what it's like to feel like the only one who's different.

I'm going to come at this from a cis angle because that's most of my experience, besides being bi and having friends and family identify as trans and nonbinary. So transenby comrades please chime in if I'm saying anything thats whack: I'm here to learn how to be a better comrade to everyone.

I was really hooked by page 6 and i think it's a great place to start with other cis people or just libs in general

"And if you do not identify as transgender or transsexual or intersexual, your life is diminished by our oppression as well. Your own choices as a man or woman are sharply curtailed. Your individual journey to express yourself is shunted into one of two deeply carved ruts and the social baggafe you are handed is already packed. So the defense of each individual's right to vote their own body, and to explore the path of self expression, enhances your own freedom to discover about yourself and your potentialities."

I can't count the number of times I've heard people claim gender or sexuality can only be expressed in hyper specific ways, but later hear these exact people upset about how they are criticised on their lack of a characteristic or trait, how they get humiliated or are in the closet about a sexual preference or act or their love of something or their hobbies. Keeping identities gated and separate punishes anyone who strays outside the lines in an attempt to make those outside the ruts stand out more and get pushed back in line (phrased really well on page 30-31). I always wonder how many people are scared away from professions they would excel in due to gender and sexuality stereotypes about them (like fashion, conconstruction, math, nursing, childcare, etc).

Page 19-21 similarly jumped out to me with the long explanation of how gender binary and cishetnormativity literally criminalizes people appearing different and puts them into dangerous situations just on the basis of having a gender marker on your id. Realising that if I got stopped on my way to comiccon and was dressed in a way that made me look unlike my license I would be subject to a shit load of hassle, probably way way more if the costume was androgynous or feminine, there's a nonzero chance they find drugs or alcohol or a 'weapon' on me. A trans person doesn't have the ability to show a costume contest ticket every day of the year, and a trans person is far more likely to be subject to violence because lots of transphobes are cops. Applying that to someone who is bipoc makes the problem even more apparent with how likely they are to be harassed.

It was a really good section that paired with the earlier bits about why even cis people absolutely should be supporting initiatives that linerate trans people like removing gender markers on identification or making name changes and new licenses easier and cheaper. Linking the ease of doing this to how easy it was to remove race from id was a great point.

Page 24-25 was a good wakeup call for me as I've been guilty of classifying drag as "exagerated gender" before and linking this discussion back to 'expressions of gender shouldn't include judgement' is really helpful for people like me to unlearn those societal categories. People described as 'sex symbols' present gender at a very high degree but there isn't judgement about the femininity of Marilyn Monroe or the masculinity of Arnold Shwartzennegar being "exagerated to the point of caricature" it is only expression, and we should treat all expression in the same way, regardless of our own preferences.

I really enjoyed the calls to intersecrionality and total community support from page 43 onwards: especially "none of us can be free while others are still in chains" on page 48. As leftists we are fighting for everyone - as lgbtq+ people we are fighting for everyone, as trans and nonbinary people you are are fighting for everyone - its an important call to make loudly and frequently so we aren't overtaken and infiltrated by reductionists like stupidpol, or nazbols.

Side note: I loved seeing the anticapitalism sprinkled throughout, just lots of lovely little bits recognizing how much of the oppression is caused by trying to cling to the prejudices capitalism builds as a distraction (page 30 was my favourite one because I love Jurassic Park references).

Double posting bc fuck the police

Some of the language was a bit outdated (such as transexual), it's pretty interesting how quickly language evolves. But it was clear what the writers were describing in their use of transsexual vs transgender. I think now some of those people would be termed nonbinary and trans people are of course just referred to as being trans, while sexuality is also treated as further separate. But even then, i was surprised at the diversity of language used to describe all the people who didn't fit into the categories - nonbinary as a word wasn't used but so many people were not part of the gender binary there.

Honestly i just think of how we'd probably have all the language stuff ironed out if we hadn't be horribly repressed for so long by the whole settler-colonial mindset. Nonbinary genders have been around in many cultures and countries for thousands of years. But i mean. Our culture just kinda treats man as default and woman as a special gender that we kind of ignore, like women's studies are pretty new and treated as Extra, and p much most science is done with male participants. I think because of how women are oppressed, this is also kind of how nonbinary people are treated - we're like Spicy Woman Plus to most people because we are not women, but we do not fit into the narrow range of acceptable masculinity to really be afforded any privileges based on having a masculine presentation unless we present entirely as men.

It seems as if the range of acceptable masculinity is very narrowly defined, so anything appearing feminine, even if it's in fact a masculine behavior in that person's culture is Otherized immediately. Even if two-spirited people are deeply respected in their own culture, that's not how they'd be treated in our cisnormative settler colonialist society.

Final thought - people always picture communists are very rigid gender expression - but look at what capitalism and the pursuit of profit has done to gender expression. Men can't even fucking like girly drinks or be nice to their girlfriends without people questioning their sexuality.

Even at gunpoint, I would not choose a different path in life. My determination to remain a person who I can be proud of has made all of my views and insights and consciousness possible. It has made me see more clearly how many other lives in society are being limited through forms of discrimination and injustice. It has illuminated my relationship to them as an ally, and steeled my resolve to spend my life actively working for a world in which economic and social equality, and freedom of self-expression, are the birthrights of every person. (pg. 29)

This. Just this. There isn't a single thing I'd change about my life thus far. I don't wish I were born a cis female and I don't wish I could've just been comfortable in my body as a cis male. I'm proud of myself for going down this path in life and it truly has been an eye opening experience. Before transitioning, I was just kind of an average, tall, bearded, white dude - nothing too impressive about me. I did volunteer work but I think a lot of my privilege prevented me from truly empathizing with hurt I kept seeing in people's eyes. Coming out, I was prepared to be treated differently for who I am, but I never thought about how that might strengthen my relationship with the suffering of others as tremendously as it has. Every instance of hatred, mistreatment, and alienation I've received and every feeling of fear, guilt, doubt, and self-hatred I've felt has only increased my desire to help others in any way I can and to fight for the rights of those who cannot fight for themselves.

I've frequently joked about being a Leslie Feinberg fangirl or this being a Leslie Feinberg fan account, hell even the bottom of the trans comm's sidebar is filled with their writing, haha. But Leslie Feinberg is a major role model for me as I believe ze truly exemplifies what it means to be a leftist. I aspire to have even a fraction of hir courage, strength, perseverance in the face of adversity, and will to fight and stand up for what's right. Hir writing has been paramount to my own outlook on life and my development as a transgender person. I very much wish I could remember the person who introduced me to their writings because I would never stop thanking them.

Section 3, "Living Our True Spirit" had a take on "two spirit" that I was unaware of. I'd just taken it for granted that the phrase "two spirit" worked generally well as a description for trans/nb Native Americans . Didn't know the phrase was also used by some tribes to mean, mixed blood.

Nothing specifically quote worthy to add that hasn't already been added except for page 51:

... just because an individual is drawn into the vortex of a movement, it doesn't mean that person will automatically be enlightened on every aspect of other peoples' oppression.

So far, the book is a pretty aspirational read, light on tactics but high on motivation.

My brain has problems remembering who is speaking though, so I find myself having to jump back to the beginning of a section to try to figure out who the speaker is. Also, wouldn't mind knowing the date of the speech. I commented on the first mega thread about this book about the use of the word "transexual". And while reading I have to constantly remind myself that the book was published 22 years ago, with speakers who were alive and active in LGBTQ+ activism and speaking about events that happened 20 ~30 + years prior to the books publishing.

Fundamentally people are drawn to our sphere of thought for a couple of reasons. Either.

• One is subjected to marginalization, which lays bare the truth of things.
• One possesses a quality that makes them want to understand that truth.

Let me preface this by saying... I don't know what I identify as. Enby, if I'm truly honest with myself, I think.

The struggle sessions of this month upset me a little. A few times on the internet in the past decade I've seen a repeat pattern, and it's always sat uncomfortably with me. Leslie Feinberg hammers a few points home for why I feel uncomfortable with the trans response to trans issues.

Trans people, rightfully, feel under siege. They are harassed, they are shunned, they are targeted, and they experience denial from some ignorant quarters about the validity of their existence. Under these conditions, it is my (EXTERNAL, and possibly inaccurate) observation that trans people partially cloister themselves away into dedicated trans spaces. To me, these spaces radicalize trans people into (again, rightfully) into a particular kind of solidarity against the forces of darkness. When they emerge from these trans spaces they are often ready to fight against anyone that denies the truth of their existence - and while I agree that such aggressive solidarity is the natural response and indeed the right of any person when facing the legions of ignorance...

... I don't think it's the right approach for all situations.

When trans people come into a space like this, which again is full of;

• People suffering forms of marginalization that lays bare the truth of how things are.
• People who may not be suffering marginalization but want to understand that truth.

And trans people come in swinging super aggressive with full on bravado - followed by trying to practically character assassinate anyone who either is legitimately just struggling to connect the dots and understand the trans aspects of marginalization, or is simply upset that someone is being perhaps from their perspective overly aggressive in what should be an arena for legitimate understanding and solidarity for all struggles of marginalization... it just causes unnecessary friction. -- I understand why trans people do it, they are under siege, and aggression is natural.

But we're among friends here.

MY POINT IS. Trans Liberation, beyond pink or blue has lessons for the chapo trans sphere. Only patience and earnest conversation will create real solidarity and understanding.

Being unnecessarily coarse with people who simply want to listen is like slapping hundreds of people across the face in one epic, indiscriminate arc, and then being happy you scored like 10 hits on legitimate asshole fuckwits while everyone rubs their cheeks and grimaces.

I really do understand the aggression from trans folks in general. But imagine if every marginalized group felt that was how to communicate all the time?

We empathize. We understand. We think. I think that's the left's thing.

This is a really good read so far and I'm so glad we're doing this! There have already been a lot of good takes in this thread so I'll just add a few thoughts for now:

Seeing how much language has evolved in 22 years should be a stark reminder for anyone who disparages people for experimenting with language nowadays. There's still such a long way to go and I have the utmost respect for anyone who is blazing new trails in the search for an identity they can relate with. If anyone on here disrespects neopronouns again, they can catch these fists. 😤

Like many in this thread I absolutely loved the calls for solidarity and the necessity of an intersectional movement. Oppression hurts everyone and we must fight all oppressions if we want any hope of achieving communism. Capitalism is a ruthless machine that will stop at nothing to alienate us from others and our own selves, but I've often found that if you can break down one type of alienation, the others follow suit. May we all one day be free to be ourselves in a loving and supporting community.

Finally, to quote Les:

Let’s give a standing ovation to those who fight shoulder-to-shoulder with us everyday: our significant others, our friends, our families, and our allies.

To everyone who has ever stood up for the trans community, there aren't enough words to express my gratitude. I and many other trans people would still be closeted if we didn't know that allies are out there. Y'all are fucking amazing and we love you so much! :cat-trans:

(Also, I was tearing up a bit while reading Linda and Cynthia's stories. I felt so much love coming off of the page.)

Hi comrades, I did the painstaking job of converting the PDF into the EPUB. I've already seen one comment referring to the ebook, so I'm glad that my effort was justified. (And sorry about any typos I missed, the OCR software seemed to struggle on the italicized portions.)

One suggestion for the next megathread: could we reference which sections are covered in the pages for discussion? That would be highly helpful for those reading the ebook!

Recently, due to the Netflix movie, and the corresponding Chapo and Dollop episodes, I've been thinking a lot about Abbie Hoffman, and movements. This year has also demonstrated (once again) that electoralism will not lead us to revolution. I found this quote from the True Spirit Conference speech to be quite inspiring:

Movements are waves of people demanding redress of their grievances, crashing against those who profit from maintaining the status quo. Which political current will lead this movement? Like white-capped coastal rivers, movements are driven by many political currents. Which currents determine the course of the river for a time is also affected by external factors, like prevailing winds, storms, the inexorable pull of the moon and the resulting tides. And then there are the political storms ruling classes whip up to deflect mass protest—like scapegoating gay and bisexual men and Haitians for the spread of aids, or demonizing undocumented immigrant workers and people on welfare. The tides of mass popular reaction to these tempests - good or bad — affect the predominance of some movement currents over others. So do economic cycles - boom or bust — and the storms of bloody territorial wars between capitalist powers, like World War I and II.

So who will lead our movements today? Recently, many in the trans communities have been discussing “What makes a leader?” We’ve grown up in a society that places much more value on some human lives than on others, where a few are considered shepherds, and the rest sheep. We have been taught that we have no power to change the most miserable conditions of our lives. But that’s a lie.

Everyone in this room is a leader. Each of us is needed as an organizer, as an activist in the decisive struggles that lie ahead.

There’s a wonderful Chinese proverb that advises “The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.” The people who are making history today are the organizers, the activists, those who are building coalitions, distributing leaflets, making calls, sending out e-mail, mobilizing others out of their despair and into motion. The leaders are the ones who are “doing it.” And the responsibility and role of leadership is to develop leadership in others.

In the words of African-American poet June Jordan, “We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

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