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I chose this reading because it reflects

Threshold Concepts in Women's and Gender Studies in the way it addresses power dynamics in regards to privilege.

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Also referencing the work of McIntosh, this checklist gives examples of the some of the privileges that men experience on a daily basis. This is also very evidence in the text in discussion of power and oppression.

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In an interview style article rather than a scholarly writing, McIntosh, author of The Invisible Knapsack, discusses privilege in a way that is related to the text and gives more background to how she came up with her ideas and why it is important to recognize and address privilege.

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I think it was because nobody else was writing so personally, and giving such clear examples, drawn from personal experience, which allowed readers to understand this rather complicated subject without feeling accused.
How did people respond?
Well, at first, the most common responses were from white people. Their most common response was "I never thought about this before." After a couple of years, that was accompanied by "You changed my life." From people of color, from the beginning, it was "You showed me I'm not crazy." And if they said more than that it was along the lines of "I knew there was something out there working against me."
But there was a negative reaction to it, too.
The right wing wanted to paint it as craziness. But there were so many people saying it wasn't crazy that I was able to put them aside. David Horowitz named me one of America's ten wackiest feminists; that used to get to me. Now I think, If you're going to do work for racial justice, you're going to get attacked.
Have those reactions changed much? It's been more than twenty-five years.
The truth is that it hasn't changed much, except in the universities. The colleges and the universities are the places where you get a hearing. They're where you learn to see both individually and systemically. In order to understand the way privilege works, you have to be able to see patterns and systems in social life, but you also have to care about individual experiences. I think one's own individual experience is sacred. Testifying to it is very important-but so is seeing that it is set within a framework outside of one's personal experience that is much bigger, and has repetitive statistical patterns in it.
Is that the challenge-or the usefulness-of the idea of privilege, as you see it? That it asks you to combine an individual view of life with an abstract one?
When Tal Fortgang was told, "Check your privilege"-which is a flip, get-with-it kind of statement-it infuriated him, because he didn't want to see himself systemically. But what I believe is that everybody has __a combination of unearned advantage and unearned disadvantage in life. Whiteness is just one of the many variables that one can look at, starting with, for example, one's place in the birth order, or your body type, or your athletic abilities, or your relationship to written and spoken words, or your parents' places of origin, or your parents' relationship to education and to English, or what is projected onto your religious or ethnic background. We're all put ahead and behind by the circumstances of our birth. We all have a combination of both. And it changes minute by minute, depending on where we are, who we're seeing, or what we're required to do.

At SEED, thinking about privilege is deeply personal group work. We do an exercise where everybody reads out loud from something they've written based on Jamaica Kincaid's story called " Girl," which ran in The New Yorker in the seventies. In "Girl," Kincaid lists voices in her head from her early childhood, telling her how to be a girl. Everybody reads either their boy piece or their girl piece, and, listening, you get a systemic view of varieties of gender conditioning. One very sad thing-very major to me-is that almost all the men who are now over forty read, "Boys don't cry," or something like "Put the damn worm on the damn hook." And that's a lie-a huge social lie that makes men of that age have to act tougher than they feel. It's a tragedy for the entire world, and it's inflicted on boys; they're not guilty of it. Usually the boy's crying, or about to cry, when he's told boys don't. This is wreckage to the psyche.
You seem to relate to the idea of privilege in a very compassionate way. But isn't that hard, since the effects of privilege are so unjust? Isn't it natural for privilege to make people angry, rather than openhearted? I imagine Tal Fortgang in a college seminar, and the rancor that must accompany conversations about privilege in the classroom. How do you defeat that?
The key thing is to let people testify to their own experience. Then they'll stop fighting with each other. One of my colleagues at SEED says, "Unless you let the students testify to what they know, which schools usually don't let them do, they will continue to do just what the dominant society wants them to do, which is to tear each other apart." The students who are sitting there fighting with one another aren't allowed to have their lives become the source for their own growth and development. Adrienne Rich wrote, at the beginning of women's studies, "Nobody told us we have to study our lives, make of our lives a study."
It seems as though, for you, talking about privilege shouldn't lead to arguments; it should be a kind of therapy.
I wouldn't say therapy, because psychology isn't very good at taking in the sociological view. But it has to do with working on your inner history to understand that you were in systems, and that they are in you. It has to do with looking around yourself the way sociologists do and seeing the big patterns in the rest of society, while keeping a balance and really respecting your experience. Seeing the oppression of others is, of course, very important work. But so is seeing how the systems oppress oneself.

_

This interview has been edited and condensed.

_

Photograph courtesy Peggy McIntosh.

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The concept of privilege came into its own in the eighties, when the women's-studies scholar Peggy McIntosh started writing about it.

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McIntosh's The Invisible Knapsack is a great scholarly article to give overall context to how privilege and oppression works.

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Quick online quizzes are becoming very popular on social media outlets such as Facebook, and Buzzfeed is using it to address privilege on a more personal level.

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Target's official statement from last year, titled

Continuing to Stand for Inclusivity, discusses their stance on gender. Target bases their stance on The Equality Act, which provides protection for LGBT individuals. I think this is a great resource to look at media bias in comparison to the Fox News article.

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This scholarly article briefly summarizes the difference between sex and gender. I thought that this is a great contrast to the Gender Spectrum article, to see how scholars and journalists write about gender and sex and how it relates to the text.

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This article gives a description of the difference between sex and gender. I think that this is a great article to compare to the more academic article.

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Ash Hardell is a well known LGBT YouTuber whose content is both informative and relevant to this chapter of

Threshold Concepts in Women's and Gender Studies. The "ABCs of Gender" (Everything Gender) series they do discusses many terms that our book talks about this chapter, including Gender Identity,
Biological Sex,
Gender Expression,
Cisgender, Transgender, HRT, Transman/woman, FTM/MTF, Dysphoria, The Gender Binary, Gender Queer, Androgyny, Gender Fluidity, Gender Variant, Agender, Gender Neutral, and Non binary.

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Fox News, known for being on the right wing side for journalism, reflected their views during their report on Target. They include many tweets that show bias for the conservative side of the argument. One tweet reads, "@Target may be forgetting who made their stores strong. It’s working families, fathers, mothers, boys, girls-not gender-neutral. #OffTarget". There are many ways to analyze this tweet and why Fox News would choose to include it in their article. It assumes that working families must be made up of a "father, mother, boys, and girls". In this chapter, our book discusses the transgender umbrella, which encompasses much more than what Fox considers a family.

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Target stores are undergoing a sex change of sorts.

The retail giant announced last week its stores would begin phasing out some gender-specific product categories and switch to gender-neutral displays and colors after guests complained, or, as a company statement said, "raised important questions."

"Right now, our teams are working across the store to identify areas where we can phase out gender-based signage to help strike a better balance," the statement, posted to Target's website, said. "For example, in the kids' Bedding area, signs will no longer feature suggestions for boys or girls, just kids. In the Toys aisles, we'll also remove reference to gender, including the use of pink, blue, yellow or green paper on the back walls of our shelves. You'll see these changes start to happen over the next few months."

"Barbies are still going to be with Barbies and Legos will still be with Legos. We just didn't feel like having a sign that said 'boys bedding' was necessary"

- Molly Snyder, Target spokesperson

The push to stop segregating shelf space for action figures and princess dolls rose to a national level in June after Ohio mother Abi Bechtel snapped a photo identifying an aisle's contents as containing "Building Sets" and "Girls' Building Sets."

"Don't do this, @Target," Bechtel wrote above the photo.

That tweet went viral, getting more than 3,000 retweets and favorites each - and a reply from Target. "We've made sure to share this with the right teams for further review," @AskTarget, the guest services Twitter arm of the company, replied to Bechtel a day after her original tweet.

Don't do this, @Target pic.twitter.com/cfh3cp5Nqa
- Abi Bechtel (@abianne) June 1, 2015

Target's statement last week alluded to customers such as Bechtel who had objected to its signage.

"But we never want guests or their families to feel frustrated or limited by the way things are presented," Target's statement said.

The change isn't sitting well with all observers, however.

Franklin Graham, an evangelist who is the son of famed preacher Billy Graham, wrote on Facebook that "Target is way off-target on this one!"

"I think Target may be forgetting who had made their stores strong," Graham wrote. "It's not gender-neutral people out there - it's working American families, fathers and mothers with boys and girls they love."

.@Target may be forgetting who made their stores strong. It's working families, fathers, mothers, boys, girls-not gender-neutral. #OffTarget
- Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) August 11, 2015

Just two months ago, sex-specific signage seemed here to stay at Target.

"Recently we conducted a test where we removed any reference to gender in the toy aisles in a number of our stores," a Target spokesperson told BuzzFeed on June 12. "In those stores, our guest research showed us that guests preferred having a variety of indicators that can help inform and guide their shopping trip."

So, in the span of a couple months, what changed?

"Leading up to that moment there's been a broader conversation about gender and signs and using gender indicators, especially as it relates to kids," Target spokesperson Molly Snyder told Fox News. "Like all retail, the way people shop is continually changing, so when people look across our stores, we thought the two changes we're making were the ones that make sense at this point in time."

The changes will not affect all aspects of the store, Snyder said.

"Clearly - I would hope clearly - we're still going to have a mens', womens', boys' and girls' clothing department," she said. "Barbies are still going to be with Barbies and Legos will still be with Legos. We just didn't feel like having a sign that said 'boys bedding' was necessary."

And consumers can still "shop by gender" for "boys' toys" and "girls' toys" on Target.com, something which the company doesn't expect to change.

"We really took a pause and looked at what made sense in our stores, where does it make sense online and where is it unnecessary," Snyder said. "One of the top ways people shopped online is by searching by gender. We wanted to make sure our site and stores are easy to shop, and follow a logical path for people."

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Target going gender neutral in some sections

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Target stores are undergoing a sex change of sorts. The retail giant announced last week its stores would begin phasing out some gender-specific product categories and switch to gender-neutral displays and colors after guests complained, or, as a company statement said, "raised important questions."

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Target's Official Statement on Gender Inclusivity

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Target's Official Statement on Gender Inclusivity

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Understandings of gender continually evolve. In the course of a person's life, the interests, activities, clothing and professions that are considered the domain of one gender or another evolve in ways both small and large. This has perhaps never been more true than it is now. The data show that today's young people have significantly different understandings of gender than previous generations, with consequences for all children, families, organizations and institutions. For example:

A 2015 Fusion Millennial poll of adults ages 18-34 in the USA found that the majority see gender as a spectrum, rather than a man/woman binary.

A 2017 Harris Poll of millennials found that 12% identify as Transgender or gender non-conforming.

Research by J. Walter Thompson Intelligence (the research arm of the global marketing communications company) found that 56% of those aged 13-20 know someone who uses gender-neutral pronouns (such as they/them).

Leading businesses are beginning to change traditional gender-based marketing of products, such as removing "pink and blue" clothing and toy aisles.

All of us are inundated with gender messages from the time we are born, yet we offer children few opportunities to more deeply consider or understand this fundamentally important aspect of life. Basic gender literacy is essential for children to understand their own gender, engage in healthy relationships, identify and place media and social messages in context, and have agency in determining aspects of their gender now and in the future. Societal ideas about gender will affect every critical aspect of their lives, from education to career, finances, relationships and more.

Dimensions of Gender

People tend to use the terms "sex" and "gender" interchangeably. But, while connected, the two terms are not equivalent. Generally, we assign a newborn's sex as either male or female (some US states and other countries offer a third option) based on the baby's genitals. Once a sex is assigned, we presume the child's gender. For some people, this is cause for little, if any, concern or further thought because their gender aligns with gender-related ideas and assumptions associated with their sex.

Nevertheless, while gender may begin with the assignment of our sex, it doesn't end there. A person's gender is the complex interrelationship between three dimensions:

Body: our body, our experience of our own body, how society genders bodies, and how others interact with us based on our body.

Identity: the name we use to convey our gender based on our deeply held, internal sense of self. Identities typically fall into binary (e.g. man, woman), Non-binary (e.g. Genderqueer, genderfluid) and ungendered (e.g. Agender, genderless) categories; the meaning associated with a particular identity can vary among individuals using the same term. A person's Gender identity can correspond to or differ from the sex they were assigned at birth.

Social: how we present our gender in the world and how individuals, society, culture, and community perceive, interact with, and try to shape our gender. Social gender includes gender roles and expectations and how society uses those to try to enforce conformity to current gender norms.

Each of these dimensions can vary greatly across a range of possibilities and is distinct from, but interrelated with the others. A person's comfort in their gender is related to the degree to which these three dimensions feel in harmony. Let's explore each of these dimensions in a little more detail.
Body
Most societies view sex as a binary concept, with two rigidly fixed options: male or female, based on a person's reproductive anatomy and functions. But a binary view of sex fails to capture even the biological aspect of gender. While we are often taught that bodies have one of two forms of genitalia, which are classified as "female" or "male," there are Intersex traits that demonstrate that sex exists across a continuum of possibilities. This biological spectrum by itself should be enough to dispel the simplistic notion that there are just two sexes. The relationship between a person's gender and their body goes beyond one's reproductive functions. Research in neurology, endocrinology, and cellular biology points to a broader biological basis for an individual's experience of gender. In fact, research increasingly points to our brains as playing a key role in how we each experience our gender.

Bodies themselves are also gendered in the context of cultural expectations. Masculinity and femininity are equated with certain physical attributes, labeling us as more or less a man/woman based on the degree to which those attributes are present. This gendering of our bodies affects how we feel about ourselves and how others perceive and interact with us.
Identity
Gender identity is our internal experience and naming of our gender. It can correspond to or differ from the sex we were assigned at birth.

Understanding of our gender comes to most of us fairly early in life. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, "By age four, most children have a stable sense of their gender identity." This core aspect of one's identity comes from within each of us. Gender identity is an inherent aspect of a person's make-up. Individuals do not choose their gender, nor can they be made to change it. However, the words someone uses to communicate their gender identity may change over time; naming one's gender can be a complex and evolving matter. Because we are provided with limited language for gender, it may take a person quite some time to discover, or create, the language that best communicates their internal experience. Likewise, as language evolves, a person's name for their gender may also evolve. This does not mean their gender has changed, but rather that the words for it are shifting.

The two gender identities most people are familiar with are boy and girl (or man and woman), and often people think that these are the only two gender identities. This idea that there are only two genders-and that each individual must be either one or the other-is called the "Gender binary." However, throughout human history we know that many societies have seen, and continue to see, gender as a spectrum, and not limited to just two possibilities. In addition to these two identities, other identities are now commonplace.

Youth and young adults today no longer feel bound by the gender binary, instead establishing a growing vocabulary for gender. More than just a series of new words, however, this shift in language represents a far more nuanced understanding of the experience of gender itself. Terms that communicate the broad range of experiences of non-binary people are particularly growing in number. Genderqueer, a term that is used both as an identity and as an umbrella term for non-binary identities, is one example of a term for those who do not identify as exclusively masculine or feminine. This evolution of language is exciting, but can also be confusing as new terms are created regularly, and since what a term means can vary from person to person. For further information on specific identities and what they commonly mean, please see "The Language of Gender."
Social
Social gender is the third dimension. This includes Gender expression, which is the way we communicate our gender to others through such things as clothing, hairstyles, and mannerisms. It also includes how individuals, communities and society perceive, interact with, and try to shape our gender. Social gender includes gender roles and expectations and how society uses those to try to enforce conformity to current gender norms.

Practically everything is assigned a gender-toys, colors and clothes are some of the more obvious examples. We begin to teach children about gender from the moment they are born; given the prevalence of the gender binary, children face great pressure to express their gender within narrow, stereotypical definitions of "boy" or "girl." Expectations regarding gender are communicated through every aspect of our lives, including family, culture, peers, schools, community, media, and religion. Gender roles and expectations are so entrenched in our culture that it's difficult to imagine things any other way.

Children who express gender outside of these social norms often have a difficult experience. Girls thought to be too masculine and boys seen as feminine face a variety of challenges. Kids who don't express themselves along binary gender lines are often rendered invisible or steered into a more binary gender presentation. Pressures to conform at home, mistreatment by peers in school, and condemnation by the broader society are just some of the struggles facing a child whose expression does not fall in line with the binary gender system.

Because expectations around gender are so rigid, we frequently assume that what someone wears, or how they move, talk, or express themselves, tells us something about their gender identity. But expression is distinct from identity-we can't assume a person's gender identity based on their gender expression. For example, a boy may like to wear skirts or dresses. His choice in clothing doesn't define his gender identity; it simply means that he prefers (at least some of the time) to wear clothes that society has typically associated with girls. In fact, how we interpret a person's gender and the assumptions we make about them is related to our personal understanding of gender and the norms and stereotypes we have integrated-it isn't about them.

Finally, norms around gender change across societies and over time. One need only consider men wearing earrings or women having tattoos to see the flexibility of social expectations about gender. Even the seemingly intractable notion that "pink is for girls, blue is for boys" is relatively new. Prior to the mid-twentieth century, pink was associated with boys' clothing and blue with girls' clothing (still due to the gendering of colors, but with a different rationale associating each color with particular gendered characteristics).

Congruence

Gender congruence is the feeling of harmony in our gender:

experiencing comfort in our body as it relates to our gender;

naming of our gender that adequately corresponds with our internal sense of who we are;

expressing ourselves through clothing, mannerisms, interests and activities;

being seen consistently by others as we see ourselves.

Finding congruence is an ongoing process throughout each of our lives as we continue to grow and gain insight into ourselves. It is most often found through exploration. For some, finding congruence is fairly simple; for others, it is a much more complex process. But the fundamental need to find gender congruence is true for us all, and any degree to which we don't experience it can be distressing.

"Transitioning" is a term commonly used to refer to the steps a transgender, agender, or non-binary person takes in order to find congruence in their gender. But this term can be misleading as it implies that the person's gender identity is changing and that there is a moment in time when this takes place. More typically, it is others' understanding of the person's gender that shifts. What people see as a "Transition" is actually an alignment in one or more dimensions of the individual's gender as they seek congruence across those dimensions. A transition is taking place, but it is often other people (parents and other family members, support professionals, employers, etc.) who are transitioning in how they see the individual's gender, and not the person themselves. For the person, these changes are often less of a transition and more of an evolution.

Instead of "transitioning," a more apt phrase is "pursuing congruence measures." A person can seek harmony in many ways:

Social congruence measures: changes of social identifiers such as clothing, hairstyle, gender identity, name and/or pronouns;

Hormonal congruence measures: the use of medical approaches such as hormone "blockers" or hormone therapy to promote physical, mental, and/or emotional alignment;

Surgical congruence measures: the addition, removal, or modification of gender-related physical traits; and

Legal congruence measures : changing identification documents such as one's birth certificate, driver's license, or passport.

It's important to note, though, that a transition experience can be a very significant event in a person's life. A public declaration of some kind where an individual communicates to others that aspects of themselves are different than others have assumed, and that they are now living consistently with who they know themselves to be, can be an empowering and liberating experience (and moving to those who get to share that moment with them). Oftentimes during a transition experience a person will announce a change in the name and pronouns that they use and ask that others use their new name and pronouns going forward. Honoring this request is a sign of respect and a critically important way to demonstrate support.

Personal Gender

While the Dimensions of gender and the desire for congruence are common to us all, ultimately gender is personal. Each dimension of gender is informed by our unique intersection of

identities, experiences, and personal characteristics. We are more than our body, gender identity and gender expression: we are also our race, ethnicity, class, faith, sense of geographic place, family history, and more. Our gender is personal because, while we share some of these aspects of self with others, the way that all of these identities, influences and characteristics come together is unique to each of us.

Gender Is Different Than Sexual Orientation

One final distinction to make is the difference between gender and Sexual orientation, which are often incorrectly conflated. In actuality, gender and sexual orientation are two distinct, but related, aspects of self. Gender is personal (how we see ourselves), while sexual orientation is interpersonal (who we are physically, emotionally and/or romantically attracted to).

Why is it so critical to distinguish between these two concepts? When we confuse gender with sexual orientation, we are likely to make assumptions about a young person that have nothing to do with who they are. For example, when someone's gender expression is inconsistent with others' expectations, assumptions are frequently made about that person's sexual orientation. The boy who loves to play princess is assumed to be gay, and the girl who buys clothes in the "boys'" section and favors a short haircut may be assumed to be a lesbian. These could be faulty conclusions. What someone wears and how they act is about gender expression. You cannot tell what a person's sexual orientation is by what they have on (for that matter, you can't know what their gender identity is, either ... unless they tell you).

Our society's conflation of gender and sexual orientation can also interfere with a young person's ability to understand and articulate aspects of their own gender. For example, it's not uncommon for a transgender or non-binary youth to wonder if they are gay or lesbian (or any sexual orientation other than heterosexual) before coming to a fuller realization of their gender identity. How we come to understand our gender and our sexual orientation - and the choices we make to disclose and express these parts of ourselves - are distinct paths. Thinking of these two aspects of self as interchangeable may, instead of helping us know ourselves and one another better, actually get in the way of understanding and communication.

What's Next?

There is a generational divide in how we think about gender. In order to bridge this gap, those of us who were raised with a more limited view of gender can take this as an opportunity to explore gender with new eyes, to read and ask questions to better understand gender's complexity. As with any learning experience, you'll learn more about the world around you and about yourself in the process.

Gender diversity has existed throughout history and all over the world. As one of the most fundamental aspects of a person's identity, gender deeply influences every part of one's life. Where this crucial aspect of self is narrowly defined and rigidly enforced, individuals who exist outside of its norms face innumerable challenges. Even those who vary only slightly from norms can become targets of disapproval, discrimination, and even violence.

This does not have to be the case. Through a thoughtful consideration of the uniqueness and validity of every person's experience of self, we can develop greater acceptance for all. Not only will this create greater inclusion for individuals who challenge the norms of gender, it will create space for all individuals to more fully explore and express who they are.

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Understandings of gender continually evolve. In the course of a person's life, the interests, activities, clothing and professions that are considered the domain of one gender or another evolve in ways both small and large. This has perhaps never been more true than it is now.

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What is the difference between sex and gender?

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Sex = male and female Gender = masculine and feminine So in essence: Sex refers to biological differences; chromosomes, hormonal profiles, internal and external sex organs. So while your sex as male or female is a biological fact that is the same in any culture, what that sex means in terms of your gender role as a 'man' or a 'woman' in society can be quite different cross culturally.

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EVERYTHING GENDER (Part 1) | ABC's of LGBT

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PART 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ9ly4cK9tg TIME SIGNATURES FOR ALL THE WORDS (you're welcome): Gender Identity- 2:54 Biological Sex- 2:32 Gender Expression- 3:11 and 4:34 Listen to Kara talk about identifying as a woman but expressing in a traditionally masculine way: 4:34 Cisgender- 5:35 Transgender- 6:00 HRT: 6:30 Transman/woman- 6:42 FTM/MTF- 6:54 FTF/MTM- 6:56 Dysphoria- 7:25 Transgender v.

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An image of the Womens March on Washington by The Chicago Tribune

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An Organizational Overview of The Rape and Crisis Center in Fargo, ND

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An Organizational Overview of The Rape and Crisis Center in Fargo, ND

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Many local feminist activist groups put theory into practice through social media. Two groups that I follow and that came to mind when talking about feminist praxis include The NDSU Women's Activist Organization and The FM Secular Women and Allies Group. These groups provide a forum for both discussion and activist work to be done in the Fargo-Moorhead community. They are a hub for fundraisers, projects, volunteering, and more opportunities to bring theory into practice within the community.

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The Rape and Abuse Crisis Center in Fargo, ND has volunteer opportunities that allow advocates to put theory into action. The volunteer opportunities allow many different skill sets to add their expertise to the mission. The volunteer options include advocacy, childcare, front desk/clerical work, fundraising, professional skills such as public relations, public speaking, and more, and special projects like working with

Pinwheels for Peace, Partners in Peace Bracelet creation, organizing donations, and doing general handy work.

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While most of my research revolves around feminist praxis in regards to The Fargo-Moorhead community, I thought it was important to give a national perspective on activism. Donald Trump's presidency has ignited feminist social activism. The Women's March will be the start of what organizers hope will be a sustained campaign. The article discusses the impact of the campaign worldwide with emphasis on the march on Washington. It describes the way the campaign put focus on action rather than on theory by bringing millions of women and allies together to stand up for rights.

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The sisters have a website that offers delivery and pickup options for seedlings.

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Social Media and Digital Activism- Local Activists

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united nations entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women

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We all have the right to attend school and receive a quality education. Take action at #HeForShe.

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Our story:For the past few years, our family has been growing heirloom plants.We save seeds from our garden and start them as seedlings the next spring.

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A National Perspective: The Women's March

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Getting Involved with The Rape and Abuse Crisis Center in Fargo, ND

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Rape and Abuse Crisis Center - Get Involved

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RACC's primary focus is on the provision of crisis intervention, advocacy and prevention services for domestic violence, sexual assault and incest.

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He for She Campaign

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HeForShe is an invitation for men and people of all genders to stand in solidarity with women to create a bold, visible and united force for gender equality. The men of HeForShe aren't on the sidelines. They're working with women and with each other to build businesses, raise families, and give back to their communities.

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HeForShe is an invitation for men and people of all genders to stand in solidarity with women to create a bold, visible and united force for gender equality. The men of HeForShe aren't on the sidelines. They're working with women and with each other to build businesses, raise families, and give back to their communities.

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The Wiley Family

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Dayna enjoys gardening: the dirt, the growth, the delicious juicy product. But she won't eat these tomatoes. She plans to sell the organic heirloom seedlings and donate the proceeds to the Rape and Abuse Crisis Center of Fargo-Moorhead, as she has done for the past two years.

"I didn't want to keep all the money," Dayna said of the first time, when she raised $400.

"And the Rape and Abuse Crisis Center helps people," added her sister, Merill, who's 8 years old and started helping last year. Merill is in charge of peppers.

The youngest Wiley, 4-year-old Terra, joined this year and takes care of the herbs, a simple task.

"You buy the seeds, plant 'em in dirt!" said Terra, jumping up and down in her monkey socks.

The Wiley girls don't fully understand the concepts of rape and abuse.

"What's rape mean?" Merill recently asked her parents, Justin and Sally Wiley.

"It's forcing people to do things they don't want to do in a violent, mean way," Sally said.

Sally and Justin see the project as a way for their daughters to do good, but also as a path to continue a family tradition. Four generations of Sally's family lived on her farm in Niagara, N.D., and Justin's stepfather is a "master gardener," he said.

"I wanted the girls to have a connection because I grew up on a farm having a connection to the land," Sally said. "It was a way of passing it on."

The parents rent six plots, or about 2,000 square feet, from the NDSU Extension Service. Between that and their home garden, they grow 80 percent of the vegetables they eat in a year, Justin said.

Terra was actually given her name, which means "land," because just as the family finished planting the garden in 2011, Sally's water broke.

The Wiley family grows heirlooms because they're not genetically modified and have "fantastic" flavor, Sally said.

For the sale, Dayna has about 200 tomato plants of different heirloom varieties, including Cherokee purple, green zebra, indigo blue, peach and pineapple, which is the family favorite.

Her preferred way to eat them? "Like apples," she said.

The Wiley sisters are taking orders now at wileee.com/plants and will sell the remaining plants on May 12.

If you go

What: Seedling sale, with proceeds going to the Rape and Abuse Crisis Center

When: 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, May 12

Where: 1602 28th Ave. S. in Fargo

Suggested donation: $3 for tomatoes, $2 for peppers and herbs

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Fargo sisters sell seedlings to benefit Rape and Abuse Crisis...

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FARGO - For months, 12-year-old Dayna Wiley has been tending her tomato plants. At first, they were just seeds under grow lights in the basement of her family's south Fargo home. Now, they are more than a foot tall, green and leafy in the upstairs sun room.

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"The world is at a turning point. People everywhere understand and support the idea of gender equality. They know it’s not just a women’s issue, it’s a human rights issue. And when these powerful voices are heard, they will change the world. The time for that change is now. HeForShe is inviting people around the world to stand together to create a bold, visible force for gender equality. And it starts by taking action right now to create a gender equal world." -The He for She Mission Statement

He for She is an activist group focusing on education, health, identity, work, violence, and politics around the world. He for She identifies why, how, and where these focus areas most impact women and provides resources for everyone to take action.

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Three sisters, ages 12, 8, and 4, have been growing plants to sell and donating the proceeds to The Rape and Abuse Crisis Center in Fargo, ND. The oldest sibling and founder of the Wiley Seedling project , twelve year old Dayna, has been working on the project for four years. The sisters are putting theory into practice by helping rape and abuse victims. They raised $400 in their first year and $1,200 in 2016. The proceeds help by "providing crisis intervention, counseling, advocacy, and education to male and female, child, adolescent, adult and elder victims of domestic/dating violence, sexual assault, child sexual abuse, and human trafficking/sexual exploitation". -The Fargo Rape and Abuse Crisis Center Mission Statement

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This shows a few of the identities that can intersect to form a unique individual with unique experiences with privilege and oppression.

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Kimberlé Crenshaw is a scholar of critical race theory who coined the term "intersectionality" in 1989 to discuss intersecting identities.

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Who knew intersectionality could be so perfectly described with pizza? This video is great for anyone that wants a solid understanding of what intersectionality is and why it is important. Pizza, burgers, and toppings make a great metaphor for people are how they are perceived by society. The intersection of traits create a different life experience for the individual.

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Bisexual individuals, especially women, are negatively stereotyped in media as "sex-crazed, non-monogamous cheaters or something to that effect" or never acknowledged at all. Piper Chapman, the main character of Orange is The New Black, has relationships with both men and women and is never referred to as bisexual. Despite being a show that is trying to push boundaries, Orange is The New Black operates on a gay-straight binary.

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Alana McLaughlin is a friend of mine, someone I admire, and have followed on social media for years. Because of her social media presence, she was contacted by news outlets for interviews about her life as a trans woman. She saw this as a platform to show what is like to be a working class, bisexual trans woman who suffers from PTSD, anxiety, and depression and to offer support for the transgender community. This article is a representation of how trans folk (in Alana's case, trans folk with mental illness) can be misrepresented in media. While the article did have its good points, the interviewer focused heavily on her transition from a "macho man" to "pretty" and less on her struggles and message.

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(Image: Barcroft Media)

Pretty Alana McLaughlin looks like any other young woman - but less than five years ago she was a macho-male soldier in the US Special Forces .

Alana - who was born a boy called Ryan - was a stacked figure of rippling muscle, spending her days engaged in lethal armed combat.

Unknown to her fellow soldiers , Alana, 32, had always felt female, and had joined the Special Forces to either 'become a man' or to be killed.

Now Alana, from Portland, Oregon, has finally found the courage to live as a female, and after full gender reassignment surgery, she is hoping to find love as a woman.

Alana said: "I joined the military initially because I felt like it was my only option to either force myself into manhood somehow or die.

"I wanted very much to be actively engaged in combat so I would have the opportunity to get myself killed. I view it very much as passive suicide.

"I fought, shot, lifted weights, I grew beards and I rode a Harley and it didn't change anything. I would still cry myself to sleep at night."

Alana served in Afghanistan as a shooter and a medic in the A Team Delta as a way to escape her problems.

She knew from a young age that she identified as female and while dealing with gender dysphoria she was also a victim of sexual abuse.

Alana said: "As a child, I prayed every night. I prayed that god would either change my body and make me a girl or change my mind so that I wouldn't want to be.

"And neither of those prayers were answered. I lost my faith".

Alana's conservative parents have found it difficult to accept her as a woman.

She explained: "I told my parents that I was gay and I felt like I was a girl and I wanted to be a girl.

"When I first told my parents this, my dad didn't talk to me for like a week or two weeks.

"They just would not accept me as their daughter and I'll only ever be their son. I was a massive disappointment.

"They really seem to be fixated on this idea that I was trans because I was raped. Sexual abuse does not change your sexuality, it doesn't change your gender."

Alana has encountered other hostile reactions to her decision to live as a woman and her first attempt at transitioning after she left the army in 2010 ended in a bloody act of self-destruction when she decided to cut off her own breasts with a scalpel.

Alana said: "I'd been on hormones but I felt hopeless.

"All the messages I was receiving were that I could never be legitimate - that I could never be a real woman.

"I felt like I would never be taken seriously and I would only ever be a joke.

"You can only hear so much negativity before you start internalising it and I started to feel like I had to be a man.

"I'd been on hormones long enough that I had some breast development and I didn't want to be a man with boobs so I took a scalpel and removed the breast tissue myself.

"I went into the bathroom and I had my surgical kit there and I performed surgery. "As an A Team Delta, my surgical skills were up to the task and I did pretty clean work.

"But it was a pretty self-destructive thing to do - and very stupid."

Alana began her transition again in earnest in 2012, having a range of surgeries including a breast augmentation, facial feminisation surgery and sex reassignment surgery.

She explained: "I wouldn't say just your physical form."

Alana says that the surgery to appear more feminine is less about vanity and more about fitting in with societies norms.

Alana said: "The surgery makes it less likely people will realise you are trans and gives you more safety. I want to survive."

Alana has now made a group of firm friends who accept her as a transgender woman.

And now she hopes to find someone special to share in her new life.

Alana said: "I'm hoping that eventually I'll be able to settle down with someone - it's important for me to find love.

She added: "I finally feel like I'm a real personthat I felt like I was in the wrong body as much as I was in the wrong role. Gender boils down to a lot more thannow and I don't have to pretend anymore."

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Transgender ex-special forces reveals inner battle to accept true identity

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Pretty Alana McLaughlin looks like any other young woman - but less than five years ago she was a macho-male soldier in the US Special Forces . Alana - who was born a boy called Ryan - was a stacked figure of rippling muscle, spending her days engaged in lethal armed combat.

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Ever since the Netflix-original series Orange is the New Black premiered on July 11, 2013, the buzz has been increasing about the show's varied portrayals on-screen, ranging from racial and sexual diversity to trans* characters and beyond. One of the biggest issues in relation to the LGBT+ community that the show has brought up is the lack of use of the term "bisexual" -- despite the apparent bisexuality of the central protagonist and other characters as well.

In the first episode, protagonist Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) is shown to have had relationships with both men and women in her life; instead of being called "bisexual," however, she's referred to as an "ex-lesbian." This term is used several more times over the course of the first season; in other instances Piper is referred to as "straight" and "lesbian."

For the bisexual community, many of us are on the look-out for portrayals in television and film that we can relate to; historically, such portrayals tend to be stereotyped and negative (i.e., sex-crazed, non-monogamous cheaters or something to that effect). When we see a potentially promising character like Piper, oftentimes we become hopeful that there is finally a positive bisexual role for us to watch. When that role eschews the term "bisexual" in every single instance for another term, however, that hope diminishes.

When asked about her thoughts regarding Orange is the New Black, Bisexual Resource Center President Ellyn Ruthstrom said, "I enjoyed the show a lot and thought it was a shame that for a show that is trying to push the boundaries on several levels, that it still resorts to the old binary of gay/straight." Ruthstrom felt like the show "missed an opportunity" and is awaiting Season II. "Piper is clearly bisexual so perhaps it will be explored better in the future."

Bisexual activist Aud Traher furthered Ruthstrom's sentiments, saying, "I still think the idea of calling anyone 'ex-lesbian' is incredibly dangerous. It gives credence to not only bisexual invisibility but ... putting this into popular media only cements it further into the dominant discourse that queer people can be 'cured,' that queer women only need to find the right man or have sex with one to 'cure' them."

To be sure, using a term like "ex-lesbian" may come off to a majority of the LGBT+ community as the ultimate goal of reparative therapy and "pray the gay away" camps. One might counter, however, that current discourse makes the way bisexuals are portrayed on Orange is the New Black more realistic than if the most politically correct terms were, in fact, utilized.

To this point, bisexual activist Angel added, "It's obviously not the portrayal of An Ideal Bisexual™, but I think there's a difference between negative and [an] unideal but honest portrayal."

Fellow bisexual activist John Clark agreed, saying, "I'm fine with the way Piper is finding herself in the show... Piper clearly is still figuring out herself."

In fact, while other characters call Piper "ex-lesbian," "lesbian" and "straight" throughout Season I, she never refers to herself as any of these labels. There are actually multiple instances in which she refutes them. In one episode she explains to her friend and fiancé, "You don't just turn gay, you fall somewhere on a spectrum, like a Kinsey scale." In scenes like this, the viewer becomes aware that regardless of how other people see and label Piper, she does not necessarily see herself the way others do -- and doesn't that ring true for the lives of bisexuals of today and yesterday?

Clark summed it up well, saying, "When I watch Piper, even though male, I get the place she's at. She's me decades ago just trying to figure out how she ticks. Our stories of self-discovery are the hardest to tell and very dramatic. They take time to tell."

Viewers will have to wait to see if Piper comes out as bisexual in Season II, or if her journey of self-discovery still has longer to go before she's comfortable identifying with a specific label.

Season I of Orange is the New Black is currently streaming on Netflix. Season II is set for a 2014 debut.

A version of this blog post originally appeared in Bi Magazine.

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Ever since the Netflix-original series Orange is the New Black premiered on July 11, 2013, the buzz has been increasing about the show's varied portrayals on-screen, ranging from racial and sexual diversity to trans* characters and beyond.

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Trans women of color are being murdered and no one is recognizing it. Twenty seven trans women were murdered in 2016 and almost all of the victims were women of color. There may be more, but many are reported under dead names and incorrect genders.
The National Center for Transgender Equality researched how and which victims experience violence and discrimination in their daily lives. Their findings showed that trans women of color experience discrimination more than their white counterparts. Trans women of color experience more hate crime than their white counterparts and are murdered at higher rates than their white trans women because of the intersection of their trans, female, and black identities.

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“Last to be hired. First to be fired.” “Active recruitment. Conditional acceptance.” People of color are familiar with all the clichés, because they are often a professional reality."
The first sentence of this article sums up the experience of many black women in the professional world. This article describes lengths black women have to go through to maintain their positions in the workplace. These struggles are something men and white women would not have to worry about, but because of their dual identity as both black and women, they are forced to prove their competence while also avoiding isolation by their peers.

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Women Of Color in The Workplace

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"Last to be hired. First to be fired." "Active recruitment. Conditional acceptance." People of color are familiar with all the clichés, because they are often a professional reality. For women of color, the vulnerability of both race and gender frequently collide to create an ever-shifting landscape. As a result, many women of color are pressured to overcompensate in ways that are unhealthy for themselves, their careers and their institutions. At various times in my career, I've seen this happen as a faculty member, dean and vice president, as well as a woman of color myself.

In American higher education, service requests embody an endless stream of invitations to serve departments, colleges, universities and/or professional organizations, all while trying to get tenure or promotion. They begin as opportunities for faculty women of color to prove ourselves and increase our visibility. Soon, those opportunities turn into expectations, and the pressure to keep up the pace can undermine our ability to successfully create or publish at the highest levels.

While some argue that women of color should just say no, that is easier said than done. Oftentimes, as the recipients of these requests, we have yet to reach tenured associate or full professor status. Many feel there is an unwritten rule that a no is an automatic strike on their reputations, a scarlet letter that can be used later as an excuse to deny promotions, exclude us from social networks or even justify separation from the university.

That usually does not change as women rise through the ranks. As administrators, we often find ourselves as the only women, people of color or both in professional settings, and we are highly likely to overload on responsibilities -- not just to prove we are competent but to combat isolation. Ultimately, we end up working twice as hard as others, only to see our research and creative activity suffer. Even worse, the reward is membership in social networks where we still have to vie for attention or legitimacy, resulting in a constant state of insecurity. Too often, it can seem like a lose-lose situation.

But there is an answer to this dilemma, and it lies on the other side of getting to no. It is not just about saying no. Rather, saying no is the last step in a series of thoughtful decisions that demonstrate why saying no is the logical conclusion.

I offer five tactics that other women of color and I have used successfully in getting to no so that we can truly choose the service that empowers our best skills, while leaving for others the things that help them lead and shine as well.

1. Work your plan. Lay out your specific goals in an individual development plan. They should go beyond merely getting tenure, promotion or an endowed chair. Five years from now, what do you wish to have accomplished for yourself in your department, institution or profession? Your family? What are the resources and service opportunities that will help you to achieve those ends? Sometimes the answer is unorthodox. For example, as an assistant professor, I was the book review editor for the major journal in my subfield. Many colleagues advised against it, but that service connected me with the major players in my discipline who then served as my mentors. Take time to catalog the opportunities in your profession and university so that you can understand what the service opportunities are and how they fit into your plan. Do not be afraid to create your own service activities, especially if they align your expertise with needs in your profession, institution or department.

2. Take time to think and process. When asked to serve, take some time to consider it, even if it is just for an hour or two. The distance will give you an opportunity to think strategically about whether or not the request is the best fit for you.

3. Separate the emotion from the work. For women, a range of emotions from fear to guilt to the need for acceptance often enter into the calculus of making decisions about service requests. Ferret out the impact of the service request on your time, professional goals, mental health and family responsibilities, and then think about how the service responsibilities make you feel. Getting enough time to think makes it easier to separate the work from the emotion.

4. Make a list and check it twice. Just like Santa Claus has a list, so do the colleagues asking you to engage in service. While it feels good to know that you have been asked, do not let the request alone lull you into an automatic yes. Realize that there are other folks on the list who may need the opportunity to serve more than you do. Saying no may provide just the opportunity another colleague needs to shine.

5. Wear humility as a badge of honor. Busyness is becoming a badge of honor in the university, and its threatening to undermine both our sanity and our humanity. Colleagues are engaging in a busyness Olympics, competing with each other over long hours spent in the office and on their work. No matter how well intentioned, universities are headed in the wrong direction when we determine their value by how thin we stretch themselves.

As faculty women of color, we must remind ourselves and demonstrate to our colleagues that we value people for who they are, not just what they do. There will always be more work. Instead of pressuring each other to work like machines, we can serve as models of love, authenticity, empathy and courage.

Here's what that looks like in real time: take a few moments every week to refresh yourself and others by letting them know how much you value them. Invite overworked colleagues to take a walk or share a meal or a beverage. Apologize and forgive yourself as well as others when you miss the mark. Kick guilt to the side. Reintroduce yourself to joy as a constant friend.

We must bring the heart and the human touch back into the practice of university service. In the long run, that is how we will get the best from ourselves, our colleagues and our institutions. That is how we will, in turn, contribute our best selves to the world beyond.

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Women of color in academe should not feel pressured to overcompensate (essay)

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"Last to be hired. First to be fired." "Active recruitment. Conditional acceptance." People of color are familiar with all the clichés, because they are often a professional reality. For women of color, the vulnerability of both race and gender frequently collide to create an ever-shifting landscape.

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Trans Women of Color

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On February 19, 18-year-old Jaquarrius Holland died of a gunshot to the head in Monroe, Louisiana, after a verbal altercation. But it took over a week for people to realize another Black trans woman had been murdered because reports about Holland repeatedly misgendered her.

By the time the news caught the attention of national media, it became clear that three Black trans woman had been murdered in Louisiana in the span of just nine days.

Holland was the first one killed. Six days later, Chyna Doll Dupree was shot multiple times in New Orleans while visiting the city for Mardi Gras. Two days after that, Ciara McElveen was stabbed and dragged from a car in New Orleans' 7th Ward.

Altogether, seven trans women of color have been murdered so far in 2017.

"We have to come together and try to create safe spaces," Co'Bella, a Black trans woman in New Orleans, told ThinkProgress. "It's not just New Orleans. It's a national problem."

Violence against women of color is far from a new phenomenon. Twenty-seven trans women were killed in 2016 - a record high - and almost all of the victims were women of color. Of the 16 trans and gender non-conforming (GNC) people killed in 2015, 13 were trans women of color. In 2014, only one of the 11 trans women killed was white. The FBI reported that violent hate crimes against people targeted because of their gender identities skyrocketed between 2013 and 2015.

But as trans women of color fight to survive, their voices are noticeably absent from the national conversation about transphobia. And their exclusion leaves room for additional violence to occur.

'We personalize it because that could be us.'

Regardless of where the killings happen, the spate of murders reverberates throughout trans communities nationwide.

Kimberly of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP), which provides services for Black and Latinx trans and GNC women in New York City, told ThinkProgress that trans women of color everywhere are in mourning because they see themselves when they look at the victims.

"A lot of times when we hear about these murders, we personalize it because that could be us," she said.

Take Francois Pierre, a GNC trans femme who's working on a graduate degree and interning for the New York City Anti-Violence Project. A native of New Orleans with deep cultural roots to the city, they said the murders devastated them at a time that should have been celebratory.

"I was so angry and overcome by grief, I couldn't partake in the (Mardi Gras) festivities like the rest of my kin this year," they told ThinkProgress. "These tragedies really hit home for me and disrupted my sleep most of the week."

Lourdes Ashley Hunter, the executive director of the Trans Women of Color Collective in Washington, D.C., shares that experience of grief. "It's been very challenging. These murders are hitting close to home," she said. "We are seeing more and more young trans people affirm their identity and take agency over that, but we also see that it comes with a very high price."

Some women are fearful; others are angry.

"The streets feel so unsafe. Just going home can be dangerous," Kimberly said.

Despite the toll it's taking on the community, Kimberly, Lourdes, and Sasha, SRLP's director of membership, say there are too few medical resources to help trans women of color deal with what's happening to them.

"There should be mental health support. You would think that people would be sending counselors into certain communities after they've encountered violence that's occurred," Sasha said. "Trans women have just been left behind in terms of some of these services."

Sasha pointed out that when trans people do seek professional support, they often have to deal with "harassment and the discrimination" and "the fact that the person is not culturally competent in serving you."

In the absence of institutional support, trans women of color are forced to rely on their own communities to get by.

"It's overwhelming to be a trans woman of color and deal with all the things we have to navigate on our own - health care, housing, mental health conditions - along with dealing with the rest of the world that is already very transphobic towards us," Kimberly said. "Outside of community there's no safe space."

A rally supporting transgender youth at the Stonewall National Monument. CREDIT: AP Photo/Kathy Willens

'No safe space'

Recently, the issue of safe spaces has taken center stage in the context of one venue in particular: the bathroom.

North Carolina sparked national controversy last March when it implemented HB2, also known as the "bathroom bill," which strictly prohibits trans people from using the bathroom that matches their gender and forces them to use the bathroom that matches the gender on their birth certificate. The law also prevents state municipalities from enacting non-discrimination ordinances that give trans people more freedoms.

National outcry against HB2 was loud and swift. But similar legislation is currently pending in 12 more states.

The issue is also worsening on the federal level. In February, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos -  reportedly facing pressure from Attorney General Jeff Sessions -  rolled back federal Title IX protections for trans students that were put in place by the Obama administration. The decision opens the door to commit hate crimes against trans kids in schools and deny their use of bathrooms that match their gender identity.

From a historical perspective, this fight is a continuation of a centuries-long battle about who has the right to use one of the most basic and fundamental accommodations: the bathroom. Race and sexual identity previously took center stage in the fight for equal rights and equal access, and the trans population is now roped into this long and fraught history.

It's an important issue. But this lack of access to bathrooms shouldn't overshadow the other problems currently facing the trans community, according to trans women of color.

"When you look at the news reports that are coming out on CNN or MSNBC and they gotta talk about bathroom bills and they don't want to talk about the murders of trans women of color or the lack of policies in certain states, that is a distraction from the larger issues," Sasha said.

Statistics paint a bleak picture of the transphobia in different spaces. Last year, the National Center for Transgender Equality reported the extent to which victims experience violence and discrimination in schools, workplaces, and living spaces. The organization concluded that trans women of color experience discrimination and violence at higher rates than their white counterparts.

Seventy-seven percent of respondents to the organization's 2015 U.S. Trans Survey (USTS) said they were "verbally harassed, physically attacked, or expelled" in K-12 schools. Fifteen percent of respondents who had a job in 2015 reported they experienced sexual assault, other forms of physical violence, and verbal harassment in the workplace. These percentages were even higher among American Indians, multiracial, and Middle Eastern respondents. And 59 percent, 51 percent, and 49 percent of American Indian, Black, and Middle Eastern trans women, respectively, experienced homelessness because of their gender identity. People of color reported higher rates of being kicked out of their homes than white respondents.

"Bathrooms are important, but how important are they if you're dead?"

Although intimate partner violence is a problem for all trans people, those who identify as Black, Middle Eastern, and multiracial experienced slightly higher rates of violence than Latinx and white respondents - American Indians even more so.

Trans people are even victimized by the very people whose job it is to protect them: cops. According to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, they are six times more likely to experience physical police violence than white cisgender people. Mistreatment comes in the form of sexual assault, physical assault, verbal harassment, and sexual exploitation.

"Because of whiteness, people think about bathrooms and education in really particular ways and a lot of people being policed or pushed out of those spaces are folks of color," Sasha said. "If the only thing people focus on is one institution or one piece of the institution, that's not a full picture of where the oppression is coming from."

Violence can happen anywhere, in public or private.

"We're not fighting for protections for trans people if we're not creating opportunities [for] trans people of color...to have access to resources," Lourdes said. "Bathrooms are important, but how important are they if you're dead?"

Shifting the narrative

Violence against trans people - especially women of color - is compounded by the fact that it's mostly ignored.

Because society is dominated by patriarchy, as well as by heterosexual and cisgender norms, Francois said, trans people don't have a place in it. Time and time again, the public response to the murders of trans women confirms this reality.

"Trans lives have no value, which is a continuous lesson I learn. It was evident when many folks - my kin and friends - were unfazed by these trans murders. Many carried on with business as usual," Francois said. "When we die, folks barely flinch. And that's if a trans person is lucky enough to make the news and not be misgendered by the media."

"If there were five or six murders of lesbians or gay men in two months, there would be a national march. There would be a national outcry."

"The media doesn't include women of color when we are talking about trans people," Kimberly added.

The people who spoke to ThinkProgress agree there isn't enough support from major LGBTQ rights organizations for addressing the murders of trans women of color. While many organizations published statements condemning the recent violence, Sasha said they haven't established "actionable steps" with groups like SRLP that work closely with trans people of color and know firsthand what the community needs.

Those affected by the violence appreciate written shows of solidarity, but don't want support to be "superficial," Sasha said.

"The community generally feels very hurt and has been outraged at the lack of support," Sasha said. "If there were five or six murders of lesbians or gay men in two months, there would be a national march. There would be a national outcry."

Advocates are also grappling with how to make themselves heard in the national conversation about trans rights and transphobia. When these murders are acknowledged in the media, the voices of trans women of color often aren't included.

"There are certain voices of folks who are impacted by this violence who are being left out," Sasha said. "There's a need and desire from our communities for those folks who are taking our issues and mainstreaming them to stop. We want them to talk about our issues, but not without us. They're thriving while our folks are still dying."

'This needs to come to an end'

In light of hostility from the Trump administration, hate crimes against trans people will likely continue. With the latest victims in mind, trans advocates are committed to creating therapeutic safe spaces - and opportunities - for the people in their communities. They say listening and responding to the needs of people most impacted by violence and discrimination is critical.

In New Orleans, activists are trying to help people grieve while looking at some of the big picture issues contributing to the profiling and killing of trans women. Co'Bella, for instance, is heavily involved in local organizing as a member of BreakOUT New Orleans, a local organization dedicated to "ending the criminalization of LGBTQ youth" in the city.

"What I've been hearing is we need jobs and housing and education and resources," Co'Bella said of her community. "What I'm focused on is getting people schools and jobs. That's what everybody should be focused on: getting liberated and getting everyone else liberated around them."

The advocates who spoke to ThinkProgress all wish the killings of trans women of color would generate more rage. But it's hard to stay optimistic about that becoming a reality anytime soon, according to Francois.

"How can trans folks expect to be respected and valued when they're dead, when we are not even humanized and granted such courtesies when we are alive?" they said.

Lourdes is frustrated that the trans community is still begging for more recognition of this issue. She said it shouldn't be up to trans women of color to plead with white people and cis people for help.

"We shouldn't have to reach out to white people to help us. They created transphobia. They created white supremacy. Black trans women didn't create any of this, so the onus is not on us to reach out to them," she said.

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Trans women of color are missing from the conversation about transphobia

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On February 19, 18-year-old Jaquarrius Holland died of a gunshot to the head in Monroe, Louisiana, after a verbal altercation. But it took over a week for people to realize another Black trans woman had been murdered because reports about Holland repeatedly misgendered her.

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Pizza

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On Intersectionality in Feminism and Pizza | Akilah Obviously

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Women and Gender Studies                                    CCC

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Women and Gender Studies                                    CCC

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By Danielle Sherrard

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Intersectionality