When Your Hole Is Full

So today I got gatvol. South Africans will know what that means - it means "your hole is full".

Yeah, I'm really angry about this.

I call this one: "Alright, I'll Fucking Do It, Then!"

What's this about? This morning I emailed a five page, properly formatted complaint with a dozen references and attachments to the SAHRC.

A Response To Helen Zille's "The 'Trans' Debate Revisited"

On 23 April, Helen Zille made a social media post in which she doubled-down on her transphobic stance, chillingly throwing in the word "contagion" numerous times for good measure. Like transgender people are some sort of "disease" that spreads and endangers feminism - and society. Unlike TERFdom of course, whose apparent purpose is to "defend women's spaces" and "feminist gains" over the past century. (Insert eye-roll here).

First I'll repost her statement, and then address it beneath that. Be ready for a long read. And yes, have a "trigger warning" - and another, while you're at it. The last time I was this upset by reading material, it was when I reviewed "The Pink Agenda" and almost ripped the book in half. This cringeworthy post by a leading figure within South Africa's second-largest political party should set off an avalanche of outrage in anyone who doesn't have a zipper running down the backs of their human suits. It should beg the questions: 1) How did we not notice Zille's lurch toward far-right extremism before now? 2) What does her shift into the realm of red-hat-wearing conspiracy theory and hatemongering populism mean for the Democratic Alliance and its traditional base of liberal, "woke" supporters?

Decide for yourself.

Speaking Truth To Power: An Open Letter To Helen Zille About Her Transphobic Utterances

For many years I supported the DA, especially when as a young, idealistic human rights activist active in the LGBTQ+ community set out in search for a political party in South Africa that would champion the causes of human rights, equality and tolerance for LGBTQ+ people - and especially for transgender people, as that is a cause that lies close to my heart. After all, I am a transwoman. I was overjoyed when I found the DA, because the DA promised to be all those things - and they were led by a strong, admirable woman - you. Or, at least that's what you seemed to be at the time.

Helen Zille, Using Dehumanizing Language, Incites Hate Against SA Transgender Community!

So transgender people are "a contagion"? So I'm a "contagion", am I, Helen Zille?

The use of dehumanizing language like this is absolutley outrageous, horrifying and beyond the fucking pale! Such hateful dehumanizing language is the dominion of Nazis, eugenicists and megalomaniacs - not of anyone presenting themselves as champions of democracy, equality and human rights! I'm truly shocked to see someone who was once considered those things deteriorate to such an extent as to be completely unrecognizeable.

At this point, the back of her neck should be checked for a zipper - to see if she's some sort of reptillian hiding in a human suit. How utterly cold-blooded and utterly evil must she be to begrudge a persecuted minority (as transgender people are worldwide) simple legal dignities and protections from persecution?

Make no mistake, Zille has been captured by transphobic propaganda - which defies logic, science and common sense, and has forsaken things the rest of us take for granted - compassion, humanity, and empathy.

What's most concerning about this is that Zille - clearly an out-of-touch dinosaur desperately seeking to remain relevant on the stage of current affairs, has been the main reason for the DA's lurch towards the extreme right in the last 10 years: support for Israel's genocide in Gaza, and her loud-mouthed attacks on transgender people made in social media and circulated in the press, to name just two examples.

As a South African transwoman this sort of blatant transphobic incitement to hatred is deeply troubling - especially when it comes from a leader of a party that supposedly contradicts the claimed ethos and principles of that party.

The DA refused to censure her previous TERF remarks attacking transgender people - which were as based in ignorance and malicious stupidity as her latest diatribe - on the grounds that "she has a right to her opinion". Well, no, she doesn't - "free speech" does not include permission to utter hate speech - especially not when she's a leading figure of a political party using that platform and her fame and influence to incite hatred and intolerance for an already persecuted minority group.

If the DA will not speak out or take action against Zille, then that is an admission that they fully agree with her. In which case, their entire premise, principles, mandate, ethos and platform, is a lie. In which case I hope every trans-ally, every LGBTQ+ South African, every person with a conscience and an aversion to a culture of hate and scapegoating, ceases their support for that party forthwith.

Suffice it to say, that if global news coverage of the ongoing genocide in Gaza is not sufficient to dissuade the "Democratic Alliance" from supporting Israel to the hilt, why would they care a damn about their "fearless leader" inciting hatred against transgender South Africans from the platform of her fame and influence in her DA leadership role?

This latest scandal of Zille's utterances of hatred - which praise the actions of hate abroad while also inciting more actions of hate HERE in South Africa - in the midst of already horrific hate rising in the UK against the mere existence of transgender people AND in the US, where transgender people are being legislated into criminality simply for existing - is simply unacceptable! In fact, it is diabolical!

Some sort of action MUST be taken against her for this. There HAS to be consequences for uttering such blatant hate, because it inciteful - and it's obvious what she will attempt to do next, as a politician of high influence within the DA - she will attempt to replicate the actions of her role-models in the UK and US here in South Africa.

Doubling Down On Stupidity Doesn't Make It Any Less Stupid

The J.K. Rowling saga has been going on for quite a while now, since last year if memory serves. Just this past week however, Ms. Rowling appears to have unseated several silly internet meme trends and other media red herrings to take the top-spot in my Facebook and Twitter feed.

Rowling has come under fire - and rightly so - for not just supporting TERFs via her Twitter account, but likewise, regurgitating patently ignorant TERF nonsense - attacking the validity of transgender people, and also their acceptance as women.

FAQ’s Answered #12: Who Is Cindy-Mei Winter?

Today in a series of replies to FAQ (frequently asked questions) sent to me by fans (and sometimes not so much), I answer the question:  "Who is Cindy-Mei Winter?" the first main character of the Quantum Series, and a transwoman.

Mistaken Identity

Last night I came upon a blog which claimed to be feminist. Now I have no problem with feminists, in fact I am also a proud feminist (how can I be a human rights activist otherwise?) - and in the course of my activism for the pink community, I try to get a shot or two in for feminism also. After all, as a trans-woman I am also a woman and sensitive to the sexism and patriarchal attitudes that I face just as any cis-gender woman does. I am sad to say it, but the site in question also turned out to be transphobic in nature.

The owner, "Margaret" - wrote a post called "No Such Thing As A Transsexual" and proceeded to criticize transgender people to the point where I could actually forget it was a woman writing, and not a trans-misogynistic, heterosexist, homophobic bigot of the right wing. The only thing I did not see displayed was the rabid religious fundamentalist tendency to dump a ream of rhetorical religious references to somehow "prove" their point. Instead, scant references were made to the typical right-wing conservative propaganda machine, which has about the same basis in fact as Harry Potter is a world religion. The comments left by a gaggle of her goose-stepping cis-sexist wing men - and herself, simply expounded upon their clear bigotry against trans-women - and transsexual, and even gay people in general.

Let's start with the title:

What's Good For The Goose, Is Good For The Goose

I notice many cis-feminists out there attacking trans-women and berating them as "male pretenders." It makes me mad. After all, what does it take to be a woman? How much must a trans-woman cut off before she isn't considered "male" by these hypocrites? Some are truly hateful in their argument, leading me to believe that they hate anything which is - or was - in any way, shape or form masculine - even in terms of origin, even if no trace at all of that remains.

As one who supports democracy and freedom of conscience, it is my firm belief that cis-feminists are entitled to their erroneous opinion that trans-women are "men" - even if it proves that they are insensitive, blithering idiots.