On Mass Shootings and Trans Safety

TW: Gun violence, mass shooting, anti-trans violence.

It’s the 27th of March, and the United States has had 130 mass shootings. All those shootings barely stayed in the news cycle for 72 hours. All but today’s mass shooting in Nashville, Tennessee. Why?

Because for the only time in the history of the United States actively cataloging mass shooting numbers, the shooter was a member of a marginalized community facing a constant and persistent danger to their existence.

The shooter was trans.

The shooter was trans in a country deadset on harming trans communities, dehumanizing trans folx, and making a concerted effort to strip trans folx of human rights on every level conceivable.

The shooter was trans in a country looking for any opportunity to vilify trans folx to pursue an agenda of erasure through cisgender-driven transphobic hatred.

Because of this, you can guarantee that half of this country’s news cycle will be dedicated to that agenda.

Sadly, as is the custom in the United States, those who lost their lives in this tragedy will be an afterthought in the aftermath of their lives being taken by bullets from assault rifles. But their lives will be further diminished by a country full of hateful policymakers running with a new rung on the ladder of the narrative that trans folx are a danger to the populace and a threat to our children. These narratives will do nothing but increase the risk of harm or death to children, trans children, and trans adults at the hands of hateful sheep looking to justify their hate.

And all because, for one time in the history of the United States, a mass shooter wasn’t a cishet male.

Now trans communities will suffer, the families of those who lost their lives will suffer, and both parties will be pitted against one another in the news cycle with the intent of further endangering trans lives. And the United States will be no closer to addressing gun violence, protecting our children from real threats to their safety, or ensuring our country isn’t steeped in anti-trans hate.

And all of this enhanced trauma at the start of Trans Week of Visibility.

To those of you reading this who aren’t trans: get informed and involved. Visit the Trans Week of Visibility website to get informed and learn how to help. Find initiatives in your city, region, and state. Check the people in your life who are OK with the ongoing threats to trans folx. And do what you can to protect the trans people in your life.

To all my trans friends, family, and colleagues: I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this constant freight train of harm. You’re not alone. Please reach out to me if you need anything. We’ll figure out how to do our best to protect you and yours.

Sending you love and energy.

This Week's Opening Thought: March 27, 2023

This week's opening thought: white supremacy in action is when elected officials decide the best way to handle their unfounded fears and insecurities about a popular phone app is to hold public hearings around banning its use.

White supremacy is when the popular phone app you claim you're scared of does the same data collecting that other apps do, yet it is somehow "more dangerous" because it's a Chinese-owned company.

White supremacy is attacking the app company's Singaporean CEO with an hours-long "line of questioning" that's a thinly-veiled xenophobic and anti-Asian hate crime played out on a world stage.

White supremacy in action is also when a major clothing company decides that it's easier to use AI-generated models than to put in the work to source and hire models outside of the white physical "body standard" norm.

White supremacy in action is when you could make an effort to find and elevate Black and Brown models, Indigenous models, Asian models, Pacific Islander models, models with disabilities, and models with a variety of body shapes but decide using computer-generated images is good enough.

White supremacy in action is the company sharing this change in a major press release and wording it in such a way that the decision-makers in their company believe they should get kudos for their new "revolutionary diversity efforts."

On the surface, these two situations may seem separate to some of you. But don't get it twisted. They are branches from the same old haggard tree.

That tree desperately needs a wind storm to uproot its gnarled and deeply-rooted grip on the soil of generations.

On HR and Being The Right Hand of The King

Image description: a comic strip. In the strip, a person dressed in medieval king regalia walks away from a limbless black knight. The king is wielding a sword in their right hand. The letters "EE" are on his back, which is shorthand for employees. The limbless black knight's torso is upright, looking onward at the departing king. The letters "HR" are on the black knight's back, which is shorthand for human resources. Their arms and legs are strewn about. They are shouting at the king, "Come back...'tis just a flesh wound...oh, all right, we'll call it a draw!"

It is 2023. If you're an HR "professional," and after everything that has happened to melanated communities, queer communities, reproductive health, and public health over the past four years, you're still operating in your HR role like you're the right hand of the King?

You're in the wrong profession.

I hear Medieval Times is hiring.

Real talk? Your HR approach and philosophy were never what employees needed, even when conversations about the ethics and execution of HR were merely whispers between coworkers who were angry about how you treated them but knew that they didn't want to catch your ire and lose their jobs. And at this point? Your brand of HR is no longer wanted or tolerated by employees, as we all understand our rights and what your style of HR represents. The standard for what HR can and should be is higher now, and accountability for HR "professionals" is growing. That HR style you're still wielding like a broadsword? That's only wanted by senior leaders who view themselves on some King Richard sh-- who believe they need a human weapon to "control the peasants."

And some of y'all are mighty comfortable with being the sheriff of Nottingham.

Not a good look.

[Image description: a comic strip. In the strip, a person dressed in medieval king regalia walks away from a limbless black knight. The king is wielding a sword in their right hand. The letters "EE" are on his back, which is shorthand for employees. The limbless black knight's torso is upright, looking onward at the departing king. The letters "HR" are on the black knight's back, which is shorthand for human resources. Their arms and legs are strewn about. They are shouting at the king, "Come back...'tis just a flesh wound...oh, all right, we'll call it a draw!"]

This Week's Opening Thought: March 20, 2023

This week's opening thought: if someone calls you in regarding your actions and behaviors, actions and behaviors that uphold or amplify hate, racism, anti-Blackness, transphobia, homophobia, xenophobia, and all the intersections of oppression, and your apology is less of an apology and more of an excuse as to why you did or said what you did or said or a way to posit yourself as a victim guess what?

It's not a proper apology.

Try again.

This time with feeling.

On Women's History Month, International Women's Day, and the Perils of White Women

It's International Women's Day today, and March is Women's History Month in the United States. While so many women have influenced me and how I view, approach, and navigate the world, from my mother in my formative years to women I am happy to call friends, chosen family, and long-time colleagues; I must admit that all of my gratitude for those women comes with a side-eye to white women.

They are the most dangerous people in my chosen profession.

They have placed me in more dangerous situations than any other group.

They have threatened my livelihood and earning potential on multiple occasions.

So it makes it hard for me and many other melanated folx to celebrate all women as deeply as we could when the specter of whiteness and the power and positionality of white women is under the surface of celebrating progress and perseverance.

Yes, it's International Women's Day, and this month is Women's History Month in the United States. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be honest about our world and how white women impact that world. If you live in western culture and have decided to be remotely observant, you've seen firsthand how white women are placed at the forefront of women's history, like they are the only entity that has fought for earning and maintaining women's rights. But then you look at how white women vote, who they collectively posit as their "oppressors," and how they have exploited and benefited from the work and energy of melanated communities in similar and sometimes more harmful ways than white men. And that sh-- hits different. Like, women as a whole have to constantly fight for the right to exist in this world, in the United States, but I've seen so many of those fights for rights, equity, and equality be uphill battles against the opinions, power, and positionality wielded by white women.

Look, I'm not trying to be divisive or disrespect women. I am from a family of women who've persevered despite the constant harm of our world. Talking about this will likely find me dealing with a whole mess of Karen-energy emails and DMs. But real talk? I call it as I see it. And besides, I'm gonna delete your emails, so save that energy for doing better.

We should all be able and willing to celebrate, fight alongside, support, and stand with all women. But to make an already hard battle a little easier, we need white women to step it up beyond lip service and evolve away from their white supremacist ideologies.

Y'all are the roadblock for all women, white women.

It's time to start clearing the road.

P.S.: Before some of y'all chime in with the "your wife is white" comments: yes, I know. I'm aware of the fact that my wife is white. I'm also mindful of how she atones for her whiteness and consistently shows up in spaces to support Black women, melanated women, and all women with the privilege she has while taking in feedback and checking herself. We wouldn't be together if she didn't, so find a new talking point to diminish the truth.