walkforchoice:

bostonwalkforchoice:

bostonwalkforchoice:

One thing I hope we can talk about tonight & going forward is how to make the Walk For Choice event inclusive for everybody and addressing intersecting issues. I absolutely want our Boston event to be for all forms of reproductive justice and recognizing transgender,

boogerbrains reblogged this from bostonwalkforchoice and added:

I am not a heteronormative person. I don’t use the word woman to describe myself every day, yet most people looking at me would assume I’m one. I realize that grants me an amount of privilege; but yet I felt left out at the Walk for Choice Boston. I went, supported by my partner and one of my wonderful friends, but there were others, I’m sure, who did not go because of similar anxieties or feelings of exclusiveness. So:

Include me in the signs and the chants; include me in the demands we are making. Include other people who were in my position on February 26th as nearly every damned sign talked about rights that don’t belong to me because I’m not the government or our culture’s idea of a woman. Yes, I felt able to participate as a genderqueer person in a movement that didn’t include me, but many many many other people did not. And those individuals are people, voices and power we need in order to secure healthcare for every damned one of us; not just the ones who fit the extremely narrow language of legislators and policy makers.

I cannot stress enough the importance of gender-neutral language and people making it a point and priority to make the opposition aware that we are made up of people of infinite possibilities and identities. This could be our strength, if only we don’t let them divide us.

This is so important. Everybody please read and remember, and pass this along.

We are working on making all of our materials and flyers as inclusive as possible right now, and please call us out if we can be doing that better. The Boston crew has some great people but we are all volunteers and new to organizing like this and we fuck up sometimes. All of us are so serious about wanting to make everyone welcome and represented. All suggestions and criticisms are welcome, and if someone wants to get involved in the planning stages for the next walk in order to make sure we do this right, please get in touch.

In addition we would love to have a speaker who can address the genderqueer perspective at the rally. If you are or know anybody who would do this, or can suggest a person or organization we can approach to be a part of the Boston event, that would be SO GREAT. 

Sososososo important.

Also important: accessibility. I’m going to call Chicago school for the deaf and try to get a student interpreter or two to attend our event.