Up till now, our cell has taken a very media-shy approach, we have believed it best to let our actions speak for themselves and let others judge them as they will. But recently, Dan Savage has made the ridiculous claim that none of his glitterers were trans.
This is a bald-faced lie. Every member of DSWC Eugene is trans, including the woman who glittered Dan on November 1st. If we were to hazard a guess, we'd say that Dan probably harbors a lot of cissexist assumptions about what a trans person looks and sounds like (protip: there's as much variance among trans people as among cis people).
Now that that's cleared up and while we're here, we're going to proceed to criticize the rest of his response.
You note in the same paragraph that you make the mistake we came to correct that you met a trans student and had a discussion with him about some things at UCI. You note that y'all talked about whether it's ever okay to use the word "shemale." Y'know what? It's not men's place to make that decision, because it's a trans-MISOGYNIST insult. Unless y'all were talking about how y'all shouldn't use it and should just listen to what people who experience transmisogyny (PWETM) have to say about it, y'all should check y'all's male privilege and fuck right off.
Another thing: You make it clear in your response that you think being attracted to trans people is "freaky" or some sort of "freak" thing. Now, we're on board with you that being a freak is a good thing. We're rash kids who throw glitter at our enemies; of course we're freaks. But not everyone is or wants to be a freak, and to claim that being trans automatically makes someone a freak is FUCKING TRANSPHOBIC. And that's what you're claiming when you claim that a straight boy's a freak for being attracted to trans women. A straight boy is just STRAIGHT for being attracted to trans women; they're no fucking different from cis women.
Also, you got glittered just after saying "she-males for lack of a better term," WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU EXPECT? By the way, the term "transsexual" (it's spelled with two Ss) is sort of pathologizing and not everyone likes it; trans is better unless someone specifies a different preference.
Anyway, the point is, Dan, that you're not just being called out for a few isolated incidents of your using bad words. YOU'RE BEING CALLED OUT BECAUSE OF A LONG-RUNNING, STILL-GOING, NON-SUPERFICIAL PATTERN OF TRANSPHOBIA AND CISSEXISM, IN ADDITION TO MISOGYNY, RACISM, RAPE-APOLOGISM, FATPHOBIA, MONOSEXISM, ACEISM, ABLEISM, ET AL. This is all well documented elsewhere on the internet, and all you're doing is proving us right by continuing to get defensive and argue against these accusations instead of listening, accepting them, and honestly trying to do better. Shit's complicated, you're not gonna be all good overnight, but if you actually turn your game around, maybe people will actually start to trust you some in five years or so. We won't, but maybe some folks will.
Oh and by the way, we heard you sicced the cops on a comrade in Irvine. That is beyond fucked up, and we sincerely hope that you die in a fire.
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Seriously, dan fucking savage? You're going to choose THAT person to get up in arms over?
The amount of fucking luxury and privilege you have to be able to pick this person as your target is amazing. If Dan savage is your enemy, then you're not doing so fucking bad ok?
Otherwise, focus on the people that are, you know, actually oppressing you.