Zine : read via Heresy Distro
Lien original : via Heresy Distro
queer means attack! an introduction
This journal is intended to dispel a prominent myth within the wider anarchist community: that of the-so called « forest TERF. » [1] That is, the idea that anti-civilization anarchists are exclusionary of those who are trans* or gender non-conforming. This, of course, we know to be a falsehood: because we are queer and we stand against civilization. We believe that this myth is, ironically, detrimental to queer lives for a number of reasons:
• Indigenous and so-called “primitive” peoples have had complex systems of nonbinary gender long before techno-industrial society. Hence, the implication that trans* lives are somehow endemic to industrial civilization denigrates the real, lived experiences of these queer folx. [2]
• The charge that trans* people cannot exist in the aftermath of civilization (and thus that the destruction of civilization is necessarily an erasure of trans* people) implies that trans* people have a necessary need to transition medically. Of course, this is not true: trans* lives are valid regardless of whether or not one decides to undergo medically invasive procedures. [3]
• Further regarding transition, one who subscribes to the “forest TERF” myth fails to recognize that a desire for medical transition is produced by cisheteronormativity: that is, the ideology that individuals of a certain gender act or look a certain way necessarily. In this failure, they reproduce the cisheteronormativity they claim to oppose.
The list can go on (and does, throughout the mainmatter of this volume.) But as queer anti-civilization anarchists (and simply as anarchists) we must “own up” per se to those who claim to be anti-civ but reproduce civilized and oppressive notions of gender and race. Our spaces are continually being invaded a new breed of ecofascist: those who, such as Derrick Jensen, [4] seek to exclude trans* comrades from the struggle in defense of the Wild; and those who project their bigotry onto an image of Nature and declare their ideology primitivism. We must resist by any means possible.
Our first chapter is Firedog, by prose-poet aggressor Graeme Fisher. Our second chapter is Arming negativity: towards the queerest attack, by the great anarchist theorist Flower Bomb, originally distributed by Warzone Distro. It is a response to Beyond negativity, which we included in chapter 6 along with a critical (or perhaps insulting) introduction by yours truly. Chapter 3 is Identity and power, a zine by our friends over at Here and Now. Chapter 4 is Fight for nothing by Edith Doyle, sent to us by our beautiful comrades Down and Out Distro. Chapter 5 is the figurative spark that ignited the power keg, Gender nihilism by nihilist-turned-Marxist-Leninist Alyson Escalante, also the author of Beyond negativity.
This volume is split into two parts, Revelations, which comprises either new or incredibly important work by queer anti-civ authors; while Revisitations is comprised of critical or well-disseminated pieces, published here for archival & reference purposes.
Against all cages!
With love –
Heresy Distro
Notes
1 For those out of the loop: trans-exclusionary radical feminist.
2 For example: the muxe in Zapotec communities, the wide-variety of two-spirit people in U.S. indigenous communities, and the hijra in West and South Asia.
3 This is not to say that medical transitioning is somehow oppressive, only that those who transition are not “more” authentic than those.
4 “I liked what I said to Julia or whatever his name was who wanted to join DGR: You are not a woman. You are a man who believes he is a woman.” Derrick Jensen, as published by Earth First! Newswire in the article Deep Green Transphobia III: Derrick Jensen’s Hateful Tirade.