Gender Identity

Just musing: Even if my gender identity was not actually innate (though I'm of the opinion that the evidence is definitely swinging in favour of that being the case), as something I didn't choose, it'd still be something that I'd expect to be respected.
I didn't choose to be trans. If I'd had the choice I'd have chosen cis. It's a much easier road, whether it's cis man or cis woman, though obviously cis woman is a harder road than cis man.
Certainly I'd expect people who aren't cissexist or transphobic to respect my unchosen gender identity far more quickly than, for example, a chosen sexuality like political lesbianism. For the record, I do think that political lesbianism is perfectly valid and should be respected just as much as an unchosen sexuality. I'm just making a comparison that for obvious reasons, is pertinent here.

A letter I wrote to my MP

Hello Mr Bradshaw,

My name is *****. I am a trans woman from Exeter, who has recently become homeless after losing my job and my home due to anxiety & depression caused by being transgender and the way I'm treated because of it.

I'm currently sleeping on people's sofas to avoid sleeping rough, but cannot do this for long and will soon be on the street. I have been searching for jobs and flats, but being very early in my transition and visibly trans, I just keep getting passed over for non trans people. After being fobbed off over the phone by them, I went to see Exeter City Council to see if they could house me, after being told by various people that being transgender should mean I'm in a vulnerable group and therefore should be housed as a priority. Exeter City Council told me that that I'm not classified as any more vulnerable by them than a non-transgender person, so they have placed me in band D (low housing need) instead of band A (emergency housing need).

I'm therefore about to be forced onto the streets, which I believe will be extremely dangerous for a trans woman like myself.
This seems to be a very dangerous policy and though I'm not well versed in the law, one that doesn't seem to fit with the Equality Act 2010, in which being transsexual is a protected characteristic. I hope you can help me, I'm really worried I will end up as another tragic transgender statistic if I cannot find a place to live soon.
Yours faithfully,
***** *****

(c/o ************)

A slightly different plea for unity

I'm going to make a plea for unity. You may not believe it at first, but please, stick with me.

Here goes:
Whether it's from the mainstream left, the L & G of LGBT, or mainstream feminism, the refrain is the same: "We need unity, we need to stop the infighting, we need to be civil to each other."
That sounds very reasonable on the surface. But what if you're a marginalised group in one of these communities? I can't speak for others, but I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this. To me, calls for unity and to stop the infighting sound an awful lot like "we want to go back to ignoring you rude marginalised people and concentrate on the majority's needs over yours". That really isn't any good for me thanks. Can you not see the problem with asking a marginalised group to unite behind a movement that marginalises them, adding an extra layer of oppression?
As for calls for civility, that sounds an awful lot like tone policing and a denial of our right to be angry when people supposedly on our side contribute to our problems. That's not going to fly either.
Sorry.
I really don't want this to sound aggressive or combative, nor do I have any intention of 'splitting the movement'. I'm sure I'll be accused of that anyway, because that's always what happens.
But I'm tired of people making out that marginalised groups are causing a fuss over nothing. To people outside those groups, maybe it *does* look like nothing. I don't know. It doesn't to the marginalised group, I can tell you that. That's why we're so loud and angry sounding.

The plea:
If you're one of the people calling for unity, maybe you could take some steps to achieve that unity by talking to marginalised groups, without tone policing them, ideally. Understand why this is happening and work with us, instead of just demanding an end to noise caused by our newly-found voices.

Please?

How to create a twitterstorm, and a false narrative that makes you the injured party

I've seen this countless times, from columnists and from people in positions of power in the LGBt and feminist 'movements', so I thought it was about time to share the formula.
1) Say something in your blog or column that is a bit dodgy, possibly while being well meaning but ignorant of how your words are harmful to a minority.
2) When called out on this, instead of considering this from the POV of those calling you out, or those they're defending, refuse to listen, defend your words, and then say a few more in defensive anger that are actually worse.
3) When the minority gets angry and tries to articulate why they're angry, screen capture or storify the most angry tweets.
4) Write a new blog or article using these as evidence of how irrational, angry, and abusive people were to you. Make out this was because of your original piece, not the inflammatory tweets you did after.
4a) If you're feeling particularly defensive and want to make yourself really bulletproof, delete the inflammatory tweets so you can make out they never occurred.
5) Tweet this, and flounce*.
6) Stay away from twitter for a while, while your large number of followers attacks the people who called you out, using words and techniques far harsher than any used at you.
7) Return to twitter to a heroes' welcome, accept graciously the praise for dealing so well with online bullying. Your friends in the commentariat will now repeat from step 1. 
8) Keep talking about your experience like it makes you an expert, offer comfort and supportive blog posts to others going through the same ordeal, which also take you back to step 1.

* Clarification on 'flounce'. Leaving twitter to do real life stuff is not flouncing. Nor is taking a short break. To be a proper *flounce* it needs to be a big, showy, door slamming exit, announcing you're closing your account because of bullying and giving your followers a clear idea of who to blame. Don't worry about the account being totally removed 30 days after closing. You'll be reactivating it in a couple of days.