WE TRIED TO TELL Y'ALL.

Leo is just as anti-queer and anti-trans as his predecessor (who, pr aside, *very* much hated queer and trans people).

Hey fyi way too many, even leftists who should know better, effusively praising the papacy is making it way, way more difficult to organize against this.

This trans healthcare ban is literally going to cost trans people's lives but yeah, woke pope made a statement or whatever.

Ra'il l'Nasah Kiam, YourSlipisShowing, and the Erasure of Black Trans Organizing Long-time activist Ra’il I’Nasah Kiam co-founded the #YourSlipIsShowing movement. But he was erased in much of the media coverage. He reflects on his struggles, and how Black trans organizing gets bur...

Ra'il I'Nasah Kiam co-founded YourSlipisShowing, which played a key role in anti-racist and antifascist organizing online.

But his work, like that of so many Black trans organizers, was thoroughly erased — when the movement he helped found was even mentioned at all.

This is his story:

Thank you to It Could Happen Here and @miawong.bsky.social for talking to TNN's @davidforbes.bsky.social about this important issue.

The Catholic Church's horrific trans healthcare ban threatens trans people around the country. It's an injustice that needs *a lot* more attention.

While everyone is glazing the pope, perspective is crucial.

And a reminder: if you've got some extra coin to spare, toss some in the plate of trans journalists telling trans stories from trans perspectives, because the transphobic corporate media damn sure ain't going to do it.

Thread! Things at work in the world besides the will of evil.

Researching these stories, ex-Catholics and others who faced these systems repeatedly said the same thing: ignore the more progressive rhetoric (from the pope or elsewhere) and focus on the church hierarchy's actions.

What they do with their power, money and resources tells a very different story.

Thank you to It Could Happen Here and @miawong.bsky.social for talking to TNN's @davidforbes.bsky.social about this important issue.

The Catholic Church's horrific trans healthcare ban threatens trans people around the country. It's an injustice that needs *a lot* more attention.

Orban's inability to prevent last year's Pride protests—attended by 300k despite being banned—was a turning point in his authoritarian grip of the country.

Queer people are always leading the fight against authoritarianism, as we are often its first targets. Never cower to fear.

To support reporting like this, and everything @transnews.network does, please consider helping our worker-run newsroom with a subscription or donation: transnews.network/upgrade

Earlier this month in Georgia two pieces of transphobic legislation — HB54, a bill completing a ban in trans youth care and SB74, a draconian book ban — both went down in defeat.

This is a real victory, so a 🧵 from @transnews.network, with some more on how it happened, and some lessons...

The pope's words of support for universal healthcare are just that — words — and the institution he controls absolutely does not practice universal healthcare access, or anything close, in the massive healthcare networks they run.

Indeed, they recently imposed a draconian anti-trans care ban.

Plato's Symposium includes discussions on gay sex and gender fluidity, which debunks propaganda that LGBTQ people are a "new thing." So they ban it.

In his time, people were not grouped by identity groups, and Plato discussed the concepts as different forms of love and expression of humanity.

If you want to know more, @transnews.network is pretty much the only news org taking the Catholic Church's total trans healthcare ban and its devastating impacts seriously.

In-depth coverage here: transnews.network/p/it-s-a-nig...

And here: transnews.network/p/u-s-cathol...

After spending the past few months talking to trans people directly hit hard by this ban, I'm honestly enraged.

TNN's @davidforbes.bsky.social was on @elliekrug.bsky.social's The Illegal Trans Woman radio show to talk about her recent reporting on the Catholic Church's draconian trans healthcare ban, its shocking reach and how it can be fought.

Listen here:

We're a worker-run news org and we rely on reader donations and subscriptions that make our journalism possible.

If you'd like to support us, here's how:

‘It’s a Nightmare’: The Human Toll of the Catholic Church’s Trans Healthcare Ban Missing hormones. Canceled surgeries. Bureaucratic denials. Late last year the Catholic Church banned all trans healthcare across its sprawling networks. The impact on trans people's lives is devastat...

You can read more about the impact of the bishops' ban on trans healthcare around the country in David's latest article.

TNN has been one of the only news orgs publishing in-depth reporting on the most sweeping trans healthcare ban in the country...

TNN's @davidforbes.bsky.social was on @elliekrug.bsky.social's The Illegal Trans Woman radio show to talk about her recent reporting on the Catholic Church's draconian trans healthcare ban, its shocking reach and how it can be fought.

Listen here:

Refreshing this. Key aspect of assimilationism is repeatedly siding against queer and trans people in favor of social order, excusing bigotry in political, professional fields.

E.g. "As a trans person, trans communities are angry and unreasonable and setting us back. I'm not like the others..."

Donate to Standing with Ra’il Through Recovery & Resurgence , organized by Ra'il I'Nasah My name is Ra’il, I’m a Black trans semi-professional loudmouth, and … Ra'il I'Nasah needs your support for Standing with Ra’il Through Recovery & Resurgence

Kiam has an ongoing gofundme here: www.gofundme.com/f/railresurg...

You can support TNN'S reporting here: transnews.network/upgrade

A recent academic article covering the movement also makes scarce mention of Kiam, and still uses his dead last name. An account from a Canadian nonprofit neglects to mention them at all, as does Inside Radio. The podcast There Are No Girls On The Internet, hosted by Bridget Todd, also failed to mention him. "A very bizarre experience where, for example, Joan Donovan [who is also in the above podcast], who was this big name in misinfo and disinfo, right?,” Kiam said. “[She wrote] this big article in 2016, I think, about people pretending to be Black online to sway public opinion. Then there was just no mention of any of our work.” While Kiam claims that Donovan later sent him an apology email, “I never read it in full, at least until more recently, because I was like, ‘I just don't believe you.’” “She gets this whole six figure institute [the Critical Internet Studies Institute], you know.”

After dealing with continued bigotry that prevented them from being hired in tech spaces, he had enough and decided to lean more into his artwork, photography, and pursuing intellectual work outside of academia. Much of his photography, which focuses on nature and still lives, has been posted to Instagram and Mastodon. He also runs a separate Instagram page which curates Black art and aesthetics. Kiam also provided a Linktree showcasing numerous writings of his, in addition to photography and artwork. A key throughline for his efforts has been self-actualization, something so many marginalized people are routinely denied. “I feel like the past few years have just been me really learning how to be a person and myself, which I don't know if that's like an achievement on the same type that most people are looking at,” he said. “But it's like, the pandemic happened and I finally figured out exactly what was that nagging thing in the back of my mind when it was just like, oh, why doesn't this word just feel right to describe me? Yeah, I don't know, just figuring out my gender shit, figuring out that like, oh yeah, I'm still a writer, still an artist, even after all the sort of ups and downs of the industry and the political landscape.”

This does real, deep damage, leaving those who powered key movements struggling to survive.

Kiam is also "still a writer, still an artist, even after all the sort of ups and downs of the industry and the political landscape."

Article by @thefreeradical.org

Edited by @davidforbes.bsky.social

Ra'il l'Nasah Kiam, YourSlipisShowing, and the Erasure of Black Trans Organizing Long-time activist Ra’il I’Nasah Kiam co-founded the #YourSlipIsShowing movement. But he was erased in much of the media coverage. He reflects on his struggles, and how Black trans organizing gets bur...

Ra'il I'Nasah Kiam co-founded YourSlipisShowing, which played a key role in anti-racist and antifascist organizing online.

But his work, like that of so many Black trans organizers, was thoroughly erased — when the movement he helped found was even mentioned at all.

This is his story:

Revisiting this thread after I had to reassure a housemate that Ohio had not banned presenting as trans in public. Promoters of panic slop are at best making people despair and at worst ruining lives.

"The lesson is clear: when bigoted religious institutions are actively countered and condemned as a source of oppression, our liberation advances and lives are saved. When they are not, when they are left to gather their power, things get a lot more dangerous for us all, very quickly"

This is the reality trans people face due to the Catholic Church's draconian ban on all trans healthcare.

"The lesson is clear: when bigoted religious institutions are actively countered and condemned as a source of oppression, our liberation advances and lives are saved. When they are not, when they are left to gather their power, things get a lot more dangerous for us all, very quickly"

It's enraging. There are trans people across the country, today, who are without basic lifesaving healthcare because the Catholic Church inflicted a ban on *all* trans care in its networks.

...And the current pope mutters about free healthcare and people lap it up. Ffs stop falling for propaganda.

Y'all, it is a good thing when figures with more power/position within establishments start fearing backlash from communities that are under attack. They should be more wary of their actions and statements because they're worried about the consequences.

Without that, nothing ever changes.

Remember, the reason cis liberals harass and yell at trans women on this website all the time isn't because we are stuck here with them, it's because they are stuck here with us and don't like that.