Stanley-Eric-Captive-Genders-Trans-Embodiment-and-Prison-Industrial-Complex

Captive Gendersradical lineage“Trickle up” change! We know thatwhen those in power say they will“come back” for those at the bottom ofthe social and economic hierarchy, itwill never happen. Marginalization isincreased when a part of a marginalizedgroup makes it over the line into themainstream, leaving others behind andreaffirming the status quo. We’ve allseen painful examples of this in LGBTpolitics time after time—from theabandonment of transgender folks inthe Employment Non-DiscriminationAct (ENDA) to the idea that gay marriageis the first step toward universalhealthcare. Instead, we know that freedomand justice for the most oppressedpeople means freedom and justice foreveryone, and that we have to start atthe bottom. The changes required toimprove the daily material and spirituallives of low-income queer and transgenderpeople of color would by default includelarge-scale transformation of ourentire economic, education, healthcare,and legal systems. When you put thosewith the fewest resources and thosefacing multiple systems of oppressionat the center of analysis and organizing,everybody benefits.Be careful of all those welcome mats!Learning from history and other socialjusticemovements is a key principle.Other movements and other momentshave been drained of their originalpower and purpose and appropriatedfor purposes opposing their principles,either by governments working todilute and derail transformation or bycorporations looking to turn civil unrestinto a fashion statement (or both).Looking back critically at where othermovements have done right and gonecontemporary descendantQueers for Economic Justice inNew York City and the Transgender,Gender Variant, and Intersex JusticeProject in San Francisco are two greatexamples of “trickle up” change—byfocusing on queers on welfare, in theshelter system, and in prison systems,these groups demand social and economicjustice for those with the fewestresources and the smallest investment inmaintaining the system as it is.Critical Resistance is a great exampleof this commitment. In the group’sfocus on prison abolition (instead of reform),its members examine their strategiesand potential proposals throughthe question “Will we regret this in tenyears?” This question is about taking along-term view and assessing a potentialopportunity (such as any given proposalto “improve” or “reform” prisons or sentencinglaws) against their commitmentto abolishing—not expanding or evenmaintaining—the prison industrial30