Before we said goodbye last Sunday, we mentioned once again that we hope this demo isn’t a one-off thing followed by a long silence. We hope you feel inspired and empowered to take this fight back to your own cities, and to take your own action with your friends or your local trans community.
If you’re not sure how to do it, you can always ask for our help. We are taking a little rest in the short term, but we’re always happy to answer questions. Things like ‘how do I get money for my idea?’ and ‘where do I find other groups to organize with?’ can be daunting if you have not done an action before. We’re happy to point you towards resources and share our experiences on what worked for us. If you want to find people who live near you or who want to work on a similar plan, you can put a call in the replies of our social media post on this topic (link to follow). (don’t suggest any illegal action on an online public post. safety first!). We will link to a few local groups under this post.
There’s also frequent talk about the need for ‘radical action’ and if you’ve never done any activism, that can sound intimidating. But ‘radical’ isn’t about how big or daring your action is. When we say ‘radical’, we mean: addressing the core of the problem, instead of settling for reform. Not allowing politicians to reduce your struggle to voting advice or your liberation to rainbow pedestrian crossings.
Radical means centralizing the needs and voices of the people who are most marginalized and most excluded from care. It means not leaving people behind by focusing on those with the loudest voices, the privilege, the media connections or the highest follower count.
Radical means understanding that our struggle is connected to all struggles against oppression. It’s demanding wheelchair accessible trans spaces. It’s calling out racism. It’s reaching out to a community member who is absent and remembering that things like depression and burn out take people from us silently. None of these things require experience, daring or a big group. Radicalness is an attitude you bring to actions: that can be big and small, loud or quiet.
You don’t have to do the same things we did. You might even achieve more if you don’t. A movement needs more than demos, it needs a diversity of tactics. It needs music and graffitti and picnics and podcasts and mutual aid groups and magazines and sleepovers and memorials and so much more. Whatever you do, if you are taking care of each other, or if you are voicing trans anger, or if you are holding space for trans grief or creating trans joy: you are radical enough.
Finally, if you have an idea: you absolutely do not need our permission! This fight belongs to all of us and we shall have no vanguards and no gatekeepers! The movement is stronger when there isn’t one group controlling it and when no one knows just what some group of trans people will be doing next. We hope people run off and do things we never imagined.
The slogan Trans Zorg Nu! is free for all and anything we have created is free to use and re-design by any trans-led group that wants to work on this issue. Go and make something new with it! Surprise us!
NO GATEKEEPERS, NO MASTERS!
TRANS ZORG NU!
Trans Zorg Nu Zwolle: https://www.instagram.com/transzorgnu_zwolle/
Trans Zorg Nu Eindhoven https://www.instagram.com/transzorgnu_eindhoven/
Trans Zorg Nu Groningen https://www.instagram.com/transzorgnugroningen/