Gratitude to the London Trans Pride march on Saturday.
A space with thousands of people completely ignoring the heteronormative fakeness that plagues our lives, being their true powerful unique selves.
My favourite phrase from the speeches was ‘No one does intersectionality like trans people’.
I’m sorry that I can’t remember who said it but thank you, it brought a lot to mind.
When I’m with trans people and fellow non binary people I feel the most welcomed, the most safe, the most myself, I think because we have been through an involuntary education in what it is like to be disregarded, un-welcomed, abused, and told we don’t exist from an early age, and we know the power and relief that comes from being seen and loved and made welcome and we want to share it with everyone, regardless of background, gender expression, etc.
We understand that everyone is actually the same in our differences and struggles. This is such a radical and scary way of being to people in a world where competition, dualistic thinking, tradition ‘survival of the fittest’ leads the way.
In nature (which includes us by the way) there is actually an overwhelming element of a ‘gift economy’ which is way more prevalent than any individual species competition. Stable, dynamic, biodiverse ecological communities develop through giving and receiving and sharing and building and giving and receiving and sharing and building… developing resilience through diversity.
An endlessly useful fact and metaphor for us. Nature, Earth, The universe, is Queer to the bone.
The ONLY place I personally have seen this way of being existing in humans is in LGBTQ+ communities.
Having read about this way of being, in indigenous societies, in ages before colonialism, I think queerness has been a way of exploring that for us in modern western cultures, a way back to being of the land, a way back to feeling powerful enough to question life and play.
And in this I am not saying we are perfect, like every so-called minority in the world we are the most brutalised, oppressed and vilified people.
With this comes anger, blaming and violence…tools that are useful only rarely. But when we stand together in love and mutual aid like an ecosystem and on the march we radiate an atmosphere of peace and strength and safety for everyone, which is revolutionary! And makes the capitalists tremble and shit themselves, way more than any riot.
The Plants in here in Soho Square, the London Planes, the Windmill Palms, the Conifers, the Choicia,the Mahonia, the Bent grass, recognised the message, they are trans, asexual, intersex, queer and have been for millions of years, Queers have never been in the minority…
I will keep saying it in everything I do, but there will be no environmental justice without LGBTQ+ justice. We are such a key part of helping society come together and come back to nature. We have access to so many perspectives and life experiences. We have walked between worlds since the beginning, humanity has no hope if we are not here.
There is so much still to do, human society is becoming ever more hostile towards us, but I believe we are stronger than ever and the Trans community are leading the way, as in nature.
In the 12 months following this day I have learned and forgotten much.
Exploring deeper the ways in which our queerness is a tool of questioning. To be queer is to actively question everything we take for granted or as normal. Just as an ecosystem is only resilient if allowed to flow in connection over vast areas, so our minds and social systems must do the same if we can adapt and rebuild and redistribute and come back to our home in Earth.
Modern science is finally catching up with indigenous knowledge and is supporting non-hierarchical, non-linear ways of being as the most common way in the universe.
As we do more and more work with Malwen and the Queer Ecology walks, and talk about queer theory, it is becoming more evident to me that this queer questioning speaks to so many people, whether they identify as queer or not, that although the capitalist, patriarchal, extractive system exists, its is only a minute part of the wide wonderful spectrum of being we can become and embody.
To be alive in this time of mass extinction and social upheaval is excruciating and exciting, scary beyond belief, but I am so thankful to find belonging in queerness, as through this way of being I can see an extraordinarily beautiful, socially diverse, biodiverse, abundant life ahead for us, our wild siblings and the whole planet.
Thank you, Tom x