Odofemi

ftmark:

This afternoon I happened to be sitting on a train on the way home from a conference when I overheard a conversation. My friends and I tried to ignore the people who were talking loudly, until we heard one of them nearly shout, “We’re not transphobic!” A silence fell over me and my pals as we hushed ourselves and listened in. The people I was with were all cis women and trans allies, and I’m a trans guy, so it felt important to know what was going on.

A buddy of mine leaned over and whispered in my ear, “That’s Andrea Huston and she works with Xtra, and she’s with Jeremy Dias who works from Jer’s vision.” After that was explained it was pretty evident that these people were probably discussing the current controversy over whether or not Xtra (which is a Queer magazine in Toronto) is transphobic. For those that don’t know, Xtra has a bad habit of using incorrect pronouns for trans folk and even exposing birth-names of trans people. Also, when called out to apologize, Xtra has either given half-hearted apologies or simply given an excuse (“using the pronoun ‘they’ in a singular form would be too confusing for our readers”).

From that point on I was on edge, at first I thought I would just ignore the people talking and try to read my book. That’s when I heard Andrea say, “We have a right to journalism. We were just telling a story!” Boy, did that get my blood boiling. A right to journalism? How about a person’s right to privacy or respect for their gender identity? Unfortunately, I didn’t feel comfortable confronting them on the train, but after some thought I decided that I have a right to journalism too.

Taking out my notebook I quickly began to take note of the situation. I’d like to state now that this is all overheard conversation and may not be completely accurate. It is simply what I experienced and interpreted and I will try to only use the direct quotes I wrote down while riding that train. Also, I wasn’t able to hear much of what Jeremy had to say, so the majority of these quotes will be from Andrea.

Andrea went on to say that she believes, “We have been vindicated and the blame has been shifted,” and that Xtra, “works really hard at being inclusive.” She explained that, thanks to this situation (that is, Xtra being called out on being transphobic and being unapologetic) has made some funders want to pull away. From what I understood she seemed to blame the people who were “lashing out” and accusing Xtra of transphobia instead of the people who actually acted oppressively.

Jeremy’s comments were rare and quieter, so all I heard him say was, “You always present both sides of the story,” and, “There’s no way to make everyone satisfied.”

The conversation changed between the two and instead turned to GSA rights in Catholic schools. I feel it’s important to include the following quote that was said during that conversation, by Andrea, “Trans rights and GSA rights, that’s what is most important right now.”

I do not think that these people were intentionally supporting transphobia within the queer community. They both seem like devoted and passionate activists. But to say within the same breath that Xtra is trans inclusive and then that it also had the ‘right to journalism’ when revealing a trans person’s birth name is simply hypocritical.

The reason I’m sharing this information is to spread the word that, despite whatever Xtra has said about being trans inclusive, they are still refusing to accept that they’ve done something wrong. They have obviously not internalized or addressed this underlying problem, and until they do I fear that it will only get worse.

I don’t think that Xtra, or those who work within it, are necessarily transphobic. I think that they have done an act that is transphobic and need to properly address that. I don’t mind so much that they made a mistake, but it’s their blatant ignorance and refusal to accept blame that bothers me.