Yesterday I saw a Facebook post, just a regular post from Trans youth equality.org asking for donations to send trans youth to their summer camp.
It was so disturbing what I saw. The post had hundreds of hateful transphobic comments and only a couple of shares. When I returned today all of the comments had been deleted and the commenting turned off.
Why this matters to me and should matter to you regardless if you are trans or an ally.
Some of my most cherished memories are from my summers at our beloved scout camp. We canoed, hiked, slept under the stars, learned how to live in peace with nature, and even camped when it was 20 degrees below zero! I eventually was voted to attend a weekend at the camp by my troup and earned the right to call myself a Sister in the Order of the Arrow and a life scout.
Ours wasn't a trans-only camp, like the Trans youth equality.org but in the 70s and by today's standards, it was inclusive, character-building, and challenging. Reading those hateful comments one thing became clear. None of those transphobic degenerates who commented had the benefit of character-building of any kind in their youth. And that is when it became personal.
It also became clear that this is a concerted effort to harm trans and gender-expansive youth. It was so bad that for the first time, the administrators of the Trans Youth Equality Facebook page turned off comments and posted this:
"URGENT: TYEF was recently attacked in terrible ways by Libs of TikTok and Elon Musk (thanks Elon for your transphobic comment about our work and the over 20 million hateful comments you KNOW you were going to send our way), You would be shocked if you were ever confronted by the uninformed haters in the anti trans youth community.. It's very dark. We have an extremely sophisticated security system now, new layers of support and frequent contact with law enforcement including local police, the FBI and DOJ. So please note, the children and youth we serve deserve support, deserve that decisions are made by their parents and doctors and we continue to serve and educate."
"Can we all recommit to supporting trans specific orgs on the ground making a difference. Can we ask you to please make a donation to TYEF today, any amount you can afford because the assault on our org has been rough and cost us unplanned expenses. We were doxxed. If this has ever happened to you, you know how complicated and frustrating it can be. Can we get support? This is the first truly large attack on us. We are standing strong but we need you to stand with us. Or ask about volunteer positions, ways to help, raise some funds....etc. Thanks for listening. We have been doing this work for almost 20 years, from a time there was little to no support anywhere in this country for trans youth. We have great stories, great people who have helped, amazing kids served. We thank each of you for helping us afford to keep going over the years. We will get thru this time.We love each of our allies. please donate.
TYEF is a 501c3 non profit. We are grateful to you. *please note that we have turned off comments on all of our posts though we love to hear your responses. What we do not need is this forum to be used for hate instead of a safe place to be and to share.
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