Signatory offer to Trans Media Advocacy on the dehumanizing of trans women of color by The New York Times

Dear Trans Media Advocacy —

After speaking briefly with Janet Mock, I want to extend my support on behalf of the Cisnormativity project to the open letter / press release you are now drafting. This press release is in response to Sarah Maslin Nir’s piece in The New York Times on trans women of color — literally, New Yorker subjects — being reduced to contemptible objects of bemusement.

That Carolyn Ryan, Metro desk editor for a paper of record (for not only New York City, but also for the United States) green-lighted a fluff piece on trans women (on #girlslikeus), without even scratching the root causes for why these women find themselves susceptible on Christopher Street (in masculinized nightspace), does nothing to escalate the urgency of protecting New York’s most vulnerable citizens from material harm; from systemic discrimination; and from institutionally-sanctioned ridicule — of which The New York Times operates as a fourth estate.

From this, The New York Times willfully fails to produce a humanizing climate for trans people — which in turn vets a template for other local American papers to perpetuate against trans people and, egregiously so, trans women of color.

We are not amused. Should Trans Media Advocacy benefit from an additional signatory, you have one in the Cisnormativity project.

Sincerely,

Patience Newbury
Editor, Cisnormativity blog

A letter to Automattic Inc. (parent of WordPress.com) on the “MWMF trans woman hit-list”

[Ed. note: delivered to Automattic Inc., 8 September 2011]

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Personal attack blogs: Blogs with the primary purpose of attacking an individual or group of individuals are not welcome on WordPress.com. We have a particularly low tolerance for anonymous bloggers who make personal attacks without standing by their words with their real name.

If you find a blog that violates our rules please report it.

Hello Automattic, et al. —

It was brought to our attention that a blog account on your WordPress.com service by the name of “GenderTrender” [http://gende—-nder.wordpress.com] has issued what appears to be an exposure list, or “hit list” of select individuals for whom that blog’s administrator is impelling readers to act on a vow of physical contact. The list in question — [linked here] — would, as a plain reading, indicate a call-to-action which could result in the specific harm of the individuals itemized and profiled on that list.