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Shalimar Seiuli’s death should have been properly investigated but the unfortunate reality is that the death of trans women, especially trans women of colour who do sex work to survive are often not taken serious enough by the authorities on the case and many trans women’s deaths have been left unsolved and poorly investigated, leaving room for much more detail on what really happened. This highlights a corrupt and dangerous system that doesn’t serve to protect everyone and those living on the fringes of society are too often neglected and treated unworthy of proper safety. Many poc trans sex workers have to tolerate abusive police force and brutality on a regular basis so it’s evident to believe that police wouldn’t care to gain real evidence of what happens to trans women who have been murdered, especially if the potential suspect is a person of wealth or title and can just pay to cover his back. Trans women deserve to have proper protection laws and safety measures in order for them to have the same rights of protection by authority as cishet white people do. Trans women deserve to have work and employment protections from discrimination in all sectors and workplaces so that they have the same options and opportunities as everyone else. Trans women are human beings deserving of a place in society just like everyone else yet the mistreatment and constant target of discrimination and slander in society by transphobic people, politicians who use trans people as a scapegoat to distract from their lack of real action to meet the needs of a country or state and terfs whose fragile argument that trans women are impersonating women in order to take away their rights and mock them are so blind sighted by their wilful ignorance to see any truth presented to them that trans people have existed for centuries across time and communities, these transphobes with a platform contribute to a system that is constructed to suppress anyone who isn’t cishet, able-bodied, wealthy and white whilst that system still remains intact oppressing millions of people from different class, ethnicities, communities and cultural backgrounds.

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We still have recordings of Masoud El Amaratly, the Iraqi transgender singer who died in 1944

Masoud El Amaratly was a renowned Iraqi folk singer and transgender man born at the turn of the 20th century in Iraq. 

Marwan Kaabour presents the life of Masoud El Amaratly (also written as Masoud Al-Amartli, 1898 or 1901–1944) over at the Ajam Media Collective

El Amaratly began living as a man after an incident at age 18 when he courageously stopped two harassers, earning praise from his community. This event allowed him to express his gender identity more openly, adopting traditional male dress and pursuing a career in singing.

El Amaratly was part of the Mustarjil community, a transgender identity accepted among the Ahwari (Marsh Arabs) in southern Iraq. 

The Mustarjil, meaning "becoming [a] man," was a recognized gender category for individuals assigned female at birth who chose to live as men after puberty.

Rising to fame in the 1920s and 1930s, El Amaratly became known for his distinctive voice and his use of the abuḏiya style, a form of poetry and singing popular among the Ahwari. 

Read the article here: Recovering Arab Trans History: Masoud El Amaratly, the Folk Music Icon from Iraq’s Marshes

Here's a recording of him singing:

Via Sally on CDL.

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Late 90s/ Early 2000s Fem Queen

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Icons Meeka (Prodigy) Alpha Omega vs Marquis Revlon [2004]

Source: Sugarchampagne

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icon deasja laperla vs legendary meeka prodigy fq performance @ ny awards ball 2003

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“Just like my journey into woman hood; I was always a woman. So, don’t ask me, “when did you know?”. I remember talking to my therapist, and she said that to me and I got really offended. She was like, “so, when did you know when this was like” and I was like, “yeah, that’s not who I am, I’ve always been, I just didn’t know, I’ve always seen myself as this and other people kept reflecting to me what they saw”.

“And I feel like that also speaks to the larger issue that heteronormativity doesn’t accept anything else, like it can not, so it needs to other you in whatever way it can, right? Or else they have to accept it, they have to see it, they have to acknowledge that this is a natural thing and so they can’t do that, they won’t do that. So, they have to ask you these questions that are so reductive. I had to tell my therapist, “I have all these voices in my head that have told me what I was, who I was, what I should like about myself, what I shouldn’t like about myself and only when I got to a place where I can remember in my mind those instances, those flashes of memory that I had that no one said anything to me, no one taught me this, this was just authentic to myself and I did that, that’s who I am.”

- Meeka Alpha Omega on UH UH podcast

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As pride month begins, let us not forget our Palestinian brothers and sisters.

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Marsha P. Johnson within the crowd at a New York Gay Pride (1982)

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Gendertrash From Hell issue 2 volume 1, 1993

(note: “genetic” is an older word for “cis”)

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Group marching in Toronto Dyke March | 1996

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I will not refer to Dolly Parton or celebrities of the like, who are not overtly against laws and policies that seek to oppress us and take our basic human rights to exist away, as ‘gay icons’. They’re not using their impact to make effective change to help us like a true ally would.

If their actions don’t speak louder than their words then why call them Allies? If they still take money and business from those who are actively and openly against us then why call them Allies?

Right now we need visible and loud allyship. We should be holding “allies” accountable when they aren’t effectively supporting our rights.

We need to be aggressive with our approach to challenge and stop these laws and policies that are drafted to oppress us and if our so called “allies” aren’t utilising their privileges to push strongly against these laws, policies and dangerous right-wing politicians then they don’t deserve our support, money and views either.

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New Zealand’s nationally televised 28 minute documentary titled ‘Transvestites’ from 1971 is available for free to watch on YouTube.

Featuring trans performer Niccole Duval and psychologist A.J.W. (Tony) Taylor.

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Nakba never ENDED!!!

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currently reading:

Nine Lives: The Search of the Sacred in Modern India by William Dalrymple

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Nina Simone

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photos of candy darling, a warhol superstar and trans woman. darling was in various warhol works and was a muse of the velvet underground