None of us are free until all of us are free. At the core of our vision is a world built on mutual care and inclusion of all people – and specific to today, we bring attention to the struggle for liberation of our trans, two-spirit, intersex, GNC, and non-binary kin.
For those of you that do not know, we are part of the DULF Solidarity Committee, a group fighting to keep DULF members out of jail and defend the compassion club DULF ran and represented.
The invention and enforcement of the gender binary is, in brief, a colonial imposition around the world that flourished under the conditions created by racial capitalism and patriarchy. Illicit drugs are a legal category, not a moral one. Illegality exists only as it is enforced by empire to maintain colonial power. This maintenance happens through global imperialism, capitalism and extraction. The militarization of drug war enforcement serves not only to oppress drug users, but all marginalized people. The maintenance of trans oppression and drug war violence are linked to the maintenance of these same systems – and while the far-right has wealth and inertia on its side, we have the will, the truth, and each other as inspiration for a world that includes trans justice.
After decades and centuries of anti-trans violence across the West, trans justice does not only entail access to life-affirming care, but a re-arrangement of power that includes trans autonomy, reparations, and liberation. While our work with DULF Solidarity and allied groups centers on breaking apart the carceral grasp on the possession and use of drugs – and the ways that the police use this as a tool of control, violence and severing of relations – we know that no one is free until all of us are free, including our trans kin.
Liberatory harm reduction includes trans resistance and trans power. Trans liberation, drug user liberation, and harm reduction are interdependent. State organized abandonment has left us to face the daily death and violence of our kin, and despite that we fight and we organize to protect joy and the right to live and live well. We are in a crisis of intersecting violences, and it is for this reason that we amplify the call to support trans resistance, trans power, and the protection of trans joy.
Statement read at Trans Rights Queer Joy, Sept. 20, 2024 in Vancouver, BC, from Molly Beatrice, Zoe Kaur & Tyson Singh as part of DULF Solidarity Committee
