I'm going to be real honest, and possibly ruffle a few feathers.

But I feel genuinely disillusioned with the trans community this pride month. Genuinely.

I came to the Netherlands as a refugee. I went to prison because I am trans. My friends were murdered because they were trans. I lost my family. I lost a stable position in society. I lost everything because I am trans.

I gave up my safety. My dignity. My home. And on several occasions, almost my life.

Because I am trans.

And in sixteen years of living a life shaped by loss and violence, I have spoken to one white trans woman about my experiences.

One.

Despite being on the fringes. Despite being a sex worker. I have felt wholly abandoned by them.

I am sick, and I am tired of white trans women dominating a space that isn't just for them.

Stop intellectualising trans people of colour. Stop patronising us. Stop speaking for us. Just stop.

The people I love did not die in ditches, were not cut into pieces, were not burned alive just so you could tell us what we should be thinking and how we should be acting.

I am sick to death of this classist, racist and patriarchal cabal of middle-class pseudo-intellectuals telling me that just because I don't make every single day of my life about being trans, or don't persistently talk about trans issues, I am somehow not a person facing those very same issues.

I am sick to death of receiving DMs from white trans women telling me that my "overt sexuality" is damaging to the trans community.

Fuck off.

If I want to post bikini photos, I will.

This is my community, too.

🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️