A-Infos (en) Turkey, Yeryuzu Postasi: Uniting Our Struggles on Gender and Queer Issues (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

A statement dated July 25, 2020, by Bandilang Itim, an anarchist 
collective operating in the Philippines. ---- Men in anarchist circles 
must take steps to make our spaces safer and more inclusive. Not having 
the experience of being queer or a woman is no excuse for silence. 
Speaking out against oppression only increases oppression. ---- Silence 
is not golden ---- Some of us at Bandilang Itim are cisgender and/or 
straight men. Raised with the privilege of being men, we, the cisgender 
men at Bandilang Itim, are neither experts on gender and queer issues 
nor have the experience of being women or queer. This does not mean we 
remain silent on the issues facing our sisters and queer brothers. As 
Adrienne Onday declared in her important article, "Rage Against Honor: A 
Call to Action Against 'Radical' Cis-Het Men and Their Inadequacies in 
Gender Struggle," "Your silence is violence against us." Our silence is 
violence directed at those who struggle against gender-based oppression. 
We all have queer and women individuals-partners, families, comrades, 
and friends-whom we love, and we owe it to them to speak out against the 
cisheteronormative discrimination and patriarchal practices that persist 
in our spaces and around us.

Queer people and women are angry because they still experience 
discrimination, infantilization, and oppression in our spaces. They are 
tired of being alone every time they speak out against this oppression. 
Lacking a female or queer experience is no excuse for silence. If we 
lack these experiences, then we must turn to the experiences of women 
and queer individuals. Silence, censorship, and ignorance of women's and 
queer issues are also forms of violence. When we remain silent, we 
become complicit in patriarchal violence and this intricate web of 
oppression. We must join women and queer individuals, speaking out for 
them and with them, especially in situations and spaces where they may 
not be able to speak out for themselves.

We must remember that our freedoms are interconnected. They are 
interconnected in such a way that if our queer or female neighbor is 
silenced and subjugated, our freedom is nothing but a privilege that can 
become obsolete. As The Internationale sings, "Freedom is only an 
extended privilege unless it is experienced by all." Our freedom is 
interdependent and complementary with the freedom of the other; the 
flourishing of one fosters the flourishing of the other. Similarly, if 
the freedom of one is threatened, the freedom of all is threatened. 
Therefore, our freedom depends on the freedom of others for its validity.

Therefore, we cannot call ourselves free if those around us still suffer 
from oppressions like transphobia, discrimination, and misogyny. As 
anarchist theorist Mikhail Bakunin wrote, "I am truly free only when all 
human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of others, 
far from denying or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its 
necessary precursor and confirmation." Black feminist and human rights 
activist Audre Lorde agreed: "If even one woman is not free, I am not 
free, even if her chains are very different from mine."

As allies ,[1]our stance should not be one of 'saviorism.' We must 
reject the superiority behind helping women and queer people and not 
recognize the cisheteronormative equivalent of the 'white man's burden.' 
We recognize that women and queer people have their own agency; 
therefore, our duty as their allies is to support their agency, amplify 
their voices, follow the leadership of queer and women, and work 
together. As an Aboriginal activist group in Queensland in the 1970s put 
it, "If you're here to help me, you're wasting your time. But if you're 
here because your liberation depends on my liberation, let's work 
together." Liberation is a collective task, not something that can be 
given or granted.

Similarly, we should not claim "allyship" based solely on passive 
support. As the local provocation "Not Ally, But Complicit" suggests, we 
should be actively complicit in dismantling the tools of oppression. 
This also involves following women's and queer leadership and supporting 
their activism.

What should our intersectionality look like? One model of 
intersectionality has been offered by Dr. Angela Davis, who argues that 
because women, queer, and especially trans communities have shown us 
that the "normality" of cisheteronormativity and patriarchy is 
objectionable, they have also shown us that the "normality" of police 
and prisons is objectionable:

So if we're looking for an intersectional perspective, the trans 
community shows us the way. And we can't just point to cases like the 
Tony McDade murder[2]-as we should. We have to go beyond that and 
recognize that we support the trans community precisely because it 
teaches us how to challenge what is considered normal. And if the trans 
community hadn't taught us how to effectively challenge what is 
considered the foundation of our sense of normalcy, I don't think we 
would be where we are today, encouraging more and more people to think 
in an abolitionist way. So if we can challenge the gender binary, we can 
certainly and effectively resist the police and prisons.

Because they can radically question what is normal, women and queer 
people show us ways to challenge and resist other norms that need to be 
questioned. If Dr. Davis noted that the trans community, by challenging 
the gender binary, has also made it possible to challenge and resist 
systems of law enforcement and prisons, perhaps we can take a few steps 
in that direction. In this way, we can challenge all norms that have 
arbitrarily acquired dominance, whether capital, the state, or the very 
concept of hierarchy. In other words, concepts of normalcy or commonness 
are tools of control for the state and capital, and queerness-incarnate 
and in practice-is an affront to that. Therefore, women and queer 
individuals are integral to the fight against systems of domination like 
the state and capitalism. Any liberation project without them is doomed 
to failure. As Onday puts it in her article, "We can create spaces of 
true liberation without you['radical' cis-het men]; but you cannot 
create spaces of true liberation without us."

We must not base our support for women and queer individuals solely on 
their integral role in the struggle against domination; our support for 
them must be unconditional, unconditional, and unified. Just as an 
ecology thrives and becomes more resilient through diversity, human 
society is similarly enriched and strengthened through diversity.

What should we accept?
We must embrace opposition to patriarchy, to this system of domination 
that predates even capitalism. We must acknowledge the oppression of 
women, trans people, and all individuals who refuse to conform to gender 
roles by patriarchy. Patriarchy as a system has not existed since time 
immemorial. If patriarchy needs to be constructed and institutionalized, 
it can equally be dismantled and dismantled. If there are cultures and 
peoples who have not institutionalized patriarchy, we know for certain 
that a world without patriarchy is a very real possibility. In the 
Philippines, patriarchy was institutionalized within the colonial 
system, which systematically erased indigenous cultural practices. As 
documented in the documentary Walang Rape sa Bontok (Bontok Without 
Rape), rape was unheard of among the Bontok people of the Cordilleras, 
who resisted colonization until the 20th century, and rape was unheard 
of until recently. Since patriarchy is not a natural or eternal 
institution, this means that patriarchy and rape culture are learned and 
institutionalized structures. Similarly, cisheteronormativity and 
patriarchy are learned and institutionalized forms of domination and, as 
such, can be abandoned and eliminated.

We must embrace opposition to cisheteronormativity, the norm perpetuated 
by patriarchy. Patriarchy, as a social order, privileges some bodies 
over others, even some male bodies over other male bodies. To challenge 
such privilege, we must listen to and follow the voices whose 
fundamental rights have been deliberately stripped away by 
cisheteronormativity, and create spaces for them. We must hold ourselves 
accountable for this ongoing damage and take real steps to stop it and 
bring about peace.

We must acknowledge the need for intersectionality. We must acknowledge 
that the struggle for equality and justice is intertwined with the 
struggle against state and capital oppression. The problems women and 
queer individuals face are not limited to our own communities and 
organizations; they are also present in the workplace and on the 
streets. Discrimination continues to negatively impact women, who are 
subject to constant harassment and objectification in the workplace. 
Queer individuals are being screened out of job applications and face 
the prejudice of governments that refuse to recognize-and thus 
invalidate-their identities.

Therefore, when we assert intersectionality, we also reject class-based 
reductionist attitudes. The plurality of struggles does not diminish the 
importance of class struggle; on the contrary, their intersection is an 
integral part of the struggle against all forms of domination. We do not 
believe that liberation from the state and capital can be complete 
without liberation from cis-patriarchy.

We must accept that trans women are women and trans men are men. We must 
accept that gender is a social construct, but it has real, material 
consequences in the form of not just discrimination but also positive 
identity.

We must acknowledge that gender is a spectrum, and that genders outside 
the binary are valid. That is, we must openly acknowledge the validity 
of non-binary genders and people who identify as non-binary.

How do we recover?
As evidenced by the scarcity of women and queer people in our spaces, we 
have a sexism problem within our anarchist community. If our spaces are 
radical, shouldn't they also be radically inclusive? It's an unfortunate 
fact that anarchist circles in the Philippines are overwhelmingly male. 
To put it differently, anarchist circles in the Philippines are largely 
dominated by men. Therefore, our spaces are not as inclusive as we 
claim. As cisgender men, we must recognize how much space we occupy, 
even online. We must find a way to make our spaces more inclusive for 
women and queer people. There's no easy answer, and we need to take the 
initiative to implement these changes toward safer spaces because we 
have the privilege to challenge our own privilege.

So, what can we do to counter sexism and make our spaces safer? For a 
start, we can listen to women and queer people when they speak out, and 
give them a platform so their voices can reach further. There's a cycle 
women and queer people are trapped in. They're either oppressed or 
excluded, they speak out, and then they're subjected to mansplaining-the 
invalidation of their experiences by men-which, of course, makes them 
very angry, and their anger leads to their further exclusion. This cycle 
only reinforces the dominance of men in our radical spaces. We can break 
this cycle by listening to women and queer people, giving them space in 
our spaces, and supporting their spaces and following their lead.

Another way to counter sexism and make our spaces safer is to be aware 
of how much space we take up and how, as men, we are comfortable with 
the macho tendency to interrupt women and queer people. Being aware of 
the space we take up could, for example, be making pronoun mentioning 
commonplace in communities. This demonstrates that 'he/him' is not the 
default and that gender diversity is acknowledged. Here, we might use 
the gender-neutral pronoun 'siya' in Filipino, or 'they/them' if we're 
speaking English-or even, in some hypothetical cases, deliberately 
'she/her'.[3]We need to cultivate self-awareness to question whether our 
perspective is male-centric and to understand when it is. Just as 
masculine pronouns are not the default, neither is the male experience. 
When we default to the male experience, we easily ignore issues like 
menstrual poverty[4], unpaid labor, rape, and sexual violence in 
workplaces and prisons. Even phenomena like poverty, which are 
experienced by everyone-men, women, and queer alike-are experienced 
differently by women and queer individuals. Such issues inevitably have 
different consequences when the person in question is queer or gender 
diverse.

To combat sexism, we can also raise awareness of women and queer 
individuals in our spaces by asking, "Are you okay?" and by looking out 
for their well-being. We can ask them what we can do to make them feel 
more welcome and included in our spaces, and we can remove those who 
seek to dominate, harass, and resort to violence. Keeping sexual 
harassment and oppression out of our spaces is the simplest way to do so.

If harm has occurred to anyone within the movement, whether it be an 
isolated incident of abuse or a systemic issue like sexism, it must be 
addressed with sincere steps toward accountability. We must be able to 
hold individuals accountable, and individuals must be able to hold 
themselves accountable. Responsibility and accountability are the 
recognition that harm has occurred and that steps must be taken toward 
healing. Such problems must be confronted upfront, in a way that allows 
both the victim and the perpetrator to understand and recognize these 
problems, and steps must be taken toward reconciliation and efforts to 
improve. If the harm is irreparable-for example, sexual abuse-it is best 
for the community to remove the abuser entirely. The harm done is not a 
matter of intent, and the perpetrators must understand this. Otherwise, 
we choose to protect the reputation of individuals while disregarding 
the legitimate experiences of those harmed. Regardless of the intent, 
the incident occurred, and its impact is clear. The real question should 
be: What can we do to improve, and how can we prevent this harm from 
being repeated and reproduced? The purpose of such accountability 
mechanisms is not to bring down individuals or institutions-unless, of 
course, the incident in question is something like sexual abuse or rape, 
which necessitates the absolute removal of perpetrators and their 
defenders from spaces and institutions. We don't want to bring down 
anyone except in cases of sexual abuse and rape; we want those who 
perpetrate the harm to strive to be better and make our spaces safer.

Expressing criticism and demands for redress cannot be simplified to 
simply airing dirty laundry. Some people will instinctively attribute 
such criticism and demands to bad faith. We must resist this urge to 
invalidate these criticisms and demands by equating them with bad faith, 
as this is a defense mechanism designed to maintain the status quo of 
patriarchy and the intricate web of oppression.

Another way to make our spaces safer is to demonstrate our opposition to 
oppression by taking a proactive stance against misogyny, rape culture, 
transphobia, and other harmful attitudes. We cannot compromise our 
inclusivity. So, what would such a world look like? At Bandilang Itim, 
we are perfectly happy to sever ties with transphobic individuals and 
institutions, even if it means withdrawing from our collaborations with 
larger groups. Partnerships with stakeholders cannot be built on 
concessions to transphobia or any discriminatory practices. We will 
never tolerate any harmful behavior. We are ready to sever ties with 
anyone who persistently and unashamedly exhibits harmful behavior. We 
must remember that such divisive practices can have very real and deadly 
consequences, such as rising suicide rates among women and queer people 
and the prevalence of violence (including murder) against them. 
Excluding women and queer people from our supposedly safe or radical 
spaces is a form of violence that invalidates their identities and 
experiences, thereby isolating them. So, in such cases, exclusion can 
have literally fatal consequences.

This means that we cannot and will not work with groups that have 
adopted an overtly transphobic stance, such as Deep Green Resistance 
(DGR). Therefore, we call on all anarchist circles in the 
archipelago[5]to demand that stakeholders like DGR definitively end 
their anti-trans stance and issue official apologies, or to sever all 
ties with such anti-trans groups altogether. The DGR's transphobia is 
clearly documented in an article published by the Institute for 
Anarchist Studies entitled " Against Deep Green Resistance." Even Aric 
McBay, lead author of Deep Green Resistance and co-founder of DGR, 
stated that transphobia was the reason he left DGR, underscoring the 
need for solidarity and trans inclusivity. Transphobia within DGR has 
been documented in numerous other articles, including the Wikipedia 
article. DGR's transphobia isn't a simple slip of the tongue or a 
one-time incident for which they apologize; it's a recurring harm, and 
the trans-exclusionary feminism they exhibit is built into their very 
ideological program. Unless they eliminate trans-exclusionary ideas from 
their program, DGR will remain a transphobic organization. Supporting 
and collaborating with DGR is a compromise based on the exclusion of 
trans women and men, and this is unacceptable. Continuing to provide 
space for DGR is continuing to create space for transphobia. Removing 
DGR from our anarchist circles, or at least demanding that they abandon 
their transphobia, is a perfectly achievable goal. We must acknowledge 
that if they don't abandon their transphobia, they will be isolated and 
atomized in their struggle; we can create spaces of liberation with and 
without them. Rejecting harmful practices and not aligning with groups 
that perpetuate discrimination is the simplest we can do. Since our 
values are built on combating all forms of oppression, then actively and 
vocally opposing these harmful practices and connections should be the norm.

Beyond the simplest of bases, then, we must step forward and take steps 
to amplify the voices of women and queer individuals. Our duty as allies 
is to listen to them and support their activism. With this sensitivity, 
we must recognize and publicize the contributions of our women and queer 
comrades to liberatory art, music, and literature, and the actions they 
take in our global struggle against the state and capital. By addressing 
systemic labor discrimination, pursuing gender inclusive education in 
our communities, and supporting feminist/queer movements and 
organizations, we can address the current situation and address the 
issues that affect them and, consequently, us. We must also address 
violence perpetrated by men against non-men, such as domestic violence 
and rape. We must absolutely remove perpetrators from our spaces and 
demand accountability when harm occurs.

In an event like Pride 20, where members of queer organizations like 
NatDem and Bahaghari were arrested without legal basis for organizing a 
pride march and demonstration, we could at least join this chorus of 
righteous anger with all our voices. In an incident like the case of 
Fabel Pineda, who was raped by police and murdered by the perpetrators 
after filing a lawsuit against the police officers[6], we could 
highlight the intersection of police brutality and gender-based 
violence. In a time when police treat women like commodities in exchange 
for their "safety," and queer activists are brutally detained, their 
identities constantly denigrated, we can at least show their captors the 
true meaning of "bayanihan"[7]: a formalized and gender-neutral 
solidarity and revolutionary love.

We hope that this document will become part of the ongoing discussions 
to fundamentally dismantle the patriarchal and cisheteronormative norms 
that persist even-and especially-in anarchist circles in the 
archipelago. This is not an easy task, and we will undoubtedly make some 
mistakes. However, if we are serious about maintaining anarchy in the 
archipelago, we must resolutely maintain our commitment to absolute 
liberation. And we hope that other knowledge collectives and groups, 
both within and outside the Local Autonomous Network[8], will undergo a 
similar process of self-reflection and take a stance of allyship.

[1]The word "allies" is translated from the English word "ally." "Ally" 
is used specifically in the context of LGBTQ+ communities to describe 
individuals who do not directly identify with these identities but who 
offer conscious support in the fight against discrimination, exclusion, 
and violence against them. While the Turkish word "allies" is often used 
in diplomatic or war-based contexts, here and throughout the text it 
uses a metaphorical meaning to describe a relationship of solidarity and 
responsibility.

[2]Tony McDade was an African American transgender man who was killed by 
police in Florida, USA, in 2020. The murder occurred just days after the 
death of George Floyd but received far less media coverage.

[3]Unlike Turkish, English has grammatical gender. This is manifested in 
Turkish, for example, in the three different English equivalents of the 
third person singular pronoun 'o': 'he' (masculine 'he'), 'she' 
(feminine 'o'), and 'it' (objective 'o'). 'He' and its accusative and 
dative forms (on, ona), 'him' (he/him in the text), refer to the 
masculine gender, i.e., the default.

The importance of promoting the practice of 'pronoun marking', as 
indicated in the relevant part of the text, is contextualized in 
languages with grammatical gender, such as Filipino and English. 
Therefore, in communities where such languages are spoken, where 
personal pronouns are gender-variant and determined by assigned gender, 
the preference for the English plural 'they/them' or the Filipino 
gender-neutral 'siya' when addressing or referring to people is 
suggested in the relevant part of the text as one way to combat 
cisheteronormative discourse.

[4]The Turkish equivalent of the English concept of "menstrual poverty," 
"menstrual poverty" or "period poverty," is not as common in our 
language as its Turkish equivalent, but it is encountered in gender and 
women's studies. Menstrual poverty is the inability of women to access 
basic hygiene products, such as pads and tampons, that they need during 
their menstrual periods due to economic hardship. Menstrual poverty, in 
its economic dimension, is class-based; however, when considered from a 
social perspective, the inadequacies in the prevalence and accessibility 
of goods and services for women reveal that this form of poverty is the 
result of sexual inequality as well as class. In other words, menstrual 
poverty is an intersectional problem with class and sexual dimensions.

[5]The community mentioned in the paragraph (DGR) is in the Philippines. 
The Philippines is an archipelago country. The appeal in the paragraph 
is addressed to all anarchist circles in the Philippines.

[6]Fabel Pineda was a 15-year-old girl living in the Philippines. She 
was detained in 2020 for violating COVID-19 quarantine regulations. 
During her detention, she was sexually harassed by police officers. 
Fabel filed a complaint against the police officers but was soon killed 
by them. This incident is a striking example of the intersectionality of 
police brutality and sexual violence.

[7]The Filipino word 'bayanihan' has two primary definitions: 
'solidarity' and 'collective effort'. A concept unique to Filipino 
culture, 'bayanihan' refers to members of a community helping each other 
without expecting anything in return for a common cause. While 
traditionally referring to physical cooperation, such as moving a house 
together, over time it has acquired the meaning of social solidarity, 
collective responsibility, and revolutionary cooperation. In the text, 
it is used to symbolize a call for resistance and solidarity, regardless 
of gender or identity.

[8]The Local Autonomous Network (LAN) is a loosely knit network of 
anarchist, anti-authoritarian, and autonomous activists operating in the 
Philippines. The network is composed of various collectives and 
individuals and has no specific hierarchical structure. LAN comprises 13 
collectives and individuals primarily active in Manila, Quezon City, 
Pasig, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Mindanao. The network aims to 
increase community solidarity and political awareness by organizing 
various activities, such as film screenings, workshops, magazine and 
zine publishing, art events, and discussions.

Source: Interlinking our Struggles in Gender and Queer Issues

Translation: Earth Post / All Tommorrows

https://www.yeryuzupostasi.org/2025/07/02/toplumsal-cinsiyet-ve-kuir-meselelerinde-mucadelelerimizi-birlestirmek/
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