Trans and Lesbian Movements United in Solidarity
We, the Eurocentralasian Lesbian* Community and TGEU, declare the trans and lesbian movements of Europe, Central Asia, and the world united in solidarity.
As movements we strive to create safe spaces for us and, for this reason, between the 29 September and 1 October, TGEU has organised the European and Central Asia Trans Council in Berlin and EL*C the third European Lesbian* Conference in Budapest.
We call on our trans and non-binary siblings, dykes, lesbians, sisters and kin to join us in Budapest and Berlin and be our accomplices in celebrating the power and value of our communities, bringing our needs and demands to the attention of society and policymakers, and destroying heteronormativity, binarism, and patriarchal oppressions.
The current challenging times exacerbate the oppressions that lesbian and trans communities have to face, while attacks multiply against trans and lesbian rights and lives. The anti-gender movement would have the world believe that the trans and lesbian communities are in opposition to each other, but we know this couldn’t be further from the truth. We are united by our struggles, by our hopes, by our joint his/her/their-story, and shared communities: we have lovers, friends, families in both communities, some lesbians are trans people and some trans people are lesbians.
We are fighting for self-determination and bodily autonomy, to dismantle social expectations around gender roles and gender expression. We are struggling together to challenge a socio-political system that is afraid of us, because we attack it at its core.
Our mutual solidarity is not new. We were together during the Stonewall riots, where Marsha, Stormé, Sylvia and many other trans, butch, lesbians, non-binary people, dykes threw the first stones and ignited the LGBT movement. We were together in building the reflections that developed trans-feminist and lesbo-feminist theories and practices. We are together now against the backlash, against those that strive to erase our identities and existences. We march together where pride and feminist demonstrations are banned or attacked, at Europride in Belgrade, in Turkey, Georgia, or Kazhakstan.
We recognise that those of us affected by additional axes of oppression such as racism, ableism, whorephobia, xenophobia, among others, end up at the forefront of violence and abuses, and we strive to raise up our further marginalised communities.
We come together to build a movement that is more trans feminine, more lesbian, more trans masculine, more queer, more decolonising, and more intersectional. Together we write the story of this movement as we want to write it, not as the far-right wants to portray it. Together we are stronger.
