I'm thinking from a... how to phrase it.
So in activism I think before you get into organizations at any level you actually start with community, right? But the world isn't really the same as once it was, so it's possible and increasingly common to have non-localized communities. For trans people this is just a material necessity: having the Gender does have a minor hereditary component but it's still something that happens somewhat randomly across all other populations, so you can't really have a concentration of trans people in one area to really form the nucleus of a local political organization. But all sorts of other demographics have this sort of splintering, relocating, itinerant lifestyle now too, but people maintain their old social networks to a degree it stays as a community. So I think there's a visible chunk of voters whose community can only exist at the federal level because it's dispersed all across the country.
This seems to argue that trans people do not need localized communities, and also that a concentrated, localized trans community is impossible. But trying to think through this thought you expand it generally to human migration and technological advancements that are also prone to/supportive of fragmentation, and chances are greater for backgrounds that are higher in number? Is this correct?
But granted I'm also salty here. There's a strong streak of dismissing online community building entirely and seeing it as something to be broken up in some spaces, despite local organizations typically reveling in their local bigotries. Which coming back to selfishness, is marked by transphobia in 99.99% of the country. Bleh, rambly.
Pretending I understand the same lay of the land as you would be totally offensive. I, for one, keep online activism at a distance because I cannot interface with accountability the same way. And I recognize that I live in a space where multiple communities overlap or bark at each other and that the only community I see missing much support for is the disabled. Those are privileges to an extent, but this ain't New York City, you know? I think about historic examples of activism that were always both local and remote (mail campaigns, remote donations, etc.), and this problem of enclosure is a long one in that regard. It's also a privilege that I could just easily shed lots of my internet and social media presence for some psychosocial peace, because the internet just moves way too fast for me. You have me wanting to look into greater detail about what actually exists beyond GA and TX.
Show Posts