i’m writing this because people & institutions within the movement continue to repeatedly misgender the murdered forest defender tortuguita. after the killing comrades repeatedly made it clear that tort’s pronouns were they/them & it/its – if you see people who claim to support the fight against cop city use he/him, call them the fuck out. if you can’t call them out, point it out someone who can. i get that maybe no one should expect better from the giant corporate media stations, but movement people & movement media? come on.
i also notice a lot of people using both tortuguita & what was (apparently) tort’s government name. i don’t see why that’s necessary & i challenge anyone who thinks they should keep doing so to explain themselves. it’s not like there’s potential confusion about who “tortuguita the forest defender” could possibly be.
lastly, i expect at least a few people will respond by pointing out that tort’s blood/birth family are using masculine pronouns & the government name. i know for a fact that i wouldn’t trust my blood relatives to respect my pronouns or politics if i ended up dead – & i’m confident many other trans, nonbinary, &/or gender nonconforming people feel the same way. if you don’t, consider yourself lucky.
please spread this rant wherever you think it should be read. especially in somebody’s mentions after they just did the thing i’ve been complaining about.
cop city will never be built, death to amerika.
Submitted anonymously over email