[FlyingBrickAnnouncements] Response to DGR - Please give me feedback!

[Ramey Connelly]

Hello all-

This is a draft of the piece I am hoping to post on the Flying Brick  
blog. Please give me any feedback, (constructive) criticism, and  
suggestions! I won't post it until I get a general sense of approval :)

xoxoxo
Ramey


A month or so ago, a group called Deep Green Resistance asked to come  
speak at the Flying Brick Library. We ultimately decided not to host  
them, and since it is rare that we turn down events or touring groups,  
we thought that we owed an explanation to our volunteers, friends, and  
comrades.



Deep Green Resistance describes themselves as a group whose goal “is  
to deprive the rich of their ability to steal from the poor and the  
powerful of their ability to destroy the planet. This will require  
defending and rebuilding just and sustainable human communities  
nestled inside repaired and restored landbases. This is a vast  
undertaking but it needs to be said: it can be done. Industrial  
civilization can be stopped” (from the “About” section on  
deepgreenresistance.org).



Based on this description, many of us were extremely excited, as it  
seemed directly related to our interests and passions regarding  
environmental and anti-civilization work.



However, after we sent the request out over the list-serve for  
feedback and approval, we were dismayed and disappointed by the  
reaction. There were several responses that brought up issues of  
transphobia, transmisogyny, classism, and racism within the  
organization– specifically, this following passage, part of an email  
written by Lierre Keith, co-author of the DGR book (may be triggering  
for some, particularly due to transphobic remarks) :



“Try this on. I am a rich person stuck in a poor person’s body. I’ve  
always enjoyed champagne rather than beer, and always knew I belonged  
in first class not economy, and it just feels right when people wait  
on me. My insurance company should give me a million dollars to cure  
my Economic Dysphoria.

Or how about this. I am really Native American. How do I know? I’ve  
always felt a special connection to animals, and started building tee  
pees in the backyard as soon as I was old enough. I insisted on  
wearing moccasins to school even though the other kids made fun of me  
and my parents punished me for it. I read everything I could on native  
people, started going to pow wows and sweat lodges as soon as I was  
old enough, and I knew that was the real me. And if you bio-Indians  
don’t accept us trans-Indians, then you are just as genocidal and  
oppressive as the Europeans.

Gender is no different. It is a class condition created by a brutal  
arrangement of power. I can’t fathom how mutilating people’s bodies to  
fit an oppressive power arrangement is frankly anything but a human  
rights violation. And men insisting that they are women is insulting  
and absurd.”

When we responded to DGR, we made it clear that we were willing to  
host them as a group – as long as they were willing to discuss these  
issues and how environmental and anti-civ work are intrinsic to  
resisting gender oppression – and vice versa.

Deep Green Resistance, in response, made it clear that they are not  
willing to let anybody but themselves guide the conversation, and that  
if we insisted on such, that we are not ready to fight the (so-called)  
“real fight”.

We find it necessary, in return, to make something perfectly clear:

The Flying Brick Library is intended as a safe space.

Transphobia and transmisogyny are not welcome in this space any more  
than racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, sizeism, or other  
oppressive or hierarchical viewpoints.

As such, we reserve the right to choose whether to host – or not to  
host – any group, person, band, etc. at our own discretion.

This is a space for building knowledge.
This is a space for building support.
This is a space for building alliances across issues.

This is not a space for people to come proselytize to others without  
welcoming input, constructive criticism, or differing opinions.

And this is not a space where people can refuse to accept that our  
struggles are all connected.

If these are the viewpoints that you feel the need to spread, then  
take them elsewhere – they are not welcome here. 
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