Isabella Levin

18/01/05
Queer Feelings
Stephen Dillon

In “Transfeminine Brokenness, Radical Transfeminism”, Nat Raha describes the “states

of our brokenness” that are, unfortunately, par for the course for most transgender individuals.

The author provides a disturbingly long list of difficult realities that trans people must face, with

each respective problem capable of being a lifelong struggle for the average person, let alone the

stress for someone to bear it all at once. These are, most notably: depression, anxiety, trauma

from familial, communal, spousal, and sexual abuse, exhaustion, isolation, loneliness, hate

speech, difficulty in the workplace market, sexual fetishization, violence, assaults, being denied

basic rights such as the right to public restrooms, as well as healthcare. They receive vehement

rejection from every aspect of their life. It’s no surprise that the suicide attempt rate for

transgender people is 75%, ten times higher than any other demographic. However, as that rate

climbs up, we only get stronger, because mourning fuels resistance.

The aforementioned issues are common conditions that are vividly present every day in a

transwoman’s life. A transwoman shows more strength and courage when they leave their house

than discriminatory politicians have shown in their entire lives, and yet, they are perceived as

cowardly, weak, sexual deviants. In light of the dominant narrative that trans people’s lives are

destined to be brief, brutal, and tragic, we stand and fight for visibility in a society that has

excluded and denied us for so long. In a world that has damaged our trans-sisterhood so

irreparably, how do we politically convey the horrors of trans abuse to the world, and make our

plight heard?

Rise Against’s song, “The Great Die-Off”, provides an approach. “There’s a fire on the

borders and it’s burning down the walls you built high. And there’s a steady stream of anger and

it’s spilling from the coasts, a tidal wave. We want it all and we want it now. [..] your numbers
Isabella Levin
18/01/05
Queer Feelings
Stephen Dillon

are dwindling now.” It speaks to a reality of transwomen that, for once, is hopeful rather than

tragic. At long last, it is us who outnumber our oppressors. Now they’re the outcasts, they’re the

ones that society looks down upon in disgust. Moreover, the song is sung in an incredibly

meaningful and heartfelt manner. The actual music is significantly slowed and drawn out,

emphasizing the lyrics and encouraging the listener to actually slow down and metabolize the

meaning of the words. After just the right amount of time has passed allowing the listener to

ponder, the song comes crashing back in full force, yelling, chanting: “We want it all and we

want it now.

We are inching closer and closer to a reality in which transwomen and allies outnumber

those who hate us. We are forcibly reclaiming the rights that were taken from us. We’re rageful.

We are bitter from the pain of our fallen, and now you’re left with us, the militia of genderqueer

activists who draw their strength from the pain caused by the loss of our sisters. We the people,

united in anger, are becoming the change we want to see in the world, a world that those activists

before us could only dream of- we will make it a reality.