[Heart]

What you just posted Cheryl is eloquent in the ways it illustrates how we cannot avoid patriarchal history, (built upon racism/sexism/classism), as individuals or as communities, no matter how inclusive and correct we want to be.

I did not ask for help with the person following me around in that space because I feared, a) that I would be seen as transphobic by others, and b) because I questioned myself for having a reaction to her behavior.

In some ways b. is even more insidious than a. It's a classic internalized self-blaming/blame-the-victim reaction women are specifically trained to have, so as to keep accountability off perpetrators. That particular conditioning, as a woman, may not be something I share with my trans sisters who grew up male.

Heart