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CONTENTS Glossary ....................................................................................................2 Introduction ............................................................................................3 Acknowledgements .............................................................................7 A Transformative Justice Story .......................................................8 Radical Communities: Exemptions and Existence .................10 ... And Trans? ...........................................................................................13 Sexual Assault and Attempts at Collective Justice .................17 Indigeneity, Transformative Justice and Appropriation ..........40 Who’s Radical?: The State and Our Complicity ..............................43 Mental Health, Disablism and Self-Care ....................................46 Ripple Effects ..........................................................................................50 Don’t Lean In ..........................................................................................51 Gossip ........................................................................................................52 Learning From the Past .....................................................................53 A Few Lessons ........................................................................................54 Conclusion ...............................................................................................56 Notes ..........................................................................................................57 Art Credits: All of the art is done by me, AJ Withers, with the exception of: bathrooms for all: Gender Diversity Project - City College of San Francisco. cultural appropriation cat: culturalappropriationcat.blogspot.ca • the comic was done with a program online • I didn’t make the patch on the cover. • the Winnie the Pooh comic is by Pooh. • • Creative Commons license: attribute, non-commercial, no derivatives (without express advance permission). Feel free to copy and distribute but do not put this online (I haven’t decided if I am okay with that yet). 1 GLOSSARY carceral logics: incarceration thinking. Ways of thinking that use the same logic or framework as the criminal justice system. cis - people who are not trans. Sometimes I use the word cissies because I think it is funny. cisism/cissexism/cisgenderism: discrimination against trans people. community accountability (CA): a diverse group of community responses to harm. It can be the same as transformative justice or it can be used to describe public calling-out processes and banning that do not involve a transformative process or attempts. complicit - involved or implicated in something. discourse - how we talk about things. This determines what we know, what we can know, what and how we think, what we do and how we behave. discursively produced: things that we make real through the way we talk about things. narratives - stories. pathologization: illness. praxis: where theory the actmeets or processpractice. of defining something as a disease or prison industrial complex: the prison system and all things related (corporations that build/run prisons, cops, lawyers, courts, social to draw attention to the fact that it is an industry - that people are making workers, probation officers, prisons, etc.). The word ‘industrial’ is used widespread and interconnected. psychiatrizedmoney off of incarceration.people: people Complex who have is used been to diagnoseddraw attention with to a howmental it is disorder and/or brought under the surveillance/control of the psychiatric system. reflexive/reflexivity: the process of examining oneself. The idea is that you can do self-critique and talk about it in order to both acknowledge is really important but it is very limited by the fact that you are looking at youryourself own so privilege there are and some how things you couldthat you have may done never better, see. etc. Reflexivity restorative justice (RJ): alternative sentencing justice process that have been adopted by governments. sexual assault: unconsentual or coerced sexual act. the state: the government, including all of its bodies (like the police, the trans: Trans is a term used to encompass people who are transgendered, criminaltranssexual, justice genderqueer, system, etc.). gender variant, transitioned and some two-spirit or who do not identify with the gender that they were assigned at birth. transformativepeople. Generally, justice it means (TJ) folks: the who idea don’t that fitmeaningful into the gender justice binary processes and/ can be developed that work towards healing, engaging the people who 2 have caused harm and repairing relationships. According to members GLOSSARY of TJ organization Generation FIVE, TJ is “the dual process of securing individual justice while transforming structures of social injustice that carceral logics: incarceration thinking. Ways of thinking that use the perpetuate such abuse.” same logic or framework as the criminal justice system. Turtle Island - original name for North America for a number of cis - people who are not trans. Sometimes I use the word cissies because Indigenous nations, including the Anishinabe and the Haudenosaunee I think it is funny. cisism/cissexism/cisgenderism: discrimination against trans people. community accountability (CA): a diverse group of community responses (Iroquois Confederacy). to harm. It can be the same as transformative justice or it can be used to describe public calling-out processes and banning that do not involve a transformative process or attempts. complicit - involved or implicated in something. INTRODUCTION discourse - how we talk about things. This determines what we know, what we can know, what and how we think, what we do and how we behave. This zine is about attempts at dealing with sexual violence, the politics discursively produced: things that we make real through the way we behind it and the practice of it. It is also, in many ways, an apology. It is an talk about things. apology to the people who I have caused harm to or been a part of causing narratives - stories. harm to in the name of accountability/justice. It is also an attempt to put pathologization: forward a thoughtful, informed and respectful argument for changing the illness. way that these issues are dealt with in my community. praxis: where theory the actmeets or processpractice. of defining something as a disease or I think transformative justice is important. I also think that the way it is prison industrial complex: the prison system and all things related practiced in many activist communities is harmful and it is important to (corporations that build/run prisons, cops, lawyers, courts, social acknowledge and minimize this harm. A lot of the writing and speaking about transformative justice (TJ) and community accountability (CA) that to draw attention to the fact that it is an industry - that people are making I have come across is quite self-congratulatory. I think it is important to workers, probation officers, prisons, etc.). The word ‘industrial’ is used celebrate. But I also think it is important to widespread and interconnected. be critical of our actions and work towards psychiatrizedmoney off of incarceration.people: people Complex who have is used been to diagnoseddraw attention with to a howmental it is improvement. disorder and/or brought under the surveillance/control of the psychiatric In speaking with a friend who does system. TJ work, she told me that she thinks reflexive/reflexivity: the process of examining oneself. The idea is that that the self-congratulatoryness of a lot you can do self-critique and talk about it in order to both acknowledge (but certainly not all) of what has been written is strategic. She said that people is really important but it is very limited by the fact that you are looking at often make the political choice to present youryourself own so privilege there are and some how things you couldthat you have may done never better, see. etc. Reflexivity transformative justice uncritically in order restorative justice (RJ): alternative sentencing justice process that have to show that there is a viable alternative been adopted by governments. to the prison industrial complex. The sexual assault: unconsentual or coerced sexual act. problem with this is that people read these the state: the government, including all of its bodies (like the police, the texts and attempt to do transformative justice without having a full picture of how trans: Trans is a term used to encompass people who are transgendered, criminaltranssexual, justice genderqueer, system, etc.). gender variant, transitioned and some two-spirit difficult it can be and without being able to or who do not identify with the gender that they were assigned at birth. drawnever oneasy. other people’s critical reflections on what they have done. Some transformativepeople. Generally, justice it means (TJ) folks: the who idea don’t that fitmeaningful into the gender justice binary processes and/ ofIf the we stuff present that something has been aswritten wholly makes good, it itfeel is verylike iteasy is really to tear easy it apart - it is can be developed that work towards healing, engaging the people who with a small number of cases. For example, the pro-choice movement had have caused harm and repairing relationships. According to members 2 for some women. It only took a few women coming out with deep 3 a tendency