Crossing Many Rainbows

witchyways:

loveoflopt:

Started by this ask.

I wanted to like Raven Kaldera. I found him through his essay about problems between the intersex & trans communities, which is very important and I really liked. He’s trans, pagan, poly, apparently is really good about polyamory, and a few other things about that. I really thought this was a person I would like. But I can’t. Every fucking time I find out more about him I hate him more.

• He calls trans* issues “Third Gender Issues”.* Just, that’s it. I could throw my hands in the air and leave it there. Trans men and women are not “third genders’, they are men and women just as much as cis men and women. Suggesting otherwise is incredibly bigoted and cissexist, yes, even when trans peopel say it.
• The Urban Primitive - racist, “my way or the highway”, etc.
• His Northern Shamanism site isn’t loading, but just that he calls himself a Shaman is racist- I haven’t seen any indication that he’s Evenki, which is the people that the word should refer to.
• “the autistic tranny[sic] nerd with no social skills” (commentary from me)
• Even though letting your children misgender you in public can put you at risk of being fired/beaten/raped/killed/etc, you should still let them do it. Because expecting your kids to believe you love them and are still their parent is more traumatic than your kids having to watch their parent get killed.
• Did you know that male privilege is discounted by being given dirty looks in clothes stores or not being allowed to keep traditionally female jobs?
• A couple of things about his “A letter to would-be transsexuals”:

1. -“Your dating pool will shrink drastically. This is especially true if you are FTM.” (emphasis added. er, what?)
2. -” If you found cross-dressing erotic before transition, that will probably go away when it’s not cross-dressing any more, it’s just normalcy. It’s not erotic when it’s what’s for breakfast for the rest of your life. You’ll have to find a new fetish.” Did you know that women can’t find being a woman, dressing sexy, etc to be erotic? Or is it that women finding being a woman erotic is a “Fetish”? 
3. -“You won’t ever have a normal body of a member of the opposite sex” Fuck you and your normal. A lot of trans men end up with a complex because they’re told that their body is wrong and unacceptable and fucked up- it doesn’t matter if it’s not “normal”, there is no normal, what matters is that you’re happy with it. Look into what the results are. Figure out if that’s what you want.
4. -(in talk about the likelihood of being attacked/killed/etc) “Remember Brandon Teena” Trans women are FAR more likely to be killed than trans men, but you choose a trans guy- who, by the way, has had the Native part of his heritage erased because we can’t have non-white trans folk acknowledged. Nice
5. -The title- “would be”. Trans people who are going to medically transition need to know the dangerous and risks and what you’re giving up. But to dismiss them as “would be”, as if they don’t really want to. A better title- “If you’re thinking about medical transition” or “Some things to be aware of before transitioning”.
6. but mostly the conflation of “Transsexual” and “sex change” (FUCK DO I HATE THAT TERM) I’ve known transsexual folk who are never going to transition medically, that’s fine.

• In his a letter to trans spirit workers: “If you are not dealing with - and fully living - your sacred gender, then everything that the Gods and spirits will do to you will be about forcing you to come to terms with this” Bullshit. All trans people are different, all relationships with spirits are different. You can fully accept and embrace and love your gender and never tell another soul. How am I supposed to “fully live” as a non-binary? I can’t. And I have yet to meet a God or spirit who has forced me to try to. And I’ve got fucking Loki, God of smashing you in the face with your own self-denial. Your path is not the only path. Gender, spirituality, whatever- and Gods and spirits will work around your situation. Don’t listen to some douchefuck stranger on the internet, ask the spirits and deities you work with what they need you to be.

• He has declared himself the “Evil Overlord of the Transsexual Empire” and the link isn’t working for me, but it says it on the sidebar of his site (eta- it is now, but if it isn’t, again, it’s on your sidebar). This quote”: “So I unilaterally declared myself Evil Overlord of the Transsexual Empire, and began to fill the ranks of my Legions of Terror.” He literally declared himself the overlord of this and he’s selling merchandise and asking for donations.  The Transsexual Empire is a despicable book almost (completely?) aimed at trans women. And here is a man saying that he can “reclaim” the idea of the transsexual empire, something against women. And who is  profiting off of it. I need nothing else to have a problem with this person.

That’s just from his site. Not everything else he’s done, this is the stuff that he’s advertising about himself. Not some deep dark secret he’s ashamed of or learned better about.

And all of this from the guy who claims that, according to his belief system, “In Northern-Tradition Paganism, it means that racism, sexism, homophobia, and intolerance of alternative lifestyles is unacceptable, period.” (although I notice the missing “transphobia”)

LAWL.

*I can’t be bothered finding the links where he calls trans women “female androgynes” or whatever and trans men “male androgynes” or whatever. Seriously this person has a fucked up view of trans people. There are male and female androgynes. That’s fine. But not all trans people are a “third gender” or “androgynes” or whatever.

Here is the stuff I was talking about before, followers. Sorry for losing the post :P

Oh my god, not that I had any left to lose, but I lost all faith looking at the essay by his daughter about having/being trans* parents.  Jesus christ, if you’re going to have shitty fucked-up views on trans* people, could you at least spare the next generation said views?

Seriously, though, I agree—I wanted to like the guy, I did.  When I first started digging for pages on being trans* and pagan, his was the first that came up.  But dear god, do I hate him now.  And I worry that so many more young trans* people who are looking into paganism (or young pagans who are realising they’re trans*) are going to come across him and develop some pretty fucked-up views of their own because of the way he presents his material as such a god-fucked “truth”.

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