The Spotlight:
The struggle for visibility is often fought on the smallest and largest of battlefields, like the single letter on a government ID or the struggle to be seen as an equal person in society. In this community project spotlight, Iden breaks down the profound significance of “Gender X” the exhibition and the political efforts looking to erase us.
This isn’t just about a passport; it’s about the right to exist outside a binary designed to control. Read on for a raw, defiant look at identity in the face of a changing political landscape and a call to all transgender gender nonconforming artists to use their voice or be silenced.
The Backstory:
Those of us in the transgender, non-binary, gender, and queer/fluid communities have always had to struggle to been seen. We have been made to fit ourselves into the boxes made available to us by society and the consequences we faced for defying the establishment often kept us in the shadows.
The fear, the persecutions, the lies have all been working toward the same goal: maintaining the binary construct of gender and, by extension, the patriarchy. The power structure of the patriarchy demands that male be superior to female. It is a system that cannot allow the existence of any gender indentity beyond oppressor and oppressed, Male or Female, M or F.
All government identification exists to serve the patriarchy. Your gender is assigned to you before you have taken two breaths in this world and the label M or F is grafted to you. It is literally your identity. The irony for gender queer individuals is that our indentification does not reflect our identity at all.
The Politics:
In 2022 the Biden administration made it possible for people to select a third option: X. This was a massive gesture. It not only acknowledged the existence of a gender experience beyond the binary, it acknowledged an individual’s right to establish their own identity outside of the system of control we were all taught was unassailable.
It is no surprise that the first move of the Trump administration was to rescind the executive order allowing for the selection of gender X. This is a fascist regime whose goals are all centered on the destruction of identity and the silencing of dissent. The removal of gender X from passports was just first step in a focused effort to erase the transgender community and return this country to the repressive control of the patriarchy.
The Exhibition:
This exhibition, Gender X, is a statement in direct defiance of the Trump monarchy. It is a refusal to allow our voices to be silenced or our existence to be erased. It is a testimony to our struggles, a celebration of our lives, and a call to action for our allies. If we do not stand together now and fight this government we will not be here.
Make no mistake, the goal of this self-proclaimed king and his administration is the destruction of the transgender community. If the stories shared here moved you, if the beauty of the artwork touched you, if you are a soul who believes in goodness you will stand with us now.
The Choice
Be vocal, or be silenced. Be visible, or be erased
My Name Is Iden – Website
The Permanent Ink Project – Spotlight
Leave a Reply