queercomicsconnection:

“When even the best plans and organizations fracture, we revert to relationships that go beyond political or social utility. That means relying upon deeper emotional attachments, maybe even a deeper physical attachments. And that goes back to the clusterfuck I just talking about. As much as sex sells, sex seals. Especially in LGB communities. Trans is not a sexual orientation—but lesbian is. Yet, if you have heard that every dyke has gone out with every other dyke, you are probably leaving out trans dykes. It is a rare and secure lesbian who would date one of us, and yes, that is significant.
Within dyke space, sexual and romantic relationships permeate the community, and not being able to comfortably flirt or fuck or laze away at a women’s spa restricts the ability of trans women to participate freely in a group that to a large part is defined by who wants to sleep with whom.
Sex is a mode of communication and acculturation that cannot be separated from social activism, political change, or anything else that queer women are trying to accomplish. Under attack, overworked, stressed, and trying to make rent—in these times, even revolutionaries will reach for the familiar. And until more trans women become part of that familiar, we find ourselves tossed aside in the name of expedience.
Even your dysfunctional ex is a known dysfunction!”

— Ryka Aoki’s Girl Talk piece, reprinted in her book, Seasonal Velocities (via marginalutilite)