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Campus Trans-Rights Battle - Strategy?

Discussion in 'General Support and Advice' started by Cassindra Starlight, Oct 17, 2013.

  1. Things are about to get a little bit heated at my college. There is a petition going around so that a referendum can be held to overturn AB 1966, a bill allowing trans students access to the proper bathrooms at school and other such rights in the state of California. People against the bill will be coming to my college to get students to sign this petition, and we've seen some of the materials they want to hand out. It's pretty much a bunch of dishonest fear mongering about putting guys into girls' bathrooms to rape and harass them. We anticipate they will mostly be successful, because their point of view, while bullshit, is passionate and convincing. The school LGBT club is resolved to act in this matter, but we don't know what. We thought of trying to talk people out of signing the petition, but we've agreed that this will require engaging with our enemies in front of the people we are trying to sway, making us look hostile and unreasonable and gaining the enemy more signatures. So, with that strategy out, what can we turn to?
     
  2. An Gentleman

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    They don't even realize that FtMs exist...
    Make some friendly posters, with lots of facts, testimonies, evidence, and humor. (A presentation could work, too, as long as the club's not too dogmatic about it.)
    I'm in California too, and I Do Not Want to use the girls' bathroom.
    I don't really know how colleges work(too young), but you could try to talk to the school authorities about it. School should be a safe environment for learning, and not a shithole- and, depending on which part of California you're in, it'll be a generally liberal place.
     
  3. LaplaceScramble

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    With the university rules I'm familiar with (I'm also Californian) for an outside organization to come onto campus they need to be admitted by the school and are given a specified location where they'll 'work' from. Find out what that area is before hand, this way the people against this (which is hopefully quite a few) can get there before hand and just sit in their spot. I'm being literal. Just sit there. The school could very well give them another location after trying to get you to move (if they try at all) so you could always go to that new location and form a wall around it. Basically say as passive-aggressive as possible. Again, this idea only works if your schools works like the ones I've had experience with do.

    If you don't mind me asking, what school is this? If it's close I might want to go there, cuz that's fucked up...
     
  4. I go to De Anza. The permit has been issued but we don't know where or what day this will happen. From previous experience, the location will most likely be on the east side of the Student Center or by the library.

    I'm not sure if starting a confrontation through physical means like stealing their space will help us. It could make us look unreasonable in that we won't let anyone who disagrees with us have a say.

    ---------- Post added 18th Oct 2013 at 12:25 AM ----------

    I've noticed that FtMs pretty much never get brought up in bathroom battles. It always seems to be MtFs getting lambasted, regardless of the location. I can't decide if that's good or bad for FtMs.

    This may end up being the best we can do.
     
    #4 Cassindra Starlight, Oct 18, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 18, 2013
  5. LaplaceScramble

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    Irk, hadn't thought about it that way. You could always set up stations a day or two before and try to present real information before the other group gets there the next day.

    Or go with An Gentleman's idea (which is a good one) but also present the fake information. Whatever the group passes out is going to have a lot of false information, so make posters and such with that information and then explain/prove/show how it's wrong.