Trans Protection Party

Third Person Perspective #1

Third Person Perspective is a monthly physical publication that is available at many of TPP’s events free of charge. All of the articles and poetry in our zine are also available free of charge in textual form on our online newsletter.

Third Person Perspective Issue 1 Cover Monthly Update - by Croatia Black Hello, reader, and welcome to the first edition of Third Person Perspective - a Trans Protection Party monthly publication! This first segment is designed to inform the public about what the Trans Protection Party is currently doing in Kansas City, as well as to mark accomplishments and announce plans. This will be where you can find the standing calendar for official TPP events. Enjoy the Defence Program on February 16th at Goofball Sk8boards. The event will be at 6 PM - make sure to wear your athletic clothes! During this program we will extend our confidence with the kubaton, and elaborate more on the basics of self defence. Then on the 23rd of February we will have a base meeting at Cheeks Studio. We will start the gathering at 5 PM with a potluck - bring a dish! The Base Meetings are places to get plugged into our community, learn, and have fun. We will also have a Stop the Bleed/CPR seminar on the 2nd of March, location to be determined at 6 PM. In additional news, we are announcing a coalition with Decarcerate KC to help stop the construction of any new jails in Kansas City with taxpayer money. The coalition, and the campaign it centers on, is to democratically stop the Public Safety Sales Tax that is being voted on April 8th. It is our sentiment, as abolitionists, that jails do not keep the people safe, and when it comes to *trans people* this sentiment is true to the maximum. The amount of discrimination and abuse common for trans people in jail is second to none, with alarming statistics and clerical data we have access to that elaborate just exactly how bad it is for our trans community to be incarcerated. We simply cannot abide by the PSST for that reason, but not exclusively. In addition to the fact that trans people are often detransitioned, sexually abused, physically abused, or segregated - we also are the proletariat, we spend money - we need money to survive like anyone else, and we pay taxes. If the Public Safety Sales Tax passes, we can expect 25% of every penny we spend in Kansas City to be added on to the end of our total bill as a sales tax - all to pay for the already bloated police infrastructure's growth beyond what the people are capable of contending with. We are talking about hundreds of new beds. New locations to house black and brown people primarily, and sometimes *trans people* - who I do hope the reader is concerned about. In total, the tax would mean less money for the people, more money for state violence, and less safe communities for all of us. And lastly, for those who are wondering about our Food Distribution Program, hang tight - and send us your positive energy! We are close to being able to share good news. The launch date is still March 21st, 2025! To donate contact us at trans_protection_party@proton.me. The Black Panther Party and the Legacy of Community Building by June Doe "No one goes without. That was her rule. Everyone was equal under her roof. I remember her having so many different people she'd let stay with her just because they had nowhere else to stay." Reflects the grandchild of Bernadette Richardson, a member of TPP who requested to remain anonymous. "I remember her not liking some of them personally, but not liking someone was never a good reason for them to the in the cold. That stuck with me, I think." Bernadette Richardson was a member of the Black Panther Party, one of---if not the--- most revolutionary organizations in American history. The Black Panther Party (1966-1982) was an organization founded during the 1960's Black Power movement--- a "second civil rights movement" that centered around community building in Black American culture and the dissolvement of white-supremacy. Their foundation was built upon a mix of Marxism and Leninism ideals, creating a "Ten-Point program" that lays out their methods to create an equitable state of living for all people, especially the marginalized (Cleaver). Although in pop culture they are notorious for their open-carry of firearms, their most accomplished deeds lie within mutual aid. Programs such as the Free Food Programs (which in 1972 distributed over 10,000 bags of groceries out to Oakland,California's community), Children's free Breakfast Program, Free Clothing, etc. all had massive impacts on the underserved Black, disenfranchised, and minority communities (BPPALN). Although unattributed, these programs deeply influenced modern day government aid programs such as medical care in schools, free school lunch, and modern knowledge on sickle cell anemia and STD prevention. "A lot of folks want to do something quick and easy and post it online to get praise," states our anonymous member. "Real progress will be quiet and ongoing and hard." As we face an ongoing rise in individualism and fascism in modern America, many people find themselves desperate to involve themselves in mutual aid work and community building, much like the Black Panther Party. "I have no doubt we are capable of such work...you know what they say, the revolution will not be televised." Which is undoubtedly true, as rally's that have taken place over the past month---such as Decarcerate KC's "No Taxation for Incarceration" rally and the "No cop nation, No fascist state" rally hosted on the steps of KCPD Headquarters by a collection of KC organizations found a severe lack in news coverage. "She died 12 years ago, and stopped being a panther long before I was born, but she still left an activist mark on me." Says our anonymous member in closing. "I don't think you have to be in any party to make change, but change is easier in a party. If you can't find a group that shares your values, be your own group. Your values will soon spread. Hers did." A more in depth overview about the Black Panther Party can be found in [our earlier post](/newsletter/2025-01-12_bpp-overview.html) entitled "Black Panther Party: An Overview of America’s most Revolutionary Organizations." Citations "BPPALN.Org Black Panther Party Alumni Legacy Network." *Black Panther Party Alumni Legacy Network*, Black Panther Party Alumni Legacy Network, bppaln.org Cleaver, Eldridge. "On The Ideology of the Black Panther Party." Oakland, California, Oct. 1969. ---------- Perspective by Comrade Jane After 2016 I saw a lot of fear. Fearful people, myself included, showed out to march against Trump. In the beginning, there was a palpable sense of solidarity against it, but as time wore on, I became—as I suspect many of you did—increasingly demoralized. Effective and class-conscious protests like the airport shutdowns to stop the Muslim ban or the protests to shine light on the ICE camps gave way to performative displays of pink hats and inflatable diaper baby Trump balloons. As the momentum slowed, I realized people had slipped not into resignation, but into something more dangerous—hope. Hope that Robert Mueller or Bernie Sanders or _someone_ would step up to stop him, but the one thing I didn't see among the so-called “resistance” was anyone actually materially resisting. Everyone was waiting for someone else to do _something_. It seemed that no one wanted to lay down their own bodies because there was still hope that things would go back to normal. “I want to go back to brunch” was the battle cry of the white liberal. This always felt a little silly to me, but until I accepted my own marginalized identity as a trans woman, I couldn't put a finger on the exact reason why. “Back to normal” has never been an option for those on the outside. Back when? What is “normal”? Jim Crow? Indian schools? Fag drags? The idea that we could retreat back to the time before Trump, to the days of Obama or Clinton was fundamentally in agreement with the MAGA sentiment. Though they would deny it vehemently, liberals accepted the premise, disagreeing only on the details of when exactly America was “great”. Was it great when Reagan's CIA poured crack into black communities and when Nixon’s men shot students who resisted his genocide in southeast Asia, or was it great when Clinton sexually assaulted his staff and when Obama’s drones bombed hospitals and wedding parties? Those who lived on the other side of America’s imperial boot didn't have such a nostalgic time to retreat and hope to return to. Many of those who lived on the line between privilege and marginalization, those who were queer, but also white, or wealthy, or cis and male first held out hope first that fascism could be beaten at the ballot box by voting for the slightly less objectionable fascists. When that failed, too many immediately switched to talk of who they could throw under the bus to win next time, be it Palestinians, or immigrants, or trans people. Then it was talk of where to flee to, forgetting to ask how they could help those who were stuck here due to disability or poverty, and ignoring how fascism is rising in the European countries where they hoped to escape. It was like watching the stages of grief—denial, anger, and bargaining play out in real time across the news and our social media feeds or with my friends and family. When we have a hope of some retreat to safety, our minds are distracted by questions. Who will win this election or that? How badly will some politician hurt us? Is it morally permissible to, at the expense of someone else, support someone who opposes that politician in order to keep ourselves safe? But when you break through all that and come to acceptance, you can find yourself with a clearer view. These questions are intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually draining. There’s a much easier question that instead fills our bodies minds and souls with energy: What can I do right now to keep our community and the people we love safe? We are surrounded, we can’t go back. There’s never been a time when trans people, or any marginalized community in America, has truly been safe. Our job is simple, we build a new and better world for our people and those people who have bled alongside us. That is what I saw in our party when I first joined, and why, though I don’t have hope in the world, I do have hope in each of you. Some of us can’t go anywhere; some of us won’t. We aren't grovelling at the knees of the city council or Congress begging for help, we’re rolling up our sleeves and doing the hard work of feeding and defending each other, because we've realized that the only people who will help us are each other: our queer chosen families, our marginalized friends and neighbors, and all of the working people of the world who stand with us in solidarity. ---------- Mirrored Examples on the Importance of Listening to Black People by Therese So, I complimented some white enby or some such on their makeup while I was volunteering the other day. Honestly, it was genuinely a solid makeup job! Inspired by The Crow, they had said—though personally I got more of a Neo-Norse vibe from it. Which, is actually kind of funny, considering how bad some of those types can be when it comes to Black and Brown people, and just where this conversation goes in general. Conversation? Yes, conversation. The enby and I are talking now (oh no, red alert, talking! To… a people). My kindness has been mistaken for sustained interest, and apparently my disinterest is on par with some people's genuine attempts at human connection. Some of us simply have the rizz thrust upon us, I will bear this albatross. I digress. As I chop something to put into something else idly, they go on. Elaborating on things my poor baka tranny bimbo brain just doesn't remember. It's alright. This is community engagement. I'm building relationships. You have to talk to people or else your social bar goes down, like in The Sims, you know? This goes on for minutes (ugh). We have gone from make-up, to DIY fashion, to the implications of harassing political extremists. I'm just trying to make a fruit salad lil sib. They mention an instance, in which they had been harassing some religious weirdo, a Westboro Baptist-esque bible thumper with a "God Hates Fags" sign an all. This religious weird was apparently harassing people in their community. I can imagine so! What was the enby's solution? Oh, of course! Harass them back—fair game, right? It's fairly effective at getting the proselytizer to fuck off for a bit, and earns the enby applause amongst some of the community at risk. Hell yeah, right? Well, this is where this column gets a little juicy. By this point in the conversation, I wasn't the only one involved—a good friend of mine, a Black enby, had actually come over too, and was listening intently to the white enby's tale of conflict and religious justice. We both give our two cents—"That's pretty cool." I say, "Yeah," my friend adds on "Normally white people aren't willing to use their privilege like that, good on you." They conclude. "Normally white people aren't willing to use their privilege like that." Echoed in my mind. "Well it's funny you say that," the white enby responds, "specifically about me being white," Oh boy "Because all the POC I talked to about it told me I should stop." "Word," my friend says, considering their response, "Well, you should probably listen to what Black folks and POC have to say about their communities." The white enby is visibly uncomfortable, clearly not having thought of why the POC people in their community protested (my guess, the risk of getting the cops called and everything becoming worse). I'm finally able to go back to my chopping. And, SCENE! --- So what was the point of me opening this column with that kind of story? Well—that will be apparent very soon, my dear. But first, we need to talk about what's going on in the Kansas Legislature right now, and, we need to talk about Black people's business, and more specifically, Black people's hair. The 14th Amendment is a little article in our constitution that pushes into federal law, among other things, the right to be considered an American citizen if one is born or naturalized here, protections granted to private citizens from the tyranny of state governments, and protections to one's "life, liberty, and property." Kris Kobach is a little man in Kansas who has unfortunately been our attorney general since 2023, and another little fly buzzing his hellish agenda into the ear of the convict tangerine. He has, among other things, personally ensured that 150,000 (and counting) immigrants get denied healthcare, spearheaded efforts to make life hell for trans people in Kansas and beyond, and wants to place millions of immigrants in concentration camps leading up to "mass deportations." Doesn't he just sound like a sweetheart? Well, now he's pursuing yet another feather in his hat of fuckery—at the request of Kansas Senator Renee Erikson, Kris wants to remove the requirement that the state board of cosmetology have at least one (1) Black member, directly violating the 14th amendment, and honestly, probably a bunch of civil rights era laws that are being peeled back like the layers of an onion of fuck. You may be thinking that pursuing the board of cosmetology is lower on the list of priorities, when people are literally being killed by pigs and thrown in cages by ICE—and you'd be right, however this isn't inconsequential, as you may think. As Senator Oletha Faust-Goudeau (the one (1) Black woman to ever serve on the Kansas senate) responded—this kind of decision would have huge implications for the for different approaches to medical cosmetology and the overall health of Black Kansas, particularly for our hair. Without a representative on the board, who can become a licensed cosmetologist, hair stylist, nail tech, piercer, and tattoo artist are all at stake. Even electrolysis, a common tool in the transfem experience, is at risk. Now does the story make sense? In both cases, we have a white person encroaching on Black people's business. And in both cases, the pleas from actual Black people who are most affected by this (but don't think it doesn't trickle down, honey) are ignored. Kris Kobach isn't ever going to listen to a Black woman, because he's a ridiculous cuck of a failure of a man. But you can. Don't be like Kris. When a Black person, or POC, who you consider a comrade tells you something is wrong, or that you need to adjust—instead of looking for excuses not to…. Maybe next time, just listen to us. Because the people on top never do. Inaguration Day by Croatia Black Inauguration is referring to the inauguration of the president of the United States, Donald Trump- But inauguration also means the beginning of a system, or period- It means a ceremony to mark the beginning of something. That something is for the people and that period is by the people, because today isn't about him- or any of the opposition, it's about the people. Today we inaugurate our power together, and the period of resistance before peace. We no longer consent to the rule of the federal government over our bodies and minds, we are open to a radical new peace and global cooperation. We are ready to dismantle the systems of exploitation that burden the world coming from where we live and work- and we are not playing games anymore. It is our responsibility as adults to right the wrongs that we have inherited, and we have inherited many. We have inherited a world ravaged by colonialism, militarism, zionism, racism, capitalistic exploitation, white supremacy and gender violence- all of it intersecting in the american legacy and power structure- and today we inaugurate rejecting what we were given, and embrace a new era of cooperation, and stewardship- by any means necessary. We do not owe any commitment to the hypothetical new American era we are confronted with today, but we do owe allegiance to humankind, and a commitment to moving forward regardless of if we are given access forward through electoral politics. The opposition is the enemy of the biosphere- and the people are the biosphere as much as the earth underneath us and the life we share our lives with. It is self defense at any station of privilege to commit to a future suitable for the whole of all biological needs- because we are existing in the integral whole. Our planet will not suffer anymore under the hands of greedy capitalists- we commit to prospering without their consent, and that means making the earth prosper, that means making each other prosper. It means decolonising our hearts and minds and communities, and working with each other to live in the new way while dismantling the old. Dismantling their ability to contain us in jails and prisons, because those systems are in place to keep the people from their natural future. Electoral politics are so corrupted by capital interests that they do not represent the will of the people, most especially in the federal government, which is what the fuss is about today. In the words of the great Assatta Shakur- We have nothing to lose but our chains. So today we inaugurate casting off the chains on our hearts and minds that prohibit us from living in a new way. The people cannot be stripped of rights they reserve, and they won’t be if we stick together and keep our eyes on the objective of dismantling the systems of exploitation that contain the past- and are grasping at the present… we will NOT let them contain the future! We are not fighting people, we are fighting exploitation. The personnel and assets associated with the systematic exploitation of the people must be addressed. While we address them, we must take care of each other- decolonize our minds and find a new love for the life we share. It’s our love for one another and the planet that will light the way to the future- and if I've learned one thing in this life- its that the light is brightest when it is present in great darkness. We are surrounded by darkness now- but in this darkness we can see the light of humanity most clearly. In this clarity we identify the objective. It hits us clear- like an awakening to the end of our potential, and the assets and personnel in between us. We are separated from our future only by a thin veneer of power, but it is power that is employed by salary and dividends. The people's power is not elected, it is our birthright- and our natural effulgence, to cast away the darkness of our time and establish a new peace for all people. No more election cycles, no more corrupt politicians who only serve the rich- no. Today we inaugurate the era of the people. I'm gonna ask you one question, people, are you ready? **Yes!** A crossword puzzle with the following clues: - A four-letter word with the clue: "All cats are beautiful" - A five-letter last name: "John LAST NAME did nothing wrong" - An eight-letter word with the clue: "A blood-sucking parasite" - An eight-letter word with clue: "To gather a group of people for community action" - A seven-letter word with the clue: "To teach others" - A five-letter word with the clue: "The Spanish term for immigration officers/ICE" - A nine-letter word with the clue: "A serf is a member of the working class under this economic system - A ten-letter word with the clue: "Someone who likes the taste of leather" - A seven-letter word with the clue: "To spread class consciousness with disturbing facts" - An eleven-letter word with the clue: "Members of the ownership class under capitalism" - An eleven-letter word with the clue: "The opposite of being a fascist" - A five-letter word with the clue: "The horrific event that marked the founding of Israel" - A seven-letter word with the clue: "The last name of an famous anarchist with the first name Emma"