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A Transfeminist Care Manifesto

Zine

Call for Submissions Blog.png

Timeline

Pitches are due: June 1st, 2022 by 11:59pm EST

Announcement by: June 6th, 2022 by 11:59pm EST

 

Final project due by: July. 15th, 2022 by 11:59pm EST

On December 14th, 2021, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) published the draft guidelines for version 8 of the Standards of Care (SoC). Although there are positive changes made in SoC-8, such as more affirming language, a lower recommended general minimum age to access gender-affirming healthcare, and a new chapter for nonbinary people, the lack of community consultation has yet again resulted in a top-down process for determining the care needs and desires of gender diverse people

(for more info: https://taaap.org/2022/01/08/wpath-feedback/).

 

In the face of an ever-increasing onslaught of anti-trans legislation, the SoC-8 guidelines are likely to further negatively impact how care providers, institutions (e.g.,health, government, legal, education, etc.), families, and insurance plans all over the world provide care to trans and gender diverse people. Despite several decades worth of calls to depathologize and decolonize gender diversity, the institutional hold on and governance over gender-affirming care continues to repeatedly harm trans and gender diverse folks.

 

The zine, A Transfeminist Care Manifesto, looks to bring together  trans and gender diverse voices to strategize, dream, and mobilize a critical trans politics on care. A critical trans politics adopts a racial, disability, and economic justice analysis of trans* issues and calls for legal and institutional reform in conjunction with community-led social movements (see Dean Spade’s book Normal Life). Critical trans politics understand that caring for trans and gender diverse folks is not limitedto hormone replacement therapy or gender-affirming surgeries, but also requires housing, substance decriminalization, abolition, transformative justice, food security, climate justice, an end to borders, Indigenous sovereignty, decolonization, access toknowledge, depathologized mental health supports, clean water, equitable labour, body autonomy, and so much more.

 

A Transfeminist Care Manifesto is about making a public declaration of our individual and collective intentions, opinions, objectives, and motives with regards toour own health, care, and well-being. The zine seeks to address how trans and gender diverse people from different experiences maintain, continue, repair, and create the care practices and futures they desire, both for themselves and their communities. As a refusal to meet the standards of care that have been predetermined for us, the manifesto instead aims to think more flexibly and expansively about what care looks like for each and every one of us. Most importantly, it a refusal to negotiate the need for poor, BIPOC, queer, migrant, disabled, and incarcerated, trans or not-trans, liberation.

 

The manifesto will operate as a call to action, resource, and the first zine issue of many that redirects conversations on gender-affirming care back towards the people and communities such care is intended to serve.

What should my submission be about?

The zine will be divided into four sections to match the themes of maintain, continue, repair, and create. You may submit pieces of work that touch on multiple themes, and if your work is selected, we’ll feature it where you think it best fits. Below are some prompts/topics to give you a sense of what we’re looking for. Most importantly, these prompts/topics are meant to inspire, not constrain!

 

General topics:

  • Self-governance / body autonomy

  • Self-medication

  • Indigeneity, colonialism, and traditional medicine

  • DIY sexual and reproductive health

  • Informal networks of hormone sharing and skills sharing

  • Mental health and wellness

  • Harm reduction and trauma informed care

  • Alternative models of healthcare

  • Fat liberation and care for all sizes

  • Community and collective care

  • Disability justice and crip futures

  • Virtual/distance networks of care

  • Gatekeeping and institutional power

  • Grassroots social and political movements

  • Capitalism and care

  • Informed consent

  • Chosen family

  • Children and Youth

  • Eco-care, caring for the planet

  • Ancestry/ancestral healing

  • Community and culture

  • Stories of joy, liberation, and freedom

  • Sex and pleasure

  • Self-love and self-acceptance

 

Core themes:

 

Maintain:​ These are the care practices that help us sustain our worlds against harmor danger, and often involve developing individual and collective strategies for survival.

  • How do you sustain your world?

  • What are your survival strategies?

  • How do you navigate care systems?

  • What are signs of a supportive care provider?

  • What are signs of an unsupportive care provider?

  • How do you rest and take care of yourself and/or your community?

 

Continue: Care practices that ​continue​ our worlds attempt to determine and nourish what is most important in one’s world.

  • What are you unwilling to leave behind?

  • What values do you hold about your care and/or caring for others?

  • What does gender-affirming care mean/look like to you?

 

Repair: These are the caring practices that help us make our worlds better by fixing or adjusting the portions of our worlds that are currently inadequate, oppressive, and/or not meeting our needs.

  • What are the DIY (do-it-yourself) models of care that help you need your needs?

  • What is fixable and what needs to be left behind?

  • What does repair look like to you? How can institutions repair their relationships with communities?

 

Create: These are the care practices that seek to better our worlds by creating new structures of support, which often involves the destruction​ of broken aspects of our worlds and future-oriented world-building.

  • What is the care you dream of?

  • What does healthcare liberation mean to you?

  • What does healthcare autonomy mean/look like to you?

  • What does radical care mean/look like to you?

 

What type of work can I contribute?

We’re looking for text- and image-based works, which may include illustrations, photography, and written pieces. Content can range from:

  • Visual art

  • Collages

  • Mini essays

  • Poetry

  • Declarative statements

  • Constructive criticisms

  • Narratives

  • Information about group activities

  • Cartoons

  • Creative writing

  • Letters

  • Any type of cultural and political expression

  • Activities

  • Lists

  • Satire

  • Dialogues/interviews

  • Reflections

 

We will only publish original content. Content that has been plagiarized, appropriated, or previously published will not be accepted. Please appropriately credit and cite any work that has been used for inspiration or reference.

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Final Submission Guidelines

  • There is a maximum of 1500 words (for written pieces) or up to 3 letter-sized pages (for visual pieces) per submission, though we especially welcome shorter pieces! Our goal is to include submissions from a wide variety of individuals/groups and to accept as many as we can.

  • Please submit visual pieces as 300-600 dpi .jpeg, .png, or other common, non-proprietary, image file format.

  • We cannot accept physical art pieces. Please provide either pictures or a scan of the work in one of the formats described above.

  • We will also accept submissions (e.g., YouTube videos) via QR code.

  • Please submit text-based pieces as a .docx or .rtf file.

  • Provide a brief bio of up to 150 words (written in the third person) including the name under which you would like to be published (e.g., all or part of your name, a penname, a group name, or ‘anonymous’).

 

Submission Guidelines for Proposal

  • If you already have completed work that would fit the zine, you are more than welcome to submit it. However, we do not expect people to complete their piece before being accepted to the zine. Instead, we ask that you submit a short pitch.

  • Pitches should be 250 words or less and can include visuals.

  • Your pitch should include a brief description of your topic, which theme(s) it falls under (i.e., Maintain, Continue, Repair, Create), and what medium you will be using (i.e., visual, poetry, collage, etc.).

 

How do I submit my proposal?

Each contributor may submit up to two pieces of work. Please submit your work to the using this Google Form. You’ll be asked to provide the following details:

  • Your full name

  • Name/alias for publication (optional)

  • Pronouns (optional)

  • A short bio (2-3 sentences)

  • The title of your work

  • Description of your work 

  • Contact info for us to follow up (will not be published)

  • You will be prompted to upload any additional materials.

 

If you do not have a google account or have any issues accessing the form, email submissions are also welcome. Email submission must include the information listed above and can be sent to hello@transcareplus.org.

 

Honoraria

A one-time honorarium will be issued for all accepted submissions. If your piece is selected for publication, you will be paid $50CAD upon final submission. If a piece is co-authored/created each person will receive $50.

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