Public Service Announcement

I’m writing this post as a public service announcement so that we are all on the same page about how I have been treated, how you continue to treat me, and how we are going to move forward together.

How I have been treated

Here’s our shared reality, and I know and have gone to great lengths to successfully demonstrate this reality is both real and shared: for what is likely my entire life, and what is absolutely the last 7 years, I have been coerced, extorted, exploited, mocked, ridiculed, humiliated, condescended to, patronized, poisoned, drugged, trespassed, neglected, and just about every other form of non-physical mistreatment a person can expect from society, much less their own friends, family, and community. I have traveled to multiple countries in that time and suffered the same treatment so this isn’t a uniquely American phenomenon.

At the same time as I have endured your abuses, it’s also become clear - and again, I have gone to great lengths to make sure it’s clear to both of us - that you all know who I am, along with a lot of private information that you shouldn’t, not limited to but including my personal healthcare information, my purchasing history, my media preferences and watch history, a ton of other deeply upsetting shit, and most importantly my name. Why is that name the most important when it’s also the most trivially public of any of those? Because as I have traveled throughout America and the rest of the world over the last 7 years, I have been addressed by strangers by name countless times. I have conducted entire transactions (e.g. making reservations, making purchases and returns, etc) without providing any personal details, yet the necessary details were “miraculously” known by the counterparty. The implication being that you all know my name, and who I am, via the very same means you know all of the other things you shouldn’t about me, all of the things that make it very obviously clear that you have raped my privacy to an extent and in a way that is unprecedented in human history, and you are fully aware of it and completely unapologetic about it.

How you continue to treat me

That is an overarching summary of where we have been, and I personally believe that it is too broad to be meaningful: after all, why is it such a big deal if you have to manage certain inconveniences, indignities, or injustices every now and then? We all have to do that, it’s part of the human experience, the common refrain goes.

So now let’s zoom in and remove the illusion that our lives or circumstances are even remotely close to similar.

In just the past 48 hours, I have been repeatedly dogwhistled - and when I say repeatedly, I mean upwards of 10 times a day - and had the dogwhistle charged. I have had my home trespassed and my property damaged. I have been gaslit, stonewalled, and ignored by “family” and “friends” who, like the rest of you, are desperately clinging to a self-defense claim of ignorance in spite of the fact I have gone out of my way to remove any sort of ignorance on their part.

I cannot go out in public without being harassed. I cannot eat a meal without listening to you all talk about me in encoded language so easily parsable that even children can understand it. I cannot leave my home without expecting it to be entered while I am out, and I cannot stay in my home without suffering the injustices and indignities or you all watching, listening, and otherwise raping me of any sort of private life. Raped in public, raped in private.

How we are going to move forward together

I am writing this post to inform you of all of this, and how we are going to move forward together from here.

From today forward, I am going to use the exact same tactics and mechanics you have used against me against anyone who treats me in any way less than someone whose name is known around the world. If you mistreat me, I will mistreat you back by taking your photo without consent and sharing it without your consent. I will talk about you in encoded language from anonymous accounts that we all know aren’t truly anonymous and identify you to the rest of the world, along with the details of your behavior toward me, for them to cast judgment on you.

In short, I will do everything in my power to return any unwelcome favor you pay me emotionally, psychologically, and/or socially in kind. And you will in all likelihood be defenseless against it because you won’t be able to tie what’s happening to me without revealing you know it’s being done by me. And that’s a fact you should never be able to prove in a world where my privacy remains intact.

So this is where we are today and how we are going to move forward together. If you should choose to continue on the same path you have trodden the last seven years, I wish you all way more than luck. Because unlike me, you are not trained much less prepared to deal with the living hell I will make of your lives, even if just for a brief hour, day, or week. So take a minute to think things over before you choose how you are going to interact with me, and when you do, choose wisely.