First Alternate: A Lindy Hopper's Newsletter

As two of the more prominent transgender dancers (as wild as that is to say), and people with this particular written platform, Helen and I have been struggling to collect our thoughts as our government escalates its assault on trans rights, with the goal of eliminating trans people from public life. In some ways it feels silly to try to put any of this in the context of Lindy Hop, but it’s the little world we live in, and in times like these some of the biggest impacts we can have are in our little spaces.

It’s just not who I am to try to justify why you should care about trans people in particular, or debunk rhetoric that’s designed to be extremist and confusing and logic-proof, or appeal to your empathy because me and my friends and people whose existence is much more tenuous than mine are being particularly subjugated at the moment. Frankly I’m sick of talking about it to people for whom it’s not their lived reality. You either care whether trans people live or die or you don’t. If you’re reading my little newsletter, you probably do, at least in some abstract way.

It’s never going to be the sexy or business savvy or popular choice to choose to prioritize the well-being of trans dancers in Lindy Hop. But trans dancers deserve to have people in their own scene care about them and invest in them just because they are community members. If you are cis and you’re reading this, and you want to do something for trans dancers in your scene, here’s my suggestion: invest in the trans dancers in your scene not just because they’re trans, or because you’re the Trans Rights Understander, but because it’s the right thing to do, and you’d do it for anyone else.

What does that look like? It could be providing opportunities to trans dancers in your scene that you’d give to anyone else with their relative skill level, whether they’re experienced instructors and community members or young, hungry dancers. You can be willing to kick bigots out of your dances and tell them to come back only when they’ve changed their behavior. You can learn who your local trans dancers are beyond their name and pronouns so that you reliably get those pronouns right. You could dance with the trans people at your dance!! For god’s sake, have a gender neutral bathroom so trans people at your dance can use the restroom!! 

The above is by no means a Guide to Being Inclusive to Transgender People. No one person can give you that. Those are just some things I, personally, would appreciate seeing more.

I want to take a moment to acknowledge that many of my readers are cis friends I know in real life. Consider this a time to check in on what you’re doing in your scenes and out of them. If you’re already doing a lot of this stuff, loop more people in your community in on it. 

If you want to know what you can do for trans people outside a lindy hop context, my advice is to ask trans people you know (if you know any), not influencers. If you’re asking me, my first suggestion is to donate to GoFundMes and other funds for surgery, relocation, and medication for individual trans people where you live, and my second one is to donate to organizations working in marginalized trans communities like GLITS or the TGI Justice Project. And if you want to know what you can do for specific trans people in your life and scene, ask them, not me.

This one’s just for our trans comrades: Helen and I are here for you. For mentorship, for specific dance questions, to connect you with other trans dancers, for help, for a chat, for a vent. You don’t need to be alone. We are here, and we want you here.