What does effective allyship look like after a hate crime?

We woke up on Sunday -- Trans Day of Rememberance -- to the news of a mass shooting at a queer nightclub. I felt angry, sad, and scared. Then I tucked my anger away and went on with my day, dreading and putting off the one task on my work to-do list: advertising my upcoming active allyship workshop.

Given the work I do and who I am, I wanted to say something about the shooting, but what was there to say? Another mass shooting. More hate speech emboldened. I'm a cisgender person, and it was just Transgender Day of Rememberance. How can I possibly be advertising my work right now?

Then I talked to a colleague, and she helped me realize: how could I *not* advertise this workshop? I'm a queer person offering a workshop whose content couldn't be more timely for those feeling inspired to step up right now. And 50% of the proceeds are donated to Sister Song, an organization whose work directly supports people's rights to our personal bodily autonomy. So I'm here, asking you to join me in this work.

How many of us saw the news of the Club Q shooting over the weekend, paused for a brief moment to feel sick, liked and re-posted some queer and trans creators’ content, and then moved on our with our day, because this is one more shooting in awful string of awful things happening in a world that's constantly on fire?

Y’all, that's part of the plan -- the news cycle is designed to wear us down so we become numb, too tired to take action. Or maybe we put a lot of energy into one big action, like joining a protest, or making a big donation, or putting on a speaker series at work, and then we burn out. And burnout isn’t the way forward.

There's a better way. A more sustainable way. There are routines we can build to help us live our daily lives in ways that are more aligned with our values. So that when tragedy strikes, we have spaces where we can process our feelings and continue engaging in direct, ongoing work to help build a better world, where tragedies like this don't strike anymore.

So while I feel uncomfortable advertising my workshop amidst this tragedy, I also know that we can’t create the world we want to live in without the very routines I teach about in this workshop. Routines we can use so that next time a tragedy like this happens, we have actions ready to go and we don't have to start from scratch.

Learn more about the workshop and sign up here. Fifty percent of proceeds will be donated to SisterSong, which serves and provides care to trans and queer folks in its mission to pursue reproductive justice for all.