I was one of three people who founded the Femininjas; a Vancouver-based activism and potluck circle that aims to foster a sense of community while also fighting for feminist values with wit and compassion.
Our first action was a 3-kilometre long midnight chalking that drew attention to the needs and voices of lesbian, bi, pan, intersex, transsexual, butch, sex-working and kinky women in the face of marginalization by a taxpayer-funded conservative “women’s” shelter and crisis centre. Later, that Summer, when the Vancouver Women’s Health
Collective opened up Lu’s pharmacy, while quietly barring transsexual and intersexed women (using a sight-based screening system that also marginalized butch women), we merged with another activist’s effort to fight for change.
Within a few days of their opening, we mobilized a public demonstration with strong media outreach. We gathered that the majority of Women’s Health Collective Members disagreed with this policy, and that most community members who lent time or money voulnteers to opening Lu’s were not made aware of it.
With a few weeks, the Femininjas had turned from a small group of grrlilla artists into an activist organization of forty-odd members. With our new support, we coordinated a round table that brought together a variety of women’s groups from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside – the impoverished community in which Lu’s opened located, and also an enclave
for many poor transsexual women. We saw no progress for months, but women’s groups continued to stand in solidarity with their intersexed and transsexual members, and many activists refused to cooperate with a health system that forces gender roles on women. Eventually, the policy changed, and now, not only Lu’s but also the Vancouver Women’s Health Collective welcome all women.
This signals a great change in the inclusion of intersexed and transsexual women. Ten years ago in BC, trans inclusion was contentious, but in 2010, the inclusion of transsexual and intersexed women is considered a key feature of any progressive women’s organization.
The Femininjas have only grown, and while maintaining an eye on justice for all genders, have campaigned on a wide range of issues including the protection of rivers and streams, affordable housing, air quality and the rights of sex-workers.
The Femininjas Website: http://www.femininjas.com
- Amy Fox
AKA Dapper Ninja