also people who are asking "why should there be a women and trans only space, excluding men?" should ask themselves these questions before putting the responsibility on the people using that space/time to explain.  think of how many times we are asked to explain this.  yes discussion is very important, but the conversation can happen between boys only or a mix of genders or anyone really.  i feel, as a woman who uses women & trans only time at bike shops, that we are asked the same questions over and over.  the answers are out there, please be an ally and do some research before expecting us to have the hour and a half discussion with you.

thanks Josh for scanning the zine and sharing it!  it was Bike Bike! last year that gave Bike Pirates the final push to put women and trans only hours into effect and we just extended our hours from 4 to 6 hours every week.  we have definitely increased the scope of new participants and created some much needed dialogue around oppression.  we have now founded an anti-oppression committee, are drafting a policy around this, and planning a volunteer retreat in order to have workshops on important issues other than the bike mechanic side of our group.  looking forward to sharing the results with everyone at Bike Bike! this year.

peace, kathleen
bike pirates/ community bicycle network
toronto canada

On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 8:50 PM, <veganboyjosh@gmail.com> wrote:
On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 6:37 PM, Forrest Cutrer <fbcuter@msn.com> wrote:
Once Josh scans it he should post it here for everyone. It's pretty neat. However, I do recommend reading it with some discussion. As an identified male who was initially against a gender-specific night, it took both the zine and a good hour-and-a-half long discussion to sway my opinion.

couldn't have said this better myself.

i finally dug out my copy to see if i could find kanako's (the author) email address. it's in there, along with a note that says "feel free to copy and distribute, even add/expand on this zine."

with that in mind, i'm scanning it now. will post a note when it's been uploaded to the attack sit---i mean, bcn wiki.

i for one am definitely interested in feedback from men, women, and everyone else, once they've read it...i feel like bikebike is such a finite time in which to discuss these types of broad issues. the workshops tend to overrun, side discussions are quashed, etc.

would love to see some longer term discussions about oppression and some of the other large societal issues we as bike shops and as people face happening either on this list or somewhere.

thanks y'all.

josh.







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