Mutual aid

Mutual Aid vs. Charity

Mutual aid, often summarized as "Solidarity Not Charity," stands apart from traditional charity. While charities typically function within a hierarchy, viewing recipients as "less fortunate" and requiring proof of need, mutual aid defies this approach. It emerges as a response to immediate survival needs, offering direct, unconditional support through a community network. Unlike charity, mutual aid abolishes hierarchical structures, relying instead on volunteers to support individuals in the most critical conditions, emphasizing collective effort and equality.

Solidarity

Solidarity is unity and agreement that binds people together as one. Radical solidarity acknowledges that another person's struggle is a shared struggle for survival against oppressive institutions and structures that are currently in place in our society. Solidarity involves ensuring that we do not allow oppressors and exploiters to control the process of transitioning to a different future that liberates those who are oppressed.

Collective Care

Collective care means to care about the members’ within mutual aid spaces, grass-root organizations etc. as a communal responsibility of the group rather than it being one's individual responsibility. It removes the responsibility from a single person to that of the organizations.

Collective care allows for space to build solidarity and share radical justice to form trust. Collective care acknowledges that the collective well-being of members is fundamental to social justice and making change.

T4T Care

T4T is an indicator that a trans person is seeking out another trans person reclaimed from online personal ads. In the case of T4T care trans individuals seek care from one another. It stems from a desire to be cared for in a manner that is intimate and loving that is different from what our cis friends and family can give us.

For many being cared for before, during, and while recovering from surgery can be difficult to navigate with others who do not understand the experience. Thus T4T was born out of a necessity for trans people to process medical trauma and celebrate transition journeys together.

Disability Justice

The term "disability justice" emerged in 2005 from discussions among queer women of color activists, recognizing the need to address ableism more comprehensively within progressive movements. It evolved as a critique of disability rights efforts and studies that overlooked intersectional oppression. The movement confronts the damaging labels placed on differently-abled individuals by legacies of white supremacy, advocating for their recognition as people with intersecting identities deserving full societal access and reclamation of their identities.

Queer Kinship

Queer kinship aims to harness a sense of connection and cooperation not only in times of crisis but at all times every single day. Queer kinship radicalizes notions of collectivity and community by incorporating thought-provoking perspectives on what it means to love, to be loved, to ‘do family’ and belong.