Surf Don't Terf 4ever 🦈🏄🏳️‍⚧️

Hey friends,

I was technically one newsletter behind, and even though I'm sure nobody was counting, I'm making it up to you here with this unfortunate This Week in Transphobia update.

It appears that the folks at Teespring are deeply confused about what "we love and support the LGBTQ+ community" means. They took down our Surf Don't TERF design for an alleged IP complaint, and when I contested it — which cost Niko $200 by the way! Justice for Niko's bank account! — they revealed that jk, they didn't take it down for IP infringement... they actually took it down because they're terfs. Oops! 

Teespring: Hello. We took down content featuring or related to the word "TERF" as we believed that issues surrounding the word are prohibited by our Acceptable Use Policy.  We do not support hate and have always aimed to be as inclusive as possible. We hope you understand that in the interest of maintaining a safe and respectful platform, listings that promote or glorify hatred towards any person based upon their age, race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and religion are prohibited; THIS includes listings that feature or relate to individuals, organizations, or symbols opposed to these groups. We love and support the LGBTQ+ community and are actively taking steps to give everyone the platform to express themselves on Teespring in a safe and respectful manner.

Tuck: Sorry, I don’t understand this at all. Posts that glorify hatred against trans people are prohibited, and you love and support trans people, and that’s why we aren’t allowed to say that you shouldn’t be anti-trans???

I say this mostly in jest, but: this why stunts like Trans Awareness Week ultimately don't help trans people. Now that people are aware of trans people and know what terf means, it simply enables their transphobia. I don't love it! 

Anyway, if you'd like to email the CEO of Teespring, his email is chris.lamontagne@teespring.com. It turns out that Teespring also does a lot of other bigoted bullshit, so feel free to mention that too, if you want.

More importantly, I am actively looking for places to move the shop and could use your help! Here are the requirements we need to meet:

• Gender neutral clothing options (no requirement to choose between "mens" and "women's" sections)
• Sizes that go up to at least 4-5XL
• Printing and shipping services available. As you know, I don't take any money from the merch store, and if I have to be in charge of distribution or printing myself, we simply will not have a merch shop anymore. :( 

If any of y'all have ideas for where to go from here, please let me know! And hey, if you have Surf Don't TERF merch, will you take a photo and tag us? You know, for trans awareness? :p 

You've seen this one before but I'm trying to get u inspired lol.

Surf don't terf foreverrrrr. 

xoxoxoxoxoxo,
Yr resident gender detective