**CW: Reference of genitalia, transmisogyny, homophobia, racism, murder, sexual trauma**
Earlier this month, dozens of trans women across various social media outlets created a motion to “Boycott DL Men” via Instagram, Twitter, and so forth. The overall intent behind this motion was to call-out the double-bind that we trans women find ourselves hegemonically placed in as a result of cis men’s treatment towards us, whereas althewhile they pick us up on the curb and worship us in the bedroom, they laugh about us with their friends and kill us in alleys. Cisgender men are, as are every single one of us, raised in a toxic white-supremacist, trans-misogynyst state that highlights racist colonial ideologies of gender binary and cisheteronormativity, enabling such exploitation and violence on trans feminine bodies disproportionately as a result. Trans women, Black and Indigenous trans women especially, are subject to heightened levels of harm because our society has instilled the narrative that trans women are not real people but solely sex objects for cis men’s fantasy. Cis men who sexually manipulate and exploit us are simultaneously secretive about these attractions toward us and go about speaking Referring to the initial boycott post, there is a lot to be said surrounding this conversation had about DL men, especially considering the emergence and prominence of down-low (DL) culture among gay Black men during the late 20th century, which I do not think was ethically referenced and linked to in the original post started by other trans (premarily white) activists. However, I do think it is critical to further analyze cis men’s sexuality from another tangent, and to recognize the intersections between such implications of internalized trans-misogyny within their own sexualities and their manifestations of such ideologies through interpersonal sexual relations which lead to violence and murder on our trans feminine bodies.
