**the below article was published in Dope Magazine in May 2023. We are reproducing it here so that as many people as possible can read it. We encourage you to buy a copy of Dope to support them, and read other amazing pieces written by community groups!**
Bender Defenders was started as a response to rising hate crime. This project has helped over 800 queer and trans people feel safer, more confident, more supported by a community. But not in the way it was originally intended to.
We don’t want to centre ourselves around other people’s hate. We want to build queer community, queer joy and queer strength.
The original idea was for a roving group of trained queers who would challenge homophobes and transphobes and keep the streets safe for our community. It’s a powerful fantasy, one that brings a lot of people to their first few classes. But really, this fantasy came from a place of hurt, anger and fear – and that’s not what Bender Defenders is about. We don’t want to centre ourselves around other people’s hate. We want to build queer community, queer joy and queer strength.
Our regular classes are a space where people can feel powerful, be vulnerable and realise how much they are capable of. In our self-defence workshops, we hold space for people to unpack this deeply flawed concept, understand its limitations and feel more confident in drawing on a range of skills – physical and non-physical – to keep themselves safe.
People say these classes are a huge boost to their mental and physical health and really help manage their anxiety. Learning Muay Thai is an amazing way to keep yourself safer, and to heal from the damage hate crime causes.
It’s useful to have some moves in the back pocket in case you have no other option – any training is better than no training. Just as importantly, training a martial art, even casually, helps you understand the limits of what you can do, so that turning to non-physical approaches feels more like an empowering choice.
We also find ourselves frequently challenging three central myths around self-defence:
- If you really want to be able to fight, you need to rewire your brain’s instinctive responses to violence and danger. One or two classes a week aren’t going to cut it.
- Engaging in physical violence is almost never the most effective way to keep yourself safe. And ‘self defence’ doesn’t give you a free pass to do whatever you want to someone who has wronged you – you need to understand the law before you start swinging.
- Learning how to defend yourself doesn’t make the harm caused by hate crime go away. There’s no way to experience something like that and come out unscathed. Again, the fantasy of somehow ‘coming out on top’ – whatever that might mean – is a powerful one, but a fantasy nonetheless. Like the original idea for Bender Defenders, it often comes from a place of hurt and anger. For us, part of learning self defence is finding ways to heal from that.
Muay Thai helps us release our emotions, reconnect with our bodies on our own terms, and feel powerful in a world where many of us don’t get that very often. Experiencing this week after week, alongside fellow queer and trans people, is transformative. It creates a strong, supportive community who love and believe in themselves and each other.
In fact, when our regulars talk about why they love Bender Defenders, the most common response isn’t about hate crime or feeling safer or managing their health – it’s that they found community here.
Ultimately that’s what we want. We build community, because we are stronger together than alone. Bender Defenders does challenge hate crime – just not how it was originally intended to.
benderdefenders.com 