The State of Sandus has ratified the Augusta Accord, a convention against transphobia and for the protection of transgender micronationalists. The Sôgmô drafted the accord with help from King Adam I of Überstadt after a suggestion by President Joseph Kennedy of New Virginia. Überstadt, New Virginia, Nordale, and Saint-Castin have also ratified the accord.
Like the Denton Protocol, the Augusta Accord also authorises signatory parties to refuse to respect and communicate the names, titles, and styles of address of transphobic micronationalists. Similarities end there, however, as the accord calls upon members to respect privacy concerns, a key issue with others’ interpretation of the Denton Protocol, and to form coalitions to apply pressure on transphobic micronationalists.
The Augusta Accord reiterates Sandus’s principles and diplomatic commitment to transgender micronationalists who are frequently the object of insults, taunts, trolls, and misgendering. It comes after years of controversy over the Denton Protocol, a controversial convention Sandus signed in July 2014. Sandus was joined then by Zealandia (today Uskor), the MOCC Tulsa Convocationry, and the Republic of Vlastia, but Zealandia’s Supreme Court at the time quickly gave a opinion under pressure that the accord could not be enforced there. Sandus bore the brunt of the diplomatic fallout from the accord.
Sandus agreed a month later with several micronationalists to address their privacy concerns in exchange that they publicly address transgender micronationalists by their names and pronouns.
In the summer of 2016, Sandus’s application for membership in the Grand Unified Micronational was rejected in a concerted effort by a handful of delegates to misrepresent Sandus’s position and mischaracterise Sandus’s foreign policy. The Sôgmô personally responded at the time to clarify that það would not be the Sandum delegate and that the Denton Protocol was a “nonissue.” The GUM Convention and general diplomatic convention at the time required reciprocal respect between delegates and micronational leaders, while the Denton Protocol would only have been applicable to relations with non-GUM members.
Nevertheless, Sandus was rejected then and again in January 2017 after applying for observership. Sandus has maintained its rationale and vowed not to rejoin the GUM, instead giving pride of place to Sandus’s relations with the OMF and the Social System.
Fast forward to September 2020, President Kennedy suggested a new, revamped Denton Protocol, after acknowledging regret over his previous stance against the agreement. The accord was drafted quickly, reiterating the Denton Protocol’s key mechanism and reforming it to respond to criticism from 2014. Though transphobia has become less prominent and less of a spectacle as it was in 2014, in large because of the Denton Protocol, certain micronationalists continue to misgender others intentional as an insidious form of bullying.
The accord is named after a town in the Commonwealth of New Virginia, Augusta.
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