In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Category: Trans

Argentinian Bank Ad Promotes “Change”

This Argentinian advertisement is currently making the internet rounds:

I’m of two minds about this: On one hand, of course it’s nice to see an ad with a fuzzy message about how positive change involves treating transgender people with respect, and it’s nice to see transgender people on television as morally neutral or even positive characters. On the other hand, though, it’s using a long-oppressed group to sell a touchy-feely message about how a bank will make us realize we’re all really the same deep down, because we all got our loans from the same place. And I think it’ll be a little more revolutionary when trans people are on TV and in media for reasons other than “look at this person who is trans.” Or “buy this.”

I dunno, maybe I’m cold-hearted, but I didn’t tear up over this commercial like so many YouTube commenters. I was actually kind of turned off by it, but perhaps that’s my cynicism in over-drive. What do you all think?

Thanks to Michael for the link.

Statement from Angie Zapata’s Family on Andrade’s Conviction

Via Monica of Transgriot is a video of the statement from Angie Zapata‘s family, on the trial of Allen Andrade. It is read by Angie’s brother, Gonzalo Zapata.

A warning that it is difficult to watch, and may be triggering or upsetting. Watching Angie’s family break down in memory of her, and in knowledge of her brutal death, had me in tears. But Andrade has ensured that Angie cannot speak for herself about what he did to her — I think it’s only right then to listen, if we can, to what her family has to say.

Monica also had a loose transcript of the video. I’ve updated it as best I can to make it a full transcript of the statement itself, and it’s below the jump:

Read More…Read More…

Breaking: Allen Andrade Convicted of First Degree Murder

Allen Ray Andrade, the man who murdered Angie Zapata (left), was just minutes ago convicted on the two main charges of first degree murder and bias-motivated crime (hate crime).  He was also convicted of the significantly lesser charges of vehicle theft and identity theft.

As far as I’m aware as of writing, those are the highest convictions on all charges against him.  And for his heinous crime, at 4:00PM MDT, Andrade will be sentenced to mandatory life without parole.

It took the jury only about 2 hours to deliberate.  Only about 2 hours.

The trans panic defense failed, seemingly by a landslide.  Like my co-blogger Jack and others, I am not convinced that this is actually justice for Angie — when a woman is dead and nothing can bring her back, I don’t really think there is such a thing as “justice” anymore.  But it is the best we could have hoped for in this particular case.  And I am in relieved shock.

h/t JusticeforAngie

Trans Panic Defense Underway in Trial for Angie Zapata’s Murder

I have been very closely following the Twitter feed by JusticeforAngie, which is live-tweeting the trial of Allen Andrade for the murder of Angie Zapata. The details of the case have been absolutely engrossing; they have also made me feel quite physically and emotionally ill, particularly on the day that opening arguments began, and the defense’s strategy became clear.

Close to the time that Angie Zapata was murdered last July, I wrote a post about the clear signs that the defense was going to use the wildly bigoted “trans panic” defense — in which someone is supposedly and“understandably” so enraged upon learning that another person is trans that they murder that person — to excuse Andrade’s actions. That educated and easy to make guess has indeed come to fruition.

Read More…Read More…

On Cis Supremacy, Feminism and Feministe

The image above was created by Voz, and was posted on her blog with a call for trans women to boycott both Feministe and Feministing.

The reason that Feministing is being boycotted is, at least most directly, because of this comment thread.  Queen Emily discusses the comment thread and the many things that are wrong with it in this post on Questioning Transphobia.

That’s not what I want to talk about, though. What I want to talk about, of course, is why Feministe is also on that graphic. Though Voz refers in both cases to a “history of mistreating and disrespecting trans women,” the reason that Feministe is being boycotted is most directly because of a thread on a post which I wrote and was therefore responsible for, called By Any Other Name, a post that was mostly about trans misogyny in an article at Nerve.  Lucy has more about why this comment thread angered so many, but the short version is this: a thread that should have focused on the concerns of trans women instead was turned around by cis commenters to focus on the concerns of cis women.  And I did little to nothing to stop it.

Read More…Read More…

Light a Candle for Angie

Moving this post up to ensure that people see it . . .

Angie Zapata is a woman who was murdered in July 2008. I have written about her before. Her alleged murderer, Allen Andrade, is believed to have killed her because she was trans. The jury selection in the trial is set to begin on Tuesday, April 14th.

The video above was made by Angie’s family and friends as a part of a campaign to end the hate that caused someone to brutally take her life. These advertisements, via Questioning Transphobia, were also created by Angie’s family and a coalition of 50 civil rights and anti-violence organizations, and are running in 22 Colorado newspapers. The ads won’t be run in areas where the juror selection pool will be drawn from, so as not to be seen as attempting to influence them, but the aim is to raise awareness of violence against transgender people and encourage the hate to end.

It bears strong noting that Angie Zapata’s is the first murder of a transgender person that will be tried as a hate crime. This is a monumental moment for that reason, and also a highly sobering one — the Transgender Day of Remembrance is held ever year because of the fact that such astonishing numbers of transgender people are murdered as a result of hate. The murders of so many should have been tried this way before. It’s a disgrace that they were not. And now, all we can do is hope for the best in Angie’s case, that the crime will be recognized for the act of hate and bigotry that it was, and that justice will be done.

Angie’s friends and family are asking you to light a candle for her. They don’t mean in your home, though you may choose to do so as well. They mean publicly. Become a fan of the page on Facebook, or a friend on MySpace. Then, change your profile picture to that of a lit candle. It can be one of the ones provided, or you can take a picture of yourself with a candle. It’s up to you. But change it, encourage your friends to do the same, and leave it there until the trial is over (it is currently set to last two weeks). I’ve done it. You can, too. It’s the least that all of us can do. It’s an online vigil, take part.

Also, visit the Angie Zapata website and follow them for updates on Twitter. Put this badge in your own blog sidebar by saving the image, and putting the link to the facebook page around it (idea created by Autumn):

And check out the GLAAD Angie Zapata resource kit to learn more about why national hate crime legislation which protects on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation is desperately needed.

Just do something, anything, and preferably all that you can, to spread the word. This deadly hate has to end.


cross-posted at The Curvature

About Your Issues…

II’m not sure I’ve ever posted a warning like this before, but given the derail that happened in the last trans-centered thread: this is a post about fetishization of trans people. Cis people are welcome to post here, but please do try to advance the ball. Transphobic, transmisogynistic, and disrespectful language is unwelcome.)

In comments here, voz linked to this Annalee Newitz article on Nerve–I may even have linked it back when in a post about trannychasing and Margaret Cho. (Newitz also wrote an earlier essay about trans people–trans women, really–which is just straight-up transphobic; in the newer essay, she says that she used to be transphobic, in part because of internalized shame.)

A lot of commenters to the article pointed out that Newitz recites transphobic tropes about trans people, like this one, even as she talks about what awesome sexual partners they are:

Of course, there’s also something frankly pragmatic about my trannychasing. As a bisexual, it’s more convenient for me if I can date someone who has lived on both sides of the fence. Many trannies — although certainly not all — give off a kind of bisexual eroticism. Even if they’ve had sex-reassignment surgery, they can’t erase their memories of having been treated like a member of the other sex, and it affects the way they interact with me.

She can always tell. No matter what you’ve done to your body, some of that original gender just doesn’t rub off. Note too the way that she places the responsibility for a gendered interaction squarely on the shoulders of the marked class. It’s not that she treats them differently, but that they are different.

Read More…Read More…

By Any Other Name

I was just directed to this article at Nerve by Hugh Ryan, called By Any Other Name: How My LGBT Students Taught Me to Love a Forbidden Word. You should know, before heading over and/or reading further here, that it’s about the C-word. A word that a lot of us as women, and as feminists, have problems with. And for good reason.

I’ll say up front that unlike the author, I did not like the Inga Muscio’s book Cunt. Well, honestly, I never finished it, and I hardly ever put a book down. But once I got past the indication that menstrual cramps are all in our minds (excuse me?) and the declaration that women who use hormonal birth control — women like me — don’t really know their bodies, suffice it to say that I was done. It was a shame, because I was hoping to be able to “reclaim” a word that has often felt painful to me.  And I know that some people really do like the book, and that’s fine.  But it sure as hell was not the avenue for me.

And I’m also skeptical of this article on many levels, too.

Read More…Read More…

Transphobia in the Media

Can someone please tell me what the fact that this woman is transgender has to do with the crime that she’s accused of committing?

Other than, you know, to reinforce the myths that transgender people are all somehow innately immoral, repugnant and mentally ill?

Because reading these articles on the guilty plea — and just about every one written on the subject thus far includes the fact that she is transgender in the headline — gives me no indication of a valid motive for the inclusion of this information, such as the name she held before legally changing it, whatsoever.

I can’t believe that this even bears stating, but here we go.  The crime that this woman committed is horrific.  It may even, in the eyes of many people, make her a bad person.  But absolutely none of that has a damn thing to do with her gender identity and medical history.  None of it.  Period.