Trans – Page 3 – Feministe

Events in Remebrance of Amanda González-Andújar

You may have heard of the recent murder of Amanda González-Andújar. A man has been taken into custody in connection with her murder, which is undoubtedly good news, but González-Andújar is still gone, and hers is sadly yet another name to add to this year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance list of the dead.

This Saturday, April 24, there will be both a memorial and vigil in NYC to honor and remember her.

For those who can’t read the flyer, it’s transcribed below the jump.

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We Are the Dead: Sex, Assault, and Trans Women

This guest post is a part of the Feministe series on Sexual Assault Awareness Month. C. L. Minou is a blogger and writer inhabiting a Great American Metropolis. In addition to her work at the Second Awakening, she has written for Shakesville, the Guardian’s Comment Is Free, and is a co-blogger at Tiger Beatdown.

She is also, in no particular order, a redhead, a trans woman, an anarcho-syndicalist, a player of RPGs, a reader of science fiction, and a consistently poor speaker of foreign languages.

Trigger Warning

So here’s the thing. I want to talk quite seriously about the whole issue of sexual assault and trans women, bring in all kinds of good scholarship, talk quite soberly and calmly about the facts, weighing each one with all due rational consideration. In fact, as I type this my browser has a forest of tabs open to anti-violence centers, studies on the incidences of violence in the LGBT community, articles, policy papers, and citations to more of the same.

But I really can’t be scholarly and rational, I fear. I really can’t sit back and give you the statistics that will horrify for a moment, break up your day with some hideous imagery for however long it stays in your memory. I can’t do this because for one thing, the studies are practically non-existent–not too many people have bothered to investigate the prevalence of sexual assault in the trans community (and, as we’ll see, there’s probably a lot of underreporting anyway.) That’s one reason.

The other is that for trans women especially, sexual assault rarely stops there. In a depressing number of cases, the assault isn’t even mentioned. Because the victim is dead.

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Transgender Day of Visibility

Today’s International Transgender Day of Visibility. Started last year as a movement on Facebook, the goal of today is to increase visibility and celebrate transgender identity:

“I went on Facebook and I was thinking… whenever I hear about our community, it seems to be from Remembrance Day which is always so negative because it’s about people who were killed,” [Rachel] Crandall, who heads up Transgender Michigan, recalled. “So one night I couldn’t sleep and I decided why don’t I try to do something about that.

“I thought, ‘why doesn’t someone do it?’ Then I thought, ‘why isn’t that someone me?'” –PrideSource

You can learn more about it at PrideSource and TransGriot.

Some are celebrating the day online by sharing their thoughts and experiences, while others are taking it into real life by hosting rallies, fashion shows, and other events. There’s also a Facebook event page for today for folks to keep track of what’s going on where.

Be sure to share your events and posts there, but also feel free to do the same in the comments to let us know how you’re celebrating International Transgender Day of Visibility.

The Angry Tranny: Tone Arguments and Trans Women

This is a guest post by gudbuytjane.

(Note: This essay is not about Lady Gaga, and I will not discuss the telephone video or any of the commentary surrounding it. If you want to discuss the video, there’s an entire internet to do that in. This essay is about derailing, so as such I’ll probably be on guard for that in the comments.)

Despite being a mostly-unknown trans activist and blogger whose target audience is usually quite small, I recently found myself at the centre of some internet drama over a piece I wrote at my blog critiquing Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” video for what I perceived as transmisogynist content. My arguments were initially picked up and discussed on a few feminist blogs, Twitter, and the typical places I was used to seeing these kinds of ideas debated. A few days after I put up the post, though, it was cross-posted in its entirety to Oh No They Didn’t, a pop culture community on Livejournal. Almost immediately, my page hits increased by orders of magnitude. With the shift from academic/queer/Feminist/oppression politics sites to a mainstream audience came a nearly complete disintegration of argument, and my inbox and comment queue began to fill with hate mail. In almost every letter the author concluded with an accusation like “And maybe you ****ing trannies would get somewhere if you weren’t so ****ing angry!”

I get the irony.

The Angry Tranny trope is a variation of the classic tone argument aimed specifically at trans women (it is used against trans men too, but as I suggest later I see the implication is specifically to de-gender trans women as angry men), a derail which suggests people would listen to you, if only you were nicer. This is never attainable, however, as the dominant groups retains the right to decide what is and isn’t acceptable tone, and dissenting ideas are inevitably considered impolite, rude, or angry. Angry Tranny takes this one step further, and beyond merely classifying arguments as angry trans women themselves are framed as threatening.

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Lady Gaga’s Prison-Yard Make-Out

Sady basically said everything there is to say about the Lady Gaga and Beyonce Telephone video, but I wanted to direct Feministe readers to this interview with Heather Cassils, the Lady’s prison-yard make-out partner. She has some interesting things to say not just about Gaga, but about gender and queerness — and her interpretation of the “does Lady Gaga have a dick?” rumors, and Gaga’s response, seem fairly at odds with what we’ve discussed. Her comments about her own body as a tool of subversion, and her thoughts on how to create social change by inserting yourself into the machine, particularly struck me (even if I don’t necessarily agree that the second one is entirely correct).

Check it out, it’s worth a read.

TRANSform Me

Alisa at PostBourgie writes about a new VH1 show featuring a team of trans women traveling around the United States to make over cis women in need. I hadn’t heard of TRANSform Me before; this is how VH1 describes it:

TRANSform Me is a makeover show in which a team of three transgender women, led by the inimitable Laverne Cox (I Want To Work For Diddy), rescues women from personal style purgatory. Laverne and her ultra-glam partners in crime have undergone the ultimate transformation, so they’re the perfect women for the job.

They’ll travel the country in their tricked out fashion ambulance, siren blaring, and swoop into scenes of fashion disaster. They’ll not only make women look better but feel a whole lot better about themselves. It’s about discovering one’s inner personal style.

Laverne and the girls will cruise from boutiques to beauty salons in search of just the right look. And they won’t pull any punches with their subjects–or each other!

Each episode of TRANSform Me will cover the makeover of one woman who’s written to the show asking for help. The subject expects to be made over for a reality show–but she doesn’t know it’s going to be by three transgender women.

Ah, hmm.

On one hand: It is good to see trans-identified people in the mainstream. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy wasn’t exactly the most politically conscious show in the world, and in a lot of ways it played into some ridiculous stereotypes, but it did bring gay men into households across the United States; same with Will & Grace. Those shows were problematic for a lot of reasons, but in the trajectory of gay rights and acceptance in the United States? I think they pushed things forward. I think they helped to open a door for Ellen Degeneris — whose original show tanked after she came out as a lesbian — to become one of the most popular talk show hosts in the country (and not just on those godforsaken coasts, either). Popular culture matters, and a lot of times it’s going to be ham-fisted in dealing with marginalized groups, but I fall pretty firmly on the side of “it’s better to have marginalized groups imperfectly represented than not represented at all” (the caveat, of course, is that a marginalized group serving as a punchline is not just “imperfect” representation).

Which brings me to that other hand: I haven’t seen TRANSform Me, but I do worry that the trans women will be punchlines or caricatures. I worry that VH1 set it up so that the trans element of the show is a “gotcha!” moment — “You thought you were getting a make-over, but really you’re getting it from transgender chicks OMG!” I worry that “trans” will get a lot more attention than “women.”

But again, I haven’t seen it (is it even on yet?). Anyone have any further intel or thoughts?

Amanda Simpson Receives Presidential Appointment to the Department of Commerce

I’m a little late on this, but for those who haven’t yet heard, I thought I’d post the good news that a woman named Amanda Simpson has been appointed by the Obama Administration to the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (Note: the comments at the HuffPo article are a cesspool of offensiveness):

Defense industry veteran Amanda Simpson of Tuscon, Arizona, who really is a rocket scientist, was just appointed by President Obama to the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security as a senior technical advisor. Her job will include managing exports of dual use technology as well as conducting press and media liaison work for the agency.

Simpson is highly qualified for the position. She has worked in the aerospace and defense industry for 30 years, most recently serving as Deputy Director in Advanced Technology Development at Raytheon Missile Systems. She holds degrees in physics, engineering and business administration, and is a certified flight instructor and test pilot with 20 years of experience.

What has been making Simpson’s appointment newsworthy, though, is the fact that she is a transgender woman. And while very far from being the only trans government worker, it seems that she is the first openly trans ~~person~~ woman to receive a presidential appointment (ETA: The first trans person to receive a presidential appointment was Dylan Orr, who is a trans man. That makes Simpson not the first trans person in general, but still the first trans woman). Further, she’s actually an activist within the trans community who, among other things, served on the Board of Directors at the National Center For Transgender Equality (NCTE). NCTE had this to say on their blog:

“What is noteworthy about this appointment is not that a transgender person is serving this administration—many transgender people work for the federal government—the real story is that Amanda Simpson was selected based on her exemplary credentials and not because she is transgender,” commented Mara Keisling, Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. “Countless transgender people are overlooked every day for jobs they can do very well. When an employer does not discriminate based on gender identity, they have access to more highly qualified people. That’s what happened here.”

In a different article (Note: the article in general is not recommended, and contains some transphobic elements), Simpson herself said the following:

“I think to some extent it shouldn’t mean much at all, but on the other hand it does,” Simpson said during a telephone interview Monday from Washington, D.C. Simpson moved recently after living in Tucson for 15 years.

“So many employers and people in this country are not willing to look past that, and that’s why this is important.”

…

Simpson said that while advancements have been made toward equality, she hopes to see more people hired and promoted strictly based on their ability to do the job.

“So many people get caught up in the noise of, ‘Gee, you don’t look like me and you don’t have the same background or experience as me,’ ” she said. “They don’t realize that’s what makes this country great.”

A huge congratulations to her! She’s certainly qualified for the position, and I imagine will do it well.

NY Governor Extends Protections to Transgender State Employees

Today, New York Governor David Paterson signed an executive order barring discrimination against state employees on the basis of gender identity and gender expression. Seeing the high numbers of transgender people who report discrimination in the workplace, this is great news for those current and future employees who will be affected.

But it’s also only a first step in the right direction. While New York is now ahead of many states, it’s also really behind many others:

While supporters of transgender legal protections said they were encouraged by Mr. Paterson’s order, they noted that New York was not a pioneer in extending such rights.

“It has been a long road, and I think New York is behind,” said Dru Levasseur, a transgender rights attorney for Lambda Legal. “So this will bring New York up to par with other states that are taking the lead on workplace fairness.”

Twelve states and the District of Columbia have broad laws prohibiting discrimination based on gender expression or identity, according to gay and transgender rights groups. In addition, more than 100 cities and counties across the country provide similar legal protections

Indeed, just within the state, New York City, Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Ithaca, Rochester, Westchester County and Tompkins County already have workplace discrimination laws applying to trans people in place.

Further, the executive order only applies to state employees, because a law is required to extend those same protections to all workers in New York. What is truly needed is the passage of GENDA, an anti-discrimination bill affecting trans New Yorkers that the legislature has allowed to languish for several years — or, as many would argue, a revamped version of GENDA that doesn’t risk causing as many problems as it solves. (Better yet, an inclusive ENDA would extend workplace protections on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation to all employees across the United States.)

In other words, it’s great news that Governor Paterson finally got around to doing this. But he and the rest of New York’s elected officials still have significantly harder work ahead of them.

Reclaiming the Lucidity of Our Hearts

Via little light, below is a video of Filipina trans activist Sass Rogando Sasot giving an incredible, impassioned speech on transgender rights before an assembly of the United Nations. The speech was delivered on December 10, and entitled “Reclaiming the Lucidity of Our Hearts.” After watching, I felt immediately compelled to repost:

Sass Rogando Sasot has reproduced the text of her speech over at Rainbow Bloggers Phillipines, with permission to repost. That transcript of her speech can be found below the jump.

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Cleveland Passes Transgender Rights Protections

Good news, via Transgriot: on Monday night, the city of Cleveland unanimously passed an ordinance protecting residents against many forms of discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression:

The ordinance approved Monday night expands the city’s existing anti-bias laws to bar businesses from denying jobs or housing to people because of their gender identity or gender expression.

It’s the council’s latest step meant to show that Cleveland is a tolerant city. The city was recently rewarded for those efforts by being named the host city for the 2014 Gay Games, an international sports festival.

A big congratulations to the local trans activists who worked for this. And good for the city of Cleveland — it’s much too common for those attempting to display “tolerance” towards LGBT people to forget the “T” on the acronym. The unanimous vote is also particularly heartening.

Unfortunately, the ordinance doesn’t cover everything. For example, it doesn’t protect a trans person’s right to use the the public restroom or locker room that fits (or in some cases, best fits) their gender identity. As these are significant areas of discrimination against trans people, as well as sites of potential violence, it was a big oversight. Council members say that they may attempt to expand the ordinance accordingly next year; we’ll just have to see whether or not they live up to that.

But despite the shortcomings, the protections just passed in Cleveland are sadly a lot better than those offered to most transgender Americans. Only 13 states and D.C., as well as just over 100 cities and counties, have laws prohibiting any kind of discrimination on the basis of gender identity. And it should go without saying that many of those laws that do exist are incomplete. So whenever these kinds of local protections pass, joyous occasions though they most certainly are, it should also be a reminder of the work that is being done by activists at a federal level, and the fact that such work also desperately needs to be supported.