Trans – Page 8 – Feministe

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Transgender Woman Beaten By Police and Threatened With Murder in Honduras

From Amnesty International UK comes the story of a woman, transgender sex worker and HIV/AIDS campaigner (unnamed for her own safety) in Honduras, who was assaulted by police officers and threatened with death if she spoke out about the attack:

Four police officers in a police car approached the transgender woman, who has asked Amnesty International to withhold her name, at about 12.40am on 20 December 2008 in the Palmira district of the capital, Tegucigalpa. She was working as a sex worker at the time. The police officers tried to rob her but, when she resisted, they grabbed her by the hair and repeatedly smashed her head against a nearby window, breaking the glass. She received numerous cuts to her face and knees.

The officers then said that they were arresting the woman for breaking a window in order to gain forcible entry to private property. The officers took her to the local police station, and then to a local health centre to be treated for her wounds. Since she was bleeding, she informed the officers that she was HIV positive and the officers replied by saying “AIDS bitch, people like you should be in a separate place” (perra sidosa, gente como Ustedes tiene que estar en un lugar aparte) While on their way, the officers also told her “if you speak out, we will leave you dead in the countryside” (si hablas, te dejaremos muerta en el monte). She was taken back to the police station and was released without charge at around 11.30am. She has recently filed a formal complaint with the Human Rights section of the Public Prosecutor’s Office about this incident.

Jack said something wise on this very blog once when commenting on the murder of Duanna Johnson:

Just to be trans, just to be a woman, just to be a person of color in this country is enough to drastically increase one’s exposure to hatred and violence; when oppressions overlap, violence tends to multiply.

The context here is somewhat different, but to paraphrase Jack now, we do know that to be a woman, to be trans, to be a sex worker, and to be HIV positive pretty much anywhere is to increase one’s exposure to hatred and violence. And yes, when oppressions overlap, the rates of violence increase.

We don’t know with certainty for which of the above reasons this woman was attacked: one, many or a combination of all of the above. (My guess? All but the last, unless they knew who she was, in which case all.) But we do know with a pretty damn solid certainty that it was at least one.

This kind of violence is never acceptable, especially coming from police. It is even less so when marginalized members of our society, as they usually are, are the ones specifically sought out in this kind of violence. And as Amnesty International notes in this materials, this is not an isolated incident. Just like in the U.S., transgender sex workers are assaulted and murdered far too often in Honduras. And police specifically have a reputation for assaulting transgender sex workers.

Click here to send appeals to the Honduran authorities urging that they guarantee the safety of the woman who was attacked. It will only take a moment of your time, and it is surely worth that.

h/t Womanist Musings

Illinois Sued Over Refusal to Correct Birth Certificates

Well this is incredibly ridiculous, really upsetting . . . and wholly unsurprising.

Two transgender women are suing the state of Illinois, which is refusing to change/correct their birth certificates to accurately reflect their gender identities.

Why won’t the state change them? Karissa Rothkopf and Victoria Kirk haven’t met the state’s standards for gender reaffirmation surgery, which apparently include having the surgery performed by a doctor licensed in the United States. Their surgeries were both performed in Thailand.

Their lawsuit, filed by attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union, called the denials a violation of state law and asked a judge to order that their birth certificates be changed.

“It could create significant problems for me in the future,” Kirk said Tuesday at a news conference. “A document that says I am male puts me at risk of embarrassment, harassment and possibly even physical violence.”

The two women said they chose to undergo procedures in Thailand because they felt the one-step surgery offered there would be medically safer. Both women have been able to change the gender on their driver’s licenses, passports and Social Security cards.

In addition to the apparent concern over safety, for many trans individuals seeking surgery there’s the additional issue of cost. Most health insurance plans to not cover gender reaffirmation surgery (or other medical costs, such as hormones). And with U.S. health care costs so high, many other countries can offer the surgery (or surgeries) at a significantly lower price, even with travel expenses tacked on top. Because, you know, we don’t all have tens of thousands of dollars sitting in the bank.

But personally, I’m even more concerned that there are laws in place stating that one has to have invasive surgery, which not all trans people even want, in order to be legally considered the gender that you live, present and identify as. What a ridiculous, pointless, expensive and discriminatory exercise in cis-privilege. Clearly, the law needs to be changed in more way than one.

Good luck, Karissa and Victoria. We’re pulling for you.

via Questioning Transphobia

A Call to Action on Trans Rights in Tennessee

Via Questioning Transphobia comes this press release from the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition on the shooting of Leeneshia Edwards, the third transgender woman to be shot in Memphis in the past six months. One of the other women was Duanna Johnson, who died. Renee at Womanist Musings further points out the strong racist thread to the transphobic and misogynistic violence. My thoughts are with Leenashia and her family, and I hope that yours are as well. Read the press release below, do what you can, and pass the information along.

For Immediate Release: Dated December 27, 2008

Another Transgender Woman Shot in Memphis

On Christmas Eve, a Memphis television station reported the shooting of Leeneshia Edwards in Memphis. She becomes the third transgender woman shot in Memphis in just six months. At last report, Leeneshia is in critical condition. We extend our hopes and prayers to Leenashia for a speedy recovery.

We also ask for anyone with any information about this latest crime to call Memphis Crimes Stoppers at (901)528-CASH.

The shooting of Leeneshia Edwards helps shed light on a disturbing trend in Memphis. Transgender women who work in the sex industry in order to survive are now being targeted by a pervasive culture of violence.

The indifferent attitude of law enforcement towards the February 16, 2006, murder of Tiffany Berry, and the February 12, 2008, beating of Duanna Johnson by Memphis Police Department officers, has sent a message that the lives of transgender people are not important. This has fed the culture of violence that has permeated the second half of 2008, and is exemplified by the July 1 murder of Ebony Whitaker, the July 28 murder of Dre-Ona Blake, a two year old girl who was killed by the man who had previously been charged with the murder of Tiffany Berry, but was allowed to walk free for two and a half years, the November 9 murder of Duanna Johnson, and now the shooting of Leeneshia Edwards.

This open season on transgender people in Memphis and elsewhere, regardless of whether or not they engage in sex work, must come to an end right now.

We call on business people who refuse to hire transgender people to open their doors immediately to transgender workers so there are alternatives to working on the streets.

We call on shelters that routinely turn away transgender people who are seeking help, to open their doors so that transgender people do not have to live on the streets.

We call on religious leaders who preach intolerance towards crossdressers and transsexuals from the pulpit to cease immediately and begin preaching messages of love and acceptance of diversity.

We call on political leaders of all parties to stop campaigning against transgender people and start supporting fully inclusive employment non-discrimination and hate crimes legislation to show that the lives of transgender people have value.

Marisa Richmond
President

The Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition (TTPC) is an organization designed to educate and advocate on behalf of transgender related legislation at the Federal, State and local levels. TTPC is dedicated to raising public awareness and building alliances with other organizations concerned with equal rights legislation.

For more information, or to make a donation, contact:

Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition (TTPC)
P.O. Box 92335
Nashville, TN 37209
http://ttgpac.com
TTGPAC@aol.com
(615)293-6199
(615)353-1834 fax

What’s in a name?

The team at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project got some news to be thankful for just before Thanksgiving last week: judges in New York State can no longer bar people from legally changing their names to traditionally “masculine” or “feminine” names simply because of the possibility of “confusion.”

It may come as a surprise to many of you that this is even an issue, but the Sylvia Rivera Law Project has been helping trans people in New York State change their names for over six years now, and believe me, name change petitions get denied for all sorts of spurious reasons. (Incidentally, I’ve been part of the collective that runs SRLP for almost as long.)

Another fact you may not be familiar with: in the United States, it’s one of your rights to change your name, enshrined in the Civil Rights Code of New York and many other states. I’d suggest that you all exercise this right early and often, but it could get to be a bureaucratic pain in the neck very rapidly.

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A Boy’s Life

This article in the Atlantic about transgender children is really interesting, but for all the (often legitimate) worry about how to handle kids with “gender identity disorder,” I can’t help but think that we’d all be better off if our understanding of maleness and femaleness weren’t so straightjacketed. A lot of little kids like to cross-dress; some don’t feel at home in the gender roles they’re being pushed into. Some of those kids will grow up to identify as trans, or as a gender other than the one they were born as; some won’t. Seems to me it would be a lot better if we had a culture that allowed for greater gender fluidity, so that kids (and, hell, the rest of us) could just be themselves without being labeled “disordered” or freakish or wrong.

Most of the parents in the article seem to be doing the best that they can in a society that organizes itself into fairly rigid ways of classifying people, so this isn’t an indictment of them. It’s an indictment of a society that only allows for two genders; that insists “femaleness” and “maleness” are about what colors you like and whether you wear skirts or pants; and that can’t seem to grasp gender fluidity beyond the idea that someone “trapped in the wrong body.” And it’s an indictment of a medical culture that “treats” patients by reinforcing stereotypical and misogynist gender roles:

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