Justice Delayed, Denied, and Disgraceful
by Guest Contributor Monica Roberts
It seems that no matter where we live or what decade we’re talking about, when the justice system concerns transwomen of color, justice is delayed, denied, and disgraceful.
Back in 1998, William Palmer, the man who killed Chanelle Pickett in Boston was given a 2 1/2 year sentence with 6 months suspended, and 5 years probation. Never mind the fact that Palmer strangled Pickett, then slept for six hours next to Chanelle’s lifeless body lying beside his bed before he turned himself in. The judge presiding over the case commented bitterly to the defendant at the time “Mr. Palmer should kiss the ground the defense counsel walks on.”
On August 12, 2002 Stephanie Thomas and Ukea Davis die in a hail of bullets on the same southeast Washington DC street corner that Tyra Hunter died due to EMT neglect. As of this writing there’s not only been no arrest, but the execution style killings aren’t even classified as a hate crime.
Never mind the fact that rumors in the community persist that the trigger men who executed the grisly crime are guys who picked up the two transwomen on dates and found out their transgender status after the fact.
Tiffany Berry’s killer, DeAndre Blake, walked the streets of Memphis, TN as a free man for almost two years after being released on a ridiculously low $20,000 bond. Blake admitted he had killed Berry on February 9, 2006 because he did not like the way she had “touched” him. He was arrested last month for killing his own two year old daughter.
Even across The Pond, the recent trial of 18 year old Shanniel Hyatt for the murder of Kellie Telesford had the same depressing results.
So what’s causing these miscarriages of justice?
For starters, we’ve always had the situation in this country in which the lives of people of color aren’t as valued as the life a white male or female. Toss transgender status into that mix, and it’s a foul recipe for injustice.
Add to this recipe for injustice trans panic defenses. What the defendant will do is claim for example, that when they discovered that the woman they’re with is discovered to be transgender, it causes them to become so enraged that they committed the crime they ordinarily wouldn’t have done and were not of sound mind and body when they did it.
In a nutshell, they’re trying to blame the victim and use the sensationalist nature of transgender issues against them in order to get away with murder.
And too many times it works.
You can also add to the injustice stew the fact that transwomen of color are disproportionately saddled with ‘exotic’ hypersexual images. The Shanniel Hyatt defense team seized on that to suggest that Telesford died as the result of a kinky sex game.
The ludicrous assertion that transpeople are trying to trick people is also a factor playing into these carriages of injustice. We’ll hear that the murdered transwoman was trying to ‘deceive’ someone, and therefore the defendant was justified in killing them after discovering the ‘deception’.
Crimes committed against us should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. If they aren’t, it sends the message that it’s open season on transgender people and you can kill us with a slap on the wrist.
But as the old saying goes, what goes around comes around. A murderer you set free in a transgender case could one day take the life of one of your loved ones as the Berry case painfully pointed out.
These are just a few examples of how these factors add up to justice delayed, denied and with a disgraceful stench attached to it.
So what do we do to combat it?
The judge in the Angie Zapata case is off to a good start. He not only denied the attempts of Allen Andrade’s defense lawyers to reduce the charges, the bias crime one is sticking, too. We can only hope the positive trends continue and that Angie’s family receives justice.
Eliminating the ‘trans panic’ defense would help as well. Making prosecuting attorneys aware of it so that they can come up with strategies to eviscerate it would also be helpful while we push for legislation that would ban them as the Gwen Araujo Justice for Victims Act does in California.
The great civil rights leader Asa Philip Randolph once stated, “A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess.”
Transgender people are the folks most in need of civil rights protection. We need the traditional advocates of justice in minority communities such as LULAC and the NAACP to step up and forcefully advocate for transgender people of color. It would send the message to John P. Public, the potential jury pool members, that transgender citizens are not only valuable members of society but we are somebody’s brother, sister, aunt, uncle, cousin and friend.
Once people begin to realize that we’re human beings with hopes, dreams and lives like them, hopefully we’ll begin to see less cases of justice delayed, denied and disgraceful when it comes to transpeople of color and more cases in which justice is served.
—
Edited: It disgusts me that I have to write this note, but I do. I am not approving any comments based on assumptions about the murders. Of the four murders referenced in this piece, only one refers to “touching” and it is not clear if this was a sexual touch or a regular brushing past. If you read the links, you would see that the transpanic defense rings hollow. In the very first link referenced in the post, you see that the perpetrator knew exactly what he was getting into:
Then came the fateful meeting at Playland with William Palmer, a 34 year old computer programmer. Prior to that November 20 night, according to Newsweekly, Chanelle told Natoyear Sherarrion, her friend of eight years, that she had been having nightmares that someone was going to hurt her. They were similar to the fears that another transmurder victim, Amanda Milan would express five years later.
Playland, which opened in 1937 was one of Boston’s original gay bars. Until it closed in 1998 it was located in the Combat Zone on Essex Street and had evolved to include a multicultural crowd. While William Palmer tried to deny that he knew Chanelle was transsexual, or that he enjoys the company of transsexuals, he’s as familiar to the Boston transgender community that frequented the bar as Norm from Cheers was. He not only knew what and who a transsexual was, he frequently dated them.
Chanelle and Palmer had been seeing each other for some time and they had met at Playland on a number of occasions. Friends say that she really liked Palmer and wanted to have a more serious relationship with him. Palmer had written a letter to Chanelle not only expressing his affection for her, but had promised to help her get back on her feet and to take care of her.
On this particular night Chanelle, Gabrielle and Palmer went to the twins Chelsea area apartment first after leaving Playland and spent 90 minutes trying to convince them to have a three way with him. For some reason Chanelle agreed to go with Palmer to his home in Watertown, MA where he strangled her to death in the early morning hours on November 20. Palmer slept for six hours with Chanelle’s dead body lying beside his bed before he turned himself in to a lawyer who informed the police.
We are not discussing transgender relationships and dating rituals. We are discussing why society is so willing to turn the other way when a transgender individual is murdered, especially when that person is of color. I am not entertaining any justifications on the trans panic defense. I understand that we all come to Racialicious to talk about race, not transgender issues. And I understand that some people may not be comfortable with discussing transgender issues.
But I asked Monica to write here because she is a person of color. Her trans status does not erase that. And she is discussing an issue that occurs in her community, but is also a part of our own.
Many transgendered people are people of color.
And we need to listen to what they are saying. – LDP
—-
Update 2: Thank you, Lisa.
Lisa Harney |
Holly @Feministe posted this about the trans panic defense:
Cara’s last post raises something extremely important that we should all be aware of:
“Deception” is the commonly told and commonly believed story in cases like this, but further investigation and examination of the facts has OFTEN suggested it’s a smokescreen.
Lisa links to a couple examples, and there are more. Seriously, don’t let anyone sell you the usual line that “oh, she tricked him and then he freaked out and killed her.” For one thing, even if that was the case, the appropriate reaction is not to kill someone. But more importantly, it’s often totally fabricated. But everyone just believes it because it’s so “plausible.” It’s the entire audience of listeners to these stories that need to wise up. Tell your friends. Here are some important points:
1) in quite a few of these cases, witnesses, friends, and continued investigation have attested that the murderers had an ongoing relationship with the victim, to the extent that it was quite unlikely they didn’t know about their trans status;
2) trans women, even young trans women, are not total fucking idiots. Especially the ones who have experience, who lived to see adulthood and have had to survive on the streets. Trans women know the risks associated with sex partners who aren’t aware of our status. Trans women are, by and large, experts at judging and negotiating this kind of situation. Part of the reason many community advocates think the ongoing wave of “trans panic” crimes involve bogus stories is that most trans women, sex workers included, make sure that potential sex partners are not confused as hell about what’s going on. Unfortunately, that doesn’t eliminate the unpredictable violent psychopaths of the world.
3) The victims of these murders are DEAD and cannot tell their side of the story. Seriously — Andrade killed her, he confessed it. He knows what kind of story is likely to elicit the most sympathy from other straight guys, and he’s telling it. He even included details about “she wouldn’t let me touch her, but she gave me a blow job.” This whole scenario is a classic myth — which doesn’t mean it never happens, but when the murderer is caught red-handed and then proceeds to give the most “sympathetic sob story,” why the hell does everyone believe him? Because most people find it impossible to identify with the victim, and far too easy to identify with the killer of a “thing.”This needs to change, but the dead cannot speak for themselves, cannot persuade people to empathize and listen. It’s up to the rest of us.
As for the whole “hate crime” crap, it plays into people’s ridiculous idea of what motivates other types of hate crimes as well. They’re thinking of cold-blooded strategizing Klansmen, not killers who freak out because they have emotional and mental problems related to race, or gender, or sexuality. But of course a lot of feelings of irrational hatred — for any group of people — are tied up with the killer’s own twisted, distorted feelings about all of that and how they see themselves fitting into the world. What’s truly disgusting is that people are just buying Andrade’s classic story, regardless of whether it’s true or not, and many patterns from similar cases in the past suggest it’s likely not true.
For that matter, the post that Holly responded to says: There’s no reason to use language like “duped” and “fooled” unless you’re looking for a reason to excuse murder.
But yes: I won’t say that trans panic doesn’t happen, but it’s irrelevant. Discovering that someone you’re sexually interested in wasn’t born as the sex you assumed she was is not her fault – it’s your own assumption that people are cis until proven otherwise. Someone who actually does kill a woman because he discovers she’s trans is not committing an excusable, understandable, act. He killed a woman. Not “He killed a woman, but-” No, just stop. You don’t have to go any further. He’s a murderer, anything said after that point is an excuse.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Lyonside wrote:
A very powerful piece – thank you. It certainly doesn’t help when advocacy groups that are supposed to support and focus on GLBT issues through the “T” portion under the bus.
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 8:08 am ¶
sly wrote:
[Mod Note - Sly, actually it isn't. I am sure that everyone could point to one instance where someone was deceived, but the reality is that transpeople don't want that kind of drama. And who would, knowing that people might want to kill you for it? But the trans panic defense has been used in cases where no sexual contact has occurred - or when consensual sexual contact occurred and that person just decided their trans partner and blame it on trans panic. Bottom line - you don't have the right to take someone else's life. And trans panic is normally not self-defense. - LDP ]
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 8:23 am ¶
livininphilly wrote:
thank you for posting this. As a member of the queer community I have many, many friends who are trans identified. I also work for one of the leading community health centers for trans health in the country. I don’t buy the trans-panic defense at all. It’s bull-shit b/c a lot of those men know what it is they’re getting into and it’s after the fact when they can’t deal with themselves that they lash out and kill people. When we begin to unpack this we see that the underlying issue is internalized homophobia/transphobia & that is unacceptable. I don’t care how “decieved” you may feel that doesn’t make it right to take a person’s life. It’s really unfortunate that many of my trans brothers and sisters face such open hostility on a daily basis and more importantly that people are losing their lives b/c they choose to be true to themselves! The naked disgust that some people show on their faces when I walk with certain friends makes me so angry and sad but also reminds me that we still have a long way to go. thank you again for this!
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 8:57 am ¶
Renee wrote:
It is disgusting that this isn’t a fact. Unfortunately for these women they were negotiating two area of stigmatization, race and their trans gender identity. We need to stop using a constructed hierarchy of value to regard people. Until this happens all bodies that do not fit into the white, cis, able bodied, hetero paradigm will continue to be victims.
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 8:57 am ¶
sly wrote:
LDP–I think its fair to post a counter-argument to my post, but its not fair to do so without posting my post. (@ least it doesn’t show as of 8:58 CDT). I certainly didn’t say anything derogatory, demeaning or disprespectful.
Mod Note – I didn’t post it because you made an assumption that was not reflected in the piece above. If you can rephrase your comment without the assumption (which is disrespectful to transpeople, as it assumes that they are deceitful when pursuing romantic/sexual partners) then I will post your comment. -LDP
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 9:00 am ¶
DEAF FEMINIST PUNK!! wrote:
of course. This is a country born on racism. Nobody gives a shit about non-white females. I’m just sayin’ the truth.
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 9:28 am ¶
Winn wrote:
I hope that everyone who cares about human rights, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation, will speak up and agitate for the rights of transpeople, especially the transpeople of color who are the disproportionate victims of hate crimes and violence drected against the trans community. Although I understood the political expediency of Rep. Barney Frank’s support of excluding transgender persons from the proposed Employment Non=Discrimination Act, it still infuriated me and made me lose respect for him. It was yet another instance of, to me, excluding and marginalizing transgender people, and giving tacit, if unintended, approval to the dehumanization that allows violence against them to continue with few ramifications.
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 10:38 am ¶
Mogs wrote:
i think a lot of this problem has to do with the way people view men as victims. men who are victims of violent crimes, especially sexual crimes, are often viewed with disdain… men are expected to be strong and so it’s not as acceptable for them to be victims. i think a lot of people still think of transwomen as men who are just acting like women- maybe not true, but a lot of people do think that way. so not only are these people dealing with racism, but also the bias that men shouldn’t be victims… yeah, that’s my 2 cents.
@ the Mod- i don’t think it’s ok to post a counter-argument to sly’s comment without posting his comment as well. that doesn’t seem fair to me. i think you should either post his comment along with your counterargument, or not at all… i mean, if you want to ask him to rephrase his comment, you have his email, right? i know this is y’all’s blog not mine, but i still have to call ‘em like I see ‘em.
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 10:38 am ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
@Mogs -
I’m not posting a comment saying things that would be triggering for transpeople reading this thread. I made that mistake with multiracial people on this site and I am erring on the side of their comfort, not the comfort of the commenter.
Sometimes, I will overwrite someone’s comment with an explanation of why I didn’t like what they said, in hopes that they would rethink what they wrote, especially if they may not have intended for things to come off the way they did in the comment. Most of the time, that works. This time, I found out my initial hunch was right, and the comment should have been deleted.
I’ll put up the argument if something is slightly problematic, but can be worked through, but this one was not that kind of comment.
And Mogs, you can call however how you see it from the commenter side, but I and the other mods work behind the scenes, and see what you are not privy to. Remember that.
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 10:48 am ¶
Lisa Harney wrote:
Holly @Feministe posted this about the trans panic defense:
For that matter, the post that Holly responded to says: There’s no reason to use language like “duped” and “fooled” unless you’re looking for a reason to excuse murder.
But yes: I won’t say that trans panic doesn’t happen, but it’s irrelevant. Discovering that someone you’re sexually interested in wasn’t born as the sex you assumed she was is not her fault – it’s your own assumption that people are cis until proven otherwise. Someone who actually does kill a woman because he discovers she’s trans is not committing an excusable, understandable, act. He killed a woman. Not “He killed a woman, but-” No, just stop. You don’t have to go any further. He’s a murderer, anything said after that point is an excuse.
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 12:27 pm ¶
Renee wrote:
In this you can see how issues intersect. The same kind of argument is used when a sex trade worker is killed. Somehow what she did for a living makes her not worthy of being counted as a human being. We need to stop applying the word but to murder period. There is no excuse for taking a human life.
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 12:56 pm ¶
Mogs wrote:
clarifying- what I had a problem with was not your decision not to post sly’s comment, but the fact that you overwrote his comment and posted that- it’s like you are publicly “chastising” sly, without letting other readers see his side of the story… if the comment wasn’t made public, then neither, imho, should your response be. after all, you do have his email, right?
sorry, i feel like im derailing this thread with nitpicking, but i think you may have misunderstood my first comment. writing coherently has never been one of my strong points.
Mod Note – So, I’ll stop giving people public chances to fix their errors and resubmit as with the volume of comments we process, I don’t have time to email everyone for their specific input, and I’ll just start banning people off the top. Not a problem. – LDP
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 1:48 pm ¶
Alexandra wrote:
This is a wonderful post and I agree calling it anything other than murder is travesty is wrong. Also this whole victim blaming shit really gets me and that its considered a legitimate defense is mind boggling.
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 2:50 pm ¶
jaden_loves wrote:
“Transgender people are the folks most in need of civil rights protection.”…I don’t know about that.It is not a competition between who needs civil rights protection the most.All minorities need it.Lets not say one group needs it more than others, its offensive.
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 5:47 pm ¶
bjk wrote:
Seriously speaking, do you think the porn industry has some responsibility for the perception that trans individuals are out to “get” and “trick” straight guys? I know that I’ve seen a number of websites devoted to “shemales” (a term I have learned true trans people find horribly offensive) and portray a “deception fantasy”? I do not frequent these sites, but can only imagine that these “storylines” as well as god knows what else is out there in the porn industry, leads people to think that this really IS the case.
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 6:24 pm ¶
NancyP wrote:
Trans panic – why wouldn’t that mean “run the other direction”? THAT’S why I think trans panic defenses are bogus – because the normal reaction to an unpleasant sexual surprise is “ewww”, followed by getting dressed and leaving very quickly.
“Panic” defenses only seem to make sense if there is real threat to life or limb – in other words, self-defense as understood by the “reasonable person” standard. In which case, just call it the “self-defense” defense. None of the trans cases seem to be alleging that said trans woman victim was throttling or beating or pointing a loaded gun at the defendant – so out goes the “self defense” argument.
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 8:29 pm ¶
Fenton Thomas wrote:
The great queer theorist Eve Kosovsky Sedgwick said that often people hold power by claiming ignorance. I’m not talking about the sane, deliberate murderer in this case–it’s been well-established in these cases that the criminals were not ignorant. The deliberately ignorant here are juries, judges and prosecutors who, by their verdicts, sentences, and cases tell us that THE CRIME NEVER HAPPENED. Giving a hate crime a light sentence sends the message that nothing wrong happened.
The most dangerous manifestation oppression can take is making the oppressed INVISIBLE. This is what those in power do to women of color and trans-persons of all colors (and all genders) when it comes to a variety of crimes, be they civil or criminal.
While we can berate the criminals all we want for MAKING the argument, we only make change by holding accountable those who ACCEPTED the argument.
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 9:09 pm ¶
Safiya Outlines wrote:
Nancy P – Exactly. How many times have you heard the phrase “made my excuses and left”?
I cannot believe the “I panicked so I brutally murdered them” line is an acceptable defence. This just should not be happening.
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 9:48 pm ¶
Lisa Harney wrote:
bjk,
I do believe that the media contributes to the idea of trans women as deceivers, but this is much more broad than the pornography. Julia Serano talks about media depictions of white trans women. I don’t recall if she talks much about how black trans women are portrayed and stereotyped so much, though.
Oh, yeah, and J. Michael Bailey who said that black and latina trans women were especially suited for sex work.
I hate people.
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 9:54 pm ¶
Fatemeh wrote:
Monica, this is a challenging post that is great. We need more of this.
Latoya, you’re doing a bang-up job.
Posted 23 Sep 2008 at 12:13 am ¶
Monica Roberts wrote:
“Transgender people are the folks most in need of civil rights protection.”…I don’t know about that.It is not a competition between who needs civil rights protection the most.All minorities need it.Lets not say one group needs it more than others, its offensive.
Jaden, I’m stating a fact. When 70% of the transpeople on the Remembering our dead list are people of color, we are getting openly discriminated against, we have people killing us and getting a slap on the wrist for it, and we have no FEDERAL law that covers transgender people, I think I have more than enough evidence to back up that statement.
But if you still not convinced, answer these questions for me.
Can you give me the name of a federal legislator who is transgender?
How about a state legislator who is transgender?
Posted 23 Sep 2008 at 3:55 am ¶
Lisa Harney wrote:
Just in the past month, one man who murdered a trans woman of color was let off the hook completely, because his defense was able to demonstrate that he didn’t know she was trans (and thus why would he kill her?), plus insinuated she was into kinky sex and managed to strangle herself to death and cover herself with a blanket.
Another man who shot a trans woman of color twice in the back with an illegal handgun in a situation that screams he was looking for a trans woman sex worker to kill was charged with voluntary manslaughter because he claimed she surprised him by having a penis, and he reacted in shock and anger.
And there was the trans woman of color who turned up dead after the police gave her a “courtesy ride”, and the Philadelphia Police Dept’s refusal to investigate this matter.
Or the guy who ran over a trans woman of color four times who was slapped on the wrist and his story that he accidentally ran her over was believed.
Or how the police arrested Duanna Johnson for prostitution (probable cause: walking while a trans woman of color) and beat her in police custody.
Or…
Or just check out the Hate Crimes Project links at Republic of T.
Posted 23 Sep 2008 at 4:01 pm ¶
YELHSA wrote:
Regarding the murder of Kelly Telesford in Thornton Heath on the 18th of November 2007 at approx 0515 in the forenoon. Shanniel Hyatt did kill Kelly. He strangled her on the bed after she challenged him having been awoken by the sounds that he made whilst stripping out her audio visual equipment. Kelly being sleepy stood little chance . He was vicious and showed no mercy just to get away with the theft of a few items of little monetary value ,he did not even have the excuse of knowing her true gender. I attended every minute of T008-7007 at the Old Bailey and the Lies, Assumptions,Hypoth’eses,Unfounded sexual theories and slanderous attacks on Kellys’ character and reputation by the defence to instill doubt into a jury which consisted mainly of Buffoons many of whom were too young to have had any real life experience plus a judge who under court time pressure from a near bankrupt criminal courts system pushed the jury for a quick decision allowing them to take short cuts and flit over items which would take high levels of thought to resolve, cumulatively produced a complete inversion of the expected outcome enableing Hyatt to escape justice. Unfortunately for crack dependant Hyatt he picked the wrong person Kelly (Gibsefa 1200BC Egypt) has great power and makes her presence known. To learn more check sites like Queerty. Yelhsa .Nottingham,NG3-6FT, Nr31. GB.
Posted 23 Sep 2008 at 5:00 pm ¶
BSK wrote:
I have a question: are we denying that “trans-panic” exists or stating that it is never a justification for murder? I think we need to be careful in doing the latter without doing the former. There is obvious evidence in many (or all) of these cases that the accused were well-aware of the status of the victims and, therefore, had no reason to feel “panicked.” However, there are also cases where it is possible the accused did not know; this certainly holds true in “gay panic” cases as well.
If we insist that “trans panic” is not real and that no one can ever feel completely freaked out by a trans person, we fail to attack the root of the problem. While “trans panic” is not legitimate in it’s acceptability or appropriateness, it is legitimate in the sense that it COULD be a real feeling felt by individuals at times. This does NOT make it okay; rather, it makes it very real and requires that we work to undermine the messages that lead people to feel this way.
It is easy to dismiss people who claim “trans panic” as saying, “There is no reason to be panicked by these people and therefore you should not feel that way.” Unfortunately, many of these people have been falsely led to believe that there IS reason to fear them and they DO legitimately panic. We need to get at the reasons for why this fear exists and eliminate them. Easier said than done, obviously, but it should be the goal nonetheless.
We would never deny that racism exists but WOULD deny it to ever be an acceptable excuse for any action. Let’s be careful not to deny that “trans panic” exists and may be a very real feeling that individuals feel, though one brought on by wrong and ignorant misinformation regarding trans people that is far to readily available.
Perhaps I misunderstood some people here, but there did seem to be some who were denying the existence of “trans panic”. If I misunderstood your posts, that I would guess we are probably in agreement.
Mod Note – You can feel as panicked as you want on your own time. You cannot use a panic (gay or trans) defense to justify killing someone. We understand that some people may be freaked out by transfolks, but that doesn’t give you license to kill them. – LDP
Posted 23 Sep 2008 at 6:17 pm ¶
Katie wrote:
This post is great – your words are powerful!
Posted 23 Sep 2008 at 9:16 pm ¶
Katie wrote:
Also – I’m really glad this is appearing on Racialicious. Seems there are some commenters that need a little bit of a clue on trans* issues.
Posted 23 Sep 2008 at 9:17 pm ¶
Lisa Harney wrote:
BSK,
Dr. Jillian T. Weiss posted about trans panic on Bilerico today.
The root problem is that it’s used as a valid defense by playing off jurors’ transphobia and homophobia to sympathize with the victim, and that people have successfully used it to get a lighter sentence (or no sentence at all). It needs to not happen in the courtroom at all.
Posted 24 Sep 2008 at 12:43 am ¶
Monica Roberts wrote:
Thanks once again to the peeps here at Racialicious for giving me the honor of writing for them.
Looking forward to the next opportunity to do so and I’m pleased that all of you regular readers here enjoyed it.
Posted 24 Sep 2008 at 2:23 pm ¶
Thea Lim wrote:
I’m late to the discussion! Wanted to say I’m really glad to see this article up here. Hooray for intersectionality! Anti-racist work at its most fundamental has the same goal as trans rights work (or feminist work, or anti-poverty work, or ability rights work…): a world where people have the space to make choices, and the right to be the humans they are. So yay for Racialicious working on those connections.
I hadn’t heard the term “trans panic” before and I have to say it confuses me as a justification for violence. Replace “trans” with something else, like “Muslim panic.” Would we accept it if someone said, “I didn’t realise he was Muslim at first, but when I found out I got panicked and so I killed him.”?
When we say “trans panic exists”, what are we saying:
a) that it’s possible for someone to be panicked enough by the existence of a trans person to kill them?
b) that trans people willfully hide their status, and in so doing rile nontrans people into a state of panic that leads to violence?
With regards to a) – like other commenters, I can’t accept that the reasonable response to finding out someone is trans is to kill them. As well, the implication here is that the discovery of a trans person is upsetting enough to lead to a state of temporary insanity, resulting in murder. Like, it’s saying that trans people are so ghoulish that they make non trans people want to kill. That’s an intensely trans phobic statement.
With regards to b) – it’s possible there exist transpeople who conceal their status from partners. But there also exist young black men who are involved in crime. If we agree that the existence of trans folks who conceal their status is defense for trans violence, then we have to agree that the racial profiling of all young black men is reasonable. Just because some members of a group take part in something, doesn’t mean violence against the group as a whole is justifiable. That logic – some are bad, therefore all are bad – is the basic foundation of bigotry.
Posted 24 Sep 2008 at 4:45 pm ¶
jaden_loves wrote:
Monica, the facts that you offered up can be interpreted in any number of ways. Just because there might not be any prominent transgendered individuals doesn’t mean that they are discriminated against more.There is no meter or test to determine who is more discriminated against, statistics included. Whose to say that one case of discrimination is not as bad as another, including cases of violence? Like I said, its not a competition, we should all have sensitivity for one another, and not worry about who is more discriminated against than the other.We should all fight for each other’s causes as well as our own.Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Posted 24 Sep 2008 at 6:52 pm ¶
Katie wrote:
jaden, if you replace the word “transgendered” in your most recent post with the name of any minority group, you might be able to see the weakness of your arguments. for ms. roberts to highlight the oppression of a group of people does not somehow detract from anyone else’s oppression. there’s plenty to go around. and frankly, i have NO problem declaring that “one case of discrimination” that ends in murder is ever so *slightly* worse than another “case of discrimination” that doesn’t. basically, the facts about the rate of trans people murdered, beaten, raped, etc. says a lot about their current status. you seem to be more interested in nitpicking than having their back.
Posted 25 Sep 2008 at 9:51 am ¶
Monica Roberts wrote:
I’m a little sick of this nouveau trendy slogan of ‘oppression Olympics’ which Jaden seems to be alluding to without actually coming out and writing the words.
Stating facts about a minority group’s issues, struggles and being oppressed is simply that, stating facts about that. It is not as some people derisively put it, engaging in a competition
How in Hades can you solve the issues if you don’t know what they are, identify them and discuss solutions to those problems?
Posted 25 Sep 2008 at 1:03 pm ¶