Young, Black, Trans--And Dead--In Ohio

Imagine finding the body of a gunshot victim in the middle of a street at 8 o'clock in the morning.  

That is the gruesome discovery a Cincinnati sanitation driver made the other morning by coming upon the corpse of twenty-eight-year-old Tiffany Edwards. Police are looking for a suspect named Quamar Edwards, who is not related to Tiffany.

What did Ms. Edwards have in common with Cemia "CeCe" Dove, Betty Skinner and Nicole Kidd Stergis?  Because you're reading this blog, you've probably guessed that they were all transgender women.  And they were all killed in Ohio during the past eighteen months.  

Oh, and all except Skinner were trans women of color.  The risks trans people face--We are sixteen times as likely to be murdered as anyone else--are magnified for trans people, especially trans women, of color.  

The state that calls itself The Mother of Presidents has its share of capable community leaders, such as Shane Morgan, the founder and chair of TransOhio, and Vicky Blum, the outreach director at Crossport.  However, they are working in a particularly difficult environment:  Ohio's hate-crimes laws do not cover crimes based on sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression.  
That, perhaps, is not surprising when one considers that the Buckeye State is one of five (Idaho, Kansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee being the others) that do not alter the sex on a transsexual's birth certificate, even after he or she has had gender-reassignment surgery.  

Thanks again to Kelli Busey of "Planetransgender" for making me aware of a story not covered in the local news media.

How Many Stereotypes Can You Maintain With $200,000?

Sometimes you can tell that someone just had to get a grant--whether to secure tenure or some other kind of promotion, justify his or her (or his or her organization's) existence--or get another grant.

Actually, sometimes it seems as if at least half the grants in this world fall into that category.  Perhaps I'm cynical from having spent so much time in the academic world, but I have heard of more than a few studies or projects and wondered, "The world needs this...how?"

I found myself asking that question when I read that the National Institutes of Health are  spending nearly $200,000 ostensibly to study how transgender women use social networking sites like Facebook, and how said use affects their chances of getting HIV.

What have the folks at NIH learned?  Well, they say, transwomen use Facebook and the like to "develop social support structures, connect with members of their community, receive positive and re-affirming perspectives on their gender identity and inform behavioral norms."

No!  Really?

I mean, couldn't the same be said of any member of an isolated, discriminated-against community...or any number of teenagers?  Or Goths? Or anyone with a hobby, a fetish or any interest, whether or not it's in the mainstream? Isn't that one of the reasons why people--especially the young--use Facebook:  to engage with people they can't meet in person or to enter worlds they're too shy to encroach upon?

The study also says trans women use social media to find illegal hormones and sex-work partners.  I mean, really:  This reinforces stereotypes about us that, really, are just exaggerations of the worst characteristics of the most deviant members of any group of people-- the ones who want to use engage in illegal or un-approved behavior.

Plus, as Kelli Busey of Planetransgender, points out, plenty of trans people have no access to the Net because they're homeless or simply too poor to afford a device or connection, or even time in an Internet cafe. We are disproportionately poor and homeless, and many spaces are off-limits to us, especially if we are, or are perceived as, poor, homeless or sex workers.

So what, exactly, is the NIH trying to accomplish with the study?  Kelli and others have suggested that it might be a way the government is spying on us.  I wouldn't discount that idea.  But I stick to my theory about needing a grant for the reasons I mentioned.  When people and organizations get and use grants for those reasons, they've already made up their minds about their subjects and the conclusions they will reach about them.  

What Happened To Nizah Morris?

Back in the days of the Civil Rights movement, it was not uncommon--especially in places like Alabama and Georgia--for police officers to offer "courtesy" rides to African-Americans who "appeared" to be "inebriated" or who "seemed" to be in "distress."

That would sound benevolent had some of said African-Americans not mysteriously died while in custody, or simply disappeared.  

Apparently, similar things still happen, and not only to African-Americans, and not only in the Deep South.

Three days before Christmas in 2002, transgender woman Nizah Morris died in a Philadelphia hospital from a subdural hematoma, the result of traumatic blows to her head.

Morris had been out drinking when a concerned bar patron called an ambulance for her.  She turned down the opportunity to go to the emergency room and instead accepted a courtesy ride from Philadelphia police officer Elizabeth Skala.     

Morris never made it home.  Skala claims that Morris asked her to drop her off at a corner two minutes away from the bar where she'd been drinking--but 45 minutes from her apartment.  A minute after Skala left her at the corner of Chancellor and South Juniper Streets, a motorist (according to his testimony) found Morris, naked from the waist up and bleeding from her head, lying on the street. 

Now, here's where things get interesting. 

 Another witness reports having seen her body on the street fifteen minutes later and a police officer pulling a jacket over her face as her body was loaded into the ambulance.  The ambulance attendants said they loaded her body at the same time--3:30 a.m.--the first witness (the motorist) claims to have found it.  The officer on the scene says the ambulance didn't depart until 3:45.

If these accounts are even remotely accurate, why was there such a delay in embarking for the hospital?  And why did the officer pull the jacket over Morris's face as if she were already dead?  Finally, why wasn't the police report released until 2011--nearly a decade after Ms. Morris' death?  And why did it take a freedom-of-information request from Philadelphia Gay News to make that document see the light of day?

Are you surprised to learn that her family thinks the police murdered her?  

I agree with them.  Call me a conspiracy theorist if you like.  But I've found that people who so label other people have not--or don't want to admit that they have--been subjected to abuses of power.  I know:  I was once such a person.  

Whether I'm proved right or wrong, I hope that the true story of Nizah Morris's death is disclosed, and that her family finds the peace she didn't have in those last moments of her life.

(Thanks, again, to Kelli Busey of Planetransgender.)

 

Tomorrow: Equal Access Bill Hearing In Massachusetts

Today I'm cross-posting an announcement that appeared on Planetransgender, where it was in turn cross-posted from the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition.

Even if you don't live in the Bay State, you may want to look at the announcement and letter template for some ideas about what you might do in your own state if it offer specific legal protections for transgender people:

Take action NOW for the July 9 Equal Access Bill hearing

Cross posted from the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition.

MTPC’s legislative focus is on An Act Relative to Equal Access in Hospitals, Public Transportation, Nursing Homes, Supermarkets, Retail Establishments, and All Other Places Open to the Public (House Bill 1589/Senate Bill 643), which would add “gender identity” to existing state civil rights laws, which currently permit the exclusion of transgender people in public spaces.

How You Can Help

The hearing for the Equal Access Bill is scheduled for July 9, 2013, and WE NEED YOUR TESTIMONY. We provide a letter template below and sample letters that you can use to provide written testimony in advance of the Equal Access Bill hearing. The July 9 hearing is also open to the public (details to come), so please come out and show your support.

If you are registered to vote in the district of any of the members of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary who are hearing this bill (listed below), please let them know you support Equal Access. The most helpful would be for you to meet with your legislator from the Joint Judiciary Committee in person. Please let us know if you want to meet with you legislator about the Equal Access Bill. We’re happy to help you prepare for your meeting. You can also call their office and use our calling script.

Members of the Joint Judiciary Committee in the Senate: Katherine Clark, Senate Chair; Gale D. Candaras, Senate Vice Chair; William N. Brownsberger; Patricia D. Jehlen; John F. Keenan; Richard J. Ross. In the House: Eugene L. O’Flaherty, House Chair; Christopher M. Markey, House Vice Chair; Bruce J. Ayers; Claire D. Cronin; Sean Curran; Colleen M. Garry; Sheila C. Harrington; Carlos Henriquez; Kevin J. Murphy; Jeffrey N. Roy; Daniel B. Winslow.

Below is a template you can use when writing a letter to your state senator or representative. Please feel free to add more about your reasons for supporting this bill or describe your own experiences of discrimination in a place of public accommodation. If you are unsure of who your state House and Senate legislators are, you can look them up by searching for your town or zip code on https://malegislature.gov/People/Search.

When your letter is complete, email it to us at jesseb@masstpc.org. We’ll take care of the rest. 

Letter template

Dear Senator Clark, Representative O’Flaherty, and members of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary,

My name is ___________________ and I live at ____________________________ [include your address (optional) and the name of your town. Optional: what’s your family situation?].   I am _____________________ [include occupation, group memberships--be short and selective].

I am writing to urge you to support An Act Relative to Equal Access in Hospitals, Public Transportation, Nursing Homes, Supermarkets, Retail Establishments, and all other places open to the public, introduced in the House by Representatives Carl Sciortino and Byron Rushing and in the Senate by Senators Ben Downing and Sonia Chang-Diaz. This proposed law would prohibit discrimination in places of public accommodation such as [list three to five types of public accommodations. Some examples are: hospitals, hotels, restaurants, stores, nursing homes, theaters, convention centers, libraries, public transportation, public streets, offices of state and local government, and polling places--see the Examples of Public Accommodations PDF for other places].

I believe this bill is important because ________________________________________ [please add your personal story or reason for supporting this bill].

With the passage of this law, Massachusetts would send a clear message to its citizens that all people are entitled to feel safe in their communities and to be offered the full protection of the law, regardless of their gender identity or expression.

By offering protection in places of public accommodation where people experience harassment and discrimination, this law would increase productivity, freedom, and safety for transgender youth and adults who are employees, consumers, residents, and students.

Please help Massachusetts join the many communities–including the states of Rhode Island, Vermont, and Maine–that already provide protection in places of public accommodation on the basis of gender identity and/or expression.

[Write a closing sentence that sums up what you believe this bill will accomplish and/or how your life would be better when this bill passes.]

Respectfully,
[Your Name]

When your letter is complete, email it to us at jesseb@masstpc.org. We’ll take care of the rest. 

Resources

Sample testimony 1
Sample testimony 2
Sample testimony 3
Sample testimony 4

Download PDF about Testifying at a Public Hearing (MGLPC)
Download Oral/Written Testimony Worksheet PDF

Egging The Haters On

Normally, I prefer not to write about stories, topics or concerns other transgender bloggers cover unless I have another perspective or idea to offer.

However, I am going to make an exception today. Kelli Busey's Planetransgender--one of my favorite blogs on any topic--posted about something so disturbing (but not surprising) that I simply had to mention it here.

It's one thing to overhear transphobic comments in a private conversation.  It's something else when the comments are public and directed at someone.  But it's even worse when the co-host of a Sirius XM program voices his approval of a violent hate crime committed against a transgender person:


   

Can you imagine some teenaged boy--especially one who feels under pressure to prove that he's a man--hearing that exchange?

 "There's a teen that shot a tranny after finding out that it was a man after they had a little sexual encounter." 

"I don't blame him. I would have shot his ass, too. 

 First of all, the trans woman was referred to as a "tranny" and "it". And then, of course, the co-host, essentially endorsed the violence. 

Aside from the impression it could make on young, insecure men, that conversation is also an echo of what is going through haters' minds, especially during Pride Month.  It seems that every year,  the number and viciousness of attacks against LGBT people increase as the time draws nearer to the Pride March.  

Perhaps I'm being paranoid, but I can't help but to perceive that trans people are being singled out even more than usual this year. 

Why Are You Transgendered?

Why are you transgendered?

Oh, I dunno.  But maybe you can tell me why you're such a thug.

Now, I don't recommend giving such an answer.  But I certainly would've been tempted to give it were I in Tegan Smith's shoes.

The other day, around 6PM, police boarded a plane bound for Atlanta from Love Field in Dallas and arrested Tegan.  They handcuffed her and not only failed to read her Miranda rights; they told her she didn't have any rights.  In the meantime, her cell phone, hormones and a few other personal items disappeared.  She had only one phone number, she recounted, and got no answer when she dialed, so she had no means of getting help.

In other words, she was at the mercy of those cops.  I can only imagine how vulnerable she must have felt.  However, she didn't let it show:  As she says on her Facebook posting, "No one is going to see me cry."

Not surprisingly, she missed her flight and couldn't fly out of Dallas until the following day.  But, at least a ticket was provided to her, free of charge.  And she got back all of the items that had gone missing.

So, tell me again:  Why are you transgendered?

"Yey, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for I am the toughest bitch in the valley."

Actually, that "response" was part of Tegan's Facebook posting.  Way to go!

And thanks to Kelli Anne Busey for recounting Tegan's story on Planet Transgender.

Josie Romero: A Child Knows Her Body, Knows Her Self

Quite possibly the most profound message of The Vagina Monologues is that the easiest way to keep someone--especially a woman--oppressed is to keep her from learning about her own body.

I was reminded of this when watching the Dateline segment about 11-year-old transgender child Josie Romero.

I missed the segment when it aired, but I was alerted to it by Kelli Busey's post on her blog Planet Transgender and Vickie Davis' post on her blog.

What struck me is how Josie was able, at her age, to talk about the kind of body she wants to have.  She knows that she was born with male organs, and knows how they are different from female ones.  

Some people would argue that she is "too young" to know such things.  That, essentially, is the argument many people use against sex education:  They believe that, somehow, keeping kids "innocent" will keep them safe, or at least keep them from doing things of which their families, communities and churches don't approve.

Young people in my generation, and those who came before me, did not grow up with the awareness Josie has, let alone the ability to talk about it as freely as she does with her parents and her doctor.  I don't want to impute too much of my own experience to other people around my age who grew up feeling that something "wasn't right" about our gender identities and the ways in which we were expected to express them.  But I suspect that if you grew up with such feelings and your experience was anything like mine, you probably didn't even know enough, at age eleven, to be able to tell a doctor or anyone else why you thought you weren't the gender you were told you were.

Although I felt I wasn't a boy, and I knew I wanted "girly" stuff, I didn't have enough awareness about bodies to be able to say that I was born in the "wrong" one.  Or, more precisely, I couldn't tell anyone why it was "wrong."  Although I knew that girls grew up to be women and that most women could have babies, I couldn't say what about their bodies made them able to do such things.  Once I learned about that, it would be many more years before  I realized that my inability to bring a baby into world didn't preclude me from being a woman; many other women also lack that capacity, and many others never had any desire to do so.  It almost goes without saying that I also didn't understand that boys and girls, and men and women, reacted differently to the same things in part because of their biological and physiological differences.  

And I couldn't even begin to ask what those differences might be until one day when a girl in my class writhed as blood ran down her leg from under the skirt of her uniform and neither she nor any of us in that class had any idea of why.  The nun who taught us was of no help:  She yelled at that girl and whacked her with a ruler.  

Now I realize--as Eve Ensler points out in The Vagina Monologues--that many of the adults in our lives didn't know very much about their bodies, either.  In fact, it wouldn't surprise me to know that some kids' parents knew only that if they had sexual relations at the right time, they'd have another kid--or that those same parents had little, if any, idea of how that happened.  In fact, some of the monologues show us that in the countries, cultures and religious traditions in which women are most oppressed, there are very few, if any, ways for them to learn about the intricacies and needs of their own bodies.  

Even though I would never menstruate (and, of course, I had no idea of why), I felt the terror of that girl in my class.  It wasn't just empathy:  I have some capacity for that, I think, but I am not exceptional in that way.  Rather, I sensed--although I didn't understand why--my body (and so much else in my life) was about to undergo changes that would be just as terrifying if for no other reason that I would be no more prepared for them or, more important, prepared to understand them, than that girl in my class was for her first period.  

Not long after that, I would undergo my own puberty: my first one.  Josie has been taking hormones, in part to forestall her the male puberty I and every other male-to-female transgender child of my generation experienced.  If she continues her treatments and has gender reassignment surgery at, say, age 20, she will not have to endure another puberty later in life, as those of us who transitioned in the middle or near the end of our lives had to experience when we started to take hormones.  

And she will enter womanhood with an awareness of her body none of us had when we were growing up, or even as adults.  And, just as she has adults in her life who can guide her in her journey of self-awareness, perhaps she will do the same for some other child--perhaps one of her own--one day.

Testing My Patience

I am going to say something that, coming from an educator, you might find odd:  I utterly abhor tests.

All right.  I'll lay my cards on the table:  I never was very good at taking tests.  I know lots of other people aren't, either.  More to the point, I wonder whether some tests measure anything besides its taker's ability to take tests.

And then there are the ones that are just plain stupid, and worse.  An example is one that was on Planet Transgender's site the other day.  The blog's author put it very well:  "The ChaCha quiz challenges you to prove your (manly) or (womanly) misogynistic transphobic cissexualism by being able to distinguish between real Woman (sic) and transgender fakers."

The test does play into, and display, all sorts of stereotypes and pure-and-simple hate. However, I have to admit that in one way, I do find amusement in the fact that it exists.  In looking at it, all I could think about was a guy I knew who made it a point of showing me that he could pick out all of the gay people walking down the street or in a crowded restaurant.  And, after every display of his prowess, he insisted, "But I'm 100 percent straight."  Uh-huh. 

In a more serious vein, the test reminded me that society at large will accept us as equals to cisgender folk only when it can embrace, not only diversity as most people currently understand it, but diversity within any given group of people.  In other words, there won't be any real hope of equality until more people are willing to accept the same sorts of variation in physical appearance, behavior and other characteristics in trans people as it does in cisgendered people.  We're not all weepy bombshells, just as not all cisgender women are.  And some of us, as much as we love clothes and shoes, actually care more about things like books.

Anyway...If you've been reading this blog, it's likely that you already understand what I've just said.  So I don't want to risk beating the proverbial dead horse to death.  I just hope that I live long enough to see true acceptance become the norm.