Recovered From A Trash Can

Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance.

This day was first commemorated in 1999,one year after African-American transwoman Rita Hester was found murdered in Allston, a suburb of Boston.  

Since then, hundreds of other trans people have become homicide victims.  Most of them--92 percent, to be exact--share something with Ms. Hester:  their killings have not been solved.  

One such murder is emblematic of the reasons why we have TDR and why we have to continue to draw attention to the ways in which we are killed, and the official response--or lack thereof.


On 8 November--less than two weeks ago--a woman's body was found in a trash can in Detroit.  While investigators do not have her name or other details of her life and death, they have identified her as a trans woman.

A woman and her son found the body when they were scavenging for cans, bottles and other scraps.  They made their gruesome discovery behind a bar.

From what you've read so far, you may have guessed--correctly--that the body was that of an African-American trans woman.  That, the way she was disposed and the way her body was discovered tell you much about the dangers we face, and the undignified ways in which we are treated in life and death.

I can hope only that someone gives her the honor and dignity in death that she did not experience in life--during the last moments of it, anyway--and that Detroit police are more diligent in investigating her murder than too many other law enforcement officials in other places are when the victim is a trans person.

After all, even though she--and Islan Nettles of Harlem--are trans women who were murdered, not all anti-transgender violence happens to people because they are transgendered or even to people who are transgendered.  You see, someone who kills someone over gender identity makes a judgment on his or victim's identity and decides that person is somehow lacking.  So a man who is not deemed "masculine" enough or a woman who doesn't seem sufficiently "feminine" can fall victim in exactly the same way as someone who is indeed known to be transgendered.  It almost goes without saying that someone who cross-dresses in public can meet a similar fate.

So, on Transgender Day of Remembrance, we're not only mourning people like Rita Hester, Gwen Araujo, Amanda Gonzalez-Andujar, Islan Nettles and the woman whose body was found in a Detroit trash can.  Rather, we are acknowledging the fact that someone who doesn't fit into someone else's notion about gender can end up in a trash can behind a bar.

The Genderbread Person

Some of you may have already seen it.  I came across it for the first time just recently:  The Genderbread Person:

Aside from its cuteness, one thing I love about it is that it doesn't posit male and female, gay and straight or trans- and cis-gender as polar opposites, as many other models do.  Although I know women and men are different in many ways, we also have many (perhaps many more) similarities, and are not necessarily from "Venus" or "Mars".  Likewise, I realize that gay and straight are different, and so are trans and cis, but they are also not opposite poles in the world of sexuality and gender identity.

Instead, the model depicted seems to go from less sexuality to more, and from less gender-ness, if you will, to more.

It may not be the "right" model, but I think it makes more sense than the binaries about gender and sexuality we've been taught and that too many scholars, educators, and other often well-meaning people propogate, sometimes unwittingly.

Proof That We're Not Just XX Or XY?

I'll admit:  It's been a long time since I've studied biology.  So, my knowledge is probably rusty, to put it mildly.

So I wouldn't be surprised if something I learned as one of the most basic tenets of genetics has been overturned.  Said notion is that males and females are determined and identified at the chromosomal level, and that there is "male" and "female" DNA.  The former has, of course, XY chromosomes and the latter, XX.

Well, like many ideas based on binaries, it seems as though that one might be overturned, or at least may need to be modified.  At least, that's what new research seems to indicate.

According to the study's lead author, Dr. J. Lee Nelson of the University of Alberta, the findings "point to the need for a new paradigm of what the self is, biologically".  

What is causing Dr. Nelson to make such an earth-shattering statement?  His team has found male DNA inside female brains.

The study found male michocherism--"the 'intermingling' of small numbers of cells or portions of DNA in a person from a genetically different individual"--in 63 percent of the brains tested.  

These findings are significant for a number of reasons.  For one, the researchers found that female Alzheimer's patients have lower concentrations of "male" DNA in the portions of the brain most affected by the disease.  This, of course, could have significant implications for those researching Alzheimers, and possibly other conditions.


Also, if a person can have "immigrant" DNA intermingled in his or her cells, the notion that DNA can uniquely identify an individual human being is challenged, to say the least.  That undermines one of the most basic notions of genetic science, not to mention the notion that gender is identifiable and definable by DNA structure.  Some might argue that such a notion might have gone by the wayside in any event, as DNA structure often has very little to do with the way terms such as "male" or "female" actually function in the world, let alone with how people actually live as men, women, boys, girls or in other gender identities.

Perhaps Dr. Nelson summed up the implications of his findings best when he said, "I think we're better off defining it [the biological self] as an ecosystem, rather than as a singular genetic template, with more genetic and cellular diversity than we previously thought."

Could this spell the end of the gender binary after all?