The Charges: She's Black---And Trans

So what is life like for a black trans woman?

The sad tale of Meagan Taylor might tell us more--and worse--than most people could have imagined.

She checked into a Des Moines, Iowa hotel room with a friend who is also transgendered. The staff were "acting really funny" around them, she said.  Then the police showed up at their hotel room.

Now she's sitting in a cell of the Polk County Jail Medical Unit while officials try to figure out what to do with her.  Her bond is set at $2000.  Were she a Polk County resident, she could pay a tenth of that.  But, being from out-of-state, she would need someone local to co-sign, and she doesn't know a soul in Iowa.  She doesn't even have a lawyer.  All of this means that Taylor could be in that cell for months.

So what, exactly, is Meagan charged with?  Well, the hotel clerk who called the cops described "two males dressed as females", with the implication that they were prostitutes.  The cops could find no evidence of that.   They did, however, find a bottle of spironolactone hydrochloride.  in an unmarked bottle in her purse.  I used to take that same drug with estrogen tablets before U had my surgery but, apparently, the cops didn't believe her when she told them it's part of her hormone therapy.   So, she was charged with having a prescription drug without a prescription.

And, to be fair, she did give a false name and Missouri ID.  It’s not clear as to how she got that ID, but it’s hard to understand why that should have led to a charge of “malicious prosecution”, an aggravated misdemeanor.
While arresting her, a police officer ran a check and found she had an outstanding probation violation in her home state of Illinois: When she was 17, she was charged with credit card fraud. She says she did her time for that but admits she still owes $500 in fines.

All right.  You might say that Meagan Taylor is no angel.  But who among us is?  And young trans people often do, out of desperation, the sorts of things (like credit card fraud and using fake IDs) other young people do out of stupidity or arrogance. 

I don’t think most people would want to keep any young person locked up for such offenses.  Incarcerating such people rarely does them any good and costs a lot of money.  So why do Polk County officials see fit to keep Meagan Taylor, a low-level nonviolent offender, behind bars?

How Quickly Notions About Us Are Changing

One thing I find interesting--and gratifying--is how quickly much of the public's understanding of what "transgender" means is shifting.

According to a four-year-old report I recently found, nearly half of all people surveyed thought a transgender is someone who "switches" from one gender to another.  Nearly one in five people believed that a trans person "lives like the opposite gender", "identifies more with the opposite gender" or "has identified with both genders".  Another ten percent subscribed to what was the standard definition until the 1980s or thereabouts:  transgenders are born into the "wrong" body.

Just four years later, those statistics and notions already seem very dated--especially the large number  of people who thought trans people "switch" genders.  There is some degree of truth--at least, for some trans people-- to the other definitions I've mentioned, but they don't come close to telling the whole story about any of us.

Perhaps that is one of the best outcomes of the publicity surrounding Caitlyn Jenner and other trans people "coming out".  None of us fit a single narrative of what it means to be trans any more than any cisgender heterosexual is likely to fit into some narrow definition of "cisgender" or "hetero".   As more people understand that, it can only make it easier (though I still won't say "easy") for us to live in the fullness of our own beings.

What's It Like To Be A Trans Girl?

Sometimes I'm asked "What's it like?" to be transgendered or, more specifically, a trans woman.  The best answer I can give is that I can't answer the question, but I can tell you about MY experience.

In other words, there isn't one kind of trans woman, or trans person.  Part of the reason I didn't start my transition earlier is that I didn't think I fit the profiles of trans women I carried in my mind.  I thought I was too tall, to broad-boned or deep-voiced.  Or I thought I wasn't, on the outside "feminine" or "pretty" (at least, as those terms are commonly defined) in our culture.  Plus, I have always felt more attracted to women than to men.

Some graphic artist must have been thinking what I thought.  Let us thank "Kyle"--that is the only name I could find--for this wonderful graphic:

They Don't Violate Only The Ninth Commandment

Funny, how "religious" leaders decide that it's perfectly OK to commit one sin ostensibly to fight another.

I'm thinking now of Kendall Baker, a Texas pastor who warned that children will be victimized by "trans predators" if Houston passes a bill that gives equal rights to trans people.

Hmm...A pastor violating the Ninth Commandment:  Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Had it not been for an experience of mine, my reaction to this story would be "What, this shit again?"  But because of a particularly ugly incident in my life, that news turns my stomach.

You see, that "trans predator" trope has been used to rationalize all manner of bigotry, harassment and outright violence against us. I know:  It happened to me.

I take that back. It didn't happen to me.  Someone did it to me.  If you've been reading this blog, you know who that somene is. Yes, Dominick.

After I ended my relationship with him, one of the ways he retaliated was to start rumors that I was preying upon my students.  He not only told people I did that, he also sent e-mails and made "anonymous" complaints to my employer.   

Worst of all, he tried to claim that I "accosted" him and that he spent five years in a relationship with me only because he was "afraid" of what I would do.

Hmm...That "trans panic" claim all over again.  That's particularly interesting coming from someone who claims he's victimized in all sorts of ways because he's gay.  (Right up to the time I had my surgery, he hoped that I would change my mind and live as the gay man he believed I was.)  Plus, if he was so afraid of me, why did he not only spend as long as he did with me, but also threaten me when I left him and wouldn't go back to him.

Oh, wait, I answered my own question:  He acted as he did because he was afraid.  People who lie and start vicious rumors about others are always so. Sometimes they're just pure and simple cowards.  Other times, they're guilty of the very thing they impute to others.

In Pastor Baker's case...You guessed it...He's preyed on women at his day job with the city's 311 call center.  

I'd call him--and, for that matter, Dominick--a chickenshit, except that I have too much respect for chickens.

Oh, here's another irony:  When Dominick was trying to win me back, he'd make some sort of appeal to me before making another threat.  Once, his grandmother was dying. Another time he claimed to have cancer.  And--you've probably guessed this one--he "got religion" and was praying for me.

And, no doubt, he was telling people I preyed on somebody.  After all, that's what we do, right?