Questioning Transphobia

Via Press-Telegram:

Transgender CSULB student Colle Carpenter speaks at the Take Back The Night event at the Cal State Long Beach campus on Thursday. On April 15 Carpenter was attacked while on a break from class; Take Back The Night is an international event held primarily on college campuses and is intended as a protest and direct action against rape and other forms of sexual violence.

There’s a video at the Press-Telegram site but I can’t work out how to embed BrightCove vids in WordPress and couldn’t find a different format anywhere else, so here’s the direct link to the video, and here’s a transcript of the parts of Colle’s speech as shown in that video:

I’ve been terrified to come back to campus… The person who attacked me knew my name… pushed me back into a stall and carved “it” into my chest.

For those of you that don’t know why “it” is such a derogatory term, it takes away a person’s humanity. It takes away their personhood and makes them less than human.

Know that what happened to me didn’t just happen to me – it happened to the entire community… Those of us that are visibly queer, those of us that are out about being queer, are scared.

Campus police are still looking for Mr Carpenter’s attacker.

Please call your representatives today and tell them why a T-inclusive ENDA is important. Don’t let groups like TVC drown us out.

Yes, I realize that Dr. Weiss is being sarcastic above.

First, Brownfemipower needs help. Her latest laptop’s keyboard is broken, and is the latest in a string of computer breakdowns (including one that caught fire). She’s asking for help to get a new, functional, computer that she can use as a media activist, writer, and blogger. If you can donate, and you want to see BFP stay online,

Every person who donates will receive a gift!

For those who donate between:

$5-25: You will get a personalized thank you note from yours truly!

$26-50: You will get the personalized thank you note and a newly published zine!

$51-100: You will get the personalized thank you note, and two newly published zines!

Over $100: You will get the personalized thank you note, two newly published zines, and a surprise gift (I will tell you once you order–I only have certain quantities of each, so I don’t want to list them online!).

The bad news: Because this computer breaking down has taken me by surprise, I am only in the planning stages for the zines. So it will be up to two months before those of you who order zines will get them. So that you know what stage I am at making the zines, I will be documenting the process I go through to make them here on the blog. This has the added bonus of hopefully helping other people–so many people I know have expressed interest in making zines, but have also expressed not having any damn clue how to.

So, that’s what is where things stand right now. I hope that you are excited–I sure am. I’m a bit apprehensive as I know it will be a lot of work–but I also am really excited for the motivation to get these new zines out! I love zine making, and I’m really excited to get back to the drawing board again–see how things flow out of the mind this time.

Please donate and/or spread the word–and THANK YOU so much for your continuous support!

Sudy/Lisa of A Womyn’s Ecdysis wrote an incredible post about feminism and the birth of her son. Crossposted to FlipFloppingJoy.

I strongly suggest following the links and reading the whole thing.

Briefly, like a loose leaf lightly touching a windshield before moving on, I thought about Feminism. Now a mother. Never again like before. Never just I. My life just took the most radical turn. That morning I had made myself chocolate chip pancakes. Six hours later, I was a mother. Everything had changed in the blink of an eye. And in that change, I came to a realization that there were two kinds of feminism. The Feminism of issues and the feminism of our lives.I realized the Feminism that is perpetuated in mainstream and mainstream-like media is not the feminism of our lives. It is the feminism of commerce. It is the feminism that picks and chooses the winners and losers, the visible and invisible, and accessible and ignored. It chooses what will sell and what sells focuses on status climbing, material wealth, and westernized independence. Things that bring pleasure, not transformation.

The Feminism that has stepped on the backs of women of color and ignored the backs of trans and disabled women is the Feminism that camouflages itself with diverse panels and collectives but neglects to modernize its definition of social liberation in the era of digital media. It is the feminist theories stuck in the academy with no implored action. It is the round table discussions reserved for annual conferences that result in no true connection or building blocks.

This is the Feminism that has the time and luxury to ask leisure questions such as, “Why don’t you identify as feminist?” and “Where are all the women of color bloggers?” The same Feminism that circulates the energy over the same privileged circle of the educated, the employed, or as I call it, “the Sames;” the ones who stand an inch into the outskirts, banging on the “equality” door but who also ignore the women whose heads are in toilets cleaning their bathrooms or nannying their children.

This is the Feminism of fruitless banter and recycled conversations. The space to bring these issues up could be a hopeful sign of progress, however, the repetition of those conversations and the predictable accusations and defenses serve no other purpose than keeping the pendulum swinging in balance. Aka, the status quo.

This is the same Feminism that haunts the academy and academic support offices such as Women’s Centers and elite conference gatherings. The conversation of the privileged becomes priority over decision-making. Consciousness-raising is imperative for transformation, but it cannot begin and end with questions. There must be forward motion, however slight.

Simply putting 50% of women into anything male dominated may alter the demographic, but that’s not necessarily transformative. Putting a woman’s face where a man’s once was, without any sort of critical change, is not equality but appeasement. And before Linda Hirshman takes that quote of mine again out of context, let me explain further.

The purpose of feminism is to end itself. Andrea Dworkin called it one day without rape. Others have other land posts measuring feminism’s victory. The purpose of feminism is to one day find ourselves where we don’t need to fight for human rights through the lens of women’s oppression. Note: I didn’t write that the purpose is to bring down the man. The purpose is not to have a female president. The purpose is to transform the infrastructure that holds kyriarchy in its place. Replacing men with women – of any race, ethnicity, creed, or ability – who refuse to acknowledge the insidious and mutating face of gender oppression is not forward stepping. It’s a perpetuation of history.

And so the question comes: how invested are you in the liberation of women?

Because if you agree that the liberation of all women carries more weight than the identification as a liberal feminist, the feuds over whether feminism is dead becomes irrelevant. The uproar should be about dying women, not a dying Feminism.

You really should read her full post.

I did respond to her statement about trans women being ignored by feminism in the comments on her post, but I do believe in what she’s saying overall. I want to have more to say about this, but right now I just want to get the word out there.

The link to this story was dropped in the Arizona post:

Police are reporting that a 27-year-old transgender student at CSU Long Beach was slashed in a men’s room on campus earlier this month.

Although the attack took place ten days ago, the university only made it public this Friday.

The student’s assailant addressed him by name before the attack, asking him whether he was that person. The victim of the assault did not recognize his attacker, but was able to provide police with information enabling them to create a sketch.

Police have not said whether they are investigating the incident as a hate crime. The Long Beach Post has, however, reported that a Facebook entry on the incident claimed that the attacker carved the word “IT” into the victim’s chest.

The attacked student was treated for his injuries in a local hospital and released that evening.

I think we spend a lot of time talking about how trans women of color are often murdered for being trans, but hate crimes don’t have to result in death – hate crimes are acts of terrorism against marginalized populations, and happen frequently. I don’t want to minimize the horror of the murders that do happen, but I also remember how many times someone has said, while defending their cissexist and transphobic perspectives, “I’m not out there murdering trans women.” As if murder is the beginning and ending of oppression.

I hope they catch the cis guy who did this.

So I’m late!

Okay, same as last week – share anything interesting or cool, promote your own blog or your favorite blog. It doesn’t have to be trans-related, nor does it have to be good news.

The Party of No…Credibility.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQYjZc7gKXc&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Jonathan Coulton’s “Your Brains”, video of a man dressed as a zombie performing the song in ASL.

Bit snowed under at the moment, but just wanted to note the appalling law just passed in Arizona today.  From NPR:

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed a controversial bill Friday that makes it a crime for illegal immigrants [sic*] to be in the state. The new law will require local police to seek proof of immigration status if there is reason to suspect individuals are illegal immigrants. [. . . ]

The law requires noncitizens in Arizona to carry their immigration paperwork with them at all times. That clearly would be an example of the state intruding into exclusively federal domains of enforcement and regulation, Tumlin argues, and will inevitably lead to racial profiling.

“How are police going to enforce this?” she asks. “They’re not going to ask whites.”

The implications of this are staggering, enshrining racial profiling into law.  Inevitably Latin@s will be targeted by the police, with “suspicion” supposedly predicated on an “appearance” which is somehow divorced from race (note the disingenuous Republican senator going on about clothes and shoes).  More in a bit, but suffice to say this is disturbing beyond the telling.  Legally, today Arizona turned into a police state (though whether it survives constitutional challenges is another story).

*  as GallingGalla points out in the comments, NPR’s usage of the term “illegal immigrants” is itself suspect, a racist dogwhistle

Via My Eyewitness News and The Commercial Appeal:

Bridges McRae will face a new jury on July 12, 2010 after jurors in his first trial could not reach a verdict. Eleven jurors thought he was guilty. One juror believed he was innocent.

McRae is accused of violating Duanna Johnson’s civil rights.

via FWD

Blogging Against Disablism day will be on Saturday, 1st May. This is the day where all around the world, disabled and non-disabled people will blog about their experiences, observations and thoughts about disability discrimination. In this way, we hope to raise awareness of inequality, promote equality and celebrate the progress we’ve made.

I shall be blogging, but if you’d like to participate, head over to Goldfish’s.

Story here:

A mistrial has been declared in the case of a former Memphis Police officer charged with violating the civil rights of transgender woman Duanna Johnson.

The jury of five men and seven women in the Bridges McRae case began deliberating last Wednesday, but were unable to reach a verdict by Monday. Following the Allen Charge, the judge in the case is encouraging jurors to reconsider until they reach a unamimous verdict.

Apparently, it is difficult for a jury, when faced with a video recording of a police officer violently beating a black trans woman, to determine that the police officer is actually guilty of violently beating a black trans woman.

I hope your murderer is swiftly brought to justice.

A transgender woman was found stabbed to death in her home outside San Juan on Monday, April 19.

Primera Hora reported authorities discovered Ashley Santiago’s naked body in the kitchen of her house in Corozal, which is roughly 25 miles southwest of the Puerto Rican capital. Santiago, 31, was a popular hair stylist at a local salon.

El Nuevo Día reported Santiago’s mother went to a local police station to report she had not heard from her daughter since Sunday, April 18. Police said Santiago had been stabbed 14 times. And El Nuevo Día further reported the victim’s 2009 Toyota Corolla was not parked in front of her home.

More at link.