Oh wow. That is... unbelievably horrible. Unfortunately I have to say that being questioned about one's gender if it is ambiguous can be rather common (for me, at least), but beating someone up (and preventing them from calling the police, stealing their phone, etc) is just plain ridiculous. This article is just helping me to transform into a closet misanthrope, haha.
It's repeated throughout the article people's thoughts on whether it should be a hate crime, etc. The comment that stuck out the most to me was Graffeo explaining the situation to the police, and him guessing that they don't fully understand the situation. Maybe I'm a bit biased, but I thought it is rather clear what the reason for attacking was. Unless the police didn't "believe" that Graffeo and Jaime are trans? (Similar to the interviewer's reactions to Buck Angel) Was it because they were in a lesbian club? (Should they even have been in the lesbian club in the first place?)
Also, Jaime lamenting that the attacks came from within the LGBT community reminded me of the article we read at the beginning of the semester, about why the T is in LGBT. It also reminds me of how so many "queer" sexualities (asexuality, pansexuality, polyamory, even bisexuality) seem to be ignored/misunderstood/hated by many lesbian and gay people. Is this a sign that we need to do some hardcore educating, or should we start thinking about redefining what it means to be queer?
I always like to try and bridge connections and find intersections between various communities and incidents. Especially within in the context of what I'm learning in my classes. It helps me find a sense of sanity, or even rationality amongst the chaos of these events. Because when it comes to violence sometimes I feel there is no rationality. Along with reading this article, I just read an article in the new york times about the assimilation collide happening in schools across the U.S and the dilemma of attempting to "integrate" English learners a.ka. newly arrived immigrant (mostly Latino) students into schools. The story covered a high school in New York. Here's the article in case you all would like to read it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/us/15immig.html
Both of the articles highlight to me the issue of how once marginalized communities are now reproducing the same hate and prejudice unto a new target. For example, LGBT communities vs Trans communities, Black/White/other "assimilated" communities vs newly arrived non english speaking immigrants.
It makes me wonder when will there be a sense a solidarity amongst all peoples, and all struggles. Instead of the constant division creating internally by these groups. The constant race for power and conquest is what is driving our respective communities crazy, making people do actions that are so violent and brutal.
I saw the movie Watchmen this past weekend, although it was long, and a bit overratted, (I've seen better graphic novel turned movies) there was some good points in the film that had me thinking. Specifically the idea of how we as human beings drive ourselves into constant war and chaos and that the only way we can unite as One World, is if its AGAINST another force or entity. Watchmen: Russia and The U.S at the brink of global nuclear destruction bridge together in Peace to fight against Dr. Manhattan..
I know that analogy is a bit of a stretch but trust me, see the movie and you will see where I'm going...
This violent act of fear and hatred really brings to the forefront how expressions of gender identity are interpreted as threatening, and interestingly enough, threatening for these lesbians. Through Jaime's testimony, it's obvious that there was nothing in particular to start a fight, but simply this feeling of threat that these lesbians felt. Was it because of competing masculinities that perhaps the lesbians couldn't match up to ? Or was it just the opposite- that their inability to interpret Jaime and Graffeo's gender confounded their perceptions of social categorization? Why does this happen within the LGBTQ community (if we can call it a community still)? I too heard the echos of the "T" in LGBT article from the very beginning of the semester, but I cant say that I feel that article entirely explains this incident. At one point in class we were discussing how marginalized people become "naturalized" and in turn, perpetuate similar systems that oppressed them; they become comfortable with categories. I wonder if this discussion is also pertinent to this incident.
I agree with Charlie in that it is clear that these two trans men were assaulted because of their gender identity, but Graffeo's statement suggesting that the police don't fully understand, I think, speaks to that frustration of having to explain such a visible and vulnerable aspect of one's identity that is clearly personal but inextricably political. Especially in the face of the police, it almost seems like Graffeo is trying to tell the system why "the system" is so messed up.
I hear Charlie's question too about whether we need to redefine queer. I wonder if it's not so much about a battle of semantics but about letting queer be without categories; having a space where you don't have to naturalize and be put into a category and create hierarchies. I'm not sure what it takes to break down and erode a system where violence is currency for power, where a security guard can watch this violent act and be complacent (WTF!?!?!?!?), where a "fab lounge" can't comment on how unfabulous they actually are for having no backbone in speaking on what is just and what is right. Maybe thats what we need, guts, something bigger than ourselves that behooves us to intervene when witness what is wrong.
This act of violence speaks to so many dynamics and moments of injustice, but for me, what speaks the loudest is the pressure to systemize, the way that even those on the periphery are inundated to colonize and repeat cycles that oppress them as well.
I agree with you Lily too that maybe the solution is for queerness to exist sin fronteras, without borders categorizations. It's interesting because personally for me that's why I adopted the word as self identification because It allowed for a space, of being free.
At the Rethinking Sex conference last week, Sharon Holland called our attention to another brutal D.C. case of trans violence, this one perpetrated by supposed law-enforcers. Holland asked why such desire exists to hurt or sometimes kill bodies in transition.
While I'm happy that D.C. has hate crime laws with "stricter penalties," it is clear that people aren't getting the message against trans violence. Scarier and more ironic is that the people committing the crimes are supposed to be on the victims' side. The lesbians who committed the acts of violence toward Jaime and his friend belong to the same GLBT/queer/queer-friendly community as their victims. What Charlie mentions about more educating is necessary even within GLBT communities. I think it makes sense to have a large focus on individual experiences of transgender identities, so there is not one universalized transman or transwoman.
My classmates raise important considering the space of the attack, which was a gay bar. There may have been confusion and assumptions about Jaime's transgender identity and his sexual orientation, echoing our call for continued education with a focus on varied experiences of transgender people. Do gay bars connote a patron's visible gayness, rather than their visible transness?
For me the insult to injury lies in the fact that only D.C. and 31 other states track hate crimes against transgender people, and there is no federal law that says they must. I only hope Jaime and his friend's case are acknowledged as what it was - a legitimate hate crime against a person's gender identity.
When Holland and this event point our attention to the acts of violence committed toward members of the trans community, even in supposed safe spaces like LGBT bars, I first think of the sheer neglect of trans people in legislation and how that colors our perceptions of who and what is important.
But as a person who is already marginalized for who they are attracted to (the lesbian), how then can't they relate to the struggles of a trans person for being marginalized based on what gender they feel like? Maybe, as my classmates point out, it is the confinement of these labels that box us too tight. Lesbian refers strictly to sexual orientation, and nothing else. But what about lesbians that play with their gender orientation?
Thanks form these comments and additional links. As some of you know, my partner and I live in D.C. so this has struck our community hard, swift and sadly. Who do we face in the mirror when we talk about "Queer Liberation"? If we insist on only seeing ourselves that's a short-sighted and myopic type of politics. When I heard about this hate-crime, I thought (like you, Rebecca) about Sharon Holland's talk and her beautiful book _Raising the Dead: Readings of Death and (Black) Subjectivity_. I've been reading again, and its insistence on the not teasing out the complexities of race from Queer projects resonates with me.
6 comments:
Oh wow. That is... unbelievably horrible. Unfortunately I have to say that being questioned about one's gender if it is ambiguous can be rather common (for me, at least), but beating someone up (and preventing them from calling the police, stealing their phone, etc) is just plain ridiculous. This article is just helping me to transform into a closet misanthrope, haha.
It's repeated throughout the article people's thoughts on whether it should be a hate crime, etc. The comment that stuck out the most to me was Graffeo explaining the situation to the police, and him guessing that they don't fully understand the situation. Maybe I'm a bit biased, but I thought it is rather clear what the reason for attacking was. Unless the police didn't "believe" that Graffeo and Jaime are trans? (Similar to the interviewer's reactions to Buck Angel) Was it because they were in a lesbian club? (Should they even have been in the lesbian club in the first place?)
Also, Jaime lamenting that the attacks came from within the LGBT community reminded me of the article we read at the beginning of the semester, about why the T is in LGBT. It also reminds me of how so many "queer" sexualities (asexuality, pansexuality, polyamory, even bisexuality) seem to be ignored/misunderstood/hated by many lesbian and gay people. Is this a sign that we need to do some hardcore educating, or should we start thinking about redefining what it means to be queer?
Sigh...
I always like to try and bridge connections and find intersections between various communities and incidents. Especially within in the context of what I'm learning in my classes. It helps me find a sense of sanity, or even rationality amongst the chaos of these events. Because when it comes to violence sometimes I feel there is no rationality. Along with reading this article, I just read an article in the new york times about the assimilation collide happening in schools across the U.S and the dilemma of attempting to "integrate" English learners a.ka. newly arrived immigrant (mostly Latino) students into schools. The story covered a high school in New York. Here's the article in case you all would like to read it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/us/15immig.html
Both of the articles highlight to me the issue of how once marginalized communities are now reproducing the same hate and prejudice unto a new target. For example, LGBT communities vs Trans communities, Black/White/other "assimilated" communities vs newly arrived non english speaking immigrants.
It makes me wonder when will there be a sense a solidarity amongst all peoples, and all struggles. Instead of the constant division creating internally by these groups. The constant race for power and conquest is what is driving our respective communities crazy, making people do actions that are so violent and brutal.
I saw the movie Watchmen this past weekend, although it was long, and a bit overratted, (I've seen better graphic novel turned movies) there was some good points in the film that had me thinking. Specifically the idea of how we as human beings drive ourselves into constant war and chaos and that the only way we can unite as One World, is if its AGAINST another force or entity. Watchmen: Russia and The U.S at the brink of global nuclear destruction bridge together in Peace to fight against Dr. Manhattan..
I know that analogy is a bit of a stretch but trust me, see the movie and you will see where I'm going...
This violent act of fear and hatred really brings to the forefront how expressions of gender identity are interpreted as threatening, and interestingly enough, threatening for these lesbians. Through Jaime's testimony, it's obvious that there was nothing in particular to start a fight, but simply this feeling of threat that these lesbians felt. Was it because of competing masculinities that perhaps the lesbians couldn't match up to ? Or was it just the opposite- that their inability to interpret Jaime and Graffeo's gender confounded their perceptions of social categorization? Why does this happen within the LGBTQ community (if we can call it a community still)? I too heard the echos of the "T" in LGBT article from the very beginning of the semester, but I cant say that I feel that article entirely explains this incident. At one point in class we were discussing how marginalized people become "naturalized" and in turn, perpetuate similar systems that oppressed them; they become comfortable with categories. I wonder if this discussion is also pertinent to this incident.
I agree with Charlie in that it is clear that these two trans men were assaulted because of their gender identity, but Graffeo's statement suggesting that the police don't fully understand, I think, speaks to that frustration of having to explain such a visible and vulnerable aspect of one's identity that is clearly personal but inextricably political. Especially in the face of the police, it almost seems like Graffeo is trying to tell the system why "the system" is so messed up.
I hear Charlie's question too about whether we need to redefine queer. I wonder if it's not so much about a battle of semantics but about letting queer be without categories; having a space where you don't have to naturalize and be put into a category and create hierarchies.
I'm not sure what it takes to break down and erode a system where violence is currency for power, where a security guard can watch this violent act and be complacent (WTF!?!?!?!?), where a "fab lounge" can't comment on how unfabulous they actually are for having no backbone in speaking on what is just and what is right. Maybe thats what we need, guts, something bigger than ourselves that behooves us to intervene when witness what is wrong.
This act of violence speaks to so many dynamics and moments of injustice, but for me, what speaks the loudest is the pressure to systemize, the way that even those on the periphery are inundated to colonize and repeat cycles that oppress them as well.
I agree with you Lily too that maybe the solution is for queerness to exist sin fronteras, without borders categorizations. It's interesting because personally for me that's why I adopted the word as self identification because It allowed for a space, of being free.
Wow.
At the Rethinking Sex conference last week, Sharon Holland called our attention to another brutal D.C. case of trans violence, this one perpetrated by supposed law-enforcers. Holland asked why such desire exists to hurt or sometimes kill bodies in transition.
While I'm happy that D.C. has hate crime laws with "stricter penalties," it is clear that people aren't getting the message against trans violence. Scarier and more ironic is that the people committing the crimes are supposed to be on the victims' side. The lesbians who committed the acts of violence toward Jaime and his friend belong to the same GLBT/queer/queer-friendly community as their victims. What Charlie mentions about more educating is necessary even within GLBT communities. I think it makes sense to have a large focus on individual experiences of transgender identities, so there is not one universalized transman or transwoman.
My classmates raise important considering the space of the attack, which was a gay bar. There may have been confusion and assumptions about Jaime's transgender identity and his sexual orientation, echoing our call for continued education with a focus on varied experiences of transgender people. Do gay bars connote a patron's visible gayness, rather than their visible transness?
For me the insult to injury lies in the fact that only D.C. and 31 other states track hate crimes against transgender people, and there is no federal law that says they must. I only hope Jaime and his friend's case are acknowledged as what it was - a legitimate hate crime against a person's gender identity.
When Holland and this event point our attention to the acts of violence committed toward members of the trans community, even in supposed safe spaces like LGBT bars, I first think of the sheer neglect of trans people in legislation and how that colors our perceptions of who and what is important.
But as a person who is already marginalized for who they are attracted to (the lesbian), how then can't they relate to the struggles of a trans person for being marginalized based on what gender they feel like? Maybe, as my classmates point out, it is the confinement of these labels that box us too tight. Lesbian refers strictly to sexual orientation, and nothing else. But what about lesbians that play with their gender orientation?
Queer it is.
Thanks form these comments and additional links. As some of you know, my partner and I live in D.C. so this has struck our community hard, swift and sadly. Who do we face in the mirror when we talk about "Queer Liberation"? If we insist on only seeing ourselves that's a short-sighted and myopic type of politics. When I heard about this hate-crime, I thought (like you, Rebecca) about Sharon Holland's talk and her beautiful book _Raising the Dead: Readings of Death and (Black) Subjectivity_. I've been reading again, and its insistence on the not teasing out the complexities of race from Queer projects resonates with me.
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