Sunday, November 18th / 6:25 PM / CIIS- 1453 Mission St., San Francisco, Room 207 / Contact: emmib@riseup.net
Trans P.o.C. Prison Abolitionist organization TGIJP(Transgender, Gender-Variant Intersex, Justice Organization) and Emmi Bevensee
will be holding a panel discussion followed by a community engagement around the intersections of colonialism, capitalism, and globalization with sex, gender, race, and sexuality. To focus on these topics we will be taking a critical lens towards the conditions of Transwomen in the Prison-Industrial Complex (PIC).
TGIJP-“TGI Justice Project is a group of transgender people—inside and outside of prison—creating a united family in the struggle for survival and freedom.
We work in collaboration with others to forge a culture of resistance and resilience to strengthen us for the fight against imprisonment, police violence, racism, poverty, and societal pressures. We seek to create a world rooted in self determination, freedom of expression, and gender justice.”-TGIJP.org
The transgender community is hurting really badly right now. Since the beginning of this year, five trans women of color have been killed– Deoni Jones, Coko Williams, Paige Clay, Brandy Martell, and Lorena Escalera– three of them (Coko, Paige and Brandy) in April alone.
Another trans woman of color, CeCe MacDonald, is expected to spend 41 months in a man’s prison for defending herself from becoming the victim of a similar hate crime.
Transgender artist Mark Aguhar also committed suicide this year. Her loss was crushing to many, especially to young trans people who live in isolated areas and depend on the internet for a sense of community. She is far from being the only one. 41% of transgender people have attempted suicide, and this number does not take into account those who have completed suicide successfully. No wonder, given that we constantly hear about people like us being murdered. It leads to a certain sense of hopelessness.
Trans people, especially trans people of color, are dying constantly, by murder or by suicide. Trans people who dare fight back, like Cece MacDonald, are punished for surviving. The rest of us live in fear, and are exhausted by grief.
Your disgraceful article about Lorena Escalera, a talented young model and performer, was utterly devoid of compassion, respect, or of awareness of its context. It was smug, sneaky, and mean. It started out referring to Lorena as the beautiful woman she was, albeit using a series of misogynistic tropes and innuendos about her character, then made the “shocking” revelation that she was transgender mid-stream, and ended by referring to her as “the dead man.”
Trans people are often accused of being “deceivers” for not broadcasting our gender history to the world (no wonder that we are hesitant to do so, given the murderous way that non-transgender people sometimes react when we come out!). I felt that your article was in fact deceptive. It started out somewhat innocently, and ended up downright insulting. In retrospect, I suppose the comments on Lorena’s appearance (since when is it appropriate to refer to a dead woman as ‘curvaceous?’) should have tipped me off to its slimy intentions,
It’s bad enough that our trans siblings are dying left and right, without the media spitting on their dead bodies and trying to take their hard-won genders away.
The fact that so many of you non-transgender people think that it is OK to mock the dead shows that you lack the smallest shred of human decency.
You should all be ashamed of yourselves.
Disgustedly,
Asher Bauer
Write one yourself and send it to letters@nytimes.com. If you want them to actually publish it keep it shorter than mine– 150 words max. Here’s their bullshit guidelines.
This map shows the data for trans murders in countries worldwide over the last four years, from January 1st, 2008, to December 31st, 2011. From TransRespect vs Transphobia:
The update shows an exponential increase in reported killings of trans people over the last four years. In 2008, 141 cases were reported, in 2009 213 cases, in 2010 214 cases, and in 2011 a shocking number of 248. These are mainly the reported cases that could be found through Internet research and cooperation with trans organizations and activists. In most countries, data on murdered trans people are not systematically produced and it is impossible to estimate the numbers of unreported cases.
The reasons for this increase might be manifold. Every year, TGEU’s TVT research team has improved its monitoring methods, started new collaborations with organizations that contributed their data, and received information from activists from many parts of the world. Also, the increase in the visibility of trans people and of trans issues in public discourse may have led to a better reporting of cases. However, the data also show also that there is no decrease, that the shocking amount of violence against trans people still poses a major problem and threat to trans people in many countries. The again alarming figures demonstrate once more that there is an urgent need to react to the violence against trans people and to seek mechanisms to protect trans people. Some international trans activists even started to introduce the term ‘transcide’ to reflect the continuously elevated level of deadly violence against trans people on a global scale.
“Officials have identified a young transsexual woman who died in a fire that broke out early Saturday in Bushwick. The FDNY received a call around 4 a.m. reporting flames pouring out of an apartment building at 47 Furman Ave. After firefighters extinguished the blaze at around 4:15 a.m., they discovered 25-year-old Lorena Escalera, 25, unconscious in apartment #3. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene. Escalera, a dancer who goes by the stage name “Lorena Xtravaganza,” performed at clubs such as Splash, Peligro and El Morocco.
Escalera’s Facebook fan page has photos of her performing in glittering, sexy outfits including an homage to J. Lo, which included a sparkly, sheer outfit mirroring the cat suit Lopez wore on New Year’s Eve. Escalera described herself as an honest and humble person living in Brooklyn, but born and raised in Puerto Rico.
According to reports, she also worked as an escort, who advertised her services online. Fire officials told Metro that the cause of the fatal blaze is still under investigation, but the New York Times reported that the fire has been deemed suspicious. Escalera was last seen bringing two unidentified men into the apartment.”
I am crying. My heart goes out to all who loved Lorena.
I am so sick of posting these things. It feels like this is all I ever hear about now.
ETA: I found this video starring Lorena, who was a talented performer and model. There are lots of photos and footage of Lorena on the internet. When I look at them it’s hard to believe this vibrant young woman is no longer alive.
It’s Transgender Day of Remembrance. Today we remember those lost in the last year to transphobic violence.
I refuse to remember you next year. You will still be here. I insist.
I have hands and mind and the will. If need be, I have guns and knives and boots and bricks and I know where to get torches and pitchforks. All of these things I have are for you, because I refuse to remember you next year. You will still be here. I insist.
You are quiet and I have not heard enough from you lately. I hope you are ok. Are they mistreating you? Are you mistreating yourself? I have a comfortable couch and quiet conversation and a glass of brandy and a bowl of soup and a loud laugh. These things too are all for you, because. I insist.
I spend the time I can surrounded by boxes full of other people’s memories. I am nearly a professional rememberer. Whether you slip quietly away, surrounded by those who love you, or you fall in the fight against those who would see you suffer, I will collect the box of things that others can remember you by. I am not afraid to remember you, but I will not remember you next year. You will still be here. I insist.
If you are cis, do my tattoo and jacket make you feel uncomfortable? I can only hope so.
Right now, when I see a cis person in public, I worry. I tense and hold my breath and get ready to sprint away. You frighten me. This fear is entirely justified. I’ve already been sent to the hospital for the crime of walking down the sidewalk towards my home while visibly gender variant. I fully expect to be attacked again, severely. (The less severe attacks, the screams and threats and disapproval and hatred and thrust elbows and shoves, these are the givens. These are part of the cost I know I will be forced to pay if I wish to leave my house.)
Die cis scum. It is hostile. It’s aggression, on my part. It is a whisper of personal agency. When the cissexism and transphobia of this culture crush in, overwhelming and unstoppable, these three words are how I push back.
Would that I could push harder.
-A beloved friend who wishes to remain anonymous
ETA: I, Asher Bauer, did not write this post but I did personally give my friend the tattoo shown above, by hand, using a sewing needle and tattoo ink, and I support this message 100 percent.
Banner Dropped, Cop Cars Disabled As Vengeance For the Death of Shelley Hilliard
In the wee hours of the morning of November 13th, a banner was dropped on a bridge over the I-90/94 in Chicago reading, “Don’t Mourn, Attack! Avenge Shelley!” and three police vehicles were disabled in response to the brutal murder of a young trans woman named Shelley “Treasure” Hilliard, whose torso was found next to the same highway (I-94) in Detroit this past week.
It is easy to become lost in the sorrow of the brutal violence of gender that exposes the bodies of trans women to a one-in-twelve chance of violent death at the hands of the partisans defending this wretched society. But our violence is the alchemy that can turn our tears into a potent poison dripping down the throat of the social order. Take action to avenge Shelley’s death and to remind us all that in the face of the terror of prisons, police, and queer-bashing, that it is our obligation to bash back against all that would destroy us. We look forward to hearing about more attacks for Shelley and for us all in the coming weeks.
Solidarity to all the trans women and gender rebels surviving and rebelling in the belly of the prison and under the guns of the pigs!
Solidarity to our all comrades in the US, Mexico, Greece, Chile, and many other places who has chosen to attack and now face the violence of the law!
Solidarity with those whose survivals have been made criminal who are reclaiming their ability to struggle!
yours in the gender strike,
some ticked off trannies with knives.
Detroit— The Wayne County Medical Examiner’s office has confirmed the death of 19-year-old Shelley Hilliard, a transgender teen also known as Treasure, after her mother identified her torso this morning.
The teen went missing in the early hours of Oct. 23 and was last seen on the 900 block of Longfellow on Detroit’s west side.
The Medical Examiner’s office received her torso later on Oct. 23, and Lyniece Nelson, Hilliard’s mother, identified her this morning.
Nelson said she had no idea who might’ve done this.
“She was loved by a lot people, a lot of friends a lot of family,” Nelson said. “She just brought joy to everyone that she came in contact with. She was always there for her family.”
“As a community we have claimed one day as ours. One day of the year. One day to memorialize those less fortunate than ourselves. One day to lay our fallen to rest and pray fewer are taken next year. It is a poignant commentary on society’s failings, on the HRC’s repeated failure. Our day is spent in mourning rather than celebration. Our day is spent with grim determination instead of jubilation.
“On this day I mourn the loss of kin I will never get to know. “On this day I recognize that their lives were ended for committing the same act I did. We were born. We were born trans and for that, just that, someone died. Or in some cases someone died for being suspected of acting trans. Suspected or accused whether they were or not, the suspicion was all it took.
“On this day I am thankful. “I am thankful I have a roof over my head. “I am thankful I have food to eat. “I am thankful I have friends and loved ones who care about me. “I am thankful I do not have to be a sex worker to survive. “I am thankful that I am not on this list. “I am thankful because, quite simply, I am privileged to be able to write and post this. “‘There but for the grace of God go I.’ “So I cry my tears, I dry my eyes, and I remind myself of the price others have paid. The price others are paying. The price of living in a world that has not learned to value the amazing and diverse people I see around me. I hate that there is a need for this day. Someday I hope it will not be necessary.
“Hopefully we will achieve that goal sooner and not later.
“However even though I dread the sadness that this day brings, this day is important to me. It is partly my day. MINE! Not the GLB, and for damn sure not the HRC, Stonewall democrats, or the cisgender allies that will never understand. They need to stay the hell away from this day. Let me have one day in peace. Just give me that much. So many have already paid for it.”
I’m afraid I don’t have much to say right now. There are no words for my anger and grief and disgust at the human race, my frustration that the smiling people I see in these photographs had their lives taken so brutally out of such stupid hatred.
