Standing Watch

I’m not sure what one reason suddenly spurred me to write this article.

Perhaps it was more than one. Like when I read Maureen Dowd’s Op-Ed piece in the New York Times about how Ted Olson claimed he has been named an honorary lesbian by a large lesbian group.

Maybe it was David Letterman’s latest transphobic skit, intended to insult and degrade the newly appointed Senior Technical Adviser to the Commerce Department, which wasn’t long after Letterman’s slam at Thomas Beattie, referring to the then pregnant transman as “an androgynous freak show.” While the response from HRC and GLADD was swift and clear regarding Simpson (I believe because she is an Obama appointee, and for no other reason), the silence surrounding Letterman’s remarks about Beattie was deafening. Even then, many gay and lesbian blog sites insisted we who fall under the umbrella term “transgender” should get over it, after all it was only a joke, right?

Perhaps it was Ronald Gold’s offensive diatribe on Bilerico, his very first (and last) article, aimed at transgender persons, in which the gay rights leader negated the very concepts of transsexualism and transgender identity, in favor of the male-female gender binary defined solely by anatomical sex at birth (he stayed well away from intersex conditions, which would have negated his whole premise).

And then there’s the latest murder of a transwoman, Myra Chanel Ical, who was beaten to death and left in a lonely vacant lot in the Houston, TX area. She fought for her life, as reports of defensive wounds indicate. She was treated with respect and dignity by authorities, right up until they discovered she had been born anatomically male. At that point, her entire existence was negated by authorities, sensationalized and disrespected by the media, with many comments being how she “deserved what she got for trying to fool people.” Reporting on gay and lesbian blog sites remains practically non-existent, with what little reporting that did occur getting either no response, or mostly transphobic replies from the usual trolls with their “anti-trans” agenda.

When Matthew Sheppard was murder in Laramie, WY some years back, it was amazing how quickly gay and lesbian groups organized and rallied international media coverage. Coverage was, quite literally, beyond wall-to-wall, it was global, from just after Sheppard was found barely alive, through his death, all the way through sentencing of those who brutally murdered him. There were stage productions on Broadway, and later an HBO movie.

Brandon Teena, a transman, was raped by people he thought were friends. Police refused to take his case seriously, because he was transgender. They even warned his attackers, who would murder Teena and two others, leaving a toddler child of one of the victims alone with the bodies. No media outcry, no vigils, no protests. There was eventually a movie, arguably a fairly good one, judging by the awards. But even then, the focus wasn’t on the crimes that led to Teena’s death, but on the brilliant performance by the actress, and controversy surrounding how the local area that the crimes took place in was portrayed.

Some would argue that things progressed between the time Teena was murdered, and when Sheppard was. Fast forward to the murder of Lawrence King, a 14 year old student who acted and dressed like a girl. King was shot by a classmate who was upset at having received a Valentine’s Day card from King. When everyone assumed King was a gay male, coverage was once again wall-to-wall, spanning the globe. Ellen DeGeneres gave an emotional and outraged statement about the murder. The moment it became relatively apparent King may have been transgender, news coverage ceased, save for some minimal local coverage about the criminal proceedings, and sympathy stories about the upbringing of the child who killed King

Those who remember me from OurChart know that I track transgender hate crimes fairly closely (I also cover hate crimes by or against others), and I reported on the murders of transwomen far too often under the tagline “And In Other News.” I would carry on after OurChart’s management wrecked the site on another site, until it became apparent no one was paying attention, and my coverage was starting to depress me on several levels.

I still continue to cover that topic, here on this site. I’ve tried to raise awareness amongst gays and lesbians, pointing out that these are crimes against them as well, because the assumption of attackers is that their transgender victims are actually homosexuals. It turns out many gays and lesbians assume much the same thing as those who attack transgender persons, that they are gays or lesbians “out to fool straights into having sex with them.” Of course, if the transgender individual’s sexual orientation is also towards those of the gender they identify as, hostility (especially towards transwomen who are also lesbian) can be every bit as dangerous as the violence seen against other transgender persons.

Throughout our history, there have always been examples of minority groups who are oppressed by a majority themselves in turn oppressing even smaller minorities. Most of the time, it’s over a struggle for jobs or other economic reasons. Language barriers and major cultural differences tend to combine to cause conflict as well. Occasionally, but much less often, it’s over religion. We’ve seen examples of this recently, after 9-11, the growing problems associated with illegal immigration, and the serious economic problems our nation, and indeed the world, now faces. In every one of these examples, the groups we see facing oppression, and who in turn oppress even smaller groups, typically do so over differences that simply cannot be changed, nor hidden.

Gays and lesbians themselves are an oppressed group, something that cannot be denied. Religious groups proclaim often their obsession over the issues of human sexuality, targeting homosexuality as an evil, something destructive to families, and therefor society as a whole. Many believe the myth that somehow homosexuals are prone to predatory sexual behaviors, particular towards children (despite strong and prolific evidence to the contrary). Over something personal and private, gays and lesbians face unprecedented oppression if their privacy is violated. They can be fired from their jobs, evicted from their homes, and in some legal jurisdictions, their children can be stripped away from them. And, they are targets of violence, from assaults, to rape, to murder

But, no single group of individuals anywhere in the world faces the dangerous levels of oppression than those who are what one would call “transgender.” In 2004, statistics from just 14 communities across the United States showed that transgender persons were victims of 321 hate crimes, up from the relatively consistent annual average of 213 (NCAVP records, the FBI did not keep track of such crimes until very recently). At one point, one transgender person was murdered in the United States every 9 days (2006). Media coverage was scant at best, unless the hate crimes were of a particularly heinous and spectacular nature, or it was a particularly slow news cycle. Nearly all these hate crimes go unsolved, with superficial investigations, no suspects, no arrests, and the rare conviction for crimes against transgender persons often results in the lightest possible sentence.

But the oppression goes much further than that seen with other groups. Social isolation is complete at nearly every level. Verbal and physical attacks are commonplace, and largely socially acceptable. Unemployment and homelessness is so pervasive, it effects 90% of all transitioning transgender persons. And, when a transgender person is murder, it is usually a long, drawn-out process that often involves torture over a period of hours.

While it is rare for gays and lesbians to perpetrate violent acts against transgender persons, it is fairly common for them to engage in the socio-economic and political isolation of transgender persons. While not as bad as it once was a few decades ago, the oppression continues to this day.

Niche bars that serve gays and lesbians have begun, just in the last couple of years, to ban transgender persons. In every case where legislation to protect LGBT persons from employment discrimination was introduced, attempts by gay and lesbian political leaders to remove transgender protections. Just a couple of years ago, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), attempted to get passed the Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA), without transgender protections, claiming that the bill had a much better chance of passage that way (it failed anyway, no way would then President George W. Bush sign any such legislation in any form).

Political leaders were shocked to learn that many grass-roots LGBT organizations were outraged by such an exclusion, and legislation has been reintroduced that is far more inclusive. Unfortunately, a political decision was made to block any work on ENDA until after the 2010 mid-term elections, at which point passage, if current political trends continue, appears highly unlikely. Matthew Sheppard’s own mother would campaign against transgender inclusion in the recently passed hate crimes legislation, with gay and lesbian leaders claiming it would help get the legislation passed must more quickly. All the while, transgender persons have been asked to “wait until society is ready” to have protections for themselves passed, while gays and lesbians demanded support from transgender persons for their own rights.

Prior to the passage of the federal hate crimes bill that covers LGBT persons, over half of all states had protections regarding sexuality and sexual preference, but only 10% had laws protecting gender identity and gender expression. The same applies to laws regarding employment and housing discrimination. When gay and lesbian legal protections went into place, all efforts towards transgender protections ceased. A couple of states, in an effort to redress this inequality, have decided to define gender identity as a form of sexuality (it isn’t, but that’s not the point), in order stem the blatant discrimination and random violence. But, for the most part, legal protections for transgender persons do not exist, with the exception of the recently passed federal hate crimes law.

There is no way to cover the history of this problem in just one article, nor is it possible to address all the causes of the problem, and those behind the transphobia that, once on the decline, has recently seen a resurgence in the gay and lesbian population. So, this article is going to be a series within a series. The series will correct historically inaccurate assumptions, and point out and correct hypocritical positions taken by many gay and lesbian social, political, and economic leaders to justify their ignorance, prejudices, intolerance, and the resulting oppression. I will also be addressing certain legal and social consequences that already have resulted, and likely will result, as a direct consequence of one oppressed group oppressing another.

With any luck, the reader will come away at least knowing the following:

• If one is less than equal, all suffer from inequality.

• If one person’s rights can be taken away due to prejudice, everyone’s rights are at risk.