Another Woman Dead, The Blogosphere Largely Doesn’t Notice
Angie Zapata was murdered on July 17th. Her murderer claims that he was so enraged by the idea of having sex with her that he had to kill her to reassert his manhood. People try to excuse this hate crime and blame Angie for getting killed.
This trope, this idea that trans women are deceivers, are deliberately luring men to have sex with them, and that the man’s anger is somehow understandable or excusable, is not really different from the idea that the best defense against a rape verdict is to call the victim’s virtue into question. That is, it’s semantically identical, even if the details are different.
The fact is that some men perceive women as automatically available just for being women. When those women don’t cooperate, violence comes into the picture. Men who rape defend themselves by claiming that their victim was asking for it, had really consented and changed her mind, that the way she dressed meant that she was inviting it.
It’s also true that men will have sex with trans women and come back later to kill them, or even live with those women for months before killing them. These men are not unaware that they are having sex with trans women. But they know that they can get away with killing these women with a slap on the wrist.
Right now, Angie Zapata’s dead and her murderer’s claiming that her trans status enraged him beyond all reason. At first I didn’t like how the media provided a blow-by-blow account of what Andrade had done, but now I think it’s important for people to see the kind of violence inflicted on trans women for being trans. These killings aren’t a matter of just a bullet or two, or maybe a stab to the chest. They’re brutal, they’re clearly motivated by a desire to annihilate. From that news story (WARNING: POTENTIALLY TRIGGERING DESCRIPTIONS OF VIOLENCE):
BRIGHTON – The man arrested in the murder of a 20-year-old transgender person was on date with a person he thought was a woman, 9NEWS has learned. Police say when the suspect discovered his date was actually a man, he killed her.
Allen Ray Andrade, 31, was arrested in Thornton on Tuesday and faces second-degree murder and aggravated motor vehicle theft charges.
In an arrest affidavit obtained by 9NEWS, Andrade admits to police to killing Angie Zapata, 20, who was living as a woman but born as Justin Zapata.
Zapata was found beaten to death in a Greeley apartment in the 2000 block of 4th Street on July 17. Authorities say Zapata had suffered fatal wounds to her head and face.
The affidavit says Andrade met Zapata on a social networking site, MocoSpace, and the two arranged to meet July 15.
Zapata picked Andrade up in Thornton where he lived and the pair returned to Zapata’s Greeley apartment together. Andrade told police Zapata performed a sexual act on him.
The following day, the affidavit explains, Andrade started to look at photos in the apartment and questioned Zapata’s sex. That night, Andrade questioned Zapata directly, according to the affidavit, and Andrade says Zapata responded, “I’m all woman.”
Andrade told police he grabbed Zapata in her genital area and felt a penis. He became angry and hit Zapata with his fist before grabbing a fire extinguisher and hitting her in the head twice, according to the affidavit.
Andrade explained to police that he thought he “killed it,” referring to Zapata but when she made gurgling noises and started to sit up, he hit her with the extinguisher again.
He also admitted to police he stole Zapata’s car and drove away.
And look at that – Andrade says “he killed it.” Not “he killed her” or even “he killed him,” but “it.” It is a pronoun typically used to describe inanimate objects, and is used against people to dehumanize them, to strip them of their personhood.
But also, Andrade assaulted Zapata physically – he grabbed for her genitals because she wouldn’t tell him that she was trans. He obviously felt entitled to handle her body as he saw fit. What would have happened if she hadn’t been trans, or had previously had surgery? It’d be sexual assault. It still is sexual assault, followed immediately by a brutal murder.
And then there’s this bit on prosecution and defense:
Experts say it may not be easy for prosecutors to prove it was a hate crime.
“A prosecutor is going to talk about this being a knowing killing, that the defendant knew what he was doing. The defense is going to argue that it was the heat of passion, that he did it because he, the defendant, was so upset for being duped,” said 9NEWS legal analyst Scott Robinson.
Robinson believes that while the prosecution will be seeking a conviction for second-degree murder, the defense could seek a lesser offense of heat of passion manslaughter.
“This is not a classic hate crime, where an individual is beaten to death because of their orientation. This is a case when an individual reacted irrationally and unlawfully to learning they had been fooled,” said Robinson.
Beating someone to death because she’s trans is not a hate crime? Up is down and red is green? “. . . an individual reacted irrationally . . . to learning they had been fooled?” There’s that deception thing again. That assumption that as women, it is our responsibility to accommodate men completely, and when we don’t, well what happens next is just in the heat of passion?
This has happened a few times this year. How many more by the end of the year?
This is directly related to Emily’s post and my response yesterday – those posts weren’t about us, but were about the violence inflicted on trans women on a regular basis.
Edit: Check out this post and follow the link to La Chola. Race is also an issue here, as Angie was Latina. Some pretty awful things are being said about her not just because she’s a trans woman, but because she’s a Latina trans woman.
I try not to read these quotations sometimes, because they can be a bit triggery for me.
But that last comment, about not being a “classic” hate crime, doesn’t make any sense. For say, a cis lesbian woman doesn’t necessarily get arbitrarily beaten up on the street for it to qualify as a hate crime, the perpetrator learns by some other means that the woman is lesbian and then reacts on that knowledge. It’s just the same thing with trans women, perpetrators learn some knowledge that they don’t like and react upon it.
I don’t really see the difference between this and any other hate crime, unless someone really wants to blind themselves to that fact.
z
August 1, 2008 at 7:14 pm
First, I’m sorry, I should have said “This may trigger.” I meant to, but was caught up in my own anger over this happening again. I did find it triggering when I read it on Transgriot’s and Waymon Hudson’s posts, but I think that for a lot of cis people, maybe they need to see that – to see how much violence is inflicted on trans women for being trans.
It is a classic hate crime. The defense is trying to spin it. “It’s not a hate crime – a crime that’s typically defined as happening in the heat of the moment, with extreme violence. It’s just a crime that happened in the heat of the moment, with extreme violence.” Lots of people want to believe or want others to believe that hate crimes are premeditated – and some are, but they come from rage – twisted, hateful, rage.
Lisa Harney
August 1, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Oh yeah, he completely did it all in the heat of the moment. Especially the bit where he realised she wasn’t dead and hit her again. That’s definitely the work of someone who overreacted to learning something he didn’t like, rather than the work of someone who hated what she was so much he wanted to destroy her completely.
Nick Kiddle
August 1, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Oh yeah. It’s just like one guy who shot a woman down for being trans – he emptied his entire pistol clip into her, reloaded and did it again.
Totally in the heat of the moment.
This murder was about destroying Angie, and the bastard will probably get a slap on the wrist.
Lisa Harney
August 1, 2008 at 7:53 pm
I hope Andrade doesn’t get away with trans-panic. but given how things go he will. Trans* lives just aren’t worth anything, aren’t worth living, in the kyriarchy.
Someone also needs to find that legal analyst Scott Robinson and email him a link to the style guidelines. They aren’t supposed to use cissexist words like fooled or duped.
Arrggg, why can’t we have a year where we add no new names to the TDoR list? Or even one month with no new murders…
drakyn
August 1, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Well, part of the problem is that no one talks about this. We get trans people posting about this stuff, we get some GLB people who post about this. We get a very few cis feminists who post about this stuff.
Seriously, I wish these murders would get the attention that Kyle Payne or Jon Justice got in the blogosphere, or the media attention that Matthew Shepard received, but it never seems to happen.
It’s almost like murdered trans women aren’t as important as murdered cis women.
Lisa Harney
August 1, 2008 at 8:06 pm
“Almost”
queenemily
August 1, 2008 at 10:20 pm
I’m habitually sarcastic.
Lisa Harney
August 1, 2008 at 10:25 pm
I’m habitually amazing ^_^
queenemily
August 2, 2008 at 7:18 am
This is true. And modest, too.
Lisa Harney
August 2, 2008 at 7:21 am
[...] At Questioning Transphobia. [...]
season of the bitch » Saturday Morning Links: Angie Zapata
August 2, 2008 at 10:09 am
do you suppose the part involving grand theft auto was also due to the “heat of the moment”?
“…murdered trans women aren’t as important as murdered cis women.”
clearly, murdered trans women aren’t as important as murdered cis white women, even more so when the murdered trans woman isn’t white. we’re all about our hierarchies.
nexyjo
August 2, 2008 at 10:17 am
[...] genitals attract! Grah. (ETA: While I was writing this post, I missed an entry about the murder at Questioning Transphobia who does much better rage than I [...]
Friday Night is Rage Night: the sex edition « Uppity Brown Woman
August 2, 2008 at 1:07 pm
A true clarification, and one I should’ve mentioned.
I’m sure the grand theft auto was due to the heat of the moment. I’m sure we’ve all had moments like that – get angry, throw a plate at the wall, steal someone’s car.
Lisa Harney
August 2, 2008 at 2:32 pm
“Arrggg, why can’t we have a year where we add no new names to the TDoR list? Or even one month with no new murders…”
yes, this – exactly what i was going to say. my heart goes out to Angie’s loved ones, and I sincerely hope for justice to be done. there have been far too many victims and excuses.
I kind of wonder about the sense of entitlement held by the attackers in these cases. He seemed to feel entitled to use Angie when he thought of her as a woman, entitled to assault her to determine her “real” identity, and entitled to punish Angie for not conforming to the attacker’s idea of who she was. Transphobia is a feminist concern precisely because it stems from the patriarchy’s objectification of female bodies, and the desperate desire to determine and police the “acceptable” forms of those bodies.
This is clumsy, so I apologise. But it sort of seems as though the attacker would have to regard Angie-the-Woman as an object in the first place, before getting to the place where Angie-as-thing-that-must-be-killed.
silver
August 2, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Jesus. The part about killing “it” followed by hearing her gurgle so hitting her again with the fire extinguisher is… hideous.
I cannot stand how transphobia is OK even to those who care deeply about other oppressed groups, let alone the greater populace. Hell, someone on a dog forum I frequent used his gay friend’s derision towards transwomen as some sort of qualifier to fit in with the hets or something. :(
Dana
August 2, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Well, part of the problem is that no one talks about this. We get trans people posting about this stuff, we get some GLB people who post about this. We get a very few cis feminists who post about this stuff.
Seriously, I wish these murders would get the attention that Kyle Payne or Jon Justice got in the blogosphere, or the media attention that Matthew Shepard received, but it never seems to happen.
It’s almost like murdered trans women aren’t as important as murdered cis women.
Lisa, you’re definitely right (including myself among the criticized). In case it makes you feel any better, I just want you to know that I’ve been working on a post about this since yesterday. It’s more or less done, but I’m going to wait until Monday to put it up at both the curvature and feministe so that it gets a bigger audience than it would today.
Cara
August 3, 2008 at 6:01 am
Thank you. I’ve linked this at my blog.
Bev
August 3, 2008 at 9:05 am
Very, very true statement and one I made clear when I wrote about her murder. The bottom line is that some bodies matter in this society and some don’t. I believe that the only way to stop the violence is to keep speaking out the way that you did, cara, transgriot, myself and the others that posted this story. Call out those who refuse to acknowledge our shared humanity. It is hypocrisy on the part of the liberal/feminist blogsphere to speak about wanting equality and justice and ignore large groups of women. If we cannot speak for the most marginalized amongst us then we are not really interested in justice are we.
Renee
August 3, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Thank you for linking back here, Renee – and for the post. I was hoping to post a list of people who are talking about Angie today.
And thank you, Bev.
Lisa Harney
August 3, 2008 at 1:04 pm
[...] the fucktards over at Bilerico, specifically, Mercedes Allen and Lisa Harney It’s the same old shit. I guess those two recommend going out with straight men, having [...]
Angie Zapata is Dead and I’m Upset « Enough Non-Sense
August 3, 2008 at 7:04 pm
If you want to see some prime victim-blaming, check out the above link. SA-ET blames the entire trans community for Angie’s murder.
SA-ET’s defending a commenter – Brandi Parker – at Bilerico who’s blaming Angie for getting herself murdered – using language that almost exactly parallels rape justification: “If she hadn’t been wearing those clothes, she wouldn’t have been raped.”
Both SA-ET and Brandi Parker are trans women.
The Bilerico discussion is located here. See for yourself.
Also, check out SA-ET’s ableist language: fucktard.
Susan, for the record – I dated several straight men back in the early 90s, shortly after I transitioned. A few were pigs, most were decent, and none of them tried to kill me when they found out I was trans. And they did find out, because I believe that disclosure is appropriate. You’re missing the point in your zeal to attack anyone who doesn’t buy into your classist, ableist, racist*, homophobic HBS spiel. The only person responsible for Angie Zapata’s death is Andrade. Not Angie. Not the “transgender community,” no one. We – unlike you – just happen to understand what “blaming the victim” means, and that’s what you’re defending.
* Whoops, almost forgot the whole “house tranny” thing.
Lisa Harney
August 3, 2008 at 7:14 pm
I think there is a clear difference between telling a woman that she should be careful walking out at night and insinuating that because a woman was not careful walking out at night it was her fault that she was attacked/raped/assaulted/whatever and ripping her and other women’s personhood to shreds.
But cautioning people not to be victims is not enough. It leaves the real issue out of the picture: the perpetrator and their crimes, and stopping the same kind of perpetrators from doing it again.
z
August 3, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Yes, exactly.
And insisting “I’m not saying it was her fault” while talking about all the ways you assume she must have lived her life wrong clearly doesn’t fall into the “be careful walking out at night” category.
Lisa Harney
August 3, 2008 at 10:07 pm
and pushing that pre/non-op trans people aren’t really men/women sounds like the anti-trans screeds we hear from *outside* our community … advice that makes someone feel two feet tall… no thanks.
z
August 3, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Yes, they think that strictly policing gender boundaries is their moral imperative, as opposed to selling out.
Lisa Harney
August 3, 2008 at 10:28 pm
[...] 4, 2008 · No Comments Lisa at Questioning Transphobia: look at that – Andrade says “he killed it.” Not “he killed her” or even “he killed [...]
This Shouldn’t Need to be Said « A Secret Chord
August 4, 2008 at 5:28 am
[...] and run up bills on her credit cards. This is not “the heat of the moment.” No, as Lisa Harney said, men like Andrade simply believe with good reason that they can get away with ki…. And everyone will be more than accommodating to him in tiptoeing around his violence and [...]
Killing a Woman Because She’s Trans “Not a Classic Hate Crime” : The Curvature
August 4, 2008 at 7:42 am
[...] car, and run up bills on her credit cards. This is not “the heat of the moment.” No, as Lisa Harney said, men like Andrade simply believe with good reason that they can get away with ki…. And everyone will be more than accommodating to him in tiptoeing around his violence and hatred. [...]
Feministe » Killing a Woman Because She’s Trans “Not a Classic Hate Crime”
August 4, 2008 at 7:43 am
[...] Lisa has more. [...]
season of the bitch » More on Violence Against Trans Women
August 4, 2008 at 6:37 pm
[...] that note: Read this, this and this. Published [...]
A Radfem On Transgendered Issues: Message Received « FemmEssay
August 5, 2008 at 1:34 am
[...] the past. People who inhabit bodies that are considered “wrong” are fair game for mistreatment. Some bodies do not matter… not then, not [...]
The Legacy of Slavery: The Cost of Generational Trauma « don’t do that
August 5, 2008 at 9:32 am
[...] Zapata was murdered the 17th of July in Greeley (USA); you can look at, e.g, the post on Questioning Transphobia for more information. There is also a roundup of posts on Angie Zapata. This a brutal example of [...]
Better late than never « Traningrad
August 6, 2008 at 9:59 am
[...] since she was killed in my city. I find myself having trouble articulating anything that hasn’t already been [...]
It would be nice to think that we actually had respect for the dead. at PunkAssBlog.com
August 7, 2008 at 2:34 pm
[...] Questioning Transphobia – Another Woman Dead, The Blogosphere Largely Doesn’t Notice: On the sexual assault and premeditated murder of Angie Zapata, which 9NEWS legal analyst and moron Scott Robinson declared was “not a classic hate crime”: It’s also true that men will have sex with trans women and come back later to kill them, or even live with those women for months before killing them. These men are not unaware that they are having sex with trans women. But they know that they can get away with killing these women with a slap on the wrist. [...]
Links: Carnival Against Sexual Violence 53 « Pizza Diavola
August 15, 2008 at 1:18 pm
[...] of the transgender experience and transphobia: the Carnival against Sexual Violence includes a post about how yet another murder of a transwoman [triggers] is being reported as the accused “being enraged beyond all reason” about being “duped” about [...]
Carnivalia, transgenderism and the gender binary at Hoyden About Town
August 18, 2008 at 1:59 pm
[...] cisexual privilege, which often leads to high rates of violence. Duanna now joins women like Angie Zapata, Victoria Arellano, Amanda Milan and Alexis King on the list of trans women who have met their end [...]
GlobalComment » The Death of Duanna Johnson
November 11, 2008 at 2:59 pm