Catching Up - Another Woman Murdered

Thank you to BlackAmazon for linking this story. Monica Roberts also covered this.

Ebony Whitaker, a 20-year old woman, was found dead near a Memphis Daycare on Tuesday, July 1st. The press, not convinced that she had suffered enough, denies her the basic dignity of self-determination by using the wrong name and pronouns, repeatedly. Degendering her, stealing her identity and life, labeling her as “a transgender” and using her birthname. Joyce Peterson makes it clear that she doesn’t respect Ebony’s life.

I am in love with Renegade Evolution

Ren wrote this post in response to the discussion on Bastante Already about radical feminism.

[W]e all get told how much our activism of any sort does not matter. If you happen to not be against, or are even ambivalent towards, or maybe involved in sex work (and not the perfect poster girl victim), what you do doesn’t mean shit. It’s nothing, not good enough; after all, you haven’t seen what they’ve seen, and you are enabling it, even personally making it happen! It doesn’t matter if you bust your ass every day trying to find a woman on the run from an abusive ex a place she can afford to live. It doesn’t matter if you spend hours working with lesbians who have been kicked repeatedly by society trying to help them feel comfortable in their own skins. It doesn’t matter if you’ve scrubbed the blood and grey matter of a woman shot by her boyfriend off your floors or stood over the casket of a co-worker killed by her boyfriend in a jealous rage. It does not matter if you’re a transwoman who has been beaten or raped. It doesn’t matter if you’ve fucking lived aspects of any of these lives on your own in order to put food on the table and come through it realizing that every persons situation is different and that there is no universal experience when it comes to all women. It does not matter. You’re not good enough. Right enough. Pure enough. What you do means nothing, no matter how much of that nothing you do or how much of that nothing you’ve lived or how much of that nothing has helped other people.

Yeah, that.

The radical feminists I talk about in this blog, who write the most transphobic things are the same radical feminists who say the above - who dismiss the work Ren does because Ren does sex work - because she’s a stripper. Their bigotry is not limited to just one or two things, but a spectrum of experiences and lives that they vehemently disapprove of - BDSM, pornography, women of color who actually speak for themselves, women with disabilities. Anyone who raises uncomfortable questions about the definition of oppression in radical feminist terms - that the root of all oppressions is gender, that women are invariably oppressed, and that all these things represent oppression. BDSM reifies heteronormative patriarchal sex roles. Transsexualism reifies the patriarchal gender binary. Pornography makes women nothing more than sex objects. All women have a common experience of oppression as women, and so the pain that a black woman suffers when the violation she suffers is defined as “not really rape” and “a theft of services” is the same pain that a black woman from Mali suffers when she is refused political asylum to protect her daughters from FGM. It’s the same pain that a Russian woman who’s been trafficked into sex slavery suffers. It is the same pain that a latina woman suffers when she is separated from her daughter before deportation. These are all the same pain that a white middle-class woman feels when she reads about these stories. Or so some radical feminists might say.

This denies that all women have our own diverse experiences, that we experience life differently, that we’re oppressed in many ways because of race, disability, class, and sexual orientation. That my experience as a white woman is not the same as a black woman’s, or that black woman’s experiences are not the same as mine because she is cissexual and I am transsexual. That we have intersections that stack and multiply the social complications we face, and that it is impossible to separate “race” from “gender” for women of color, or “disability” from “gender” for women with disabilities.

Instead of looking for a common thread that binds all women together, we’re better served trying to address the real experiences that real women live. A form of feminism that runs women who don’t share that common thread out on a rail isn’t really a feminism I can get behind. Especially not one whose proponents try to silence voices like these.

International Day Against Violence Against Women

Sokari of Black Looks posted this:

A reminder to everyone that the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence begins today.

Violence against women is something that cuts across all ages, nationalities, religions and cultures. Most of us have either experienced violence or know someone who has but still there remains a SILENCE around violence against women mainly because it more often takes place in the domestic sphere. I spoke about my own experience here

One fundamental problem is that because gender based violence is so common across the world that it has been “normalised” - through actions, language, imagery, pornography - and it is this “normalisation” that has to be broken. I spoke of my own personal experience of domestic violence. But the violence didn’t start there. I have had a life time of it from my child hood, of sexual harassment - touching, misogynist language, presumptions, jokes, looks, homophobia - it becomes a constant battle not to internalise the abuse. As a teenager I used to think it must be my fault - I am to sexual and that’s why this is happening. There was also the added racial element which expressed itself differently depending on whether in Africa or in the West. I did not know where to turn or how to deal with any of this. All of us girls were experiencing similar abuse. With my father acting like a prison guard when it came to boys/men, I was way too scared to talk to my parents about it - even too my mother. The strict environment left no doors open in which to try to discuss this with family members for fear of being grounded to the house. Looking back I probably thought it was normal - we girls and women are the one’s responsible for arousing men who then cannot help themselves. Unfortunately much of society still believes and accept this ridiculous explanation for acts of violence against women.

All our denials - women, men, parents, families, communities - will certainly not protect us. On the contrary it sustains and even encourages acts of violence against women………Continue

Estimates are one in three women have experienced beatings and or sexual abuse. Violence against women

It is a scourge that preys on women and girls of ALL nations, of ALL cultures. It is gender-based violence — and it continues to grow, encouraged by the silence surrounding the issue and excused by reference to cultural norms. At the dawn of the 21st Century it is a very negative reflection of global society that violence against women is increasing throughout the world. Gender-based violence is the social, psychological and economic subordination of women and occurs in ALL societies. Violence against women is a complex phenomenon deeply rooted in the way society is composed — cultural beliefs, power relations, economic power imbalances, and the masculine ideal of male dominance

The 16 days will run from November 25th to December 10th and will incorporate the following:

November 25th: The International Day Against Violence Against Women
November 29th: International Women Human Rights Defenders Day
December 1st: World Aids Day
December 10th: International Human Rights Day

Local actions are taking place across the world -

Carnival Against Violence Against Women

To participate please fill in the Carnival form or email me at info at blacklooks dot org with the link to your post before December 6th. The post can be anything from a personal story, images, thoughts, a link anything that highlights and informs violence against women.

This year’s theme is “Demanding Implementation, Challenging Obstacles: End Violence Against Women”

Police Investigate Suspicious Death of Trans Woman

Article here

23rd November 2007 13:45
Steve LengA forty-year-old trans woman has been found dead at her home in south-east London, according to reports.

Kayiode Dexter Telesford, who had been living for several years under the name of Kellie Telesford, died of strangulation at her home on Leander Road in Thornton Heath.

The police are treating the death as suspicious, and have asked anyone who saw Telesford between the 15th and 21st of November to contact them immediately.

One neighbour told thisislocallondon.co.uk “There’s been a lot of police activity round here. I can’t believe something like that has happened.

“I heard the police breaking in through the door the other day but I didn’t know why. Now I’ve heard what’s happened, it’s made me feel very uneasy.” he added.

Anyone with information should call 020 8721 4205 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

All of the news stories reference her birth name even though she hasn’t lived by that name for a very long time.  What disappoints me about the above is that it’s from a GLBT news service.

BBC covers the story:

Police found the transsexual’s body in Leander Road, Thornton Heath, on Wednesday evening, officers have revealed.

Detectives believe it is 40-year-old Kellie Telesford, who was formerly known as Kayiode Dexter Telesford.

The Metropolitan Police are treating the death as suspicious and want to speak to anyone who had sexual contact with the victim.

Why is her birth name relevant? why is she “the transsexual” instead of “the woman” or even “the transsexual woman?”

Erase her gender, erase her name. Make her into a nonperson who was possibly murdered because she tricked a man into having sex with her.

Also, “suspicous death?” She was strangled. Why are they unwilling to clearly state whether it’s homicide or suicide?

vigilance - little light’s Day of Remembrance

little light writes about it here. She recited her poem, The Seam of Skin and Scales, which is one of the best things ever written about being a trans woman.

 She also links de profundis and on roses and postscripts, both of which should be required reading.

 The story in de profundis is familiar to me - I am positive I heard about it on the news, or from the online LGBT community, or both. It reminds me that I really need to write about how trans people are treated in prison, because it’s beyond inhumane.

Adding more posts by Monica Roberts.

The first is Chanelle Pickett’s story, showing just how little trans women are valued when we are murdered, and how important it is for ENDA to have gender protections. As I’ve asked before: How many trans people have to die before we’ve sacrified enough blood to be worthy of civil rights?

The second is TDOR..My Thoughts:

We’ve been ‘gayjacked’ out of an ENDA bill that our community desperately needs and told because we fought tooth and nail to stay in it, we’re going to get frozen out of federal civil rights legislation until 2013. We also paid $20K of hard earned T-bills for the privilege of getting screwed by HRC, and we already have some elements of the transgender community with short memories trying to say that we need to work with an organization that repeatedly screws us. Here in Louisville the JCPS is prepared to go forward with protections for GLB workers, but not transgender ones as the Forces of Intolerance gear up their faith based hatred and lies to stop it.

The third is And Now, a Word from an Ally, Ten Reasons the Women’s Center Observes the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Transgender Day of Remembrance Comics Project

Project is here.

This year’s strips are here.

Venus Envy’s strip hit me particularly hard, but you should read all of them.

Transgender Day of Remembrance Links

Elizabeth McClung of Screw Bronze posts about the sheer violence trans people suffer.

So here is what I wish people would remember; that in the western world, no other group has a higher murder rate than transgender individuals. And t-women usually aren’t murdered, they are lynched. We don’t like to think that lynching goes on in Canada, the USA, and the UK but it does. You could put up a scaffold in front of the Capitol, and hang a transitioning woman on it and tell the police, “I had a sex with………it, I didn’t know what I was doing” and you have a 50% chance of getting off, and at least some sort of reduced sentence.

Julia Serano posts There’s Something About Deception at Feministing.

Much of the violence that is directed at trans people is predicated on the myth of deception. For example, straight men who become attracted to trans women sometimes erupt into homophobic/transphobic rage and violence upon discovering that the woman in question was born male.

Monica Roberts posts In Memory of Rita Hester and Rita’s Story.

Some of you may be wondering why and how the TDOR which is happening in venues all over the world today got started. To know the present situation, we’re going to go back to the past, specifically November 1998.

The Boston transgender community had already been reeling over the brutal deaths of three other local transwomen, 23 year old Chanelle Pickett in November 1995, Deborah Forte (the aunt of TDOR co-coordinator and radio podcast host Ethan St. Pierre) and the September 11, 1998 one of Monique Thomas.

 Monica also posts Gwen Smith and the TDOR Story.

Gwen Smith never set out to be a transgender activist, but now she embraces the term. “I really take pride in being called a transgender activist because I’m trying to really create activism, create advocacy around the issue and around transgender issues,” she said.

Smith is the founder of Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day that is observed worldwide in nearly 100 different locations to remember the large number of transgender people who are murdered every year as a result of anti-trans bias.

And finally, Monica tells the HRC to keep their moneygrubbing mitts off of TDOR. Fortunately, they cancelled their DC event, but they still host others. If they’re unwilling to support an inclusive ENDA, they have no business using our dead to raise funds for their activism.

Transphobia is the Theory, Murder is the Practice

The Transgender Day of Remembrance is November 20th, but I think that one day is really insufficient to contain all the lives lost because of transphobia and transmisogyny. Trans people - usually women, usually of color - are frequently murder victims. Elizabeth McClung’s math in comment 4 indicates that trans women in North America are 14 times more likely to be the victim of a violent crime. While this isn’t a formal study, that the disparity in numbers is that high is hard to avoid.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance website has a page devoted to trans people who were either murdered or otherwise died because they were trans.

Nakia Ladelle Baker
Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Cause of Death: Blunt force trauma to the head
Date of Death: January 7, 2007

Keittirat Longnawa
Location: Rassada, Thailand
Cause of Death: Beaten by 9 Youths who then slit her throat
Date of Death: January 31, 2007

Moira Donaire
Location: Viña del Mar, Chile
Cause of Death: Stabbed 5 times by a street vendor
Date of Death: March 5, 2007

Michelle Carrasco “Chela”
Location: Santiago, Chile
Cause of Death: She was found in a pit with her face completely disfigured.
Date of Death: March 16, 2007

Erica Keel
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Cause of Death: A car repeatedly struck her
Date of Death: March 23, 2007

Unidentified Male Clad in Female Attire - I can’t find any news stories for this one, unfortunately.
Location: Kingston, Jamaica
Cause of Death: Gunshot wounds to the chest and lower back
Date of Death: July 7, 2007

Thalia Mosqueda
Location: Daytona Beach, Florida
Cause of Death: Shot to death
Date of Death: July 29, 2007

Maribelle Reyes - I can’t find a news story.
Location: Houston, Texas
Cause of Death: AIDS; Reyes was turned away from several treatment centers due to her transgender status.
Date of Death: August 30, 2007

I’ve spent a lot of time on the words used against trans people, but not the consequences. It’s considered acceptable to discuss trans lives as if they’re disposable, and that means that our lives are treated as if they’re disposable. Transphobia is the theory, murder is the practice.

HRC Hijacks the Transgender Day of Rememberance

Nothing is sacred to HRC. Even while actively campaigning to pass a transgender-exclusive ENDA and lying about their lukewarm commitment to only supporting a transgender-inclusive ENDA, they also decided to appropriate the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Transadvocate has more information. Not only are they only to happy to throw us off the bus, they’re willing to capitalize on <em>our</em> dead for an excuse to have a party with their favorite politicians.

The New Jersey 4, Megan Williams, and Dunbar Village.

I missed the “Blogging for Justice” deadline, but now seems as good a time as any to post about this. Brownfemipower has a post about these issues, and how the blogosphere has handled them. Afrospear covers Megan Williams and Dunbar Village, and brownfemipower has links to multiple posts about the New Jersey 4.

The New Jersey 4 were arrested for defending themselves from physical assault and battery. Read the story. These women were harassed and violently attacked - their attacker attempted to kill one. Despite the fact that they fought back in self-defense, four were convicted and sentenced for defending themselves. The message here is that if you’re lesbian and black, you have to just have to passively accept whatever violence comes your way. Being a black woman is probably enough.

Megan Williams was kidnapped for more than a week, tortured, beaten, forced to eat rat, dog and human feces, and raped by six white men and women in West Virgina. They kept her in a shed and taunted her with racial slurs. While the six people could face life sentences in prison, Megan’s family wants to prosecute this as a hate crime - something that the authorities have stopped short of doing.

In the Dunbar Village case, four boys and a man broke into a woman’s home, robbed her, and gang-raped her and her son. More information here. 

Please follow these links - I just can’t go into enough detail here to explain everything without just quoting these other sites entirely. Each of these cases is an example of extreme violence against women of color, and it’s important that people know this is going on, and know to do something about it.