Ch 38: World News: Life and oppression of the Transgender Woman

   Hello followers,

     Going to get on my high horse a little bit today, going through a lot still searching for a job, now almost 3 months without paid work I have had a lot of time to read, research, volunteer and look into programs and services to advance my professional credentials.  So, through starting to tweet, following others and reading a lot of news stories I have seen a lot of hate crimes around the world against not just trans individuals but transwomen seem to appear more often for the relatively small percentage of the population we are than they should.

  "Police say a transgendered woman was shot during a robbery attempt in northeast Washington early Saturday morning, less than an hour after another transgendered woman was sexually assaulted in the same part of the District.

   Both incidents follow another attack on a transgendered woman, who was shot in the 500 block of Eastern Avenue Thursday," (http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Transgendered-Woman-Shot-During-Robbery-Attempt-213762131.html).

   "MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — Dwayne Jones was relentlessly teased in high school for being effeminate until he dropped out. His father not only kicked him out of the house at the age of 14 but also helped jeering neighbors push the youngster from the rough Jamaican slum where he grew up.

   By age 16, the teenager was dead — beaten, stabbed, shot and run over by a car when he showed up at a street party dressed as a woman. His mistake: confiding to a friend that he was attending a "straight" party as a girl for the first time in his life.

   "When I saw Dwayne's body, I started shaking and crying," said Khloe, one of three transgender friends who shared a derelict house with the teenager in the hills above the north coast city of Montego Bay. Like many transgender and gay people in Jamaica, Khloe wouldn't give a full name out of fear.

   "It was horrible. It was so, so painful to see him like that,"" (http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/transgender_teen_killed_high_father_8g97ng8pJlZnWgn1TLwEwL).

    One of the individuals I follow on twitter a trans-female has been doxxed, and her personal address has been given out over the internet.  She is fearful that she not only has a stalker but has received rape threats.  She lives in the United Kingdom.

   "On the 30th of May, the Greek authorities stepped up their cleansing of the streets of the undesirables.  The daily checks of papers, papers, papers whenever someone non-white encounters a police officer sees numerous migrants hauled to police stations, and many imprisoned in one of the hellholes that pass for the detention camps of Greece.  In April alone 10, 000 people were stopped in these checks, and there are currently 5, 000 languishing in the official camps with an unknown number in temporary facilities such as police cells and shipping containers.  Last month Dendias announced a doubling of the capacity of these camps, although with no commitment to closing the alternative facilities.

   Greek citizens, drugs users, homeless people and women working in the sex industry, have also been targeted under these sweeps where they are hauled to police stations, forcibly tested for HIV and in some cases imprisoned among with the migrants in the internment camps.  As the graffiti is cleaned off the shop facades in anticipation of the summer tourist influx, the streets are being cleansed of undesirables.

   On the 30th of May, a new group of undesirables was identified.  Trans gender people. For the last week, daily raids have been taking place in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city.  Under the pretense that of checking that the person is not involved in the sex industry trans people are being rounding up and arrested.  Their details are taken and they are detained for several hours.  On release they are warned that if they did not “return to normal” they would be arrested for public indecency," (http://www.2ndcouncilhouse.co.uk/blog/2013/06/05/and-then-they-came-for-the-trans-people/).

   "Transgender people can also be fired from their jobs, denied housing and generally discriminated against with no legal recourse in many US states. Of the LGBT hate-murders committed in 2010, transgender people accounted for 44% of victims, with trans people of color disproportionately targeted. Transgender youth face high rates of bullying, homelessness, abuse and physical and sexual assault," (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/mar/20/school-society-intolerance-transgender).

  And these are just a few of the examples, I mean we can look at the racial profiling in the United Kingdom, to what's going on to the LGBT rights in Russia.  It's appalling, and I'm tired of sitting by while my sisters die on the streets.  Unfortunately I think we are too few to make much of an impact alone, we need allies to help educate people, share the stories, and have our backs.  Without all of you, it will continue to be a dangerous world of fear and oppression for transgender women in particular.

  I know trans men face their own issues, and I may be overlooking this sector.  I don't do it on purpose, I just don't see the same prevalence of murders and hatred pointed at trans men as it is with trans women. Maybe it's because I'm not looking in the right places, and feel free to comment and tell me I am wrong, it may just not be making the front page of the news.  We tend to objectify women and portray them as weak, so these individuals even when comparing everyday murders, stories about women are pushed to the forefront because of the innate feeling a lot of people have to protect the 'weak.' 

  Please don't read into this, I am in no way saying we are weak, just that society views women as such.  I wish I knew the answers, I guess all I can do is speak out, not be silenced, and continue to be me.  I really hope the project I am working on with Erica Kay Webster gets off the ground, as it may be a small start, but over time have a very large impact on not only getting LGBT kids off of the streets, but also to reduce the hate, reduce the death rate, and help protect this vulnerable population.

   Ok, that's my rant and rave for the week, I'm just seriously mad about the deaths of my sisters and trying to find a way to help them.

to be continued...