It is not my intention to wax on at great lengths on this subject. I think that most readers of my writing are not the sort of folks who need to be reminded of the bigotry that trans people still face. I also must confess that, though living in a place that has a reputation for intolerance, my own walk these last two years has been far more civil, with a few notable exceptions, than I could ever have guessed. The worst of my experiences can probably be found in a few nasty exchanges on Facebook so danger has not been a part of my experience yet.
Nevertheless, those who measure such things report that over 200 transgender people are killed by violence that seems to be a result of hatred of trans people worldwide every year. Something like one a month even in the United States. These events seldom get the sort of attention that other sorts of hate-based crimes receive. For instance, on March 8, 2011 Marcal Camero Tye was shot and killed near Forrest City, AR and her body run over as the killer fled. The last local media report on the incident was April 2. How easily she was forgotten.
One death a month might not seem that much in a country in which dozens are killed every day, and I will readily agree that it's not at all a disproportionate rate. I know that some of my peers try to magnify it as if transgender people were the subject of violent death at a much higher rate than the ordinary person and the numbers don't bear that out. But it is not improper that they be remembered, nonetheless, because of what we know from those who are attacked and don't die. We know, that trans people widely suffer violence because they are trans. There is, I think it's fair to say, a difference in being attacked at random, as every citizen is to some extent in danger of, and being specifically targeted because of your race, or religion, or orientation, or in this case your gender identity. Every life is precious, and every lost life grievous, but while there are limits to what we can do about random violence, there is much we can do to try to win the hearts and minds of those who would attack people for who they are. And that is why we remember. Not because Marcal's death is more important than the death of any other murder victim, but because there's something we can do.
I won't go into a long exhaustive ramble about how it is that people come to hold such animosity towards trans people. I know that there is a sort of primal, instinctive negative reaction - particularly among males - to transsexual people in particular. Few people can fathom our condition and a certain percentage react to that lack of understanding with fear and anger. It is difficult to let education and compassion guide people away from that reaction, but it can be done. There is a sense in which we have to understand their instinctive reaction just as much as we ask them to understand our own nature.
What is more difficult to understand, and more difficult to confront rationally - because it is itself so irrational - is the warped cultural bias of some people, sacrilegiously wearing the robes of religion in many cases, that not only reacts hatefully but makes an art and science of engendering that hatefulness in as many of their fellow Americans as possible. I admit that there are well meaning people who simply are misinformed and their worst fault is that they are not wise enough to rise above their misinformation and seek out the truth, but there are others who seem to be unwilling to rest until everyone shares the bitter, nasty hatred they feel.
In support of this claim, I offer only one piece of evidence. Behold, if your stomach can take it, the website of Mass Resistance. It's not surprising that when the supposedly "good and godly" folks are so hateful, what can we expect of those who don't even profess religious morals?
Still, I come back to the point that the best way to honor the dead is to speak up. To never let a chance go by to correct a misapprehension, to educate where ignorance appears, and to engender an openness to listen on the part of others by NOT giving in to animosity. It's easy, for instance, to assume every one who speaks critically of us is an enemy to be overcome, but sometimes - SOMETIMES they are an opportunity. An opportunity we dare not miss. let us win every ally we can, and in that we will truly honor our dead.
No comments:
Post a Comment