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Transgender Model Laith Ashley
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On May 27, 2020, after 11 a.m., a 38-year-old African American transgender man, Tony McDade, was fatally shot in the Tallahassee, Florida, by an officer of the Tallahassee Police Department. The circumstances surrounding McDade’s death are still murky. Tallahassee Police say McDade was a suspect in a fatal stabbing that occurred shortly before his death. They also claim he was armed with a handgun and he “made a move consistent with using the firearm against the officer.” An eyewitness report has contradicted statements by the Police Department that McDade was armed with a gun. But this barely made the news. Why?
McDade doesn’t check off the appropriate boxes for being a “real” victim. He was transgendered, and for some, that’s not the face of the Black Lives Matter Movement and Protests. McDade’s death came on the heels of the high-profile deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd—who were killed in police encounters in Louisville and Minneapolis, respectively.
Florida has been an epicenter of anti-transgender violence over the past two years. Last year, the American Medical Association deemed a surge in the murder of transgender people an “epidemic.” The vast majority of victims are transgender women of color. Of the 52 reported murders of transgender or gender non-conforming people in the past two years, about 1 in 7 were in Florida.
I was going to talk about other civil rights moments when people who didn’t fit the bill of the perfect victim and were pushed aside or forgotten, but I decided to do a bit shorter of a post today. Did you know that five women refused to give up their seats to a white person and were arrested in 1955 before Rosa Parks became the face of the Montgomery Bus Boycott for doing the same thing? For one reason or another, the other women did not fit the profile that the Movement wanted. Several of these women did file the lawsuit Browder v. Gayle which eventually end bus segregation. Bayard Rustin, one of the organizers of the March on Washington, was eventually pushed out of the Civil Rights Movement for being gay. In many civil rights movements, those who didn’t fit into the perfect profile were ignored or pushed out. In the early gay rights movement, men who couldn’t pass as “straight” were not allowed to march with the Mattachine Society. The examples are really too numerous to mention all of them.
Never forget that Marsha P. Johnson, a black self-identified drag queen, was a leader of the Stonewall Riots. Many of the rioters in June 1969 were transgender, and we owe it to transgendered people of all races for the gains we have made in civil rights. Let’s not forget the “T” in LGBTQI+, because they are also our brothers and sisters. They deserve to be recognized as well. Just because a person doesn’t fit the perfect profile you want to see represent people that are treated unjustly, they were still treated unjustly, nonetheless.
As newly out actor Justice Smith recently said while protesting for Black Lives Matter:
“[Nicholas Ashe (his boyfriend)] and I protested today in New Orleans. We chanted ‘Black Trans Lives Matter’ ‘Black Queer Lives Matter’ ‘All Black Lives Matter’. As a black queer man, myself, I was disappointed to see certain people eager to say Black Lives Matter but hold their tongue when Trans/Queer was added. … I want to reiterate this sentiment: if your revolution does not include Black Queer voices, it is anti-black. If your revolution is okay with letting black trans people like #TonyMcDade slip through the cracks in order to solely liberate black cishet men, it is anti-black.”
While I know what it is like to be a gay man and have to hide who I am, I cannot begin to pretend that I know what life is like for a person of color. I know that the LGBTQI+ community and communities of color have faced similar struggles and fights for equal rights, it is far from being the same. Many of us can, and have, hidden our sexuality, but people of color can’t hide their skin color. African Americans need our support at this time. We are a nation in crisis, and we need to all come together to make it a better place. Especially since we have a president who as The New York Times reported: “Trump increasingly sounds like a cultural relic, detached from not just the left-leaning protesters in the streets but also the country’s political middle and even some Republican allies and his own military leaders.”
But it's not just Trump. He walked onto a stage where all this nastiness has been festering since the theatre was built.
ReplyDeleteThis has been an issue for some time. In the black community, being gay or trans is seen as a "white" thing. It actually made me feel fortunate for being Lakota, where one of our historical issues was we wanted to be able to take our little nephews and nieces to Pride. That feels almost First World problems today.
USA is on the verge of a social «revolution» with all what is in place now.
ReplyDeleteA «president» of another era and younger people who are well connected and more educated too to put in place the opposition power of free speech and most of all, the inter connection by internet.
One question came to me while reading your nice text is that the slogan «Black Lives Matter» should also be joined by «ALL Lives Matter» which could be supported by the International Human Rights.
Why are trans lives would be less important that any other ones life?
I see those TV adds of the USSPCA, promoting the rights of animals to be well treated and ask money, on the same time, in USA many are struggling to even be accepted as a «human life», there is like something wrong about what are REAL Christian values.
I like animals but human life is more precious to me and LOVE one and another comes first as Jesus said. He showed the path to take in our lives and NEVER he excluded anyone, not even Romans or prostitutes or thieves even on the cross.
From here in Canada, and we're not perfect too, USA is a great nation but we see that your social way of living and your politics are from another century.
USA need a major «update» to set the country back on the 21st century path as many other countries are doing for decades now.
In 1962, when the Liberal Party Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau was in office, he did make the serious project to give Canada the «Canadian Charter of Rights and Liberties» which was incorporated to our Canadian Constitution in 1982.
Here since than, ALL lives matter no matter race, religion, sexual orientation.
As Trudeau said then is that the state as NO RIGHT to sneak into Canadian bedrooms.
All the other nations of the world are now watching what will happen in USA in the next months to come and we are praying that USA could be «Great» as proven in its past.
JiEL, you say “All Lives Matter” should be said alongside “Black Lives Matter.” The problem is that when white people enter the conversation about these critical underlying issues only to state that “all lives matter,” and that “not all cops or white people” engage in overt racism or police brutality, we not only minimize the broader issues at play, we actively erase the heinous acts that occurred in the first place and, in the process, mitigate our own culpability and accountability. Because in saying these statements, we seek to unburden ourselves of the difficult work of processing our own role (oppressor, beneficiary, complicit actor, silent bystander, etc.), in each of these complex contexts — because in saying these statements, we are saying that we aren’t one of those white people or cops, and therefore we do not need to change.
ReplyDeleteBut the simple act of existing in the world today makes us an integral and active component of the context that allows these episodes of racism and racial violence to continue. In denying that, we sidestep the opportunity to be a part of solving the root causes that have brought us here, and worse, we end up smothering the very conversation that could lead to those solutions.
One thing that really clarified to me why we shouldn’t use “All Lives Matter” is this: if you ran into someone that was trying to raise awareness for breast cancer, and you said, ‘Whoa, wait, there are other types of cancers, too, you know? That would be diminishing those who have suffered because of breast cancer. So, “All Lives Matter” doesn’t get to the heart of the issue. Yes, we all want equality for everyone, but we need to take care of the most vulnerable or the most vulnerable will eventually be pushed aside and the whole movement will devolve into a much less meaningful movement.
So, I say to all my fellow white people, we do not get to unburden ourselves by saying “All Lives Matter.” We have to finally begin to acknowledge this. To understand what this means. To educate ourselves about the history of these issues and the systems and structures that history has created. To acknowledge our own role in these systems and structures and our latent biases.
It means acting upon what we learn and using our enormous privilege to stand up to and speak out against racism where and when we see it. And most importantly, it means to talk less and listen more. Listening to those who have been crying out for centuries about the damage these systems have wrought, instead of telling those voices, “all lives matter,” “not all cops,” “not all white people,” and going back to business as usual. My point in writing this post is that the leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement cannot forget their LGBT brothers and sisters. If they are going to chant “Black Lives Matter,” they should really mean that “ALL Black Lives Matter.”
Recently someone wrote that using "All lives matter," as a reply/correction/clarification to "Black lives matter," is like being at the funeral of a child, where the mother is giving a eulogy and saying her child was precious and someone jumps up, grabs the mic and says, "All children are precious."
ReplyDeleteA big problem in this country is that often it has seemed that black lives don't matter, and it is valid, IMO, to keep the focus there. Yes, there are other evils, and immigrant, Native, and unborn lives matter. There is certainly justification for other protests, but none for seeming to minimize the evil of racism.
As for queer or trans black lives, while they matter equally with all others, I don't feel it is my place as a white man to lecture black people about at — at least not now.
I understand your point and it's damn right.
ReplyDeleteBut what I wanted to say is, yes, Black Lives Matter, but ALL others too and as Jesus said: "Love even your ennemy.» That doesn't mean that you cannot correct those bad cops or ultra white men from having been educated in a hater family.
Racism is also present in Canada but never as bad has the history of black people in USA.
During the Civil War, many black slaves came in Canada seeking shelter and help. We hosted them as free men and women as the same as we did for those young soldiers fleeing out USA not to go to the Vietnam war.
Just to say that in USA is a 400 years issue that now needs to be corrected by ALL Americans.
The manifestations in USA for weeks showed quite well that now this issue is not only the one of black people but of ALL Americans no matter their skin color or sexual orientation.
JiEL, you are right, Canada was a place of refuge for black people before and during the Civil War. A lot of former slaves came through Vermont as part of the Underground Railroad on their way to Canada. For most of its history though, Canada was a member of the British Empire, which has just as bad of a history with non-white races as the United States, if not worse, and therefore just as complacent as all other parts of the former British Empire. It's from the British and her colonist that America became part of the slave owning world. I will continue to stand by my point that at this time that we need to focus on "Black Lives Matter," anything else would do a discredit to the movement.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteAlso, since my previous comment, someone pointed out that we used to hhear it as, "BLACK lives matter," but now many Americans have come to realize it means, "Black lives MATTER." (Maybe we can even add under our breath , "too.")