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This is a guest post by Gwendolyn Ann Smith. Gwen is the author of the Transmissions column that’s been syndicated across the United States, and is the founder of the Transgender Day Of Remembrance.
Gwen is yet another trans community voice who I’ve asked to share their thoughts on federal hate crime legislation — the hate crime legislation that was signed by President Obama on October 28, 2009.
~~Autumn~~
by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Since early in the creation and promotion of the Remembering Our Dead project and the Transgender Day of Remembrance, I’ve made one thing clear: the most important right we can have is simply the right to exist.
When a person is murdered due to anti-transgender violence, it is so often more than a simple killing. Our killers take great pains to obliterate us, participating so often in trying to erase our existence. They’ll stab us not once or twice, but dozens or even hundreds of times. They’ll cut off our genitals or mutilate our breasts, attempting to destroy not only our bodies but the physical markers of our genders. They’ll beat us, strangle us, burn us, and do all they can to make us go away and become a non-being. It’s not just murder — it is eradication.
With the passage of the Matthew Shepard Act, the federal government under President Obama has taken a stand against these acts. No longer is it so easy to erase us, and no longer shall it be acceptable to treat us as disposable. We are now no longer to be treated as such, in much the same way we are protected due to race, color, national origin, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or disability.
Indeed, by the very passage of this bill, actual or perceived gender — what we identify as, and/or how we are seen — is not just part of a hate crime law, but it past of the law overall. This is not just saying that we deserve to not be subject to a hate crime, but that we exist in the first place.
Are there still hills to climb? Of course. The law will still need to be seen in use. We’ll have to see if it deters any crimes, and if any crimes that do happen are treated as hate crimes. It is one thing to have the language in there, and quite another to see the law applied.
Yet by an act of Congress and the stroke of the President’s pen, I and those like me have been brought into existence on a Federal level. They have stood firmly opposite those who would seek to see me and others wiped away and forgotten.
We exist, and no one can take that away from us — at least not without facing the specter of the Matthew Shepard Act and the 1969 Federal Hate Crimes Law. It feels remarkably good to know this.
~~~~~
Related:
* Pam’s House Blend tag: Transgender Hate Crimes Essay Project
6 Comments
Thanks Gwen and Autumn….…and lets keep these comments CIVIL and SANE please folks. That was awful yesterday…here I thought we had gotten past all that.
Your welcomeThanks for the opportunity to contribute. I will be going a bit deeper into my feelings about the Matthew Shepherd Act and its ramifications in this week’s Transmissions column, too.
Thank youIt’s really, really good to hear thoughtful voices from the trans community (heck, that’s half the reason I started reading the Blend in the first place), especially on an issue as important as this. I’m really happy that this is being said (and I’m especially happy that Autumn started this series of essays).
This essay, together with the other ones on the topic of the Shepard Act, has actually changed my mind on the subject of hate crimes laws. I used to take a typical civil-liberties-above-all stance, feeling that we shouldn’t use motivation as a reason to punish someone. I think that that mindset was born out of my being pretty out-of-touch with the realities of being trans in everyday life (I’m still in the closet), and I’m convinced now of the necessity of these laws.
(And Autumn, I hope we see more of these! I’ve really enjoyed reading them so far.)
That is to say, “you’re welcome.”That’ll teach me to reply before fully waking up!
You should be happy to hear, Anne, that we have more of this project in the works.I have four more promised so far — and two of these from trans men — and a another one I’ve already received from Nancy Nangeroni that I’m preparing for the hopper to post at 7:00AM EST/4:00AM PST tomorrow.
So, five more of these planned at this point. =) I have four or five more voices I’m tying to collect for the project, but we’ll see.
I think this is a good project. It’s important to collect the thoughts of trans community somewhere on the signing of the federal hate crimes bill, and I don’t think any other media sources are trying to do that.
We exist!This is a moment to celebrate! A small step can be a huge victory. Thank you for bringing it to my attention and for connecting those deadly, unwritten cultural norms to the most violent attempts to eradicate transpeople.
We can use this language to gain a foothold in the existential argument, not just to protect our physical well-being. We can’t be denied, we ARE.
THIS is why I came out as queer. THIS is why I want to be out as gender queer.
Thank you Ms. Smith!!!