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There is a lot of anger that has been expressed within the trans subcommunity of the LGBT community this past week. Let me explain:
The International Transgender Day Of Remembrance (TDOR) came and went — the U.S. events memorialized one-hundred-nineteen who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice during this past year; the European events memorialized one-hundred-sixty-three. According to Ethan St. Pierre — the keyperson who collects the names of the dead for the event — the one-hundred-sixty-three number looks to be more accurate as weeding out duplicates, the final number looks to be one-hundred-sixty-one.
These events included reading the name of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, the young person who was horrifically murdered in Puerto Rico. The reason his name was included is the anti-transgender language the confessed killer framed Jorge’s killing in anti-transgender terms:
District Attorney Jose J. Bermudez says that in his confession, Martinez Matos said that he thought Lopez Mercado was a woman. The victim asked him for money and when he refused, Lopez Mercado pulled out a knife. When Martinez Matos realized that the teenager was actually male, he had a flashback to when he was raped in prison while he was serving a sentence for domestic violence. He then attacked Lopez Mercado, separating his arms from his torso.
This past weekend, I heard from a source who knew Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado personally that Jorge identified himself as gay, and actually was out and proud as gay. However, the death is being framed as due to anti-gay and anti-transgender by the confessed killer.
During a week where dozens of people killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice were memorialized, the only one who received separate vigil was Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado. Many of those who memorialized Jorge in this past week ignored the dozens of trans people killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice — for example, a Boston area friend noted to me that in Boston, few, if any, of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual people who showed up for the Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado vigil also showed up for the city’s International Transgender Day Of Remembrance event.
Many trans people are also taking issue especially with the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC’s) statement from their executive director on November 19th, as the statement didn’t mention how Puerto Rico’s hate crime law covers both sexual orientation and gender identity and expression when gender identity and expression may play a role in trying the confessed killer; the confessed killer who is apparently claiming a classic trans panic defense strategy.
So with permission, I’m crossposting this essay from Ethan St. Pierre. I’m posting it to give lesbian, gay, and bisexual community members a window into trans subcommunity anger at the broader LGBT community.
The angry trans people aren’t, for the most part, angry that Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado was memorialized in separate vigils this past week, but that many lesbian, gay, and bisexual community members of the broad LGBT memorized a person who apparently died for both anti-gay and anti-transgender hatred or prejudice, and yet didn’t also memorialize the dozens of other trans people who also died violent deaths due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice this past year when events to memorialize the victims of anti-transgender hatred or prejudice.
To quote Gwen Smith on TDOR:
Although not every person represented during the Day of Remembrance self-identified as transgender — that is, as a transsexual, crossdresser, or otherwise gender-variant — each was a victim of violence based on bias against transgender people.
The confessed killer claiming that the victim wore a blue dress, boots, and a wig is why he killed Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado. It’s not only in how the victim identified as gay that makes this an anti-LGBT crime, but in how the confessed killer identified his motivation for killing Jorge — The confessed killer blamed the victim for his brutal, violent death because of the victim’s alleged gender expression.
~~Autumn~~
My Statement regarding the vigils on Sunday for Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado
By Ethan St. Pierre
Although I stand in solidarity and am deeply moved by the outrage and actions of the LGBT Puerto Rican community regarding the brutal murder of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, I feel the need to address those community members, outside of the Puerto Rican LGBT community who are not so respectful.
Since the Transgender community held our last transgender day of remembrance event on November 20, 2008 there have been 163 murders reported globally. That’s approximately 1 murder every 3 days of a person based on their gender identity or gender expression. They have all died, unspeakable, horrible deaths all at the hands of a killer. All because of the way they expressed their gender.
For the gay community to single out Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado and ignore the other 162 murders at a time when our transgender community and allies are coming together to express our sorrows and to recognize the losses we have endured over the past year is both insulting and sad.
I was hoping for a little more sensitivity and respect from all of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. Jorge was decapitated, dismembered and his/her body burned at the hands of a killer whose only defense is that Jorge was wearing woman’s clothing and he believed Jorge to be a woman.
Jorge may have been a gay man or may have been a transgender woman. Either way Jorge was clearly a victim of anti-transgender bias and Jorge paid for that gender expression with his/her life.
~~~~~
References:
* 365Gay: Murder suspect thought Puerto Rico gay teen was a woman; UPDATE
* Associated Content: Hate Crime: Gay Puerto Rican Teen George Steven Lopez Mercado Brutally Killed
* Towleroad: Gay Puerto Rican Teen Decapitated, Dismembered, and Burned
* Towleroad: Suspect Arrested in Horrific Murder of Puerto Rican Gay Teen
* Towleroad: Puerto Rican Teen’s Killer Says Murder was ‘Gay Panic’, Self Defense
21 Comments
Viciousness, Brutality and YouthAlthough I understand the frustration, I think you have to remember that it is always easier to get people to a vigil concerning a specific person, and this case was so horrifying that it attracted a lot of attention. The viciousness of the crime, the dismembering of the remains, and the youth of the victim all demanded attention that, sadly, the more run-of-the-mill violence against gays, lesbians and especially trans people simply doesn’t.
Similar criticisms can be made about the Matthew Shepard case, which attracted world-wide attention denied to almost all other anti-LGBT murders. The circumstances of his death, his youth and his appearance all grabbed attention.
nothis level of violence is often very standard against trans people on the list and this murder was about gender expression; Read through the list some time. Having memorial events on the same day was a clear message that a gay life is worth more and was the hallmark of insensitivity when this was a time we could have all mourned together especially considering how very low turnout by GLB is for Transgender Day of Remembrance. Its apathy, pure and simple. Enough excuses.
This is way beyond sad.He wasn’t a transgender woman, so why does St. Pierre even bother to mention that he might have been?
If we’re going to split hairs over this poor young man’s death, then let’s talk about why he was really killed, according to his killer. He was killed not because of gender expression, but because of deceit. His killer claims he didn’t kill him because he recognized him as a man in a dress, but because he was deceived into thinking that he was a woman. He says he didn’t kill him because of the way he was expressing his gender, but because he used his presentation deceitfully.
Do you really want to link gender expression to deceit? Seriously? That gender expression or idenitity that’s in conflict with the person’s genitals at birth is a deceit? How is this not saying that his killer has a valid point?
huh?!Ethan’s point was that it doesn’t matter if the victim was trans or gay…this is the reason trans people are killed all the time. Which is why gender variant gays are also memorialized at TDOR. You are seriously accepting the explanation of a murderer? Wow.
With all due respect…This post makes very little sense to me, a big proponent of trans rights, and strikes me as internally directed anger. At times like these, aiming fire at our own community members for not mourning enough is beyond counterproductive.
Let’s try this thought experiment…Imagine that there was a Gay DOR scheduled for last December and that just days before that previously schedule event was when Jose Osvaldo Sucuzhanay was killed.
(If you’ll recall, it was clear in the initial reports that it was a gay bashing as well as a race bashing — but it wasn’t clear how Sucuzhanay identified, and as it turns out his killers incorrectly thought he was gay because he was walking arm-in-arm with his brother, something that’s common in Ecuadorean culture.)
Now imagine that Hispanic activists, on the spur of the moment, had organized a number of large memorial events for Sucuzhanay on the same day as GDOR — and neglected to mention that Sucuzhanay might have been gay (or at the least had been perceived as gay). And neglected to make any mention that GDOR was occurring on the same day.
Might you be a bit torked at the oversight?
By that logicIt ought to be open season on all the straight-acting gays who brag about having sex with (purportedly) straight guys after they’ve gotten them drunk…
Epic fail.
and with all due respect backThen, as a person in a same sex coupling and a big proponent of same sex rights, you are failing to acknowledge that perhaps a marginalized group might have reason and justification in their anger. Furthermore, said marginalized group is trying to discuss it openly and enact dialogue and you accusing them of being the counterproductive ones for asserting themselves is called derailing: http://www.derailingfordummies…
Balming the victim, diablorobotico?When you agreed to participate in the threads of diaries at Pam’s House Blend, the updated terms and conditions of this website define your defining of cross-dressed individuals — whether as identifying as trans or not — as defamatory.
From the Pam’s House Blend Terms And Conditions Of Service:
From the GLAAD Media Guide:
I’m going to interpret the GLAAD identification of transgender people as applying to all people who are crossdressed, or could be assumed to be transgender by how they are dressed. With that in mind:
Whatever Jorge’s “sins” may have been, Jorge didn’t deserve the death sentence imposed upon him by someone who committed a homicide — a homicide for reasons involving anti-gay and/or anti-transgender prejudice/hatred.
Nobody is marginalizing, herePeople are grieving the loss of life, not attacking the Transgender community or squatting all over TDoR.
Why?Co-opting someone’s death to make a point aside, I fail to see how this is relevant.
People are free to memorialize the dead in their own way, and not everyone is going to make the connections we deem important. This is why everyone else is, again, free to memorialize the dead in their own way.
Nobody grieving for Steven’s death was doing so as an affront to any other community. It’s almost unconscionable to think that this was some sort of oversight for the purposes of dismissing who Steven was.
People relate to death how it most closely effects them, and that’s really the most you can grant to people at this rate. Educating them on the truth (rather than perceived reality) is important, but in a time of grief, it’s really better to let people do as they see fit.
Otherwise it’s just noun, verb, Steven Mercado.
Possible, but…
That’s possible. But, (1) I’d hesitate to make such a blanket statement-in-the-negative, and (2) “Nobody grieving” doesn’t necessarily encompass those who have reported on it.
I’m getting a bit worried about all this in-fightingI think everyone should go to their corner and have a breather.
All sides are accusing the others of bias, and it’s sounding more and more like that last gasp of in-fighting before collapse.
There’s a reason it’s “GLBT”, and it’s not to cry foul whenever one group leaves the other out, and it’s not under any circumstances for the purposes of leaving other groups out.
The GLBT press is going bonkers over this one, and we’ve gone from “you shoulds” to “you can’ts”. That’s never good.
My positionLook, ultimately my only stake in this doesn’t involve the appropriation (though I do think its pretty clear that there’s been come co-opting) or the biased reporting (it is, of course, possible that it was egregiously sloppy rather than biased) but, rather, what I wrote on another thread when first I hear about this: Irrespective of how the victim identified, there is no argument that had “gender identity” not been included in the hate crime law, the murder would not be classifiable as a federal hate crime.
Sadly, I’m left thinking about a line from the first Robocop movie – from immediately after the ‘Robocop’ program is greenlighted by OCP, at which point someone says “Now all we have to do is wait for some poor fool to ‘volunteer.’”
Unfortunately, Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado has become the same sort of ‘volunteer’ for the “gender identity” prong of the hate crime law – and the larger issue of the necessity for trans-inclusion – that Officer Murphy was to OCP’s Robocop program.
Its about the disrespect shown towards TDoR on the 20th The sad thing about all this is elements of who Steven Lopez Mercado was straddled both gay and trans identities yet in death he was used to divide both.
I personally took offence at so called LGB allies when they calling off attending TDoR events on the 20th Nov because they wanted to attend vigils for Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado. LGB groups that have done this should hold their heads in shame for treating TDoR with disrespect and contempt.
Trans people turn up and show solidarity at LGB events all year round and we are happy to do so. The one day of the year we ask for the LGB to respect and reciprocate our support and they failed and this must be addressed.
It could be worseOne lesbian radical feminist view of the TDOR -
http://aroomofourown.wordpress…
It certainly wouldn’t be the first time……that the trans community has been tossed aside by the LGB.
That’s why some of us are saying “Give me back my T!”
It isn’t the first timeIf this was some sort of strange “we got caught up in the moment and made a quick decision” anomaly I would be totally different. But that’s not the case – over and over trans people (particularly women) are used to legitimize GLB issues that don’t affect us or toss us out of legislation after using us as examples.
well..When an LGBT org doesn’t even know its TDOR and puts a coinciding event and when a gay male ally mentions it decides to do/change nothing, cannot see the convergence of communities here, and even as an alternative won’t lead a procession to TDOR afterward there is indeed some issue: http://www.equalityforum.com/n…
He, like many other gays on our list, is remembered at TDOR. He is in no way de-gayed, simply recognized as having died while transgressing gender.
thanks for transponder146
welcomedvery welcome and thanks for listening!