On July 20th, 2007, Victoria Arellano died in the San Pedro, California detention centre. She had come to America as a child and lived as female for several years, when she was detained by Immigration officials. She was incarcerated with male detainees and denied treatment and medications, including the antibiotic dapasone, which she had been taking to prevent pulmonary infections from developing into pneumonia. The known consequences of discontinuing this antibiotic include the onset of treatment-resistant pneumonia within a few weeks. Arellano, who was infected with HIV, proceeded to endure 2 months of nausea, headaches, cramps and back pain, until the pain was so great that she would scream if anyone tried to move her. Only the men who were detained with her even attempted to help comfort her in any way.
I was floored that online response about this case in the Trans- and GLBT communities was so heavily one of “well, she was an illegal immigrant; why should we be paying for everything for them?” When discrimination strikes inmates, prostitutes or the poor, its amazing how little heart there is to go around. To debate whether the neglect leading to Arellano’s death was due to her being transgender or her being an illegal alien is moot – it is still obviously discrimination against a minority that tends to have very little or no voice. Being no stranger to this, the transgender community should at least know better.
There has been an ongoing cycle of abandonment happening in the past, often revolving around the expression of gender and “violations” of some unspoken rules of appearance. In the politically-correct 1980s, lesbians who were too “butch” or “femme” were ostracized when it was felt that they perpetuated bad stereotypes (despite the fact that many of these were the first to be out and to build the community in the first place). Prior to this, in the mid-1970s, transfolk were jettisoned from the rights movement for the same reason, as well as the belief that our visibility and the assumptions made about our community would make it impossible to pass GLBT-positive legislation. The transgender community has long trumpeted that it was people like Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson who started the Stonewall Riot, which touched off the gay rights movement. But now, often in the same breath, many are seeking to distance themselves from cross dressers, performers in “shemale” porn, and other gender transgressors using the same exclusive logic. One song that pops up from time to time comes from the movie, Better Than Chocolate, entitled, “I’m Not A Fucking Drag Queen.” But as much as people have the right to distinguish who they are, the impulse to put down other segments of the community in the process is still one that forgets that, at the time of Stonewall, Ms. Rivera, Ms. Johnson and others were drag queens, prostitutes and cross dressers.
With positive press creating greater awareness of transsexuals, I would hope that this time we could rise above the “at-least-we’re-not-like-so-and-so” -ism of typical political posturing. The single most important question that any advocacy group needs to continually ask itself is, “Who are we leaving behind, and is someone adequately looking out for them?”
In last month’s article, I discussed the move in the transgender community to have “Gender Identity Disorder” declassified as a mental health issue. I also pointed out how doing so actually eliminates protection and coverage (where it exists) or the chance of future coverage, especially considering that there is not yet any possible physical model to shift to. I do believe that this is another example of affluent transgender, gay, lesbian and bisexual people concerned with the political connotations -- along with less-affluent folk who don’t realize the consequences. They did this not caring about the poorer people in the transgender community who only have the security of the DSM-IV listing to cling to, with existing benefits and the ongoing fights for instatement of benefits.
This holds true in the larger Pride community as well, where it can happen that a company like Pfizer, which holds the patent to HIV treatment medications like Viracept. They fight to keep those patents, thus preventing lower-cost generics from being marketed, but win awards from Gay and Lesbian organizations afterward. Donors’ happiness does not necessarily translate to the good of the whole community.
Because transgendered folk are often more visible and further marginalized, coming out often has dire consequences on one’s job and career. If we had an accurate number of the percentage of transgendered people who have experienced life on the street (or other margin points) at one time or another, I’m sure that the result would be very humbling.
It is not only transgendered people who slip through the cracks – there are also many less-affluent gays and lesbians who feel alienated from the community at times. I don’t believe that many of these issues are as much a conflict of GLB versus T, so much as a result of the fact that those with the money are the ones seated at the negotiating table. Since the non-affluent are unable to donate, they get left behind.
Local advocacy groups have fared much better, looking into such initiatives as housing for young GLBT people, who often have to leave home to be able to live the lifestyle that they need to. These are the types of things that should be applauded and supported enthusiastically.
The transgender community commemorates a Day of Remembrance every year, around November 20th (in Calgary, the memorial will be held the weekend prior; in Edmonton, it will be held that Tuesday evening). The vast majority of those remembered are those who have died either from transphobic / homophobic violence or neglect as they slip through the cracks. The phobias take time to change. But the disenfranchisement that leaves many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people vulnerable is often a controllable condition. In building community, we need to first focus on ensuring that none are left behind, even if their perspectives may seem embarrassing to us.
