As far too often happens, she was misgendered in death, with news reports using her birth name and incorrect pronouns, even when reporting that she was a transgender woman. Misgendering trans women like this continues and supports the violence that so many of us face.
“It took watching I Don’t Wanna Be A Boy to show me that the negative attitudes towards trans women have always been pervasive in society, that from 1994 to 2016 there hasn’t been much change in how society views us. But it also taught me that we share a sisterhood of sorts. No matter what time and what place, trans women of color are connected by our similar experiences.”
Blakeney becomes the 9th trans person reported murdered this year, meaning that if this pace keeps up, 2016 will break the horrible record that last year set of most trans murders reported in the United States in one year.
Shante Thompson, a Houston native and Black trans woman, was shot along with a man named Willie Sims late last night and was pronounced dead at the scene.
“I fire off a series of tweets to Governor Pat McCrory, as well as the North Carolina Values Coalition and some public supporters of the bill. The few replies I get make it clear that my arguments have zero impact. This issue will consume my consciousness for the following few days.”
“I decide I’ll test the durability of a BB cream by Tarte at thousands of feet in the air, then feel ashamed at worrying so much about how I look, then feel the dread again, that all this might go completely wrong, not because I’ll fall to my death, but because I’ll be reduced to my past.”
Here are three completely undeniable and incredibly depressing facts about women, executive political power, and glass ceilings — and cliffs! — around the world.
“I feel like every single trans woman of color I know is gorgeous and beautiful and so knowing that I’m one of them, that I’m a part of that community makes me feel infinitely more beautiful than I’ve ever felt in my life.”
“There’s an annoying song that’s only playing all the way through all day long on some days. Others, I can barely hear the chorus, and others I can’t hear it all. But every day, I know that that song will be there again one day, maybe even tomorrow, maybe even later that same day. And I hate this song.”
“My self love is my favorite thing about myself right now. Seeing my sometimes dry, sometimes crusty-eyed face first thing in the morning and automatically thinking, “Damn, you’re beautiful” is a joy I never thought I would experience.”
“I’ve been waking up just as the sun rises lately, and it allows me to feel like I have a life outside of my daily commitments. This is when I can check in with myself.”
“So yeah, I’m transgender. And yeah, I’ve transitioned:” Lilly Wachowski joins her sister Lana in coming out publicly as trans.
I’m tired of being told, over and over, that I will never be what I am.
According to the TransHealth Information Project, Maya Young was described by friends as “truly a funny girl who was mad REAL and LOYAL.”
“How can I balance or better integrate the masculine and feminine sides of myself, in a healthy way? As a genderqueer individual, I’ve been struggling in expressing these traits as I feel completely at war with myself. Lately I’ve been trying to find my strength again, but it seems to be coming out all wrong.” A tarot reading explores the process of integration.
To add to the tragedy, when Loera was murdered, she was misgendered by the Austin Police and local media, something that happens far too often.
“It’s precisely because Her Story is written and directed by trans women, starring trans women and featuring trans women on the crew that it’s able to be so authentic and so acutely focused on its trans characters.”
Here are some queer, feminist, and/or gender theorists worth reading when you finally get through “Gender Trouble.”
“Trauma wasn’t meant to happen at 9 a.m. on that August morning. Not when I was running on time, and somehow missed the long line for the day’s first cup of coffee. Nothing could have warned me that the meticulous construction of my person would be unraveled while my peers watched from their own cocoons of solitude.”
“But, like embracing the woman I am, I couldn’t stay back from the allure of the waves. The pull of my trans-ness and queerness, of course, would always be stronger, the strongest impulses I have ever known. The sea, like them, was a place that represented a kind of forbidden love. I needed to overcome my fears or I would feel that I was holding myself back from living authentically.”