It’s time to bring the focus on violence against trans people as the Fix Society movement pushes locally for justice, better services and an end to hate
Above: A flier for the recent Fix Society rally and forum in Asheville. Photo by Jennifer M. Barge.
The Fix Society movement is going forward full strength, with good reason, as we see the need to educate mainstream people about transgender/queer issues. The movement first started due to Leelah Alcorn’s suicide, with a focus on the dangers of conversion therapy. Leelah was a teenager who killed herself last year, on Dec. 28.
Before she took her life she wrote “My death needs to mean something. My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year.”
“I want someone to look at that number and say ‘that’s f—ed up’ and fix it. Fix society. Please!” She was placed in conversion therapy after she told her parents she was transgender. Her parents took her out of school, banned her from social activities and stopped all contact with friends.
Leelah’s tragedy is not an isolated case. Just two weeks before Leelah’s suicide we lost another member of our family. On Dec. 14, 24-year-old Andi Woodhouse, a trans man, died by suicide near the 10th Street Bridge in Pittsburgh. Andi was from Lebanon, Penn. He was in Pittsburgh temporarily for some services.
We are heading into April, and in that short time, there have been seven reported murders of transgender women in the Unites States, five of them being women of color. These young women’s deaths have been made even more tragic through mainstream media’s silence. In cases when news outlets have taken notice, the victims have been mis-gendered by wrongly identifying them as male.
The most recent attack happened in Akron, Ohio. Trans woman Bri Golec was apparently killed by her father during in their home on Feb. 13. The victim’s father, Kevin Golec, was charged with murder and domestic violence. Prior to the discovery of Bri’s body, an emergency call from the home spoke of robbery and involvement of a “cult.” Trans activists believe the “cult” comment was in reference to the trans community and the father was trying to cover up his crime. Police say there was no robbery.
Other murders include Penny Proud, a 21-year-old black trans woman from New Orleans. Proud was found shot to death on February 10; her killer remains unidentified. The other victims include Lamia Beard, age 30, a black trans woman from Virginia; Ty Underwood, age 24, a black trans woman from Texas; Yazmin Vash Payne, age 33, a black trans woman from Los Angeles; and Taja DeJesus, age 36, a Latina trans woman from San Francisco.
Or Ash Haffner in Charlotte, who just last month took his life in the same fashion Alcorn did, leaving a note on his iPad that his mother found after she came across her child’s body.
The latest is Blake Brockington, a trans man and former homecoming king, who committed suicide also in Charlotte, undoubtedly heartbreaking for those who knew and loved him. According to several reports, Blake moved in with a foster family after his father and stepmother didn’t support his decision to undergo gender reassignment surgery to transition.
Following a year in which there was more discussion of transgender issues than ever before — with several “firsts” for our community happening in the mainstream — this issue still remains largely unaddressed. The Black Lives Matter project estimates the average life expectancy of a trans woman of color at 35.
As an organizer of the Fix Society movement it is my goal to bring focus to the issues of my transgender community, and a major issue that now needs focus is the violence against trans women of color. This violence is an underreported and often unrecognized epidemic that should command nationwide attention, but it starts here locally first. Because of this we are hosting the third installment of Fix Society in West Asheville on April 25th [location to be determined, visit TransHealth Coordinators for updates], with the focus on violence in the transgender community, especially related to trans women of color, queer homelessness here in Asheville and the huge surge in trans/queer youth suicide.
The Fix Society movement started in Greenville, S.C. where we held the first rally. The second rally was held here in Asheville and was followed with a discussion group about conversion therapy. Both were well attended and the Asheville rally had representatives from several Gay Straight Alliances and a local therapist from Pride Therapy. We also discussed queer homelessness, hate crimes, sex crimes and other local issues.
But there needs to be more focus, more rallies and more discussions. I want to not only reach the local LGBTQ community, but also the cisgender, straight mainstream communities. I want to reach the schools, the churches and even law enforcement to start not just a conversation, but to start figuring out how to fix the problem.
I feel that education and tolerance are the keys to “fixing” these issues.
One of the ways we’re helping to educate Asheville is meeting with District Attorney Todd Williams on Monday, March 30. In this meeting we’ll discuss hate crimes, and defining them legally, as well as how sex crimes are hugely unreported within the LGBTQ community, especially the transgender community. Plus I want to advocate that Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office and County Jail staff are given diversity training so that when dealing with a trans/queer inmate they do so in a respectful manner. Once local law enforcement is up to speed on these issues I am hoping there is better communication and the trans/queer community will feel safer reporting crimes.
As an out and proud transgender woman I was moved by Leelah and her story. To me, it took courage to do what she did and the way she did it. Because of her and that action we are moving closer to enacting “Leelah’s Law” in regard to conversion therapy. Leelah’s Law would require all states to end efforts by therapists to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, alternately known as “conversion,” “reparative,” or “ex-gay” therapy. The practice of attempting to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity — often employing mental and physical tactics to create aversion to LGBT identities, including bribing, lying, disciplining, shaming, and attributing LGBT identity to repressed sexual abuse — has been denounced as ineffective and harmful by every major medical and mental health organization in the country. The American Psychological Association and other health organizations have disavowed the practice, and many LGBT rights groups consider such efforts to be torture.
Another obvious answer is to get transgender/queer youths out of homes where they are rejected and denied the support they need. Until we can get laws in place that define reparative therapy and denial of medical care as abuse we need to offer hope to our youth. We cannot change what religious leaders are preaching or convince parents to ignore religious leaders and accept their child’s gender identity. We need to give LGBT youths the legal help needed to emancipate themselves as minors via a pro bono legal network, provide a positive and supportive environment for them to continue with school and help find jobs.
These are several goals for the new proposed Leelah’s Landing shelter here in Asheville. While still in the planning phase, this LGBTQ youth group-home will offer a safe and supportive space for homeless youth. The goal is to empower our youth by also offering home schooling, activities and even job placement assistance. A future goal would have a separate housing situation for LGBTQ adults in crisis and offer a “Project Re-entry” program for LGBTQ people getting released from jails, prisons and even rehab. The hope is to have the first phase open by fall of this year.
We also need to hold the media accountable for their portrayal of transgender people. With the high fashion “pretty and passable, born in the wrong body” notion being played on TV and magazines it is no wonder some of our youth feel overwhelmed. The fact is that 11 percent of the transgender community actually opt for surgeries, that means 90 percent of us are somewhere in between. I know that financial disparities can be the reason that more of us don’t actually have SRS, but I also know that most people I know do not want surgery. The idea that there are only two genders is what confuses people in the first place.
And finally, we in the transgender/queer community need to be visible — every body type, every color. We need to stop enforcing the belief that there is something wrong or bad with being transgender. As a trans woman my goal is to normalize the idea of what transgender is to mainstream folks.
I do this on a professional level with TransHealth Coordinators, but also on a personal level by being out about being transgender. When I present gender 101 workshops I bring attention to the commonalities we all share and stay away from pathologizing my community. Being out as transgender can be scary at times, especially when you see violence, but I think by being out it shows that we are here, real and living a real life. It is important that people know we are not ashamed of who we are, we are not trying to “fool” anyone into sex, sneak into a bathroom and that we are not sexual predators.
We are regular people trying to live in our truth.
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If you are in crisis or need help please call:
Trans LifeLine
18775658860 www.translifeline.org
The Trevor Project Lifeline
866-488-7386.
The National Suicide Prevention LifeLine
800-273-8255
Jennifer M. Barge is the director of TransHealth Coordinators, is a HIV/AIDS activist and transgender educator and the first transgender person to act as a CDC spokesperson in a national print ad campaign. She lives in the Asheville area but travels the country to educate people about transgender and HIV+ concerns.
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