Hi all,
Below, responses received to date.
Thankyou all to those who have written.
well wishes,
Kate Walker
[log in to unmask]
====
Your questions regarding the memorial aren't easily answered or
one-dimensional. I don't know your status, so I apologize but as a
transgendered person I can tell you that many trans-phobic related crimes
aren't reported, or aren't recorded as such and many aren't even considered
crimes. So, I wouldn't completely trust any source as being accurate.
As far as the dynamics of transphobia, well, you name a group and they'll
have a flavor of hate for us. Feminists, other gays, men (obviously), but
some can't figure out whether they want to have sex with us or just beat us
up. Some do both for good measure. We are hated from a surprising number of
viewpoints and in a wide assortment of ways. One of them even involves
academic resistance against allowing us to write our own history or take
back our voices. On the plus side, your speech certainly has a large
audience to touch!
A fairly new book called The Transgender Studies Reader by Stryker and
Whittle has an extensive collection of authored research and theories on
everything from trans-hate, embodiment, wher we came from and where we're
going as a people. I recommend buying or borrowing this book as a fantastic
reference that will stay helpful for many years.
On a personal note, I wish to express my grattitude for your efforts. Behind
your voice stands an army of Trans/Gender-Queer folks with fists raised. One
of the early trans participants of the Stonewall riots said it all, they
weren't fighting for their rights, they were fighting for their lives. We
haven't progressed very far from those days when you scan the lists of our
brothers and sisters who were killed only for trying to exist.
I always remember the last stanza from Alice Walker's poem when I am afraid;
Be nobody's darling,
Be an outcast
Qualified to live
Among your dead.
===
Kate, I forgot this link. http://www.gpac.org/<http://www.gpac.org/> see
the statistics and qualifier on page one about the U.S. FBI.
===
Hi - well, I have been doing some research ( a seven nation study involving
Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, USA and UK) that
shows quite clearly that transphobia is fed by the idea that transgendered
people are mentally disordered. I argue that gender variance should be
de-pathologised -- simply taken out of the psychiatric manuals. I am about
to submit it to the Archives of Sexual Behaviour, as well as a more
commentary - type of article for Lesbian and Gay Psychology Review (they are
doing a special issue on TG issues). Would you like a pre-publication copy?
===
Hello Kate,
You may already have these links, but in the US, I've found these crucial
reflexive (critical) pieces from really sharp trans activists:
Mourning Our Dead, Demanding Our Lives: Thoughts on the Transgender Day of
Remembrance - Michelle O.Brien, February 2004
http://www.deadletters.biz/ourdead.html
"Consuming the Living, Dis(re)membering the Dead in the Butch/Ftm
Borderlands" GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 4:2 (April 1998):
311-328.
=====
Hi Kate, Stephen Whittle and I (Press for Change) recently conducted some
research for the government Equalities Review - which involved an online
survey of all aspects of trans people's lives in the UK. We had a response
of 872 - which is the largest sample to date. We can give you some stats on
harassment of trans people in public space - but it depends when you need
them by as we are both very busy.
I also found this article below which seems to be a good attempt to
conceptualise transphobia:
Hill, D. and Willoughby, B. (2005). 'The development and validation of the
genderism and transphobia scale'. Sex Roles 53: 531-544.
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