“Losing My Dignity: Lorena and Me”
Jahaira talks about how the New York Times and others in the media stripped her friend Lorena Escalera of her dignity by sensationalizing and sexualizing her life and death.
from Dean Spade:
CeCe just took a plea deal—2nd degree manslaughter with a recommended 41 month sentence (actual sentencing hearing will be in a month). Horrifying to watch her forced to recount the events of her attack on the stand, to watch the judge speak to her condescendingly about how…
Mara Keisling, Leslie Feinberg and Billy Navarro, Jr. outside the courtroom on Day 1. Photo from @lesliefeinberg twitter feed.
Motions Still Pending
The two crucial outstanding motions that judge Daniel C. Moreno has yet to rule on are still unanswered at the end of Day 1 of the CeCe McDonald trial. Supporters are still waiting for a decision on the motion to admit into evidence the swastika tattoo of Dean Schmitz, the 47-year old who died after the altercation on June 5, 2011. The defense motion to present this information to the jury could assist in making the case of self defense by showing the state of mind of Mr. Schmitz at the time of his attack on Ms. McDonald. It was announced that Mr. Moreno has decided on this motion but that the ruling has not yet been made public. It is expected to be announced on Tuesday morning.
Also pending is the defense motion to present an expert witness to testify to the “climate of violence” experienced by transgender people. Hersch Isek, the attorney for the defense had previously proposed OutFront Minnesota’s Anti-Violence Program Director Rebecca Waggoner at an earlier hearing, and has now offered an additional expert witness, clinical psychologist Dr. Cesar A. Gonzalez, Ph.D, a research associate at the Program in Human Sexuality at the University of Minnesota. It is thought that Mr. Moreno is reviewing the credentials of Dr. Gonzalez overnight and will rule on this motion on Tuesday as well.
Trial Timeline – This Week and BeyondMonday’s afternoon session began the process of jury selection, which could take up to several days to complete. Potential jurors were issued a questionnaire today and the juror interviewing process will begin in tomorrow’s session. Opening remarks are expected later this week, possibly Thursday, though could come as early as Wednesday if the jury selection is less time-consuming that previously thought. The trial is expected to last 2-3 weeks.
Celebrities and Supporters
Mara Keisling, Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality was in attendance today on her way to Chicago for the Paige Clay rally on Tuesday. Also in attendance was Leslie Feinberg, transgender activist and author. Expected later this week is Dean Spade, legal scholar and founder of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, who will be on-site with supporters on Wednesday, May 2. Over 50 supporters were in attendance today, even though just 14 seats in the court room are afforded to the friends, family and support team of Ms. McDonald. Spirits are, reportedly, high.
Many of the trans folks I have talked to were over the moon when Donald Trump announced on Friday’s 20/20 that the discriminatory ban on trans women competing in the Miss Universe pageant would be lifted, not only allowing Jenna Talackova to compete but opening the pageant to trans women who want to compete in the future. This is something many of us called for just last week. If only other transgender-related civil rights struggles could be resolved this quickly! For example, we have been trying to get the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) passed in New York for the past 10 years. In the state of New York It’s still legal to fire transgender people from our jobs just for being trans. Trans people face disproportionate amounts of discrimination in housing and health care and are often victims of violence simply for being who we are. Jenna’s victory against discrimination in the Miss Universe pageant will be for naught if we don’t use it to shine a light on the struggles that have yet to be won for trans people around the world.
I initially wanted this piece to go on to talk about the problematic line of questioning Barbara Walters used to interview Jenna on 20/20, a line of questioning that transgender people all over the country were dismayed by and found cringeworthy. Walters asked Jenna a series of questions that sensationalized Jenna’s story by focusing too much on surgery and body parts, under the rubric of asking questions everyone wants to know the answers to without really questioning why people want to know these things. This is a huge issue when it comes to representing trans people in the media. I encourage everyone to read the chapter of Julia Serrano’s book Whipping Girl titled “Before and After: Class and Body Transformation.” She illuminates this problem brilliantly.
But today I received an email on Facebook from Jean Smith reminding me of the CeCe McDonald case. CeCe, like Jenna, is also 23 years old and transgender. But unlike Jenna, CeCe is an African-American woman from Minneapolis, Minn., and she is currently incarcerated, facing two counts of second-degree murder. On June 5, 2011 CeCe and a group of her friends, all of whom were LGBT youth of color, were walking in South Minneapolis when a group of white adults began screaming racist and transphobic slurs like “niggers,” “faggots” and “chicks with dicks” at the youth. According to reports CeCe stood up for herself and her friends, stating that they would not tolerate hate speech. Then one of the white adult women smashed her glass into CeCe’s face. The broken glass sliced all the way through CeCe’s cheek, lacerating a salivary gland. A fight ensued, resulting in the death of one of the attackers, Dean Schmitz. CeCe was the only person arrested. She was detained by the police for hours before questioning, and then she was placed in solitary confinement.
What strikes me about this case is that often trans people end up dead when these kinds of incidents happen. An African-American trans woman, Coko Williams, was murdered in Detroit just last week. Qasim Raqib was sentenced last month to 25 to 40 years in prison for the brutal killing of 19-year-old trans woman Michele “Shelley” Hilliard, whom he dismembered and burned last year. I believe it’s a tragedy when anyone loses his or her life, particularly as a result of violence, but according to all accounts, CeCe was just defending herself against a racist and transphobic assault. Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman has the power to drop the charges based on self-defense, as he has done before. The Support CeCe McDonald website writes:
While Chrishaun “CeCe” McDonald is being prosecuted for murder after being violently attacked for her race and gender, Freeman’s office recently declined to prosecute the killer of Darrell Evanovich, a black man who was shot dead by a white man after an alleged robbery. While no person should be thrown to the mercy of the soulless, so-called “justice” system, the fact that CeCe is on trial after being assaulted, while a white man who killed someone after chasing them down is touted as a “good Samaritan,” highlights the racist and transphobic nature of the prosecution of CeCe. Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman and Marlene Senechal have the power to drop the charges against CeCe. So far, though, he has implicitly sided with CeCe’s white supremacist attackers by failing to acknowledge the racist, transphobic assault that she survived as a mitigating factor in the unintentional death of Dean Schmitz.CeCe has no criminal record, was enrolled in school at the time of the incident, and was also working to help take care of her family. This case highlights how even when trans people, particularly trans people of color, are lucky enough to survive the brutal violence that is a part of so many of our lives, we are all too often victimized all over again by the criminal justice system. This is the definition of injustice.
CeCe’s trial is on April 30. We can all take action to pressure the Hennepin County attorney to drop the charges by contacting them directly, as well as by signing the petition.
Free CeCe McDonald!
Trial starts April 30
Drop all charges!
turn up the volume of support!
1. Click to friend FreeCeCeMcDonald on Facebook now! Invite your friends to join:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002567181562
2. Please help circulate this petition demanding: “Drop the charges! Free CeCe McDonald!
http://www.change.org/petitions/free-cece-we-re-looking-at-you-michael-freeman-drop-the-charges-against-cece-mcdonald
3. Start a local support committee. For more information:
https://supportcece.wordpress.com/get-involved/start-a-support-committee/
4. from @FreeCeCeMcdonald:
“Become an Endorser ** SAMPLE LETTER **
please circulate widely:
“CeCe’s Committee is working on getting different people and organizations to stand is solidarity with CeCe by either signing on to the letter provided at the end of this e-mail or creating one of your own. Please read on and let me know if this is something you or any and all organizations you are associated with can do.
“Early this past summer, a young, African-American, transgender woman survived a violent attack motivated by racism and transphobia in the heart of South Minneapolis. After one of the attackers was stabbed and bled to death at the scene, Chrishaun “CeCe” McDonald now stands falsely accused of two counts of felony murder. First the target of a racist, transphobic assault and since, the hostage of a legal system incapable of fairly serving transgender people and people of color, CeCe needs support from the community in order to achieve justice. Your organization’s endorsement of a letter of support calling for the charges against CeCe to be dropped could free CeCe and end this tragedy.
“Many people are unfamiliar with what happened to CeCe that night and the extent of the oppression she continues to face in the criminal legal system. While there are varied accounts of what happened that night, CeCe and her companions all agree on the following details. Late at night, CeCe was walking to the grocery store with some friends, all young, African-American, and queer or allied. As they passed a local bar, a group of older, white people standing outside the bar’s side door started hurling racist and transphobic slurs at them without provocation. One of the white women smashed her glass into CeCe’s face, puncturing her cheek all the way through and lacerating her salivary gland. During the incident, one of the attackers, Dean Schmitz, was fatally stabbed.
“Even though CeCe was the subject of an utterly unprovoked and unjustifiable assault, she was the only person arrested that tragic night. Instead of receiving adequate medical attention for her injuries, she was interrogated for hours before being placed in solitary confinement, where she stayed for her first month in jail, and was consistently denied adequate further medical care. Although she was released on bond after a few months, she was recently taken back into custody because of allegations that she violated the terms of her conditional release. Despite this new hurdle, CeCe continues to prepare for trial, which is currently set for April 30th, and her supporters across the nation and throughout the world continue to demand that the charges be dropped and the injustices against her be stopped.
“Please, join with CeCe and her supporters to bring an end to this tragic injustice, which began months ago with an unprovoked hate crime that resulted in the lamentable death of Dean Schmitz and has only continued to worsen as she has been denied the opportunity to pursue her education, heal, and move on with her life.
Your organization’s endorsement of a letter of support for CeCe and insistence that Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman drop the charges against her are equally essential to achieving justice for CeCe and to creating a Minneapolis that is safe for trans people of color and all other residents. We have included the letter we are asking you to sign on to, below, but we also encourage its use as a guide for creating a statement that more specifically represents your organization’s values and commitment to CeCe, justice for her, and justice for all trans people of color.
“Please send us your endorsement, or let us know if you would prefer to proceed with an individual letter of support. Your endorsement, as well as any questions, can be directed to Billy Navarro Jr., mntranspr@gmail.com.
“As an entirely volunteer-run support committee, we understand the importance of coming together as a community to stand for justice and demand an end to racism and transphobia. As such, we appreciate the opportunity to work with you and the rest of CeCe’s supporters across the globe in the struggle to end oppression against CeCe and other trans people.
“Thank you,
“The CeCe McDonald Support Committee”
+++++++++
SAMPLE LETTER:
Mr. Michael Freeman
Hennepin County Attorney
C-2000 Government Center
300 South Sixth Street
Minneapolis, MN 55487
Mr. Freeman,
We, the groups and individuals listed below, are aware of the hate crime that was committed against Chrishaun “CeCe” McDonald and her friends on June 5th, 2011, and of the developments in her case in the months since. As organizations committed to justice, we are standing with Ms. McDonald and her sizable support community in demanding the charges against her be dropped.
We are also aware that your office has stated its commitment to pursuing justice in this case. Justice demands that the charges against Ms. McDonald, the victim in an unprovoked attack, be dropped, so that she may recover, return to school and go on with her life. The racism and transphobia that fueled the hate crime against Ms. McDonald and her friends are not acceptable to our community or on Minneapolis streets. Although the tragic events of that night led to the lamentable death of Mr. Dean Schmitz, continuing the injustice against Ms. McDonald does not serve the community’s interests and we support you choosing to drop the charges.
The issues affecting our community that are apparent in this case all show the necessity of your choosing to drop the charges. These issues include:
-White supremacy, as the white adults who attacked Ms. McDonald and her friends yelled racist epithets at them before assaulting them because they are African-American. Additionally, Ms. McDonald’s friends and family endured repeated threats and harassment from members of Schmitz’s family and individuals from the scene of the June 5th incident for weeks afterwards. In addition to numerous threatening phone calls, some of Ms. McDonald’s friends were surrounded and chased in public, and told to “Go back to Africa.”
-Transphobia, as the white adults also yelled transphobic slurs at Ms. McDonald and her friends. One of the attackers even said that Ms. McDonald was dressed as a woman in order to rape the late Mr. Schmitz. Unfortunately, Ms. McDonald being targeted that night was just another instance of the systemic oppression that transgender people, especially transgender women of color, experience every day at the hands of other community members and within governmental institutions. Transgender people are ten to fifteen times more likely to be incarcerated at some point in their lives than non-transgender people, because transgender people who experience violence due to their gender presentation also receive little understanding and respect from non-transgender police, jail and court officials. African-American people are targeted by higher rates of racial profiling and harsher sentences throughout the legal system; therefore these numbers are even more egregious for African-American trans people.
As you can undoubtedly see, pursuing these charges against Ms. McDonald protects white supremacy and transphobia at the expense of ensuring safety for all members of our community. You have long been recognized for your commitment to protecting the community and professional judgment when doing so, as can be seen in these instances:
-Your work to protect domestic violence survivors, seniors and vulnerable adults demonstrates your understanding that marginalized voices and people are often in greatest need of protection. Ms. McDonald, as a young, African-American trans woman, is similarly in need of our understanding and protection, as she was violently attacked without provocation. Pressing charges against Ms. McDonald increases the hardships she faces as a young woman and sends a message that several large populations in Hennepin county—young women, female students, African American youth, LGBTQ youth, and transgender people—cannot rely on government officials to promote their safety and security.
-In 2011, you exercised your professional judgment by declining to prosecute at least three other cases of individuals who have been attacked and whose attackers have been subsequently killed. We know you have the ability to choose not to prosecute in cases of self-defense, and we support your making that choice in this case. It is tremendously unfortunate that Ms. McDonald was attacked, and even more unfortunate that she has not yet been freed and enabled to recover from this tragic incident. We support your choosing to drop the charges against her and standing up for the right for people to protect themselves from hate-motivated violence.
-You have spoken multiple times about the importance of keeping kids in school, citing that 98% of young people who commit felonies were truant first. You have also said that staying in school is essential to young people having a chance in this world. Our organization agrees wholeheartedly about the importance of young people being in school, and we are especially troubled that Ms. McDonald has already missed more than a semester of college because of the murder charges she is facing after being attacked. We believe that the right place for a 23-year-old woman is college, not jail or prison. We have supported your commitment to keeping kids in school and would support your choice to extend Ms. McDonald an equal opportunity for this as well.
Once again, we want to express our absolute support of you choosing to drop the charges against Ms. McDonald.
Sincerely,
[SIGNATURE LIST]
African-American and African Studies Department, University of MN
Anti-War Committee
Communities United Against Police Brutality
Department of Multicultural Life, Macalester College
Freedom Road Socialist Organization
House of Transfiguration
Leslie Feinberg, NWU/UAW, Co-founder of Rainbow Flags for Mumia
Minneapolis Autonomous Radical Space
MN Committee to Stop FBI Repression
TGI Justice Project
Tongues Untied, University of MN
Trans Youth Support Network
Transgender Law Center
Twin Cities IWW General Defense Committee Local 14
Twin Cities IWW General Membership Branch
Queers for Economic Justice
Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, Macalester
Women’s Prison Book Project
and white women are dumb as fuck to NOT let women of color, especially trans* women lead their shit. everyone is.
anything you experience at the hands of patriarchy as white women, we experience times 100, in addition to all the intersections of marginalization that exist.
any amount of marginalization whites and men face we face tenfold.
if anybodys gonna tell you whats wrong with the world and what change is needed the very most, its the most needy, vulnerable and agreded.
thats also why men are dumb as fuck to think they can stage real, sustainable revolutions without always consulting with the most victimized and oppressed, and no, it isnt you. it isnt the smartest, most educated, most handsome, or most powerful. its the powerless who know what the world needs. the least able!
poverty is feminized. as in, its for women, mostly. pretty much everywhere you look. women and children…OF COLOR for the most part.
so trust and believe, if WE as women of color manage to get shit to be equal for us, that is exactly how much better everything will be for everyone. this is the world, as you force us into a kneeling position.
the world if we too could stand up…..
would be that much more grand.
you cant pretend to actually care,
if your ideals are still dependent on exploiting and infringing upon the rights of over half the world.
this. this. this is what i have been saying for years. we have to center in our organizing those who are the most marginalized, oppressed, the most vulnerable to violence. follow their leadership and reshape the world in such a way that we stop violence against them, and thus make the world more just, more equitable, more beautiful for all of us.
instead everybody’s just out for self
so im done. i will no longer support any organizing, activism etc. unless it is centering and being authorized by the most marginalized. because its not going to succeed and its going to be a waste of my precious energy on this planet.
This seems more relevant now that this whole “cotton ceiling” thing has gone around.
I’m done identifying as “Trans*”. I’m done trying to force my way into these movements and groups that are so overwhlemingly white. I’ve already spent three years trying to, I don’t plan to spend the next ten or…
In the early eighties, there was a report, written for the US Government, called Technology on the Social and Ethical Aspects of Transsexual Surgery. This report argued that transition-related treatments were medically unnecessary. As a result, consideration of federal and state aid for trans people was dropped, and private insurance companies quickly followed suit, disingenuously expanding the definition of “transition-related” to include absolutely anything that could even conjecturally be related to hormone treatments, including various types of cancer. Trans people have died as a result.
I wonder how many people know who was responsible for that report, who it was that convinced the US government (and, indirectly, insurance companies) that helping trans people wasn’t important. You’d probably think it was some fundiegelical Republican, right?
Nope. It was Janice Raymond.
If you feel like being enraged, you can read a copy of her report (trigger warning for transphobia, obviously). If you don’t feel like reading, you’re not missing much, as it’s basically the same “morally mandate it out of existence” horseshit that was in her book. (And yeah, like most transphobic feminists, she almost makes a couple of really good points, but is so focused on eliminationism that she doesn’t actually arrive at helpful conclusions. Or so it appears — frankly, I can only read a few sentences of it at a time without wanting to scream and kick things.)
So yeah — if you’ve ever wondered why I can’t be “understanding” and “patient” with feminist transphobia, now you know why: tens of thousands of trans people have died because of it.
So here is the list I gave them:
—being outright racist
—stealing terminology from black people
—using that bullshit ass “I don’t date people of your color”
—being covertly racist and using their transness to excuse it
—comparing transness to racism
—forgetting…
The “disclaimer” in the Philly Trans Health Conference program guide last year…
It was like this whiteppl coddling bullshit, I can’t remember the exact wording, something along the lines of [pretty accurate paraphrasing, btw] “Some of the language used in the descriptions of activities pertaining to and presented by [roundabout wimpy language to mean PEOPLE THAT AREN’T WHITE] may be offensive to some attendees, this is not the language used by the Philly Trans Health Conference, it is the presenters’.”
I SCOURED the ENTIRE program to be like “WTF is the stupid problem?” I found NOTHING. What? Butch queen? Is that offensive? Is a trans woman using the word cunt offensive? It read to me like this apology that real live black people would be there. Why does this need to be disclaimed? It seriously made me sick.
Where is the apology about “Oh hey tons of stupid whiteppl here say ‘realness’ all the time and copy your shit unabashedly with no real understanding or concern for your history and experiences beyond their intense interest in oppression porn and anything you might say or do that doesn’t jive well with what they want to believe about you. Please try to ignore them or tell them like it is, to their faces. P.S. You do not have to be their pony show or flea circus. Please enjoy your time at this conference since you belong here.”
Cuz really that’s what I was thinking.
And all of the fawning shit… I am not going to be like “trans women are better” b/c there is OBVIOUS shit there that, quite frankly, makes things like the conference difficult, and there is UNABASHED segregation on color lines that I do not enjoy and see as a HUGE disservice to trans women… BUT I am just saying… stuff that makes me uncomfortable as a trans woman in queer spaces REALLY comes to a head when I see it happening to black trans women. Like everything I hate from cis people… trans men often do to them. Like they know better than to say “She is so brave” b/c we make so many jokes about it. But seriously, the accolades shared between ftm circle-jerkers pretty much amount to “She is so brave.” and “Wasn’t it darling when the colored woman was talking? So inspiring. E for effort!”
It is like knives in my face! And honestly as a white person I never know wtf to do!!!! It’s this really insidious thing, and as someone who is not college educated and has not had years of intense activity in the queer community, it is hard battling them b/c honestly white college-educated gender theory bolstered trans men and their groupies (sorry, can’t help it) have created such a song and dance of inclusion-theater (does that apply here? I think it does, not sure) to safeguard their own sanctioned forms of quiet “polite” racism.
When I try to engage in conversation about this I am often shut down, as a trans woman, as a woman, and as a perceived dummy! I seriously hate it.
Elephant. in. the. room.
