Smollett May Have Lied, but Trans Women are Still Under Attack
Words by Michael Alles
Illustration by Katie Herchenroeder
The Jussie Smollettnews cycle has been overwhelming. When I first read Smollett’s account, I hadflashbacks to St. Patrick’s Day of 2015. I was in a straight bar full of rowdy,hyper-masculine men. One of these men noticed me “talking like a faggot.” Iprobably should have walked away, but I talked back instead: “What did you justcall me?” I said. “A faggot,” he replied. Before I could get another word in,he punched me, broke my nose, broke my glasses, and left me bleeding on theground. I had reconstructive nose surgery a week later.
Reports are coming out that Smollett fabricated his attack. The Chicago Police Department is claiming that Smollett paid two men $3,500 to stage this publicity stunt because he was dissatisfied with his salary on the show Empire. The Chicago P.D. has a spotty record on civil rights, but news organizations are running this story. Regardless of the validity of these claims, we must all acknowledge that hate crimes and discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community are ongoing issues, and they disproportionately affect trans women of color.
Who is responsiblefor LGBTQ hate crimes? Robert E. Lee? The Westboro Baptist Church? DonaldTrump?
Trump formallylaunched his presidential campaign on June 16, 2015. Since then, hate crimes inthe United States have consistently risen. In 2015, the FBI reported 5,850 hate crimes. In 2016, they reported 6,121. In their most recent data for 2017, they reported 7,175. Of the hate crimes reported in 2017, 58.1% weremotivated by a race/ethnicity/ancestry bias, and 17.6% were motivated by asexual orientation or gender identity bias.
TheTrump administration repeatedly targets the LGBTQ community. In 2017, thepresident withdrew Obama-era guidelines on how to protect trans students underfederal title IX law. In October of 2017, The JusticeDepartment released a memo instructingDepartment of Justice attorneys to take the legal position that federal lawdoes not protect transgender workers from discrimination. In July of 2017,President Trump announced on Twitter that "the United StatesGovernment will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in anycapacity in the U.S. Military." The Supreme Court ruled that his ban was constitutional in January of thisyear.
Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, is no angel either - althoughin his head I’m sure he thinks he is. In his time as a member of Congress andgovernor of Indiana, he vehemently opposedlegislation in support of the LGBTQ community. In his 2000 congressionalcampaign, he advocated forconversion therapy to “assist those seeking to change their sexual behavior.”Last month, he defended his wifeafter reports revealed that she teaches at an elementary school that explicitlybars LGBTQ teachers and students. He even condemned news organizations forreporting the story.
Trump and Pence’s rhetoric and policy hasreal-life consequences, especially for the transgender community. In 2017, Trump’s first year aspresident, 29 trans people were killed, according to the Human Rights Campaign.After the Trump administration’s plan to define transgender out of existencewas released by the New York Times, calls to trans suicide hotlines quadrupled.
“Now [that Trump is president] there’s more discrimination, not just for the transgender community but for the entire LGBTQ community,” says Catherine Garcia, a 41-year-old undocumented trans-woman living in Jackson Heights.
In 2018, at least 26 transgender people were killed in the United States, and at least 130 have been killed since 2013. At least 80% of those deaths were transwomen of color. “I have to literally look at every single corner that I turn, worrying and praying that nobody’s gonna come and beat me up just because I’m living my life,” says Jasmin Nicole, a 23-year-old transwoman of color living in New York.
Allstatistics on violence against trans people in America are prefaced with “atleast” because police departments across the country do not keep specific dataon violence directed towards trans people. 74% of the victims of anti-transviolence since 2013 were misgendered in initial media and police reports. TonyaHarvey, a 35-year-old transwoman of color, who was fatally shot in Buffalo, NYin February, was initially identified by her “dead name” and agender that did not correspond with her identity.
Dead-naming,or referring to a trans-person by a name or pronoun they used before theytransitioned, is often due to ignorance in police reports, but can also beattributed to state policies across the country. Only 15 states allow trans peopleto change their gender on both their IDs and birth certificates. 68% of transpeople do not have IDs or records that match their gender identity.
For manytrans-people across America, the lack of proper identification prevents themfrom obtaining housing and employment, leading to homelessness and extremepoverty, especially for transwomen of color. Black trans women have double theunemployment rate of all trans people, and four times the rate of the generalpopulation. 41% of black trans women have been homeless at some point in theirlife, which is five times the rate of the general population.
Many trans women, like Jasmin, turn to sex work for survival. “Idid sex work when I was younger, because no job would hire me.” Since 2013, atleast 41 trans sex workers have been killed. At least 10 of the 26 trans peoplekilled in 2018 were believed to be involved in sex work.
BianeyGarcia, a community organizer for Make the Road NY, admits they still have a lotof work to do. “Since 2016 we have seen an increase in hate and violenceagainst the trans community in Queens. Many of us call the police and theynever arrive,” she said.
Garciaalso used sex work as a means of survival due to employment discrimination. “Sometimesthe police laugh, they think it’s funny that I’m trans. They don’t care abouttransgender rights,” she added.
In hermost recent interaction with the police, Catherine Garcia was arrested for sexwork, taken to an immigration center, and placed in a cell with men. “Theycalled me by my dead name, and I asked to please call me by my last name,because when they call me by my dead name, they out me as trans and I feelscared,” she said.
Indetention she was denied medical service and access to hormones. The guardsasked her “what are you talking about, this is a man’s jail?” They continued, “Ihave nothing for women, you are a man.” She pleaded to an immigration judge formedical assistance, but said because she was undocumented, she was not entitledto treatment or access to hormones. “They have no services for trans people orundocumented people,” she concluded.
In 2018,Roxana Hernandez, a transgender woman fleeing violence in Honduras, died in ICEcustody. The 33-year-old was processed on May 13th and thentransferred to a privately-run federal prison for men that has contracts withICE. ICE claimed that she died from “symptoms of pneumonia, dehydration, andHIV.” However, an independent investigation from theTransgender Law Center concluded she was shackled for long periods of time, beaten, andrefused water. Lynly Egyes, the director of litigation for the TLC commentedthat “her death was entirely preventable.”
CarinaRivera, a 30-year-old transwoman, left El Salvador when she was 14 and crossedthe border into the United States. Rivera’s chances of surviving as atranswoman in El Salvador were slim. “The Maras are everywhere, and they willkill you if you’re trans.” The Maras are a violent, powerful gang in ElSalvador that are known to target the LGBTQ community. In 2015, they killedGarcia’s transgender neighbor. In June of last year, Jeff sessions ruled thatthe federal government would no longer recognize gang violence as grounds forasylum, a major blow to LGBTQ asylum seeks from Latin America. “I know I can’tgo back,” Rivera said.
All these statisticspose the question, “are Trump and his associates directly responsible for theseattacks on the LGBTQ community?” KemiAdeyemi, assistant professor of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at theUniversity of Washington, argued, “Donald Trump is the perfect man for thejob.” She maintained that yes, Trump represents the cisgender heterosexualwhite supremacist patriarchy, but does that not make him a perfect fit for “thejob?”
“The job” Adeyemi is referringto is the presidency, the leader of the United States, the leader of thecisgender heterosexual white supremacist patriarchy.
Who were “the Founding Fathers?”Were they your founding fathers? Thiscountry was founded by the custodians of the mythical norm, as intersectional activist Audre Lorde puts it. Ifyou are a person of color, or female, or an immigrant, or undocumented, ornon-Christian, or transgender, or gay, or bisexual, or gender non-conforming, orany other category that does not fall into the cisgender heterosexual whitesupremacist patriarchy, then the answer is no, you are not in this norm.
In the United States, we areconditioned to get as close as we can to the mythical norm. We are encouraged to replace feminine energy withmasculine energy; replace curly, dark hair for straight, blonde hair; replacehomosexuality with heterosexuality; adhere to the social constructs of thegender we were assigned at birth.
And many of us will try toachieve that mythical norm and fail. Some risk becoming complacent. We learn tosettle for the lower rungs of society. We become obedient workers, clinging onto the myth of the “American Dream.” Complacency breeds exploitation. The more complacentwe become, the more people like Donald Trump will profit.
As all the noise circles aroundthe Jussie Smollett case, keep your eyes and ears plugged into theheartbreaking things occurring to trans women of color, and the LGBTQ communityas a whole. They need your time, attention, and advocacy.
Anger is a natural response toa hate crime, for most of us. We want to see justice carried out on the peoplewho committed the crime, and we should. But hate crimes are so much deeper thanindividual actions. Hate crimes are embedded into the fabric of our society.Until the powers that created this country are dismantled, they will continueto happen. So, the next time there’s a hate crime, and you ask me who’s toblame, I’ll say the United States. As Lorde once wrote, “The master's toolswill never dismantle the master's house.” Everything is going according toplan, just as the Founding Fathers envisioned it.
