Trans* Women of Color Visibility

[transwocvisibility]

Queer Analysis of ABC Family's "The Fosters" (Queer Studies 262)

ABC Family's "The Fosters" is a drama unlike any other on national daytime television. Produced by Latina singer/actress/executive producer Jennifer Lopez, The show profiles Stef and Lena Foster, an interracial lesbian couple raising a mixture of biological and foster children. Their oldest son, Brandon is Stef's son from a previous marriage with a man, and is the only biological child of the Fosters. They have opposite-sex latino/a adopted twins and the plot begins as they take in Callie, a troubled young teen thrown around from foster home to foster home, as well as her younger brother Jude. The show chronicles many hardships and celebrations of life and touches on a wide range of topics such as sexual identity, gender expression, being a person of color in a white family, high school relationships and friendships, etc. This show is one of the most intersectional approaches of a show that I've yet to see in modern American media. This show is filled with characters, story lines, and scenes that one could endlessly analyzed, however I'm going to solely focus on the four pieces of The Fosters that screamed queer to me.

1. Lena Beautifully Represents Intersectionality Within a Queer Character.

Lena often talks about black issues that are not often mentioned in pop culture. In an early episode, she talked about disliking her big, curly hair as a child and all of the things she would do to it to attempt to make it straight (this represents assimilation into a white dominated culture). Black women are often criticized for their natural hair, and further ostracized for not straightening it. Lena acknowledges this and then speaks of her newfound love of blackness and of course, her hair. This stuck out to me because in contrast to the “Queer in the Choir Room” queer analyses we read in Queer Pop Culture about television’s Glee, Lena’s identities both as a lesbian and as a black woman are acknowledged in a way that is progressive instead of oppressive.

2. The Youngest, Jude, Callie's brother, is Probably the Queer-est of Them All. 

. . .and his best friend Connor is the ultimate ally, he just doesn't know it yet! The Fosters take Jude and Callie in after she is released from juvenile detention (bashing in her step-dad’s car—but only after he physically assaulted Jude for wearing a dress). Jude likes to paint his nails, and gets picked on for this when going to school. A meek boy, he ignores the bullies instead of standing up to them, and his best friend Connor comes to school the next day with painted nails. Yeah!

Additionally, Stef and Lena explain to him that wearing nail polish has nothing to do with whom you are attracted to and love. Additionally, they explain to him that even if he were gay, it would of course be okay. They also explain that it’s not always necessary to put a label on it either, touching on important issues of gender identity and gender/sexual fluidity, and through the education of a young, possibly queer boy.

3. Stef and Lena's Relationship is Painfully Stereotypical

The ever-so-popular stereotype that is the relationship between butch-femme lesbians and the gendered stigmas and stereotypes that correlate. Lena is the more physically feminine, and the principle of a middle school. Though she works, she is often at home cooking and tending to the children and their problems while Stef is at work. She is often more lenient with the children and less impulsive than her partner. Stef, being the more masculine appearing of the two, is a police officer, and the hard-ass of the family. She is emotionally regressive and tends to make more firm decisions when it comes to punishment with the children. 

Additionally, there are no conversations about issues of the LGBTQ+ community between Stef and Lena (or the kids) other than marriage. This is a major let down. C'mon, it's about time. 

In an extremely gendered example, Stef is also the one who ends up proposing to Lena (the butch to femme, or “man” to the “woman”), bringing me to my next point . . .

3. A Queer Couple Meets Heteronormativity at the Altar?

Since this is a queer analysis and not a gay analysis, I must mention the heteronormatizing of Lena and Stef’s relationship through marriage. I am in no way looking down upon marriage, however there have been some queer critiques that link the institution of marriage to heteronormativity, and denying the correlation is impossible. The couple doesn’t start out married; in fact, they’ve been together over 10 years without speak of it. Of course, Stef, being the more masculine figure of the two, is first reluctant and sarcastic about the idea of getting married, which is something often associated with masculinity.  

However . . .

There is a part of this storyline that has impact. Stef, though having sour feelings about the wedding, realizes that she has internalized her father’s homophobia. This is especially important because we see a queer character recognizing the bias that is her own, acknowledging it, and then moving forward. It also shows that anyone can harbor homophobia, even those who may identify within the community.

4. Last--But Certainly not least--Cole!

Cole is the only transgender character on the show, and The Fosters does it well. For starters, the actor Tom Phelan is a transgender boy in real life. This is wonderful for queer representation because it isn't always this way. Cole also represents the hardships that trans* and other gender non-conforming people face: homelessness from family after coming out. Additionally, we see Cole struggle to fit into a group home for girls, as he is identified by the state biologically only. We see him experience a conundrum of transphobia within the home, as his counselor works hard to get him into an LGBT group home.

A few episodes into meeting Cole we find that his doctor is going to take him off his hormones because he is no longer able to afford them. He then is forced to turn to the black market, and ends up accidentally overdosing on whatever he is given from a back-alley drug dealer. Cole lives, but the scene was incredibly horrific and terrifyingly realistic. I appreciated the brutal honesty of Cole's story, because it is often the reality of many trans* folks' experiences.

That being said, The Fosters is filled with queerness--both beautifully and disastrous. However, when it comes to it as a whole, it's one of the most intersectionally inclusive TV shows centering queer characters. All in all, it's definitely worth the watch, and with a few minor tweaks, the show could be even better.

What do y'all think the queerest parts of The Fosters are? What do you think needs to be worked on?

[aseapoem]

[shesinacoma]

Paul Éluard

[fuckyeahdragrace]

[jonezes]

Michelle Visage : “I think Carmen got pregnant from that lip sync.”

[the-promised-wlan]

[spilledmarrow]

Carmen Carrera

[lipsyncforyourlife]

[stoppingviolencegivingvoice-blog]

[starsinthegutter-blog]

felt the need to fix this atrocious photo. 

[carolrossettidesign]

[bk1995tj]

Amiyah Scott, The Cover Girl for Be Magazine.

Black Trans Women doing big things!

[clearyourthroats]

"Orange is the New Black" star Laverne Cox is making some amazing strides for the trans community.  Thanks to women like her, warnings like the one this teacher gave her mother are on their way out. 

[quickweaves]

Tracy Africa 

[brutereason]

I want to make a few things perfectly clear. Trans women are women. Period. End of story. We’re not “women who used to be men.” We’re not “men who identify as women.” We’re not “males who identify as women.” We’re not “men who became women.” WE ARE WOMEN. Stop putting qualifiers on our womanhood. It’s offensive, hurtful and cruel to insinuate otherwise. Our past, present, and futures are ours to define and no one else’s. Even if we didn’t figure out that we were trans until well into our adult lives, it absolutely does not mean that we were ever boys or men. Many trans women female that they’ve always been girls, or at the very least, that they’ve never been boys. You don’t have any right to tell me, or any other trans person, that they were ever a particular gender, just as I have no right to tell you what gender you are. A trans woman who was obligated to present as male for most of her young life is was no more “born a man” than a lesbian who was obligated to date men for most of her young life “used to be straight.”

Please Stop Saying That Trans Women Were “Born Boys” | Autostraddle (via brutereason)

[fuckyeahlgbtqartists]

TransCuba: Photographer Mariette Pathy Allen Explores a Hidden Havana Subculture

For more than 30 years, New York based photographer and painter Mariette Pathy Allenhas been documenting transgender culture worldwide; in 2004 she won the Lambda Literary Award for her monograph The Gender Frontier. In her new publication, TransCuba, Allen focuses on the transgender community of Cuba, especially its growing visibility and acceptance in a country whose government is transitioning into a more relaxed model of communism under Raúl Castro’s presidency.

  An excerpt from Mariela Castro Espin, who is the director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education in Havana, is included in the book: “We dedicate this day to families because we want families to be conscious of their great social responsibility, so that all of our families, all of the people with the great social responsibility of being a parent, realize that their can’t be any form of discrimination in the family, discrimination based in the prejudice that we’ve inherited from dominant societies.”

(source)

[thepeoplesrecord]

TW: Transmisogyny, murder - Aniya Parker & the epidemic of violence against trans women of color October 7, 2014

Mourners in and around Los Angeles are remembering Aniya Parker, a 47-year-old transgender woman who was violently killed in East Hollywood last week.

Parker was fatally shot at 2:30 a.m. on Thursday during what police have reported as a robbery. Surveillance footage of Parker’s death has circulated widely across the Internet, showing two to four suspects surrounding her before one punches her and then shoots her in the head as she tries to flee.

Many observers aren’t buying the police’s assertion that Parker’s killing was the result of a robbery gone wrong. “This was not a robbery, in fact, they left the purse behind,” Mary Zeiser of Hollywood told ABC7 news. “This is a cold-blooded hate crime and this type of violence needs to end.”

Less than 48 hours after her death, Parker’s supporters held a memorial in her honor. Her friends and family are now trying to raise $15,000 for funeral expenses, which include transporting her body back to her home state of Arkansas. 

Parker’s death is another example of what seems like nothing short of an epidemic of violence targeting transgender women of color. She’s is the eighth transgender woman of color to be killed since the beginning of June, according to the Anti-Violence Project. She’s also the second to be killed in Los Angeles in recent months; 28-year-old Zoraida Reyes’s body was found in a parking lot behind an Orange County Dairy Queen on June 12th. Transgender women of color face disproportionately higher rates of hate violence than other members of the LGBT community, according to researchers. In fact, a 2013 report from the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs found that LGBT people of color were nearly twice as likely to experience physical violence than their white counterparts. Transgender women made up 67 percent of anti-LGBT homicides in 2013, according to the Anti-Violence Project.

Source

[bk1995tj]

Hate violence disproportionately target transgender women of color

Deoni Jones was simply waiting at a bus stop at the intersection of East Capitol Street and Sycamore Road NE, in Washington DC’s Benning Heights neighborhood when she was stabbed in the face.   She was rushed to a hospital in Cheverly, MD where she died.

“Amanda [Milan] was a transsexual. She was killed because she was a transsexual. Her neck was slashed and her story went unreported because she was Black and a transsexual…The Black community is the worst. They who have suffered from prejudice in this country have treated us worse than any other people.” - Octavia St. Laurent preached at Amanda Milan’s funeral.

23 year old Paige Clay was found shot to death in the West Garfield Park neighborhood in an alley in the 4500 block of W. Jackson Blvd.

Lorena Escalera, a 25 year old black trans woman, garnered attention after her brutal death was sensationalized in media by Time. The article sexually exploited her, sexualized her “curvy” body and basically shamed her legacy instead of even addressing the violence she endured.

Rita Hester was an out African-American transwoman who lived in the Allston/Brighton community west of Boston. A neighbor reported to police a disturbance at Rita’s apartment. Upon arrival, they found her in cardiac arrest, having been stabbed multiple times. She was rushed to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital but was unfortunately declared dead after her arrival.

On the morning of August 7, 1995 the popular 24 year old hairdresser named Tyra Hunter was on her way to work as a passenger in a car. That vehicle ended up being involved in an accident at the corner of 50th and C streets in Southeast DC. Tyra and the driver had been pulled from the smoking ruins of the vehicle by onlookers and were lying on the ground when fire department personnel arrived at the scene. The neighborhood began gathering to watch as a male firefighter began treating Tyra for her injuries. That is, until he cut open her pants leg and noted she had male genitalia. At that point, according to eyewitnesses, the firefighter, later identified as Adrian Williams stood up and backed away from Tyra. She was semi-conscious, complaining about pain and gasping for breath as he was quoted as saying by one witness, "This bitch ain’t no girl…It’s a nigger, it got a dick." Williams began joking with the other fire department personnel at the scene as the bystanders pleaded with them to resume working to save Tyra’s life.  Tyra’s treatment was discontinued for 5 to 7 critical minutes while bystanders pleaded for them to resume treatment. Finally an EMS supervisor arrived and resumed treating Tyra. She was rushed to DC General Hospital where she arrived at 4:10 PM. But the nightmare was just beginning for Tyra. The DC General Hospital ER staff compounded the insulting neglect of the fire fighters. A doctor refused to treat her and she died of blunt force trauma at 5:20 PM in the now closed hospital’s emergency room.

26-year-old Erycka Morgan, a black transgender woman, was stabbed to death in her home, proving that even in death our identities remain unsettled, Susan Epstein of the New Jersey Star-Ledger opted to ignore industry guidelines and instead report Ms. Morgan’s death with only masculine pronouns and her given name.

A post operative black transgender lingerie model named Victoria Carmen White was brutally shot to death. Victoria Carmen White was pursued by the Newark man who she began talking to earlier that day. She invited him over to talk. Once she told him she was transgender, he was heard yelling “You a dude?” by Victoria’s female friend and female cousin, and a string of gun shots followed.

Police have discovered the body of a transgender woman named Coko Williams in a particularly crime-, drug-, and prostitution-ridden section of East Detroit. Her throat was slashed and there were apparent gunshot wounds as well.

32 year old aspiring actress Domonique Newburn, who was found dead in her Fontana, CA apartment. She robbed of clothes and her computer. Her car was also stolen.

37 Year old Brandy Martell, an outreach worker, was sitting behind the wheel of her car when one or two men walked up and began a conversation that appeared cordial on the surface, Brandy revealing immediately she was a trans woman, a few moments later one of the men became angry and fired into the car at Martell.

Chanel Larkin, 26, was shot three times in the head by a man who allegedly picked her up for sex, and offered her $20 to turn a trick.  Authorities contend that Andrew Olacirequi, who was cruising the vicinity for a prostitute, shot Larkin three times in the head when Larkin revealed to him that she was biologically male.

Artegus Madden, 34 year old black trans woman, was found dead in the living room of her Denton County home. She had been hit in the face and shot in the neck.

20 year old Cemia Dove Acoff from Cleveland was found in a retention pond on MacKenzie Road, north of Cook Road, in Olmsted Township, OH, nude from the waist down. She was stabbed multiple times tied with a rope to a block of concrete. She was slandered through out media and misgendered by news.

30 year old Ashley Sinclair was found shot to death in a wooded area on Rio Grande Drive just off S. Orange Blossom Trail in Orange County. 

Kelly Young, a 29-year-old black transgender woman, was found shot to death inside a home in Baltimore, Maryland.

20 Year old Ebony Whitaker was found murdered in grass, shot, nude from the waist down.

Just like most black trans women, Duanna Johnson made national news when video footage leaked of her being viciously beat by white officers of Memphis who called her transphobic and racist slurs. It resulted in the officers being fired. Ten months later, Duanna Johnson was found murdered.

Lateisha “Teish” Green, the sweet 22-year old African-American transgender woman who was shot and killed at close range by Dwight DeLee after DeLee uttered anti-gay slurs.

Nakhia “Nikki” Williams was a proud transgender woman, a writer and painter, who was deeply involved in her community. She was brutally murdered in Louisville on August 20, 2008, a few days shy of her 30th birthday.

A 21-year-old out transgender woman who went by the name of Tyli’a Mack was stabbed to death in DC on August 26th, 2009.

Chanelle Pickett, an African-American transsexual woman, was strangled to death at age 23. Chanelle’s murder graphically illustrates the connections between violence and pervasive employment discrimination. After being bashed by co-workers and experiencing discrimination from her job - along with her twin trans sister (after both being outted as trans) and falling on hard times, Chanelle begin dating a man named William Palmer. While William Palmer tried to deny that he knew Chanelle was transsexual, or that he enjoys the company of transsexuals, he’s as familiar to the Boston transgender community that frequented the bar as Norm from Cheers was. He not only knew what and who a transsexual was, he frequently dated them. Chanelle and Palmer had been seeing each other for some time and they had met at Playland on a number of occasions. Friends say that she really liked Palmer and wanted to have a more serious relationship with him. Palmer had written a letter to Chanelle not only expressing his affection for her, but had promised to help her get back on her feet and to take care of her. With this overwhelming evidence, the letters to Chanelle and being seen in the company of her and other transwomen prior to the murder, Palmer’s defense attorney came up with a then new variation of the ‘homosexual panic’ defense.

Stacey Lee's lifeless body was found by her boyfriend in the South Philadelphia home she shared with her boyfriend.

21 Year Old Islan Nettles was walking down the street with her friends (all trans women of color), while she begin to get cat-called by her murderer who thought she was beautiful. Islan and her friends were trying to walk away to avoid drama. One of his male friends voiced that the group of women were transgender and Islan Nettles was beat to a coma right across the street from the police station. She died.

22 year old Brittany-Nicole Kidd-Stergis was found murdered in a car. The early media reports of course (as usual) misgendered Brittany-Nicole.

These were only some black trans women who have been murdered. So many are unidentified, not reported in news and ignored in general. They are denied employment not only for being black but for being transgender. They are profiled by police not only for being black but for being transgender. They are murdered not only for being black but for being transgender.

[thebigblackwolfe-deactivated201]

The fact that trans women have just been completely booted out of this conversation on police brutality smfh…

[jcoleknowsbest]

In 2008, a black trans woman was severely beaten by police and was preparing to sue the Memphis Police Department. She was killed execution style shortly after and no one has yet to be arrested.. Her name was Duanna Johnson. Remember her name…