Lexi Adsit
WGS 552
Keegan
11/28/12
Depth(s) of Violence and Resistance
The world we live in is disgustingly violent. Transgender, gender variant, and
intersex populations experience this violence at alarmingly high rates. Throughout this
essay I will work to show how violence is enacted against transgender and gender variant
populations in various spaces and some movements to resist that violence. The violence
enacted against transgender and gender variant populations is tied to colonial legacies as
well as the rise in neoliberal economic policies. I will argue that the embodied experience
of being Transgender and gender variant has included resistance to this violence and that
various social movements are now working against this violence.
Violence against transgender and gender variant populations is rooted in colonial
legacies including but not limited to methods such as the gender binary. Joey L. Mogul,
Andrea J. Ritchie, and Kay Whitlock in Queer (In)Justice write, “… colonization
required the violent suppression of gender fluidity in order to facilitate the establishment
of hierarchical relations between two rigidly defined genders, and, by extension, between
colonizer and colonized.”1 This shows how colonial legacies used gender policing and
specifically the gender binary as a tool of colonization to oppress indigenous populations.
My main point here is that the forms of policing are reminiscent of modern forms of
policing, especially that we can examine within prisons. We can also examine this form
of policing when transgender and gender variant populations resisted in the 1960s.
1
Mogul, Ritchie, and Whitlock p. 3
Transgender and gender variant embodied resistance to police abuse and gender
policing, seen in multiple instances such as Dewey’s, Compton’s Cafeteria, and the
Stonewall Inn riots, created a moment of agency and violence as agency. Susan Stryker
writes, “On that night in May 1959, when the police came in and arbitrarily started
rounding up the drag queen patrons of Cooper’s Donuts, the rest of the customers decided
to resist en masse.”2 This moment of collective resistance is one of many that happened
in the late 50s and 60s showing us that this police abuse and form of policing was a
common occurrence for transgender and gender variant populations throughout this time
period. However using violence as a form of agency helped empower these communities
and in some instances lead them to organize community institutions or change. However
the incarceration of transgender and gender variant individuals can lead to extreme forms
of violence that social movements must be conscious of.
Violence experienced by transgender and gender variant folks within prisons and
institutions shows some of the most extreme cases of violence, ever. Paula Rae
Witherspoon writes, “ … I was forced to have oral sex with the man as the others blocked
the view of the guards.”3 This act of sexual abuse of a trans woman in transit between
prisons shows that within the prisons safety can never be guaranteed. Examples like these
also show the extent of how violent and dehumanizing experiences within prison can be
for transgender and gender variant people. Witherspoon also writes on the violence
enacted by guards and the prison system itself, an important piece to remember when
thinking of violence against transgender and gender variant communities. A prime
2
3
Stryker p. 61
Stanley and Smith p. 212
example of institutional violence against transgender communities has been the health
care industry.
The bigotry and inaccessibility two key aspects that Leslie Feinberg, one of the
prominent transgender activists, has written about within healthcare leads to obstacles in
how transgender people are treated. Feinberg writes, “Two obstacles blocked my path
like boulders: bigotry and poverty. Both are deadly roadblocks in an economic system
that organizes health care as a profit-driven industry.”4 Social services being cut due to
neoliberal economic policies absolutely effects trans and gender variant populations,
including low-income folks. This kind of institutional violence has led to the deaths of
countless trans and gender variant individuals as well as people of color and other
marginalized populations due to lack of access and blatant discrimination. However this
violence has continued into our modern time period and can be shown to be prevalent
against trans youth and especially transgender youth of color.
In Transparent Cris Beam documents her travels throughout Los Angeles and a
continuation school with a dominant queer and transgender of color youth population.
She writes, “Christina’s fear of juvenile hall was deeper and more justified than any
teenage kid’s … She knew that what happens to transwomen is much more frightening,
and potentially dangerous, than to genetic women …”5 This shows us that experiences
similar to Witherspoon and other documented tales of abuse within prison are similar to
experiences of youth within juvenile halls. Beam also documents throughout the book
how Christina and other young transgender women hustle, sell their bodies, and deal
drugs in order to survive. This population and other gender variant communities find
4
5
Feinberg p. 79
Beam 162
these experiences common and without structural opportunities to succeed or assistance
often slip through the cracks of an abusive welfare state. Now I would like to examine
how these communities resist these forms of violence.
The call for change has happened far and wide and one featured in Captive
Genders was Candi Raine Sweet. Sweet writes, “The work of the Sylvia Rivera Law
Project and other allies seeks to change this very problem, for it is way overdue for us to
have a voice, to not be alone, and face such harm and whatnot.”6 What we can take from
Sweet’s piece is how marginalized transgender and gender variant populations are within
movements that might claim them. Realizing that transgender and gender variant inmates
are often not a topic for communities that put on pride parades or celebrate with corporate
sponsors, where are the movements for this intersectional and common experience of
incarceration and gender transgression? Morgan Bassichis, Alexander Lee, and Dean
Spade come together to write in Captive Genders on the importance of building prison
abolition queer and trans movement(s).
The importance of this intersectional analysis can lead to radically transformative
collective action. Bassichis, Lee, and Spade write, “We see the abolition of policing,
prisons, jails, and detention not strictly as a narrow answer to “imprisonment” … but also
a challenge to the rule of poverty, violence, racism, … we experience every day.”7 This
kind of radical and transformative movement building is vital to attaining justice for all
those incarcerated. It also works to end the structural daily oppression that faces
transgender women and youth of color like Christina. The depth of policing and violence
6
7
Stanley and Smith, p. 187
Stanley and Smith p. 36
experienced by transgender and gender variant communities leave them vulnerable to
various and countless issues.
As talked about throughout this paper, policing and violence against transgender
and gender variant communities travel across space and time. Colonial legacies asserted
binaries and hierarchies upon indigenous populations, which can be seen in our prison
systems of today. Sexual assault and dehumanizing violence enacted against transgender
and gender variant bodies is rampant, especially in solitary spaces such as prisons. A lack
of institutional support from the limited welfare state in fields such as healthcare leave
these populations committing crimes for survival. Finally, it creates a cycle of violence
by incarcerating the same individuals whom work so hard to stay out of these situations.
On top of the call for a queer and trans prison abolition movement, I would like to
conclude with my own call: work to solidify leadership and support structures for trans
women of color. This paper was not meant to hit on the amounts of violence received by
all, statistically, but to examine the depth of violence experienced across the board. Trans
Women of Color experience vast amounts of violence and policing in all aspects of their
life and that recognition needs to be prevalent within any movements working to end the
same violence and policing.
Works Cited
Beam, Cris. Transparent: Love, Family, and Living the T with Transgender Teenagers.
Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 2007. Print.
Feinberg, Leslie. Transgender Liberation: A Movement Whose Time Has Come. New
York, NY: World View Forum, 1992. Print.
Mogul, Joey L., Andrea J. Ritchie, and Kay Whitlock. Queer (in)justice: The
Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States. Boston: Beacon, 2011. Print.
Roberts, Chris. "Iconic Mission District Transforming into a True Melting Pot." SF
Examiner. N.p., 18 Dec. 2011. Web. 20 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2011/12/changing-demographics-make-iconicmission-melting-pot>.
Smith, Nat, and Eric A. Stanley. Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison
Industrial Complex. Oakland, CA: AK, 2011. Print.
Stryker, Susan. Transgender History. Berkeley, CA: Seal, 2008. Print.