Saturday, May 13, 2017

Still No Arrest In Killing Of Kenneth Bostick, Transgender Man Widely Misgendered In Initial Reports | Village Voice

ESSENTIAL: I went to the memorial service on the street yesterday where Kenneth Bostick was the victim of a fatal brutal assault in public view in front of a Burger shop between 28th and 29th on 7th Avenue in Manhattan. ( I will post my video of the action soon). Kenneth was consistently misgendered by trans activist speakers and self-serving politicians (talk is cheap, action is what matters) and well paid, white male heads of LGBT non-profits. I am not talking about Charles King of Housing Works. 

Read about whoKennethh Bostick actually

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/still-no-arrest-in-killing-of-kenneth-bostick-transgender-man-widely-misgendered-in-initial-reports-9981139

I suspect that most of the angry and outspoken black trans women did not know that in fact, BOSTICK was a transman living in a men's shelter on 25th street. Lesson to be learned is to be respectful of how people THEMSELVES identify. I trust that if the small crowd, who were militantly outspoken on the conditions that trans people of color face each day including homelessness and unemployment just surviving, would have rallied for Kenneth even if v did not identify as v birth sex but as a TRANSMAN. Some of the speakers did speak of the need to be rid of labels. But Kenneth was closeted by the speakers if they knew v was born Brenda. Kudos to the VOICE for doing the journalistic research to find the actual identity of Kenneth and shame on local media for either ignoring the brutal murder right on 7th Ave with people walking by and ignoring a body on the ground or being lazy in their fact checking.

That said it was, in fact, an adamant and loud memorial for Kenneth and a call for the protection of all marginalized people living on the street. Yes, there was some race baiting and the use of the word "cis" in a hateful, negative way. But what was interesting to me is the dialectic between angry trans people who are committed to making life safer for trans-people and working with non-trans identified individuals. As a gay white senior, I just brushed off the insults lumping all white gay men into one nasty sinkhole called CIS. I realized that for someone like myself it is to communicate through action and not academic theory based language debate. We need to support each person who is poor and seen as different for equal opportunity to live and work and be accepted in this country.

My personal political mantra in these dark days of TRUMP AGENDA is

THE RGHT TO BE DIFFERENT AND EQUAL IS A FUNDAMENTAL AMERICAN PRINCIPAL! FRON THE ARRIVAL OF PEOPLE FLEEING DISCRIMATION IN BRITAN TO THE ALL THE PEOPLE WHO LOOK AND ACT DIFFERENT FROM IMPOSED NORM TODAY.


Here are some excerpts from the Trans Justice memorial rally.



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