Brandy Martell was murdered April 29th. The Daily Kos posted a relatively good article connecting it to the general lack of coverage of the murders of trans* people in the United States (albeit I really hate when media doesn't post the victim's name in the title). It scares me. I know I'm not in the same situation as Brandy, but I don't take the harassment and death threats I've received lightly.
We finally found a parking space and got out of the car. We walked up a street and I see Wiley standing outside his house. Wiley and I have been friends since high school; I admire him for his strong convictions paired with honest humility. We get along because of our cynical outlooks and our dark sense of humor. One of my favorite things about visiting him is getting to talk about all sorts of political and personal issues. The death of Brandy was on my mind. Other things were on Wiley's though. Specifically gossip about his city's leftist groups and members. So-and-so collective was fighting with the blah-blah-liberation front. The conversation was so negative that I attempted to derail it by talking about how a classmate of mine, who I had never talked to, had talked about how he has cis-gender privilege and how much it bothers him that other cis people don't recognize theirs. While I was telling the story I could tell Wiley was just waiting for me to say how this guy had said something fucked up, and when I said the opposite he was visibly disappointed.
When we got to his friend's house to pick up signs for the parade, I saw this was a systemic rather than a personal problem. The most excited I saw either Wiley or his friend E the entire day was on the walk over to the park where the parade was starting. Their excitement was due to relating to the group about a fight which erupted over facebook between them and a local union leader, which ended in Wiley making an accusation about the leader which he admitted he wasn't sure was true. He then proceeded to also accuse the leader of being a sexual predator, which he also admitted he wasn't sure was true. What Wiley did not know was that I knew this guy, and although I hadn't spent too much time with him, our interactions had been cordial and he specifically had gone out of his way to make sure I felt safe in the space as a trans* person.
The park really brought to a head premonitions I had from the tone of the recent conversations. I understand an event like the May Day Parade reaches out to a broad range of groups and people, and that those people will primarily socialize and interact with their own group. But even the groups here were divided amongst themselves; we certainly did not have the numbers to be so separated. There were a number of speakers, but each focused on speaking to their group or cause, and with the exception of two groups, they neglected intersectionality and threw out solidarity as a chant rather than an aim.
Luckily the march itself, despite disagreements on where it should have gone, was successful and a major road was completely blocked without anyone being arrested. Unfortunately, as soon as the march ended the cliques reformed and began to squabble again. For a fleeting moment I had seen solidarity, making it all the more disappointing when the dominant paradigm of division returned.
Get your shit together folks. While you argue on facebook and tumblr about who is more queer or who is more anarchist, the state and corporations take advantage of our splits to dismantle opposition. Guess what ya'll, you don't have to like someone to work with them. And gossiping about things as serious as sexual assault is not only a worthless gesture to solving the problem, it is belittling to the gravity of the situation. Coming in as an outsider everyone was nice to me, and although I suspect that some of those there didn't really understand my gender identity, they are certainly not the bigots that we claim to be fighting against. I would never be so naive to say that prejudice does not exist within leftist communities and groups: but these spaces can only be free of it by eliminating the prejudice, not those who hold it. We can both protect the safety of people and reform violent people: remember that it is the state that wants you to choose between the two.
I want a world where what happened to Brandy Martell happens to no one. And we are not going to get there until we have the power that comes from intersectional solidarity. Solidarity with all who worked to make their May Day events diverse and inclusive. Solidarity with those who call out prejudice to eliminate it rather than to pick a fight. Solidarity with all those arrested yesterday, and all those who are unjustly detained in our vengeance-centric justice system.
