Yesterday I found myself on a website which stated that Brandon Teena was a transvestite woman. The site lists "men who were really women" (no, I'm not going to provide a link. I don't want to increase the number of hits on the page) and while the text was written more in good-natured ignorance than in an actual attempt to offend, I found it offensive beyond description. I fumed over the matter last night -- I tell you it's hard to make me angry, I'm a pretty patient person, but this one made me furious. I was feeling physically sick, and I needed to get out of the house for a moment, to go for a walk with my dog and think of other things for a moment.
Who Brandon Teena? Okay. He's the guy on whose life the movie Boys Don't Cry was based. Putting it shortly, he was born a girl, sexually assaulted by a male relative, lived as a man in another town, dated a girl who didn't know he wasn't a natal guy, got arrested, his girlfriend found out that he was physically female, his two buddies found out, too, and raped him and beated him up (yeah, some buddies, huh), he filed a police report but due "administrative errors" the buddies were not even arrested, later on those two "buddies" of his came after him and shot him and two other people. There. Search the net if you want to know more details. A horrible story. And no, he was not just a lesbian, he was a transman planning to have sex reassignment surgery. The problem for many of us (especially those who live in the U.S.) is that the operation is so expensive. Not all of us can afford it even if we wanted it, so don't blame us for not having the operation right away. Things are financially much easier here in Finland, but that's not really relevant in this context since Teena was American.
Why am I so agitated over this? It's not that I idolise Brandon Teena in any way. I disagree with some of his choices, I would have made different decisions if I was in the same situation, but that's not the point. Everyone can make mistakes. We are human, not some supermen, even we trans people. So I am not exactly looking up at Brandon Teena. I see him as "one of us", not so very different from me. I'm pre-op as well. When I read about him, I cannot help but picture myself in his stead. And it sickens me to think that a fellow human being can be treated so badly by other human beings. That's all we are, all of us, you, me, the guy next door, the girl you see in the super market buying apples, the old lady walking slowly in the park. Just human beings -- all of us incredibly beautiful in our imperfections and failings, all of us immeasurably valuable as individuals. That's what we are -- neither better, nor worse, just unique. Each and every one of us.
Violence against any person or animal is wrong and condemnable. It should never be tolerated. Especially difficult is violence and hatred towards minorities. It's so easy to hate things you don't know or understand, yet it must not be tolerated. Declaring Brandon Teena as a transvestite woman is undermining all the work done to improve the situation of trans people. It is direct belittling and dismissing of what Teena personally went through. Step by step we are working our way towards a better society where no one, not even trans people or other minorities, need to be afraid of violent outbursts of hatred. Or that's the dream, at least. Personally, I'm cynical -- I don't think we ever get quite there. But any improvements are welcome. This particular incident regarding Brandon Teena was a step backwards, and that's obviously the wrong direction. It should not be shrugged off as ignorance or "they didn't mean anything bad, it didn't sound all that bad really". Sometimes you need to get pissed off in order to accomplish something.
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