BASIC Studios

 

 

Transphobia, Juniper Blessing, and Empathy

 

The tragic death of Juniper Blessing has been especially hard for me as someone with ties to both Seattle, Washington, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Juniper was fatally stabbed in Seattle where she was a student at the University of Washington, and she was also a graduate of an arts high school in Santa Fe.

 

I have always been an unconditional supporter of trans rights, to the point that many of the hurtful things society has said about my trans siblings frequently triggers me more than any other type of hate. My journey toward supporting trans rights is a typical one: I love my trans siblings because I grew up knowing many trans people and understanding that  they are, like me, regular people deserving of love and respect.

 

As a consumer of social media, I have spent decades  posting support for the trans and gender-nonconforming community, and the amount of hate those posts generate wounds me deeply. I can only imagine the damage such hate does to my trans siblings. 

 

There is always a common thread running through these hateful posts: malicious misgendering; questioning whether the person offering support is a member of the community hateful strangers cruelly speculating about my own identity and body; the glee expressed over  the violent death of a trans person; and the religious justification given to excuse it all.

 

And while it can be exhausting to fight the good fight, I see it as my duty to stand up for my trans siblings when they are being attacked. For those of you familiar with the poem “First They Came” by Martin Niemöller, it is clear that today western society—and sadly, many others around the world—is targeting trans and non-genderconforming folks as a scare tactic for anyone daring to challenge patriarchy and systems of oppression. Because of that, those of us who have cisgender privilege must do our best to stand up for those who don’t have that privilege.

 

One of the things I do as an educator is point out that transgender and nonbinary identities have always been part of the human experience. In fact, many Indigenous societies have historically supported these members of their communities and acknowledged both their existence and their right to exist in the open.

 

Second, I point out that the metonymy—when a part is used to define the whole— behind the idea that body parts define a person is truly bizarre andincredibly diminishing of the human experience, especially considering that cisgender people can be born without some of those body parts or with chromosomes that do not align with the sex they were assigned at birth. Not to mention that intersex folks have always existed and will continue to exist.

 

Third, it is truly mystifying how people can express glee at the murder of another human being . Even if that person were a serial killer executed for their crimes—I remember watching coverage of Ted Bundy’s execution while I was in  high school in Florida—I will not celebrate the death of any person.. And it’s ironic,or perhaps more accurately hypocritical, that so many of those expressing glee self-identify as Christians when celebrating death is antithetical to the values they so famously claim to uphold.

 

Most importantly, the hatred we are witnessing toward LGBTQIA+ identities, and especially trans folks, is part of a broader systemic assault on freedom and the pursuit of happiness. We must all rally to support our trans siblings, because they are under attack, and if we don’t speak for them, others will be targeted next.

 

On Sunday, May 17, the City of Santa Fe held a gathering at its downtown plaza to honor the life of Juniper Blessing. Over two-hundred people attended to pay their respects and to demand an end to the violence perpetuated against women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Juniper’s mother was unable to attend, but she sent a message to those who gathered: “Know that she was pure love.” Let us learn from Juniper that the only force more powerful than hate is love. 

 

 

– Anonymous Blogger