22
transgender people on the list of those killed by violence. Most of whom
are transgender women of color. Transgender visibility week is underway
and last from November
13 to 19th every year. The day of remembrance,
November 20th, has been observed by the trans community since 1998.UPDATE:Crunchyroll.com a localize of anime into US English choose to accurately translate a character as transgender rather than applying the word trap to them as done in the past. A number of us made them aware of the issue and the effect of that word and they listened. Sadly they also caught hell from very young bigots. See the end for more.
As I am an
academic and scientist my comments focus on that environment. If you have
students who are transgender please treat them with kindness. If you have
colleagues who are transgender please treat them with the same respect you
would any other education professional.
You do not need
to do anything heroic to make the world a bit better for transgender people.
Suggested
low cost activities:
1.
Familiarize yourself with your institution or employers nondiscrimination
policies. and comply with them.
2.
Remember the laws that protect students also protect faculty and
staff. YOU HAVE RIGHTS TOO!
3.
Consider
making your classroom an explicitly safe space to be LGBT, one based on
mutual respect for all views. The GLSEN safe space kit can help.
Transwomen
are all around you and usually you don’t notice. We try not to be noticed
because too often to be noticed is to be harassed, attacked, or discriminated
against. Think what you want about
transgender people’s rights but think also about the value of all human
life. That should be nonnegotiable.
About TGDOR
“The Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) was started by
transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita
Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1998. The vigil commemorated all
the transgender people lost to violence that year and began an important
memorial that has become the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.” –
Center on Halsted. http://www.centeronhalsted.org/newevents-details.cfm?ID=9214
For
2018 the US names are : Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien, Viccky
Gutierrez, Zakaria Fry, Celine Walker, Tonya Harvey, Phylicia Mitchell, Amia
Tyrae Berryman, Sasha Wall, Carla Patricia Flores-Pavon, Nino Fortson, Gigi
Pierce, Antash’a-English, Diamond Stephens, Catalina Christina James, Keisha
Wells, Sasha Garden, Dejanay Stanton, Vontashia Bell, Shantee Tucker, London
Moore, Nikki Enriquez, Ciara Minaj Carter Frazier…
Internationally there are over 100 names of those killed by
hateful anti transgender violence. https://tdor.info/
Casual Transphobia In Popular Culture
What I have
done this year is focus on a cluster of people who hold a casually transphobic
view within modern pop culture. That is people who call both characters and
people who do not conform to gender norms “traps”. Up to and including characters,
and people, who live not just 24/7 but 25/8 in a transgender role, “traps”.
This is still a big REAL issue. I will keep on anime localizers such as crunchyroll.com
about the fact that they are perpetuating casual bigotry which can and does end
in death for real people.
We can now provisionally say that Cruncyroll got the message. They did listen to us and they deserve kudos and support for not catering to bigots and transphobes among their young demographic. I and other youngish transpeople who are into anime explained it to them...used social media and (good "old" media like this one) to raise awareness of the issue. When a minority is as small as mine is, it can be easy to forget we are real people. Media portrayals of us have more power than they should because through them is how most people get to know anything about us.
In a similar situation last year, with a similar character, in a similar anime they edited things to make that character out to somehow just be a boy. Despite full time cross living, and having all their ID changed,and putting female on a job application, and habitually using the women's facilities.
I don't know if Lily from the anime "Zombieland Saga" was just too blatantly trans for them to hide...or if they listened but I am declaring that they seem to have gotten the point. The bigoted reactions to be found on Twitter show that calling such characters "traps" is not harmless.
Edited to leave this here for any who may write a nasty comment in the future.
