http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_24466900/support-pours-man-lit-fire-aboard-ac-transit
People often think of things in terms of binaries, and gender is no different. When someone feels unable to place something into a category that they are familiar with, they tend to become frustrated. With some people, this results in violence. Trans* individuals face high risks of violence and harassment, as well as high risks of rape and murder.
Sasha, luckily, was helped by fellow passengers and was brought to the hospital to recover from their burns.
http://www.featureshoot.com/2014/05/chloe-aftel/
Here is a great photo-shoot including many gender-nonconforming young adults. Sasha is the first photo.
-Alex Duncan
This story hits close to home, because when I was in high school, I knew a kid who was a born male, but identified as a woman. One day in school, I saw some punks messing with her in the hallway, and throwing her books around and pushing her. I never really knew her all that well, but I didn't like what was going on and yelled at the kids to stop. They called me a "faggot lover", but I didn't care because I knew what I did was right.
ReplyDeleteI know she wasn't seriously injured like the individual in the article, but I stood up for this individual because any violence, or harassment of any kind is intolerable, and should never happen. The day we see the end of this kind of violence is the day I want to see soon.
- Anthony Bellore
I absolutely think that you're right about people being made uncomfortable by other people and things who can not easily be categorized, and I find it heartbreaking that in many cases, that leads to violence against non-binary and transgender individuals.
ReplyDeleteBecause of the fact that the gender binary is socially constructed and reinforced on a societal level, many people don't witness the damaging effects that it can have on individuals. However, the story of Sasha does a good job of exemplifying exactly why the gender binary needs to be dismantled.
--Melissa Condon
Things like this just make me sad, Sasha did not deserve this in any way shape or form. Society is so focused on making people fit into these tiny restricting categories that people who don't relate to those categories are thrown under the bus. Sasha is a human with human thoughts and human feelings and human rights, yet because they don't fit society's definition of "normal", people feel that they have some license to hurt them. No one has the right to hurt another person, it's absolutely despicable. It almost makes you wonder if the attackers even considered Sasha a human.
ReplyDelete-Casey Coulter
Reading this at first had me shake my head in shame, it being a constant reminder that we as people have a long way to go before trans, and especially non-binary individuals, are accepted by society, or at least tolerated. But I still can see this with some hope and optimism in it, as it was said that people had helped Sasha and had gotten them to a hospital, as oppose to adding to the suffering of them. And looking at the picture of Sasha, luckily the people helped in time as they don't look too badly injured. So while this is sad, yes, I wish this didn't happen to any of my trans/non-conforming siblings, it also has some progression in the story, albeit small and would not have been there if the incident never happened, but still.
ReplyDelete- Tarryn Priestly
When I saw this, I had the same reaction everyone else did: this is sad that this HAPPENS. Because it is totally uncalled for to treat people like that and it hits close to home as myself and many people I'm close to have experienced some type of issues because of some part of identities. As I looked into the article itself, I feel like it was pretty decent how the writer went about introducing people that are non-binary, and I feel that's an important thing for people to see more often and that will help break down the gender binary and help get trans* communities more acceptance.
ReplyDelete-Elijah Zagorski