Much of the discussion around the blogosphere about the KRXQ shock jock case has focused on freedom of speech. Surely, people argue, Rob Williams and Arnie States have a right to say what they want about transgender people. And of course under current US law they do. The fact that much of the rest of the country is outraged at their ignorant and hateful comments should be punishment enough. But sadly such issues also have wider ramifications. As one commenter here noted, transgender people are 17 times more likely to be murdered than the average US citizen. Other statistics, published by HRC but now a little old, suggest that transgender people living in the US have a 1 in 12 chance of having their lives ended by murder.
In September 2008 the body of a transgender woman, Ruby Molina, was found floating in the American River in Sacramento – part of the area that KRXQ serves. The police identified her death as “suspicious” and offered a $1000 reward for any information that might help them resolve the case. As far as I can see from trawling the Internet this morning, no progress has been made on this. Whoever murdered Ruby Molina has got away with it.
This is by no means an isolated case. Transgender people are murdered on a regular basis all over the USA. Mostly their killers are not brought to justice. Even if they are, they are often let off because juries take the attitude of another commenter: that transgender people are “weirdos and freaks”. If you dehumanize someone in this way, then killing them apparently doesn’t matter.
My search for news about Ruby Molina did bring up this report from the Sacramento News & Review about a memorial service for Ruby and other victims of anti-LGBT violence. The report quotes Dr. Gregory M. Herek, a professor of psychology at UC Davis:
Herek also pointed out that “when individuals perceive that they have some sort of ‘permission’ to attack members of minority groups, they will do so.â€
This is what people like Williams and States have in mind when they launch public attacks against people they hate. They know that they may not get away with murdering people themselves, and probably they don’t have the courage to do so. However, they are well aware that by defaming particular groups of people in strident and defamatory tones on the radio they will encourage other people – people who are less smart and less cowardly than themselves – to do the dirty work for them. Because they haven’t explicitly incited murder they know that they can hide behind their freedom of speech rights and avoid any responsibility for what they have said, but they know all too well what the effects of their words will be on others. It is murder by proxy performed by cowards.
Excellent post. Thank you for that.
And the thing is, it’s not just about transgendered people. This kind of thing happens with people with disabilities as well.
One of my personal experiences of hate crimes.
It really has to stop, but I am not holding my breath to see it in my lifetime.
Oh, forgot to add that many people with disabilities are murdered by what a lot of society consider “good people”, people who execute so called mercy killings. One wonders why it took three trials to put Kevorkian in jail, even though he murdered dozens upon dozens of people that were not terminally ill, but with disabilities no more severe than my own…
I just finished a story with a transgender character in it. I´m still rewriting some parts of it, but I already started looking for publications on the Web anyway. I was appalled when I found a statement in the submission guidelines of one webzine that they simply won´t have anything to do with “alternative lifestyles”. And they are very explicit about what these AL are: gays, lesbians, and transgenders. I don´t feel comfortable pointing fingers, but I´m definitely not sending any material to them (even though all the rest of the stories I´m currently writing has no gay, lesbian, or transgender characters, I have plenty of GLT friends and I can´t endorse this kind of sociopathic behavior in the 21st Century).
Fabio:
Let me know when you find a publisher. I’d like to read it.
This is all so depressing. And the WHY of it is incomprehensible to any thinking person. I will never understand the senseless hate, never. It’s not just vicious, but also without reason.
The odd thing about this country (Malaysia) is that when I first came to live here in the 1970s, it was much more tolerant than it is now. People might have been laughed at for being “different” but they were rarely, if ever, assaulted. Now…it’s different.
Now they have even turned the full force of the law on Muslim gay or transgendered people too. You can be fined and jailed for wearing a dress if you happen to have an identity card that says you are male, and you could well be beaten up on your way there.
And the hypocrisy has to be seen to be believed. I had to laugh when a married govt cabinet minister had his shenanigans with his mistress in a motel broadcast via the internet, and someone (probably for political reasons) wanted to bring a charge against him for the illegal nature – yep, true, illegal under the law of the country what’s more, not just Islamic law – of one particular sexual act that was filmed. So far nothing has happened. He did resign, but it pays to be straight it seems. He would have been in much more trouble if he’d worn a dress.