Stop Street Harassment

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Remember Brandy, Paige, & Deoni…Help Free Cece

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It’s an outrage how many cis-gender people harass and murder transgender individuals! Each November there is the Transgender Day of Remembrance to document these tragedies and to remember the victims. Recent murders include —

Last weekend in Oakland, California (Via the Daily Kos):

“37-year-old Brandy Martell was sitting behind the wheel of her car around 5:15 a.m. at when one or two men walked up and began a conversation. A witness told ABC7 the conversation was cordial, but then.. one of the men became angry and fired into the car right where Martell was sitting.”

Two weeks ago in Illinois (Via Chicago Phoenix):

“Paige Clay, 23, was found in an alley in the 4500 block of West Jackson Boulevard with a gunshot wound to the forehead…A Facebook event page has been started titled “JUSTICE FOR PAIGE“, which asks anyone with information about her death to notify authorities and activists at the TaskForce.”

In February in Washington DC, I attended the vigil for 22-year-old Deoni Jones who was stabbed in the cheek at a Metrobus stop in Washington, D.C., and died from the wound. During the vigil, someone released a bunch of balloons and called out names; each name and balloon signified a transgender person who’d been murdered in DC over the past few years.

While sadly it’s too late to save Brandy, Paige, or Deoni, it’ s not too late to try to save Chrishaun “CeCe” McDonald who is on trial for murder when she was simply acting in self defense against a homophobic racist.

Via Minnesota Daily:

“Monday marked the beginning of Crishaun “CeCe” McDonald’s murder trial. For those who haven’t been following this case, McDonald is a 23-year-old, black, transgender woman who was harassed and attacked outside of a Minneapolis bar almost a year ago — her attempts to defend herself ended in the death of one of her attackers, Dean Schmitz.

Some of the details of what happened that night are fuzzy, but there is no doubt that McDonald and her friends were subjected to a slurry of homophobic, transphobic and racist taunts followed by a thrown bottle that sliced open McDonald’s cheek and caused a fight to break out. What happened after that will be officially decided in court, but McDonald would tell you that she pulled out a pair of scissors to defend herself from a hate crime. She maintains that when her middle-aged, white attacker (with a Swastika tattooed on his chest, no less) followed her away from the scuffle, he ended up running into her scissors and incurring a fatal wound.

Minnesota Public Radio’s recent coverage of the case focused on a debate that has become central to McDonald’s case: Should the hate crimes committed and attempted against McDonald be a consideration in her trial?”

There’s a Support Cece website where you can find out how to support and advocate for her. You can:

1 – Sign a petition asking that the charges against Cece be dropped

2 – Go to the trial (which started yesterday) to show your support if you’re in the Minneapolis area. The address is Hennepin County Government Plaza, 300 6th Street South, Minneapolis, MN.

3 – Send a letter to CeCe while she is in jail, and let her know she has a huge amount of community support and that we are all here for her. Click here for a mailing address and guidelines.

4 – Donate to her support fund.

Two days ago, Janet Mock delivered a keynote address at USC addressing hatecrimes and murders against transgender individuals. Via her site:

“Partial Text of Janet Mock’s Keynote Address
Copyright of Janet Mock, 2012

As little as a year ago, I never thought I’d be here in front of hundreds of people, proclaiming that I’m a transgender woman.

Yet long before coming out in the pages of Marie Claire….

Long before becoming an editor at the world’s top magazine….

Long before becoming the first person in my family to go to college, to get a masters degree, to move away from Hawaii and yes, the first to get a sex change…

I was just a curly-haired kid trying to find myself and trying to assert myself in this world.

Last week I met a young woman just like me. She was 23. She held jobs at Macys and Forever 21. She didn’t get the chance to go to college like we did. She didn’t have her family’s support like I did. She grew up a ward of the state and found solace in Chicago’s queer and ball communities.

I met her last week only because I came across her name and her beautiful brown face on a website, with a headline that read: “Paige Clay, 23-year-old Transgender Woman Found Shot in the Head.”

I didn’t shout or cry in anger when I saw her story. Instead, I found myself with this numbing sense. I was desensitized because I had read Paige’s story before. Over and over again. I had read it in LaShai McLean’s story and Agnes Torres Sulca’s story and Shelley Hilliard’s story and Deoni Jones’s story. These women’s murders have become the harsh reality girls like us face.

For trans women of color, these women’s murders are constant reminders that who we are falls so outside of the box of what society says is acceptable that our deaths and even our lives don’t matter. We are in effect disposable…“

It’s so important that we all do our part to make sure that no one’s life is disposable and that these kinds of murders and injustices are not ignored, hushed up, or trivialized. Speak out against transphobia. Challenge people who think gender is rigid and that deviation is wrong/immoral/justifies violence. Speak out when people make comments like, “young ladies do x, y, z” or “real men do a, b, c.” We should all be free to try out and defy gender norms in whatever way we want, great or small, without facing judgment, hate, and violence. Gender is just a social construct. No one should be murdered or jailed for creating and living their own construct. Help free Cece.

UPDATE: (via Feministing)

“CeCe and her legal team plead accepted a plea agreement, and McDonald pled guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter in the second degree. Next month, she’ll be sentenced to 41 months in jail.

Supporters, unsurprisingly, are pointing to how CeCe was treated at almost every stage by the criminal justice system as evidence of systematic discrimination and mistreatment of transgender people and people of colour.

After the plea agreement was announced, Katie Burgess of the Trans Youth Support Network addressed a crowd of CeCe’s supporters at the courthouse:

“Over the past 10 months I have witnessed the legal system isolating and attacking another young trans woman of color in our community, CeCe McDonald. And over the past 10 months, I have also witnessed our community say very clearly, ‘You are not alone, CeCe! And we have had enough!’

“We know that this system is not designed to deliver justice to young trans women of color. We are going to continue to support CeCe as she goes through this process and continue to stand for justice for all trans people and people of color so that this is the last time a young trans woman of color has to go through this.”

You can write to CeCe as she’s in jail awaiting sentencing. Click here for her address, and for guidelines about what you can and can’t send her. And, if you’re in the Minneapolis area and want to show your support for her in person, you can come to her sentencing date. Supporters are encouraged to wear purple in solidarity on the day.”

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Win a signed copy of the book Stop Street Harassment + SSH Swag

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There are several ways to submit your entry or entries:

1 – Share it in the comments

2 – Send to stopstreetharassment @ yahoo.com

3 – Post it on the Stop Street Harassment Facebook page

4 – Tweet it with #SSHcontest

Be sure to include an email address or some way to get in touch with you should your name be drawn.

Four names will be drawn tomorrow afternoon to celebrate the 4 years of Stop Street Harassment! Each person will also receive a Stop Street Harassment pin and stickers with their signed book.

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EVAW’s efforts to make London the safest city for women in the world

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Will London become the safest city in the world for women?

Maybe!

This is the goal of the Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW) Coalition in London and they’re working hard to make it happen.

And of course, the absence of street harassment and public sexual assault is a requirement for any safe city.

I recently chatted via skype with the EVAW director Holly Dustin and found out that they are working to address street harassment/harassment on public transportation and while these are relatively new issues for them, already they’re having a lot of success because it is such a big problem for women in London.

To gather data (we always need more research!!), they conducted a YouGov poll about harassment on the London public transportation system.

They write that the poll: “revealed that more than a quarter of women in London do not always feel safe while using public transport. Many survey respondents said they wanted action on station staffing, lighting and policing. Feeling unsafe puts many more women than men off using the buses and trains at certain times, or in certain places, and urgently needs addressing by the transport authorities and as such by the mayor. We received wide London media coverage for our findings which seemed to strike a chord.”

It even struck a chord with the candidates for Mayor of London. EVAW has successfully lobbied each one to pledge to improve women’s safety if elected, including by addressing sexual harassment and assault on public transportation. Here are the manifestos by candidates Siobhan Benita, Boris Johnson Ken Livingstone and Brian Paddick. Elections are this week.

This is the 10-point plan EVAW suggests the new Mayor will need to take on in order to make London the safest city for women.

Additionally, the 2012 Summer Olympics will be held in London and EVAW is working hard on a campaign to make sure the city IS safe for everyone during it.

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“I am a feminist, yet I am a victim”

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This article excerpt is cross-posted with permission from the blog Organica: The Story of an Arab American Girl.

I am writing about my everyday experiences as a single woman living in Cairo, Egypt. I travel independently, run my own life and refuse to allow harassment or male behavior hinder my life. I am writing about the price I pay for braving the road, the protests, the streets, and the sit-ins. I am writing about how my feminism feels helpless and often afraid.

Here it goes: my name is Hana and I am an empowered victim.

When I lived in the United States between 2006 and 2011, I used to dream about the day I’d move back to Egypt so that I could yell and shame every man who sexually harassed me on the street. I thought it would feel empowering. I was wrong. Not only is it extremely draining and tedious, it quite often takes a scary turn. Sexual harassers thrive on getting a rise out of their prey.

This is not an article on sexual harassment, but a glimpse of my life.

On the Road:

Everyday my mother looks at me with terror: ‘khali balak men nafsik winabi ya benti’ [take care of yourself my daughter] before I leave the house, and my response is ‘Mami haye7sali eh ya3ni? Mate2la2eesh’ [Mom, what do you think could possibly happen to me anyways? Stop worrying!]. But in reality, I’m wrong and she’s right. She should be worried for my safety. I am often instructed to reconsider my outfits when I am driving alone and I argue that I am not going to let men affect my choices.

The driver-to-driver harassment is rampant in Cairo. One time while in stagnant 6th of October bridge traffic, I was texting on my phone (traffic was at a complete standstill).

The driver in the car next to mine said: “I hope this phone falls on the car mat, so that you may bend down to get it, and I’d drive into you, ya know what I mean?”

I yelled “balash elit adab w 2araf’ [I don’t want disrespect and disgust], which he responded “ba2a keda?” [Like that, eh?] – And then he followed me to my house all while making further obscene comments.

There was nothing I could do to protect myself from this bully – I was helpless.

Protests:

I moved back to Egypt on July 5th. On July 8th there was a million man march and the beginning of a sit-in. That Friday was my first ever protest in Egypt. I dressed appropriately and took to the streets with immeasurable excitement. Given that I moved back to Egypt for the revolution, I thought nothing could taint my first experience in a protest – I was wrong.

A man approached with his three friends and asked about the color of my bra – apparently he preferred white ones. I yelled and said that I would scream if he said anything which made him and his friends laugh loudly – at me – declaring that I am crazy but a ‘hottie,’ and a crazy-hottie combo would be great in bed. I pulled out my pepper spray but it failed to reach my monsters.

The day continued along the same lines, I got groped several times, one of which was actually from the front (I did not know that was even possible), and another by a 12 year old CHILD who I caught and yelled at. I was scared and felt vulnerable although equipped with my knife and pepper spray. There was nothing I could do and it felt awful.

The Streets:

There is no ‘that street’ story because there are countless street stories. They all revolve around the same thing: being verbally and quite often physically assaulted by men. Forget the catcalls, and the comments (I was once told that I am attractive, but would be much more attractive if I lost some weight), but the physical harassment is unbearable.

My street story is by no means special. I was walking home, turning at a corner, when a man’s hand came out of a car window and groped me (it was painful). The car had 4 or 5 guys and I could hear them laugh at my humiliation. I continued walking, feeling disgusted when the car appeared again, and one of the guys in the car so kindly suggested that it was obvious that I wanted to get groped again.

Yeah, that felt awful too.

…

Reality:

The worst thing that I face as a woman who refuses to let such actions hinder or inhibit her is the feeling of helplessness. I am a feminist, yet I am a victim. I know for a fact yelling back or even screaming at harassers is effective, some do actually apologize when shamed, but I also know that NOTHING will stop these men except actual punishment. I am a woman who never uses the metro, microbuses, buses and I rarely use taxis, yet I face this much harassment. I can only imagine what the women who do use public transportation face on a daily basis. I presume I’d have to multiply my experiences by a hundred.

I do not pray often, but I pray that the day comes when I feel safe walking the streets of Egypt; I walk them now anyway, but I feel weak, vulnerable and helpless and it feels awful.

–An Egyptian Woman.

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