Unfortunately Busy

I have two Big Gay Jobs, and I was representing both of them at a recent GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) gathering, trying to get some of the students interested in my projects. There were a lot of cookies and soda, and I was struck by what apparently good, clean, productive fun these youth were having. Pretty different from the fun I was having as a queer high school student, a lot of which involved tattooing myself and being intoxicated and wearing black.

But at this gathering one student said something that jostled one of my own observations back to the surface: that there have been 5 murders of transpeople this year. In 2008. Since January 1.

After the gathering I went to some online queer news sources (queerty, 365 gay) and my friend google, and, sadly, that number is true.

Here they are:

January 8: Patrick (Patricia) Murphy, 39, N
January 21: Adolphus Simmons, 18, SC
Feb 9: Sanesha Stewart, 25, NY
Feb 12: Lawrence King, 15, CA
Feb 23: Simmie Williams, Jr., 17

It's so horrifying I'm not even sure what to say, except that maybe it's worth noting that all of these folks are male-born, and expressing on the feminine spectrum (underscoring how much more dangerous--and visible--it is for men to cross gender), and how many of them are not white. And which one has an article in Time magazine, and which ones don't.