Mamita Mala over at Vivir Latino has a very important post up about the Angie Zapata trail and outcome (verdict, guilty on all counts).
Speaking of silencing, Pam has another great post about how mainstream GLB media didn’t report on the case or the trial.
Is a recently murdered Angie Zapata viewed as less useful to the cause than Matthew Shepard, for instance? Does the lurid nature of the heinous crime make it appear less sympathetic in some way to media decisionmakers, who feel mainstream (read: straight) audiences will identify less with a Latina transgender victim than one who is a blond gay white young man? Honestly, if it’s the latter, you’d get no one to admit it anyway, because, well, that would be callous, right?
This led to many LGB media tripping over themselves to apologize for not covering the case.
Autumn did a great job covering the trial and deserves all the props she’s gotten.
Pero on the same tip where was the Latino media, both mainstream and not in covering Angie’s story? The Latino blogosphere and Latino orgs jump on stories when an immigrant is killed or attacked in a hate crime. Where were orgs like the NCLR and where are their statements? Are we as Latinos still so uncomfortable, still so transphobic that we can’t discuss, report, speak on cases like Angie’s? Was she not as much a part of the Latino community as Marcelo Lucero for example.Just as LGBT media and orgs cannot ignore or scapegoat the Latino community when it comes to issues like marriage equity, Latino media and orgs cannot ignore how homophobia and transphobia, however internalized, allow us to not give the same weight to the death of a trans latina mujer as we give to a racist hate crime.
As I said on twitter yesterday, I am feeling sorta empty and confused and happy and weirded out about this whole thing. I can’t feel happy that yet another Latino human being is being thrown in jail forever–but as somebody else said THANK GOD that for just fucking ONCE the necessity of the life of a beautiful woman is affirmed. But at the same time–are any of these verdicts going to make life for trans people safer? The answer is no–more tragic news from Stacey shows this.
And the most tragic thing of all–not one woman, not one man, will ever come back ever–no matter what verdict comes out.
We must not put all our efforts into trusting the court system. The court system followed through this one time–but even if it follows through every single time from now on–I don’t want that kind of justice–I want living breathing human beings type of justice. I want Angie here surrounded by her family, I want Gwen here in her mothers arms, I want laughter and love and kisses and flirting and pictures with nephews and more and more and more.
Justice in safety.
Justice in life.
- Share
April 23rd, 2009 at 2:48 pm #
yes! thanks for bringing the conversation about real justice in the direction it needs to go.
i had an immediate yay type reaction when i read the verdict on the twitter feed, but of course it is not enough, and it is not a happy ending or a yay moment at all. although i hope it can bring some kind of relief and ‘closure’ (as far as that is possible) for her family and friends.
it is a real shame that the word ‘justice’ is too often only talked about when preceded by the word ‘criminal’.
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:30 pm #
thank you for this– it captures my feelings beautifully.
i was recently assaulted and people asked if i would go to the police– why? what would that do? would it end rape culture? would it have taught “friends” that blaming the victim stuff isn’t ok? would it heal me? would it heal the man of color who assaulted me? nope.
the kind of justice i want can’t be found in the same state that oppresses folks in my community.
April 24th, 2009 at 8:07 am #
Fuckin’ amen. Justice isn’t whenever someone is punished for their crimes, or even when their crimes are acknowledged for what they are. Justice is when the crimes don’t happen.
April 26th, 2009 at 1:30 pm #
thanks for this.
i don’t invest my ideas about justice into “criminal justice” but i do think that this may be a turning point of sorts on the trans deceiver defense, which CAN make a difference in our lives.
May 12th, 2009 at 9:27 am #
(Sorry to zombie this thread, slightly.)
Yes. That. And the hope that beneath the arguments and defences and verdicts, there is actual change, however stone-like.
And also that.
It’s hard, though. I believe in deeper justice, in justice-from-love, in a justice that works not because trans woman are raped killed but their communities are strong and supported but because trans woman are not raped and killed, in a justice that does not then itself beat, rape, and mutilate trans women. I do not believe I will see this world in my life.
Which leaves me in-between. I don’t think the criminal justice system is a machine that produces justice. But I also don’t think the leviathan is going to drown any time soon, so I have to be slightly relieved that it seems to be capable of something slightly less horrific than I’ve seen before. It’s a twisted hope, but there you go.