on •

LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS — This is an open letter to the founder and editors of TransAdvocate: Marti Abernathey, Founding Editor; Cristan Williams, Editor-in-Chief; Autumn Sandeen, Editor; Monica Roberts, Editor.

I just wrote my third article on transgender deaths for the week. In all, 6 trans people were murdered during this recent string. I’m guessing, but I believe I’ve reported on 80 or so trans murders to this point. The photos of each and every one of them are burned in my brain. I started doing this a few years back because I felt it was the least I could do to help our community be safe and aware of society’s tendency for trans violence.

Although writing constantly about trans murder is wearisome, I’ve never asked anyone else to share this burden because the misery index can be high and is not something I’d willingly wish on trans people who are not professionally trained to deal with.

Late last year, I was approach by a serious trans-run entity that were willing to share this burden. Although they set their sights pretty high, they had the brains, volunteers and money to pull it off. The value of accurate, factual and non-misgendered information is beyond measurable for advocates and writers — readers don’t often realize a few sentences about a trans murder may take hours to nail down.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, that train was derailed at the station by TransAdvocate. You felt it necessary to toss a grenade, fine, so now there’s a big hole here. What’s your plan to fill it? Can you really drop that bomb and walk away? Maybe your ethical findings were a bit too demoralizing for you to live with. But let me tell you, looking at down this huge hole of yours right now, at this time, is especially demoralizing to me and I have to live with it. God forbid anyone else gets murdered in the next few weeks.

Checking out the TA website revealed that none of these 6 murders were reported on your home page. The TA Facebook page had a repost from Autostraddle about 2 of the murders, leaving the other 4 unreported. Clearly TA isn’t stepping up to fill the hole.

All of you are respected advocates and writers and you all are entitled to your opinions and views. I have no desire to start another debate, nor have a family squabble, but I do have to ask: what’s TransAdvocate’s plan to fill the hole? Maybe convince an existing trans organization into tracking trans violence and murders? Surely you can twist an arm or two. Maybe your plan is no plan at all. If that’s the case, just say so and we’ll just all move on.

——-

Recent transgender murders:

Los Angeles: https://lexiecannes.com/2015/02/01/the-latest-in-a-horrid-string-of-transgender-murders-los-angeles/

Kentucky, Austria: https://lexiecannes.com/2015/01/29/two-more-trans-murders-reported-since-yesterday-kentucky-and-austria/

Pakistan, Texas, Virginia: https://lexiecannes.com/2015/01/27/three-transgender-women-murdered-in-nine-days/

TransAdvocate website: http://www.transadvocate.com/

TA Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/transadvocate

Watch LEXIE CANNES right now: http://www.amazon.com/Lexie-Cannes-CourtneyODonnell/dp/B00KEYH3LQ Or get the DVD: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0963781332

LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS is associated with Wipe Out Transphobia: http://www.wipeouttransphobia.com/ Read Lexie Cannes in The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/courtney-odonnell/

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

Reddit

LinkedIn

Tumblr

Print

Pocket

Email

Pinterest

Like this: Like Loading...

Categories: Everything else