Crap! Just! Crap!

[rozk]

News just in here and here and here.
Duanna Johnson has been mysteriously gunned down in the streets of Memphis.

Duanna was the AfricanAmerican trans woman beaten and mocked by the Memphis police, who was got her assailants fired and was suing the police department for $1.3 millions. Three men shot her and ran away - she was the poorest of the poor, living in an apartment without power, and trying to arrange a ride back to her hometown Chicago, so who shot her? I am sure we will never know.

One of the reasons why I am so quietly furious with Bindel and the Guardian and Stonewall is that they do not get that disrespect for trans people KILLS. This is not an academic debate - it is a war zone. It is more likely to happen to trans people of colour, but I am about as privileged as we get in the community - well-known byline, Oxford educated, respected and admired - and I have been beaten, and raped, and there was even a possible attempt on my life over my activism.

And I know that Duanna and Gwen and Kelly and Angie were my sisters; and I know that Brandon and Emmon were my brothers; and I know that for as long as people talk of us as if we were scum our lives are not safe.

Comments

[auntysarah.livejournal.com]

Duanna Johnson has been mysteriously gunned down in the streets of Memphis.

Oh shit, no!

[tezcatl-ipoca.livejournal.com]

Oh, fuck. D:

[zoeimogen.livejournal.com]

F**k. :-(

[lisaquestions.livejournal.com]

We may never know who shot her, but my suspicions are firmly blue. :(

And yes, this is it: The hate and prejudice that people like Bindel spew supports a system that sees trans lives as disposable. :(

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

*SICK AT HEART*

[sneerpout.livejournal.com]

Horrible, horrible news.

[(Anonymous)]

This is terrible but oh-so-familiar.

We will remember Duanna at this year's Trans Day of Remembrance and every TDOR in every year from now on.

May she rest in peace.

Christina xx

[scattykat.livejournal.com]

F***!

This is why it is so important that we challenge people every time we perceive transphobia; allowing individuals to express their transphobia allows legitimacy of violence against trans people Sad

Duanna Rest in Peace (((hug)))

Scattykat
-x-

[fjm.livejournal.com]

[insert angry comments here]

[paulathomas.livejournal.com]

Awful, awful news

[abigailb.livejournal.com]

gah, fuckers

[gauroth.livejournal.com]

That is appalling news. Such a courageous woman, and someone murders her - that is barbaric.

MAIR

[(Anonymous)]

Yes Roz I agree entirely . They are my sisters and brothers too Roz . I feel for them too.
Its not right. Its bloody unfair and it shouldn't happen .

[girfan.livejournal.com]

So sorry to hear this. :(

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

That's horrifying. I've sent a link to The Agitator (theagitator.com), a blog that covers justice system atrocities.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Huh. And the Guardian have just closed their comments on the Bindel article with one denying that this was a transphobic crime. (The writer reads like Bindel sockpuppet.)

[auntysarah.livejournal.com]

...and is victim-blaming as well (apparently Duanna only got what was coming to her for "choosing to look like a woman").

I feel sick.

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, because everyone knows we're all asking for it anyway....

I am very sorry to hear this.

Well Yeah

[dmsherwood53.livejournal.com]

You've said it all

[scattykat.livejournal.com]

Not quite... Natacha got the last word in

And the few posters before, including Roz hold the sway on pro trans

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Yes, I somehow missed Natacha's when I wrote that - must have been the red mist! Oh, and yes again - another trouncing for the anti-trans brigade overall, which is cheering: until you read about the next murder, of course.

[galamb-borong.livejournal.com]

This is one of those depressing cases - the ones where you know through some horrible set of circumstances beyond the victim's control, their murderer won't be caught.

[perlmonger.livejournal.com]

Well, they're hardly going to arrest themselves.

[cillygirl.livejournal.com]

Really sorry to hear this... but this post really says it all.

[oatc.livejournal.com]

Totally with your reaction, but...

And I know that Duanna and Gwen and Kelly and Angie were my sisters; and I know that Brandon and Emmon were my brothers; and I know that for as long as people talk of us as if we were scum our lives are not safe.

Are we forgetting Paula Greenall[1,2], the report in The Guardian that day, of the inquest into whose death was cited by a government minister, in the parliamentary debate on the GerBil, as someone the bill was all about helping, when, in fact, it does nothing for such as her: a bright transsexual child excluded from school for wearing an excess of spit on her uniform; her teens wasted by an NHS psychoanalyst; after SRS dumped on an estate with violent transphobes who knew her from childhood; driven to suicide? Only her loving family made her story known. We should at least keep it remembered until the wrongs she suffered are no longer being suffered by others.

[natalie-456.livejournal.com]

this is so shit and depressing.

[the-maenad.livejournal.com]

fucksake........