A Veteran Is Never An “It” Or A “Shim”

Editor’s note:

J. Rudy Flesher is a Philadelphia based actor, blogger and college student. After a three-year detour working in health care he recently returned to The College of New Jersey to complete his B.A. in Women’s and Gender studies. He blogs (sporadically at the moment and daily when school is not in session) at The Pistol in Bed Thirteen.

You can also read Rudy’s first post here, “Twentysomething Hairless White Gay Men Who Have Time To Take Pilates 5 Days A Week.”

This is Rudy’s second piece at The New Civil Rights Movement.

Today, I was moved beyond words by Autumn Sandeen’s open letter to President Barack Obama at Pam’s House Blend, “President Obama: A Transgender Veteran Is Not An ‘Impersonator,’ ‘It,’ Or ‘Shim.” For those of you that haven’t read it, it describes her experience as a transgender retired Navy veteran arrested at Get Equal’s most recent direct action when, along with five others, she handcuffed herself to the White House fence on April 20th. She was misgendered, mocked by U.S. Marshals, and dehumanized, called “it” and “shim.”

I was, as I said, moved – moved to rage, to indignation, to a sudden urge to call and text all of my transgender family and friends, to make sure they were OK. Why? From the way Autumn was treated, to a transgender student recently attacked and had the word “it” carved into hir chest (I use the gender neutral pronoun “hir” because the victim/survivor’s gender was not noted), I fear for the incomparable amount of hatred and violence directed at my transgender, transsexual, genderqueer and gender outlaw family.

Every single one of us needs to stand with Autumn now, and see that this story doesn’t end in the queer and progressive blogosphere. No person is below the status of a full human being, deserving dignity, love, and a life free and violence and fear. No person is an “it.”

What can we do? By drawing national attention to this disgrace, we can open a dialogue about what it means to be transgender on America, and create an opportunity for education, understanding and compassion.

First:  Let’s create a blog storm that reaches the national mainstream media.  Use your blog, Twitter, Facebook, and every other place you have a voice to encourage your friends to contact media outlets and request that they pick up this story.  Copy and paste the following text into the news sites’ contact forms:

“Autumn Sandeen’s inhumane treatment at the hand of U.S. Marshals due to her transgender identity is a disgrace and cannot go unreported, lest it be forgotten, excused or dismissed. Please see her open letter to President Barrack Obama describing the incident here:

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/15940/president-obama-a-transgender-veteran-is-not-impersonator-it-or-shim

and run this story.”

Choose the news station and newspaper that you read and watch the most, or more if you can!

CNN:  http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form11b.html?1
MSNBC:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10285339/
Fox News: Contacts to individual shows here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,77538,00.html email here:  yourcomments@foxnews.com
ABCNews http://abcnews.go.com/Site/page?id=3052660
CBS Evening News:  evening@cbsnews.com or (212) 975-3247
New York Times:  nytnews@nytimes.com or 1-888-NYT-NEWS
Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/about/chi-email-newstips,0,2569758.customform
LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/about/mediagroup/la-feedback-email-form-rr,0,5493970.customform

Don’t see your station or newspaper? I found that Googling the name along with “news tips” or “contact us” got me where I needed to go.

Second: Don’t just contact these news sites.  Direct your friends, families, coworkers and neighbors to Autumn’s original piece.  Let them hear about her experience in her own words.

Third: Don’t hate, educate!  If you yourself know little to nothing about trans issues, today is the day to begin learning!  Here are a few great starting places:  The fabulous and incomparable Kate Bornstein has written both Gender Outlaw and My Gender Workbook: How To Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely. Another great start is an anthology called GENDERqUEER, which describes many, many gendered experiences. For a scholarly bent, check out The Transgender Studies Reader.

Not being transgender myself, this is the best way I’ve found to be a trans ally:  listen a lot and talk a little.  Don’t speak for people.  Say “my friend had this experience” or “actually that’s a misconception, I read that…”  And for the love of Pete, please don’t go running to the one trans guy or gal in your neighborhood for the run down on all things trans. Just like there’s no singular black, gay, or other experience, there’s no one universal trans experience. Identities are complicated by race, sexuality, class, and geographical location.

The bottom line: you don’t actually need to know anything about a person to realize that you don’t need to hate and dehumanize them! If you simply keep an open heart and mind and realize that every person deserves dignity, move to the head of the class.

You can understand someone’s experience later, but compassion starts now, today, this moment.

(image via Pam’s House Blend)