[Wamvan] Facing and Fighting Transphobic Violence

[Meenakshi Mannoe]

Facing and Fighting Transphobic Violence for Both the Living and the Dead:
CeCe McDonald and Brandy Martell

*by Ianna Hawkins Owen*

*Cross-posted from Tikkun
Daily<http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2012/05/02/facing-and-fighting-transphobic-violence-for-both-the-living-and-the-dead-cece-mcdonald-and-brandy-martell/>
.*
<http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/wp-content/uploads/memorial2.jpg>

The corner of 13th and Franklin in Oakland, California, has become a
makeshift memorial site for Brandy Martell. Credit: Photo by A.M. (
http://transfeminism.tumblr.com).

It is not easy to mourn the dead, it’s an assignment without hope of
closure. Nor is it easy to defend the living, but for other reasons. The
living pose questions that we hesitate to answer: Whose bodies are
grievable? Are our responses sustainable? How much do we have to give, for
whom, and for how long? We do not sign up for shifts of pain, they spirit
us away. But we do we have a choice to show up – in myriad ways, to make
eye contact, to pack the court, to pick up the phone. We must not remember
the dead at the expense of the living but instead balance our dedication to
freedom.

Just three nights ago here in downtown Oakland Brandy
Martell<http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2012/05/brandy-martell-killed-in-oakland.html>,
a trans woman of color, was murdered. There were a lot of people gathered
at an emergency vigil on Sunday night at the site of her passing on 13th
and Franklin. Friends, community members, and family spoke and witnessed,
shouted and cried. An Occupy Oakland street medic, who happened to be out
late that night responding to another shooting (despite a curfew order),
described trying to save Brandy’s life with CPR and pressure applied to her
bullet wounds while the police came late and stood idly by as she died.

Not having known Brandy or her friends, I showed up because, among other
reasons, this happened in my neighborhood. The next day when I woke up, I
read that CeCe McDonald <https://supportcece.wordpress.com/>’s trial was
just beginning. Having survived a racist and transphobic attack, she is
facing not justice but two counts of “second degree murder” for defending
herself. Today she has taken a plea and as her supporters there are things
that we must do and things we mustn’t do. We must respect her decision.
Yet, we must not allow the state to gaslight her determination to live.
CeCe still needs our support. She needs our energy and efforts not only as
she awaits sentencing, not only if/as she moves through the system, not
only in the days when she is free again. As the old saying goes, “the heart
is a muscle the size of your fist”; so long as it flexes within you, pray
with it for Brandy, fight with it for CeCe, and speak from it with one
another.

Are you hurting? We shall be free.

Visit ColorLines<http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/05/report_cece_mcdonald_takes_plea_deal_in_minneapolis_murder_case.html>
for
an update on CeCe’s plea.

Here’s what out-of-towners can
do<http://freececemcdonald.tumblr.com/post/22012029427/out-of-towners-we-need-yr-help-supporting-cece?og=1>
to
support CeCe (still relevant).

*Ianna Hawkins Owen **is a graduate student in African Diaspora Studies at
UC Berkeley. **In New York she organized with All City and the Audre Lorde
Project. Her research interests include failure, desire, and abolition.*

*To read more pieces like this, sign up for Tikkun Daily’s free
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follow us on Twitter <https://twitter.com/tikkunonline>.*
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