Discussion #6

Watching the YouTube interview with Cece McDonald and the Death and Life of Marsha P.Johnson videos were very emotional for me. I felt that we as a human being still far far away from being human with each other. The omnipresence of social exclusion based on race, ethnicity, and gender is very deceiving and alarming at the same time.
Being transgender ( a gender identity that doesn’t match the sex they were given at birth. Some people can be born with a vagina, vulva but they identify as male because they feel they belong to their bodies and vice versa), and being part of a minority not wanted by the community represents a lot of challenges and difficulties from being pushed to the side to being forgotten by the society due to the lack of privileges, social justice, and the injustice of the criminal system where transgenders were put in jail just because of their sexual orientation. Marsha P Johnson’s movie on Netflix was very touching as it showed the details of her death, the escalation of hate crime against the transgender community, and the creation of the transgender movement demanding their rights as citizens and human beings.
As Victoria Cruz, the crime victim advocate was stating how far the hate crime against the LGBTQ community has escalated to murders and where most cases were gone cold because these people were not an important element of the society. Marsha .P.Johnson was one of these cases when she was found dead back on July,5th,1992.
Stonewall was a bar owned by the mafia as stated per Sylvia Rivera, Masha’s closest friend and activist, and where guy people were not allowed because of their sexual orientation. Her case was ruled as a suicide but most people never believed that she could commit suicide, but it was mostly a hate crime against the transgender community. Marsha was the backbone behind the transgender ‘s rights and Star house for homeless kids. ”her mission was about spreading goodwill and peace” Agosto Machado.
Marsha said in the video” the price you pay is high..” and she was right. She paid her life as a price to bring awareness to transgender communities and to bring their rights as a human being. She was a butterflier full of happiness and joy.
CeCe McDonald’s criminalization, incarceration in all men jail, the denial of her rights because of her skin color, backgrounds, and sexual orientation as a transgender, sex binary still proof the lack of our justice system in treating everyone fairly based on their human rights that were attributed to them at birth, the fair distribution of rights, the deprivation of the qualities resources and opportunities for everyone to have a decent life. The idea that high rates of incarceration are socially concentrated in disadvantaged communities is very popular because of its relationship to poor economic level as well as very low levels of schooling. I believe that even when CeCe mentioned that about ninety percent of the people in jail are African American that doesn’t necessarily mean that all African American are violent and criminals, but it might suggest the need of improvement of resources toward this community, and the creation of policies and practices to minimize those differences between social classes based on skin color.
Public media spreads the images that most crimes are concentrated in low-income communities of color and therefore impact the mind of most viewers and their perspective ideas on these communities. Our society still thinks and treats each other differently based on their sexual orientation from being guy, transgender, or part of a small community not wanted or rejected by society. The gender binary of sex and gender-based on the body parts, hormones, and not based on how one feels about his/herself and if he/she fit in that body that was given at birth is very challenging. Why can’t we express our Gender identity and how we feel inside through clothing, behavior, and personal appearance without being judged or misunderstood.
both cases of CeCe McDonald and Marsha P.Marshall brought up light on the evolution against the gender normativity and the revolt against the mistreatment, the hate, and the misjudgment of transgender in our community.
Watching them destroying Sylvia’s house by the Hudson river gave me chills and tears in my eyes. the disparities are invisible to most Americans because they live it and see it every day. Only the people who suffer from it like CeCe McDonalds or Marsha P Johnson can educate us about it. How can we this insensitive to a human being and deny them their basic rights? How can’t we let everyone be who they are and be happy for ourselves and them? Why we have to fit certain criteria to be able to part of this community?