- The film that I watched was “The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson” by David France. Marsha Johnson was an African American transgender activist who played an important aspect in the gay rights movement. While watching the documentary her body was found in the Hudson River and the police conveyed her death as a “suicide”, but many suspected she was murdered. A woman names Victoria Cruz who works with the Anti-Violence project who starts to investigate Marsha’s death through many resources to actually find out what happened to Ms. Johnson. Gender, race, and sexuality of a person can be a threat to others. They can’t accept you for who you are because their mentality is portrayed to only one understanding. As we can see, attacking transgender women has been going on for years, from 1992 Marsha Johnson’s death to 2016 CeCe McDonald. CeCe McDonald was a black transgender woman who was attacked by Schmitz. In the process of trying to defend herself, Schmitz died and CeCe was incarcerated into a men’s prison in Minnesota. It states “In spite of the fact that McDonald survived a vicious attack, she was the only one arrested” (Johnson, 97). Although she did nothing but provide self-defense for herself, she faced many injustices because she was a black trans woman. Schmitz’s ex-girlfriend was white and was included in the brawl but had to face no charges. The judicial system is clearly biased towards transgender individuals and especially with color compared to a Caucasian person.
- She is not only a survivor but a brave leader to inspire other individuals to fight for what they believe in and tell their story. Transgender is an umbrella term for persons whose gender identity, gender expression, or behavior does not conform to that typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth. We all are brought up by our parents, as either a male or a female and when we grow up and begin the search for our identities we do find some things which were kind of ignored by our parents since even they considered it to be not normal and that is why as young adults it becomes difficult to embrace one’s identity with which one truly recognizes with. Sometimes, a person’s gender identity doesn’t fit neatly into two choices. People who see themselves as being both male and female, neither male nor female nor as falling completely outside these categories may identify as genderqueer. How a person communicates their gender identity, through dress, behavior, voice, or body characteristics is their gender expression. A person’s gender expression may or may not line up with society’s expectations of masculinity or femininity, which we are all brought upon with. The public’s understanding of gender identity and expression is evolving as more transgender people share their stories. And, even I consider them as a normal person and not categorizing them into any box and putting a definition to their identities and choices. Each one of us is different from each other, our preferences and choices are different, and we should all learn to embrace that and let people live the way they want so that one feels ashamed of who they are as a person. When describing transgender people newspaper magazines and other media tend to use gender inappropriate names or pronouns as well as other languages that trans persons find insensitive or offensive this is quite an example of a microaggression.
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Hi Megan, like you said, people have different experiences and not all will fit into strict categories. What happened to these amazing women were injustices because of this enclosed mindsets. These stories come as an opportunity for everyone to be accepting and take initiative to make a change.