Nice.
I watched and asked myself ‘why this is even a thing?’
It’s a thing because the other side of this coin is the hate directed at us by individuals, groups, churches and other institutions and the knowledge that the greater the power imbalance the greater the likelihood of violence against us, or the likelihood that those institutions that exist to support everyone and to keep everyone safe, will turn a blind eye to our needs simply because they can.
And they do.
One of those institutions is NZ Police.
As the amazing people in this video affirm, this battle with society and society’s institutions is worsening for us. Violence against us is confirmed each year on Transgender Day of Remembrance and, in my 20 years, the numbers of deaths continue to escalate.
In Aotearoa, complaints of Police misconduct have risen by 21% in the past year and, by their own admission, their record of racial bias is appalling. I’d suggest their anti-trans bias is the same but, of course, there’s no actual record beyond anecdote of this. To obtain that data would mean asking the right questions and this simply never happens which leaves us nowhere to report issues apart from via our social networks and our blogs. I’m somewhat astonished to see so many of my gay friends sharing this video and saying how great it is – it’s Vogue after all – while completely missing the point about ‘erasure’. We haven’t just decided this is a cool word, it’s actually a conscious movement and the reality here in Tamaki Makaurau is that transpeople have no organizational structures that exist to exclusively support us.
Are we visible in the Pride Parade?
No.
The nature of the event erases us, yet it’s promoted as an event that celebrates us, often focusing, as it should, specifically on our struggle for equality and protection under our seriously flawed Human Rights Act. Our Human Rights legislation has always consciously chosen to keep us invisible and nothing affirms this for me more than my 20 year struggle to have tangible and visible protections for transpeople added to the Human Rights Act and the often aggressive resistance to this from legislators on both sides of the house, from the Crown Law Office and from the Solicitor General.
I’ve had the privilege of being a member of the board governing Pride for four or the six parades. I’ve watched the trans rights kaupapa strengthened in the rhetoric and the intent of the parade only to see this kaupapa ignored by successive parade directors and therefore erased from the reality of the event itself. This has been heartbreaking. More straight white men march with the BNZ float than transpeople in the whole parade. We’re invisible.
Does Pride care? I believe Pride does care and that by suggesting that NZ Police pull back on the uniforms, still a terrifying symbol of oppression to many of the people in this video, is an indication that Pride is considering us and holding out a welcoming hand.
I love this video.
It’s flash, classy, beautifully filmed and the ‘look’ is to die for.
I’m sad that, as I watched it for the first time, I also saw these faces bloodied and these bodies beaten as mine has been, and, in my case, by uniformed cops. I’m not alone. I speak up to avoid my own erasure and, in so doing, I do myself no favours. I make myself a target even though I’ve broken no laws. It’s just how it is.
If you watch this video, love it as I do, yet still want cops to march in our parade in uniform, I suggest you take a good hard look at yourself, and ask ‘am I complicit in this trans erasure?’
If the answer is ‘no’ then you need to look deeper, because there’s no doubt in my mind that you are. You most certainly are, and sadly for us, you are far from alone.
dykiegirl 