Gentilly Girl- a part of the 99%

Here’s a subject that is near and dear to all Trans-folks hearts: the Public Potty. My friend Cyndi up in Chicago (She’s a nice Chicagoan, okay?) posted this on my TransNewOrleans group:

“Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman” sang Tammy Wynette, never imagining how many diverse ways those lyrics would be interpreted a few decades later. Unless you never, ever venture from the “friendly confines” of “home, sweet home”, it’s not exactly a newsflash to hear about one of the biggest hassles trans-women go thru on a regular basis. Of course, I’m referring to the public use of that holiest of holies - the lavatory; otherwise known as the restroom, the washroom, the bathroom, the powder room, the outhouse, the water closet, the commode, the toilet, the head, the loo, the crapper, the pisser, the throne, the john (or jane?), to list but a few common terms for my favorite “undisclosed location”. 

  It seems as though whenever all else fails, the forces of darkness can always inspire the most primal fear known to mainstream society by invoking the spectre of “trannies in the bathroom!” Now clearly, any reasonably intelligent trans-woman recognizes this rubbish as the non-issue it truly is, but it still represents one of our biggest obstacles to cultural acceptance. Trans-people have been rebuked, beaten up and even arrested simply because of where they chose to perform their bodily functions.

  Well folks, help is on the way. There’s a new group out there that’s actually doing something (as opposed to just talking about it) to mitigate this problem. Reading the report below was welcome relief (no pun intended) to a situation we ALL face on a regular (no pun here either) basis. Pull up a seat (okay, maybe this one) and consider what YOU can do to help expand their database. The link to this useful website is in the article below. Read on, true believers.   >>> Cyndi 

I plan to personally fill in this Org to where all the safe potties are in NOLA. This means that I need to go out on drinking adventures that will introduce me to the other areas of the city to round out my Potty Picks. (Hint, hint) I need to bring back the New Owleans By Night site for Trans folks who visit the city. (O.W.L. stands for the Order of Wild Ladies, BTW)

Well, we observed the Trans Day of Remembrance yesterday evening here in the Old City. Betts and I arrived at the Community Center which held a few of the usual suspects and some new folks. There were eight of us. The candles were lit as folks read over the entire list of our dead and a wonderful poem by an unknown that I cannot find a cyber reference for.

Whilst we waited for the Minister (Rev. Marta, Bless you hon!), a group of volunteers from Maine showed up because they wished to take part of our ceremony. Suddenly we were up to twenty, and it was time to brave the cold/wind for the six block trek to the statue of St. Joan d’Arc. It was an interesting collection of folks walking down Decatur Street: Denims, sweats, massive cold gear and yours truly in her black dress. (Yes I was freakin’ freeezing, but I always wear that dress for TDOR, and it survived the Flood.)

Once at the statue, near Jackson Square with traffic whizzing on three sides of us, we read the names and said our prayers for those of our little tribe that were taken away from us this past year. We then headed back to the Center for relief from the cold air. Once there we shared talk and goodies. (I met a girl that I had passed at the hospital some months ago: only been here a year and looking for people to know here. Believe it or not- I can be shy around folks I don’t already know, especially in a Trans meeting. I do have a rep that is not always tolerated by some brothers and sisters.) Those of us from the pre-Deluge days just caught up on current progress around the city.

Next year things will be different for TDOR: I want torches and a Trans flag flying as we go along. I want people to know what they are watching, and I want handouts to give them when they ask what we are doing. It is also my desire to have more drama in the presentation of the names of the murdered. Yes we alone can do this quietly, but where is the education of outsiders to the reality of our situation? We are here in New Orleans, and we must attract their attention. (You just know it’s going to be Witchy.)

We Trans folk are still here and healing, and we cannot wait for the day when we are no longer tortured and killed due to bigotry, ignorance and hatred. (nor any Human being for that matter.)

On Sunday the 19th, we will be observing the Transgender Day of Remembrance here in New Orleans. Each year Trans communities and our friends around the world gather together to remember those of the community that were killed in the name of transphobia during the previous twelve months. This year we lost 19 of our little tribe to hatred. LIST

These are only the folks we know of… many are killed but never reported. There are also the Trans folk who die by their own hand (about 35% of our folk never make their 40th birthday), and many others die slow deaths caused by prejudice through the mechanisms of illegal firings, being turned down for housing and constant harrassment. There is no list for the latter group, but we remember them just the same.

We and our friends will be meeting at the Lesbian and Gay Community Center (Decatur between Frenchmen & Elysian Fields) at 5:30 PM, and then we will proceed to St. Joan d’Arc’s statue for the reading of the names.

Please come by, join us in our sorrow and our prayers for Society to stop discriminating against Trans people.

UPDATE: was just informed of another murder- 

April 16, 2006- Elk Grove Indiana

Krystal Heskin, 31, was found murdered in a motel room. She had been strangled and beaten on the head with a hammer. She had changed her legal name some five years earlier and had been living in her chosen gender. Her killer is Michael R. Davis, 20, whom she had known for several years. Police do not consider this a crime of hate, but of an arguement taken too far. Davis is awaiting trial.