"Don't Talk to Me about Deception": The Necessary Erosion of the Trans-Panic Defense
2015; Albany Law School; Volume: 78; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0002-4678
AutoresAimee Wodda, Vanessa R. Panfil,
Tópico(s)Media Studies and Communication
ResumoI. INTRODUCTION woman sits on a stage and tells a talk show host that a who has liked many of her pictures on Instagram has wanted to meet her for a month, but it had not yet happened because they live in different parts of the country. He called the talk show in order to facilitate their meeting, and she obliged. However, she tells the talk show host: But he don't know my secret. When the host asks her what it is, she replies that she is transgender, to which the audience makes loud oooooh noises. She says that because she never planned on meeting this man, she had not been taking their interaction seriously, but she would have told him that she was transgender if he had asked her. The talk show host brings out her admirer. The comes out onto the stage, greets the host, hugs his crush, and sits down next to her. After a brief exchange of hellos, she says, Well, before we go any further, I need to letchu know something. Umm, I haven't really taken it seriously because we've only been talking for a month, and we live so far, I never planned on meetin' you, but I'm lettin' you know, I was a man. Her admirer asks the host, Is she serious, Jerry? Before even receiving an answer, he jumps onto the woman, his arms swinging at her, and the show's security guards spring into action as the audience erupts in cheers, hoots, laughter, and applause. They shout, Jerry! The security guards pry the combatants apart and separate them to opposite sides of the stage. The chairs have been moved to the back of the stage, out of the way of the fighters. Punk ass bitch! the woman yells at the as she is held back by a security guard. The host asks the why he is upset. He replies, It's crazy, cuz yeah, I wanted to meet her, I ain't know she was a man, like, come on. I gotta go back to my 'hood, like, it's crazy. I got kids! I don't do that! Did you, why didn't you ask? You saw the the host says. Yeah, I seen the pictures, but she looked, she looked like, you know what I mean, a wo-man, but come to find out she a he-she! Like, come on, man, I don't do I don't do that. The woman interrupts: Why are you so mad? We didn't sleep together. He yells, A month! Cuz you deceived me! After a back-and-forth exchange between the and the woman about her body and her attractiveness, a sound is heard: Ding! Ding! Ding! It is a boxing bell, presumably encouraging the guests to physically fight each other. They lunge at each other. The audience continues to react as the security guards try to keep the fighters apart. (1) Although The Jerry Springer Show recently vowed to remove tranny from its vocabulary, (2) segments featuring a woman who was born a man (3) and is there to reveal this to a sexual or romantic partner have been popular on the show. This is evidenced by recent show titles such as Trannies Tell All, (4) Tranny Bomb!, (5) Online trans women of color, experience rates of violence much higher than any other population in the United States. (12) Although the FBI's Uniform Crime Report does not currently include information on (nonhate) crimes perpetrated against lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, or queer (LGBTQ) victims, (13) and most local agencies also do not collect statistical data that include gender identity and/or sexual orientation for crimes that are not considered hate crimes, (14) researchers have uncovered high rates of sexual abuse/assault and relationship violence among transgender people. (15) Further, according to the most recently released National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs' hate violence report, LGBTQ people of color represented fifty-three percent of total reported victims and survivors of all hate crimes in the United States in 2012 and comprised 73.1% of LGBTQ homicide victims. (16) shocking ninety-eight percent of incidents perpetrated against trans* (17) folk are suffered by those occupying the male-to-female spectrum. …
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