i was watching TV and Law & Order:SVU came on which is a show about the special victims unit (SVU) and it sually deals with rape victims. What i thought was interesting was the fact that in this episod there was a transgender man who dressed like a women, her name was Charlie and she now called herself Charlette. She had a boyfriend but the boyfriend did not know that she had the phsical parts of a man. She wanted to get surgury to phsicaly make her into a woman but her boyfriends brother found out before she could get the surgury and tried to rape her in the bathroom. To protect herself she hit him over the head and accidentally killed him. While Charlette and her boyfriend were being interigated the cops told her boyfriend that she was a man and this drove the boyfriend crazy and eventually killed himself for loving a man. Also by the end of the show the jury found Charlette guilty of man slaughter in the first degree. The prosecuter did not even believe she should be but away for this crime so tried to take it easy on her to help her be found not guilty, but the jury saw her as a not normal MAN and but her away.
The worst part was that even after she was convicted they placed her in a male prison, she pegged to at least be put into a womens prison but because of her phisical sex she was bu ino a male prison because she did not get her surgury in time. While she was in the all male prison she was beaten so badly and gang raped so badly that she was but into critical care in a hospital, and that was how it ended.
This really shows how hard transgender and transexuals have it in society. The fact that she testified saying that she was scared to leave her house because she never knew what people would say or do to her is very sad. Also the fact that her boyfriend killed himself because he was in love wih a "man" is horrible.
Also this leaves a weird impression about transgenders on the viewer. You could look at this sympathetically and realize how hard some poeple have it in,life or riticruel them even more beauce of their personal choices.
One quote i thought was great was when Charlette said to the prosecuter "I dont regret anything, I did not chose to be this way... This is just the way I am, this is how i feel whole."
Just though this was interesting and wanted to share :)
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5 comments:
Heather: I read your comments on the Transgender them in SVU and just wanted to thank you for posting them. I am a transsexual too - and many of the things that happen in that episode happen to real people each and every day. I'm a very active advocate for our community (www.donnarose.com) because the only way to overcome the ignorance and the fear at the heart of that kind of treatment is simply to live our lives with dignity and authenticity. I appreciate your empathy - it comes across in your writing.
Donna
Thanks Heather!
Most of us who go down this path lose everything we have, family, career, and friends. It is like dying, struggling to live, and then to face death again on a daily basis. I had seen the SUV episode and thought it to be a very well done and accurate production. What drove home the importance of it, and the effect was that my youngest son had called to express his understanding, having seen the episode. Sometimes our tears and words cannot be seen, and it takes another to say the words.
stellewriter
Thanks Heather!
Most of us who go down this path lose everything we have, family, career, and friends. It is like dying, struggling to live, and then to face death again on a daily basis. I had seen the SUV episode and thought it to be a very well done and accurate production. What drove home the importance of it, and the effect was that my youngest son had called to express his understanding, having seen the episode. Sometimes our tears and words cannot be seen, and it takes another to say the words.
stellewriter
I too am a trans woman and want to thank you for your sensitivity and your compassion in discussing the incredible obstacles we face in today's society. Slowly, but surely, we are educating the world about us, which is our only hope in ending the discrimination, harassment, violence and murder that we face all too often. Thanks for doing your part.
Abby
Heather,
I love seeing that your post for class has a wider audience here! Great connections to the issues we have been raising about social justice issues. What would Carolson say? Or Christensen?
LB :)
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