Transgenders of Color - Why Many Aren't In The TG Movement

http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2010/11/transgenders-of-color-why-many-arent-in.html
Monica Roberts
11/13/10

One of the questions that I get asked as a TG activist of color wherever I go is why has it been so difficult to get POC's involved and active in the TG movement. As a middle-class African-American who grew up in the 'hood this is my assessment of why many POC's prefer to not publicly identify as transgendered or get involved in the T-civil rights struggle.
[spacing]Gender roles in communities of color are rigidly enforced, and transgressing those roles can sometimes provoke a violent reaction that may result in your death. You avoided being called a 'sissy', 'dyke', or 'punk' at all costs. Last year Lynn Vines of Baltimore was shot six times at point blank range by a 13 year old because she was a drag queen visiting her sister. The words of this kid as he shot Lynn were: "We don't want no ->-bleeped-<-gots in our neighborhood."

Leaving aside the question of how a 13 year old obtained a firearm, why is America unable or unwilling to move past the whole racial divide? 
And where do Native Americans figure in the picture?  Their situation would seem to be closer to Australian Aborigines than that of black Americans.
Perhaps many in the black community in  the US are afraid to come out of their protective shell in the same way that TS often are.  It may not be comfortable, but it is familiar.

Is this, perhaps to an extent, a consequence of the lack of proper law enforcement in many predominently black communities in the US?

Gun issues aside. At 13, it is not uncommon for boys to have uncompromising attitudes. The extreme of right and wrong, which is natural among children has not fully transformed into the grey areas that adults precieve.

I wonder just how many black people, living in these communities, in parts of the US, fully share these attiudes yet feel compelled to support them out of fear form those that do?

I recall, many years ago, living for almost 3 years, in a very run down area in N Edinburgh. I found most people there to be utterly honest, decent and have genuine care for their children. Almost all desperately wanted to leave. It was the minority, a very small minority, that caused problems.

Most younger people would develop defensive attitudes as a means of protection. Many families would have lovely homes while their outside surroundings were squallar.

Yet in the more afluelent areas, the attitude was one of contempt. Police were alwasy from other areas. Councillors were politiclly motivated and often from outside the city. The authorities generally tended to view anyone from N Edinburgh as being masters of their own destinies.

The distrust of authorities waswell placed, frankly. I came across it myself on a number of occassions. So, probelms tended to be dealt with internally. That, generally meant, aligning with some of the more agressive people.