Monthly Smack Dab Show at Magnet Denounces Chaz Bono
By Rink
Published: February 25, 2010
http://www.sfbaytimes.com/?sec=article&article_id=12475Featured performer Burke is a beguiling high level slam poet, writer, and spoken word activist.
He raised the Magnet room temperature considerably when he yelled out his Open Letter to Chaz Bono. The provocative message was that Bono should shut up and not presume to speak for underprivileged and less-than-famous transgenders. The names of Brandon Teena and Gwen Araujo, who were murdered for being open about who they were, were invoked, and Bono was warned that interviewers are patronizing him and treating him as a curiosity. He said that many transgenders are attacked, thrown out of school, and forced into sex work - which is not the world that Bono is experiencing. Burke wants more civility and less barbarity, and for transgendered people to feel safe in their living spaces and on the street, to be able to afford gender reassignment surgery if they want it, and he wants Bono to shut up and listen.
