Portugal
Transphobia kills again: international call for
action!

Two years after the brutal murder of Gisberta, in
Oporto , another transsexual woman was murdered and
her body placed in a rubble dumpster in the Lisbon
area last month.

 

Other crimes followed, shocking the country. However,
the surge of violence cannot hide neither the victims
nor the nature of these crimes. This is the case of
Luna, 42, partially deaf, of Brazilian origin, for
many years resident and worker in Portugal ,
prostitute at Conde de Redondo area (in Lisbon ).

 

Two years after Gisberta, transsexual people are still
targets for hatred and violence based on prejudice and
ignorance. The crime is under investigation and under
justice secret, so we know very few about its
circumstances or about its motivation; we hope the
investigation undertaken by the Police can provide
answers.

Nevertheless, we know that transphobia kills and that
trans people are more prone to suffer violence than
the majority. We know prostitution is often a job for
those who have no other way of earning a living, and
that it is hard to have a gender different from the
one your body suggests. We know prejudice and
discrimination are pervasive, that ignorance feeds
hatred and generates violence. We know the State,
society, all of us, have responsibilities towards the
deadly victims, and mainly towards all those other
people in whose life the fight for survival coexists
with fear and the risks that cause it.

 

Luna was born a woman although her body suggested
otherwise; her body, masculine, didn’t fit her
identity. She was being followed at Hospital de Santa
Maria by the multidisciplinary team in charge of
helping trans people change their bodies; she had
projects, wishes and frustrations just like anyone
else. She was dear to some people and maybe wished to
go back to Brazil , where her family lives. Luna was a
woman who fought against many obstacles and, according
to newspapers, died victim of great violence, possibly
fed by hatred, prejudice and ignorance. Her body was
left in a dumpster, hidden by rubble and dust, as if
it was garbage, as if her life had not been worth
living.

 

Like all potential victims, trans people need forms of
protection that guarantee equality of opportunities
and the possibility of a dignified life. They need,
like everyone else, of being able to exercise their
rights to the development of personality and to self
determination – of being able to freely choose their
name; they don’t need (nobody does!) identification
documents that insist on the use of criteria so voided
of real content such as "sex" (even if disguised only
as "name") and "justify", e.g., placing a trans woman
in a detention cell with men. Trans people need being
seen as people with rights and duties, no more and no
less than all other people. Trans people in Portugal
need the pedagogy of visibility, way beyond the
prostitution or night shows circles. And Portugal
needs to see these people without prejudice and fear.

 

Gender identity is subject the State should have
already legislated about; this delay aggravates many
trans people’s living (or survival) conditions. When
will the legal amendments that allow the actual
exercise of civil rights by transsexual and
transgendered people come? When will we have
legislation that overcomes many politicians”
retrograding and conservatism and stops to impose
petty restrictions? When will we have legislation that
stops feeding the daily psychological violence against
these people? When will we have legislation that
clearly considers that transphobia constitutes
aggravating grounds for discrimination, harassment and
violence? When will we have a serious commitment
towards stopping cases like those of Gisberta and
Luna, murdered out of transphobic hatred? When will
police forces be provided with more human resources
and more and better civic and technical training? When
will cooperative approaches substitute the aggressive
attitudes lingering among members of the various
police forces?

 

Panteras Rosa – Frente de combate à GayLesBiTransfobia
(Pink Panthers – Combat front against
GayLesBiTransphobia) reaffirm their commitment towards
fighting against transphobia in all of its forms and
pay tribute to Luna, prostitute in our city, woman
just because!

 

Lisbon, March 13 2008

 

Proposal for International Action: on the 24th, 25th
or 26th March

 

That vigils are held, with candles, in special memory
of Luna and all of the trans people victim of
transphobia.

To be developed by numerous small and big groups in
the most (small to big) cities possible.

With banners, just in front of Portuguese embassies or
consulates in the cities where they may exist or, for
other cities, in squares in front of European
ministries, in front of psychiatric hospitals or
whichever places contribute to transphobia.

We suggest the following phrases:

Luna trans 42 years old Brazilian, prostitute murdered
in Lisbon .

Statistically, how many times more is a trans person
in risk of being victim of violence compared to you?
And murdered?

According to the context of each country we suggest
the phrase:

Stop transphobic laws. How much longer for a law
against transphobia?

Or for countries that still haven’t turned transphobia
into law:

How much longer for a law against transphobia?

This case is not Portugal specific, it is
international and the fight efforts should be done
together.

(In practical terms, it should be simpler to organize
small groups in different places instead of asking
people to mobilize to the Portuguese embassies that
are concentrated on the capital cities)

We ask you to publicize this action, to participate in
big numbers and to forward testimonials, photos,
articles, etc. to panteras.lisboa@gmail.com

The media strengthen transphobia

After the recent murder of one more transexual woman,
Luna, occurred in the area of Lisbon , the media focus
on the physical aspect of the victims in the most
sensationalist manner – thus making it more important
than the murder itself. A few words about the murder
follow, as if this is was a clear and natural
explanation of the cause of such murder – lingering in
the detaileded description of the unusual physical
aspect of the victim. At the hands of the media the
most important becomes the victim’s unusual body,
placing the murder on the background.

Speaking – depending on the attempt (or not)  not to
seem transphobic – of a transsexual with a man’s body
(a pruddish way to say "with penis"), of a man dressed
in women’s clothes, or of a transvestite with breasts.
Some even speak of homophobia.

The picture emerging of such articles is that the
victim is a monstrosity displayed to feed the public
curiosity, without any respect neither for her gender
nor for the intimacy of her body, and giving the
impression that it is almost (or even absolutely)
normal that these people be murdered.

The other image conveyed in this way is that being
trans is wanting to mislead "the world" by using a
disguise particularly well arranged to give a
misleading appearance of men and women… And if they
deceive the world is of course natural that the
deceived people react.

This kind of speech from the media is, unfortunately,
far from applying only to murder — it is used in
almost all broadcasts, articles, and interviews on
trans subjects.

The Portuguese media, with no exception, satisfy also
with the description of the trans person’s precarity
situation – wether it is on prostitution, drugs,
having HIV, no papers, no house – as if these lives
were a choice of the victims, describing them hiding
that it is transphobia that generates this precarity,
and presenting as scandalous not only the "choice" of
being trans, but also the choice of the life style,
turning the victims into immoral and chocking persons
and continuing in this way to promote transphobia, the
precarity of the trans lives, and the fact that they
are among the persons most likely to suffer agression.
The presence of the trans person in the Mental
Diseases List, to frequently legitimates the media,
when they concede expression to the trans, to credit
or discredit it trough persons of the medical corps,
reinforcing the idea that the word of a trans has no
value for itself.