Experiences
During World War II, a lot of queer people were dishonorably discharged from the military as soon as the bodies were unneeded. This caused the affected people to feel they were unable to go home due to their reason for no longer being in the military. Due to their fears, they stayed in the major metropolitan areas on the coasts such as New York and San Francisco. When the hoards of people moved into these cities, they were not welcomed. The governments did not represent the area in the slightest because it took years for representation in the local governments due to the prejudice of the non-queer community members.
After getting government officials that were queer or at least were allies, the neighborhoods began to experience positive changes. Harvey Milk ran for the board of supervisors in San Francisco multiple times before he won the position. This allowed him to make positive changes from the top of the institutional chain of command in the area. However, in New York, Marsha P. Johnson acted as a prominent figure in the stonewall riots because she did not have the benefit of being able to make change from the same position Harvey Milk was awarded, but nonetheless, her role was just as pivotal for positive change. The difference between the two key figures highlights how important it is to understand intersectionality.
If Marsha had run for the board of supervisors, she would have absolutely been completely dismissed or murdered before her campaign took off. She was a black transgender woman. Her story had been whitewashed for years until very recently when people began to recover the truth. However, Harvey was able to run and win his position. He knew the threat of death was always lurking, but he was still able to make changes before he was assassinated. His murderer was a fellow member of the board that was looking to get his job back. Dan White was able to get away with it relatively no consequences. The jury decided that because he was depressed, he couldn’t have been too bad of a man and made his crime “voluntary manslaughter” instead first-degree murder. He was sentenced to jail for 7 years but got out after 5.
The ability to murder queer people with no substantial consequences, has allowed straight, cisgender people to get away with murder, effectively silencing queer people everywhere. Marsha P. Johnson was found dead in a river after a pride parade, but due to her being a person of color and transgender, she received even less justice than Harvey Milk. According to many witnesses, she was being harassed by multiple people before her death, and many of her close friends emphasized how she was not suicidal. The police ignored all the queer people’s pleas for justice and labeled her death as a suicide.
This practice of silencing minorities has always been a problem due to the willingness of police departments across the country to ignore all evidence pointing towards murder. Courts are just as willing to side with the murderers too. However, this problem has yet to diminish in the slightest due to lack of governance over the very departments and people who are okay with the murders. As of July 1st, there have been 11 official murders of transgender people this year, but none have received justice. There are four women that are suspected to have been murdered, but police have not worked with the community for answers.
These stories would have been impossible without the protection of privilege of having predominantly cisgender/straight police officers throughout the United States. Our president has only furthered the prejudice by declaring transgender people unfit to serve in the military. By working on strengthening laws that are born out of ignorance and hate, it teaches people growing up to feel the same way as the individuals higher up on the institutional ladder.
When governments teach its people to hate minorities, it effectively signs countless death warrants. By baring people from social programs or even just working, the system doesn’t only rely on murder to diminish the presence of the unwanted people. The lack of chances to succeeds steals all the hope from many individual and leads them to take their own life or hide their identity if possible. By hiding key parts of themselves, their opportunities increase drastically, but they aren’t guaranteed the right to stay if their true identity gets discovered.
The stories and facts drawn upon previously all play into everyone’s life in some way. For example, when living in Eau Claire, there are substantially fewer opportunities to express one’s identity with the promise of social anonymity and protection. When holding hands with a same-sex partner, there are many areas within the city where it is scary at best. It is constant gamble to see if one will have to face slurs or threats of violence when expressing one’s self in a way that labels them as queer in anyway. Although there are many streets where one shouldn’t risk it, there are also safe areas within the city. This phenomenon is not limited to Wisconsin. There were areas in San Francisco where we were advised to not go due to the dangers that lurked. However, the feeling of fear was significantly less frequent.
When we were in San Francisco, there were few times where it felt unsafe to be queer, but in the places where it didn’t, it was unsafe in many other ways as well. I never had a point where I felt like I was going to be murdered or mugged, but the area was still uncomfortable. The Castro district had a calming energy. The only time I was less than enthusiastic was when the police were loitering around during pride weekend. They never had an aggressive energy, but it was obvious they did not fit in. I still remember the look of one relatively judging police officer when someone walked by in their pride outfit.
Due to the work put in to make the Castro a safe-haven for homosexuals, it had an incredibly welcoming energy to people who are queer. I had to get used to not having to look over my shoulder to make sure nobody was following me and my partner while holding hands. However, now that I am no longer in that safe area, I find myself trying to readjust to the more typical version of life in America.
In the previous paragraph I said the Castro was for homosexuals. I would like to expand on why it seems like I’m excluding a lot of people. It is because that is low key what happens. In the Castro, the population is predominantly old white gay men because the whole area was gentrified and everyone else was forced elsewhere. I’m sure there were plenty of other people of different ethnicities and queer identities that were able to experience the luxury of going to a film at 1pm on a Tuesday, but the major presence was still white men.
