Queer & Trans

Rally Against Hate in Hastings -- Hastings High School students put on three showings last weekend of The Laramie Project, a popular play about about the homophobic murder of gay student Matthew Shephard in Laramie, Wyoming.  That drew the attention of the notorious Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church, a group which sees homosexuality as the root cause of the world's evils and regularly protests Laramie as well as the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lately, however, their protests more often turn into no-shows - and that's what happened in Hastings thanks to a quickly-organized local response.  Not only did the play sell out in conservative Hastings; hundreds of supporters lined the sidewalks in a demonstration outside of Hastings High.  See more photos from the demonstration and a report via TCIMC here, or read more via Bluestem Prairie.

More items below: Scott DeMuth sentenced; Middle East uprisings grow; Indymedia--Africa convergence; Will National Guard be called against labor protesters in Wisconsin?  Publish more news and events to Indymedia yourself at tc.indymedia.org/publish

Upcoming: Vigil organized by Outfront Minnesota on Friday, January 21 | On facebook

Krissy Bates was found murdered in her apartment last week, in all likelihood by someone she knew and feared.  She’d appealed to her landlord to fix a broken window so that she’d be safer, but the landlord told her that she’d have to pay for the repair herself.

The media coverage, where it exists, has been sordid--from stories that mis-gender her to the City Pages’ ghoulish blotter coverage of her sex work and her last voicemail.   Once again, the death of a unique, valuable person can be turned into a media spectacle because that person is a trans woman.  

I’m not trans.  I’m not trans, so if I say stupid things, please correct me.  I’m not trans, and I’m addressing this to cis-gendered people, those of us for whom our gender assigned at birth, our bodies and our personal identity match up.

There are trans women in my life for whom I care deeply.  I want to live with them in safety among people who respect and love them.  This story--and the many others like it every year--makes me very angry.   

By Angola 3 News

Focusing on the prison abolitionist movement, we interview two co-editors of an exciting new series at Daily Kos, called Criminal InJustice Kos, a weekly series "devoted to exploring the myths of 'crime', 'criminals', and criminal justice and the intersection of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, age and disability in policing and punishment. Criminal Injustice Kos is committed to furthering action towards reducing inequity in the US criminal justice system." Look for Criminal InJustice Kos every Wednesday at 6 pm CST.

Here, in the second part of our interview, we focus on the practicality of prison abolition and look at alternatives to the US prison system. Read part one here.  

(Co-editor and  Twin Cities local Nancy Heitzeg is an activist educator and Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the interdisciplinary Critical Studies of Race/Ethnicity program at Saint Catherine University.)