Transgender Day of Remembrance
This isn’t a movie. A two hour feature where lipstick is applied, stereotypes glimmer in cheap sequins, and the violent death scene is cut away just before the first blow. No, transgender violence can’t be described in a feature film.
No one sees the whole story on television either. What they see instead is a high school photo in a newspaper. And while local news reports crack open the story of an unidentified transgender person stripped naked and left in a pit, in a parking lot, in the street, in their home disfigured, stabbed and shot repeatedly and strangled, the violence carries on.
That’s the point of a candlelight vigil planned by a local advocacy group in honor of a murdered transgender person whose name hasn’t been released yet — because no one is sure who it is.
This Sunday, the 18th of November, at Preservation Park’s Niles Hall in Oakland, the 2nd Annual Transgender Day of Remembrance will commemorate the people who experienced a lifetime of hatred, and ultimately fell to anti-transgender violence over the past twelve months.
Planned by Tri-City Health Center’s TransVision program, the event will be one of over 200 ceremonies across the nation and in many foreign countries that aim to empower the community and educate others that violence isn’t just blood and tears, but fear.
Locally — a transgender woman named Ruby Rodriguez was strangled, and left lying naked on March 16 on a street in San Francisco. Her death remains unsolved, which isn’t uncommon in transgender cases.
Across the country in Nashville, Tennessee, another transgender woman named Nakia Ladelle Baker was killed by a blow to the head with a blunt object and left in a parking lot behind a nightclub frequented by transgender people.
The event will drive home that violence against transgender people goes beyond physical pain and suffering. It includes the rejection of proper health care, emotional and mental turmoil, and self-inflicted situations –“What else is there for me, and this is all I know.” Add to that – suicide, which takes many transgender lives and can’t be underestimated as a product of societal ostracizing.
As well as remembering the transgender victims of violence and hate crimes, the vigil will recognize HIV/AIDS and tobacco-related illness as two other major health issues that have disproportionately affected transgender people living in Alameda County.
It may just be another day for passers-by, but it will also serve as a daily reminder to all transgender people in danger of violence and death for expressing their reality and truth.
And it is actually just a movie unless we stop it–the fear, the violence, and the hatred. We need to stop watching and become active to learn and change the pattern of hate that isn’t just captured under a body bag, but is raging and alive inside people.
Where: Preservation Park, Nile Hall, 1223 Preservation Park Way
When: Sunday, December 18; 6 pm to 8 pm
A Disneyland Disaster
By Lesley Seacrist
Every day at Disneyland there is always that one jackass kid or adult who wants to fake a disability to skip to the front of the line.
Well, for one day I decided to be that jackass to see if the urban myth of faking an impairment and wheeling around would let me experience the Thunder or Magic Mountain any more sooner than those walking suckers.
This is what I humbly learned in the Magic Kingdom and trust me, it’s a good lesson.
I assume people who utilize wheelchairs get used to all the horrible details. They put on gloves to protect from the dirt and burns, they become patient for the people who push them haphazardly, and they deal and maneuver around poorly designed structures and sidewalks.
But for me, who doesn’t everyday think about the pain and hassle of wheeling until I am sitting in a Disneyland wheelchair in Frontier Land thinking seriously about pushing those wheels into the “Nile” of the Jungle Cruise and losing my 20-dollar deposit. It just sucked. I was in pain, and at the end of the day I give many props to those who just got their wheels and are making it happen.
My patience was gone, my hands looked like a tiger, and I vow never to try to fake a disability, because that is just stupid in the first place. And I was about to slap hella fools who either wouldn’t get out of the way or were ready to push me into Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse or one of the many princesses.
Even my friends who thought it was going to be an all access ride began grumbling about having to push me everywhere and how I wasn’t quick enough wheeling on my own. It isn’t my fault that I have little upper body strength. Seriously, my arms began burning on even a small incline, while my friends were at least 20 feet ahead of me. Were they ditching me based on speed, or how dumb I looked trying to steer the thing?
It takes some time getting used to turning the wheelchair around, learning the directions or braking— not to mention at the same time telling people to “pardon me” a million times. I would stop in my tracks and thought real hard how to turn my ass around. And then to have to look around frantically to see where my friends were again.
During the day near the submarine ride I rolled into someone from the past that I wanted to stay in the past. I panicked and improvised how to get on the other side of the park in a flash. Thinking that my friend was pushing me on my command, I found myself barreling down a steep slope all by myself. I looked behind to see what the hell she was doing, and finding out that I was all alone. Bad news was I saw a small girl about five feet in front of me, I did the only thing natural— I latched onto those wheels with so much force. I apologized for almost running over her child and checked out the damage on my hands. The rubber created ridiculous burns and my ego was also burned with embarrassment.
Disneyland caters to those with disabilities as much as they can consider that the park was made when disability rights were locked up in an institution somewhere. They are a billion katrillion zillion dollar corporation, they are on top of things and will cater to anything, down to an employee who follows you around. Hearing, eye, mobility, developmental, if you need extra considerations, they have a way to make it the happiest place for everyone.
However, most of the rides aren’t wheelchair accessible because they were constructed in the fifties. Their solution? Just go into the exit to another line at the beginning of the ride. It does suck because as you are wheeling through the exit, you have to fight through all the people exiting the ride. And I don’t know what is wrong with people having fun, but they are in a hurry and would rather run into the wheelchair than pass around me or wait a goddamn second. Peter Pan will still be there after I go by…
Each time I was about to board the Indiana Jones ride or my favorite Pirates of the Caribbean, a Disneyland employee always asked me if I can get on the ride by myself. Thinking back I should have said no, to see what would have happened, whether they would have picked me up and put me in the ride, but I guess I am a little bit shy and told them yes I could get in without help. However, it seemed like if someone needed a lift, someone would have given it.
Everyone is always there to give you help, whether or not you really want it. My friends tried to help me by pushing me around everywhere, which turned out to be my least favorite part of the day.
It is like being in the car with a drunk driver, swerving to and fro, praying to God I wasn’t going to ram into that woman with her stroller. Constantly, I would be apologizing or screaming “STOP” before I went B-line into the ankles of the unassuming. Ultimately, all I could do is cringe into myself with little whimpers of, “slow down”, “watch out” and “their ankles,” my patience were thinning out that I started getting off and walking around, frustrated to the point of leaving the park.
Wait, I forgot the important question. Do you get on the ride any quicker if you have a disability? Yeah, you do. They make you wait a little while, but never an hour or 45 minutes. And the line is better to wait in unless there is an annoying crying baby in a stroller.
However, for me the able jackass, I became as salty as Scar from the Lion King and hope never to do it again, and willing to leave the park with a good learning experience and a Donald Duck keychain.
Before making your next trip, check out Disneyland Guest Services online.
If you have a travel story, please share it with Fulcrum Magazine.
Gaming, The Old Fashioned Way
We had just lost our cable. Not for any other reason than it was too expensive and we were saving pennies. So, my boyfriend and I were looking for new options to how to spend an evening. I, a fan of good ol’ times like Monopoly and Life, thought to meander in a Dr. Comics & Mr. Games store on Piedmont Avenue before a movie. And discovered many things to do every evening.
Chris Frater, Zen Master of Board games – and a really nice guy — helped us pick one out. It was pricey, but he said that it was a classic that would be quite a hoot after we got the hang of it. He even gave us his card with his number, and said if we ever needed help figuring it out, to give him a call. I thought that was mighty nice, and when I ripped off the thin plastic cover and read the instructions, I was tempted to make that call. But ultimately, it seemed a little silly, and I didn’t.
So, both Lee and I began making do with our own sense of things. We thought a board game would be child’s play. After all, I had a BA in Journalism, and he had an MA in Women’s Studies, both from San Francisco State University. We followed our way down the rules to set the game up. On our kitchen table, we stacked the tiles side down, and each of us picked wooden men in our favorite color.
I read out loud, as I picked up one green wooden piece and held it between my fingers, “The southern French city of Carcassonne is famous for its unique Roman and Medieval fortifications. The players develop the area around Carcassonne and deploy their followers on the roads, in the cities, in the cloisters, and in the field. The skills of the players… (blah blah blah) will determine who is victorious.”
We sure did lay titles and deploy our players, but did we know what we were doing? Ask a couple of fools, and they would shake their heads and walk the other way. We needed someone to show us how to play Carcassonne, but none of my friends had ever heard of this game. They’re club jumpers, not people who enjoy a quiet game around the table.
However, I got lucky. I was walking in Old Oakland just sniffing stuff out when I stumbled upon another game stop — EndGame, a store at the corner of 10th and Washington that invites people in to play and learn. Lee and I decided to walk into the lion’s den and take a shot with the experts. I’m talking about walking into a room of nerds, and being made to feel like a snot-nosed loser who’d just peed in her pants in the homeroom. Now, I would be the first to say that we stuck out like a couple of sore thumbs at EndGame’s board game night the following Wednesday. It didn’t help that we brought our tired old 2001 Germany’s game of the year, Carcassonne.
The aisles at EndGame
Don’t get me wrong; I am not using “nerd” negatively. All the 30-years-old-and-above men, who probably frequent EndGame every week, seemed like a good bunch, but society would no doubt label them “nerds” because of the activities they’ve chosen to pursue.
The first time we showed up, we made our way to a corner table – we didn’t want to stir the bowl. If we were not invited to a game, I was sure I didn’t want to interrupt. I understood I needed to show my face a few more times before I was asked in. So, we haphazardly played a game like we had done before, and found our way out around 9 pm. While heading down the stairs, we were bid a good night and someone said we should come back.
Oh, but the second time, things happened, fingers were snapped, we were sure playin’. Right when we walked up those metal stairs, two guys, Greg DeBeer and Brad Goodson, who were waiting for more players to join them, greeted us and waved us over. Of course, I didn’t know their names until after we shook hands, but I was excited to be where the action was.
Both looked like they were in their mid or early 30s. They were brown haired normal looking boys, if you define normal as wearing modest clothes and having unassuming features. I noticed Brad had freckles – I always notice freckles as I share the same feature of scattered skin pigment. We sat around a brown folding table, below which lay two bags flooding over with different board games. Back at home, Greg told us he has three bookshelves filled with games—and a couple of books.
I asked them if we could play our Carcassonne. Greg knew how to play the game, but Brad didn’t, so Lee and I didn’t feel too much like boobs. A gentleman from Ireland joined us. He, too, was seasoned at the game. Greg took the reins and began describing what each piece is for, how the game is played, and the most important, how – and how many — points you gather.
Greg was like Renoir. It is quite an art form to be able to relay instructions about a board game in a clean, concise manner, a manner so good that even a little five-year-old boy with attention deficit disorder could understand him. It didn’t take long until we were getting to the strategy aspect of the game, which is what makes cardboard tiles and little painted wooden pieces fun in the first place.
Game Board Terminology: Mepol — a wooden cut out, shaped like a person.
I would frequently bounce my eyes and ears around the room to listen to the other tables taunt or laugh. But I had to try to stay focused on a plastic structure that was used to toss dice. Greg leaned over and told me that it’s called either a dice boot or dice tower to assure total accuracy. I know… a little excessive, but whatever floats their boat.
We got to know Greg and Brad better through the evening. Greg is a voice over manager for Sony with a horrible commute. Brad is a high school math teacher, but is taking the year off to play Texas Hold ‘Em in Las Vegas. And wouldn’t you know, Lee and I came up on the tail end in the first game—talk about the figures adding up.
A wise man once said you can tell a man’s real character in how he treats his fake money. Take me, for example. In front of strangers at work, I am very respectable and sweet. I don’t go tossing money (the titles or chips) down if I am upset or excited. With friends, it’s a different story. Brad was boisterous and more vocal with plays than Greg, who was subdued — and the first to help someone confused. But both were fun while they jested as though they were college roommates.
Game board Terminology: www.boardgamegeek.com- the ultimate resource guide for games and instructions, rules, and events in the game board community. — Tip from Brad
After we left, Lee and I decided to hit the pub across the street for a pint. We both agreed that we should go back the following week. I took a sip from my beer, looked over, and asked if he wanted to play another game of Carcassonne.
He grinned and said, “I think I can get used to this whole not having cable thing.”
EndGame board game nights
Each Wednesday, 6 pm to 11 pm
Love Excel Spread Sheet
This is a sure fire way to get some brownie points with your spouse or partner. Just fill in the boxes with positive numbers, even though, you might not agree with those numbers and then send it to her or him via email and watch the love happen. I mean, you will be able to get away with the crazy stuff you do for at least a week. It’s call the Love Excel Spread Sheet and it will get you some tonight— guaranteed.i-love-you-excel-spread-sheet.doc
