Revictimized In Death

April 30, 2013 ·

Image: Cemia Dove

Dehumanization of murdered trans women seems to be the norm these days. No matter how many times GLAAD and trans activists reach out to teach journalists how not to revictimize murdered trans women — especially trans women of color — there always seems to be a “next time.”

A new example of a “next time” is found in John Caniglia‘s two articles for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, entitled Oddly dressed body found in Olmsted Township pond identified and Brutal slaying marks the end of Clevelander’s fight for acceptance — the second listed article with Plain Dealer news researcher Jo Ellen Corrigan. The murder victim was well known by Cemia “Ci Ci” Dove (also having been referred to in blogs and mainstream media as C. Acoff and Ci Ci Acoff), but the Plain Dealer made a point of referring to her by her legal male name.

Monica Roberts has written a couple of pieces on the murder, and she described the Plain Dealer‘s horrible coverage in a checklist of how media revictimizes murdered trans women of color:

  • Misgender the person at every opportunity? Check
  • Use police mugshot? Check
  • Drag old criminal record into the story? Check
  • ‘Deception meme’ injected into story? Check
  • ‘Tragic transsexual’ meme injected into this story? Check
  • Use salacious and sensationalist headlines? Check
  • Not give a rats anus about the victim’s dignity and their femme presentation? Check
  • Disrespecting another African-American transwoman? Check

The articles also focused a great deal about what Cemia was wearing, and how she had a criminal history of petty crimes — including possessing hormones.

For me, the hardest part in reading that first article, Oddly dressed body found in Olmsted Township pond identified, was found in this paragraph (emphasis added)::

Police said after they contacted area law enforcement for help identifying the body, Cleveland detectives told them they had a missing person matching its description.

Yeah. Plain Dealer reporter John Caniglia referred to Cemia as an it.

GLAAD got it right in early April with their blog post GLAAD to Media: Tell the Story of Anti-Transgender Violence Correctly. So depressing that here only a couple of weeks later, the Plain Dealer got this story of a murdered trans woman so wrong.

GLAAD also has a post up entitled GLAAD and local advocates addressing horrific coverage of transgender murder victim that is specific to the horrid coverage of Cemia’s death.

Trans people — hell, every human being — deserves better than this. It’s bad enough that three trans women of color have been murdered this month, but adding disrespectful, revictimization of a brutally murdered trans woman by horrid media coverage is something trans community and trans community allies should not tolerate.

~~~~~
There is a rally for Ci Ci (also apparently spelled Ce Ce) scheduled for May 1st in Clevelend Ohio. Details on the location and time are here.

Next Post

Seven Goals Of Trans Activism

There are whys to transgender activism, but beyond the whys of transgender activism there are the whats: there are the goals of transgender activism. Here are seven goals of trans activism with some explanation as to why these are trans…
Read
Previous Post

Why Transgender Activism

I published an earlier revision of this essay first on January 12, 2011 at Pam's House Blend. I believe the hypothesis of this essay is still true and bears repeating every now and again. ~~A~~ I work on LGBT community…
Read
Random Post

Gender Nation: Funeral funded, certificates changed, and film faux pas fixed

Gender Nation is a bi-weekly column by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, the founder of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, reviewing news affecting the trans, intersex, and genderqueer community. Funeral funded for fallen trans man Daine Gray, a 22-year-old trans man who was…
Read
Random Post

University Of Pittsburgh Imposes A Transphobic Gendered Facilities Policy

When the 2012-13 school year rolls around, I'll be joining much of the Big East Conference in hatin' on the University of Pittsburgh for a different reason other than their upcoming 2013 departure from the Big East for the ACC.…
Read
Random Post

Racism, Congressional Hearings, and GLBT Politics: Stop Excluding African Americans

On November 5th, 2009,  the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will hold hearings on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). The hearings will take place in a city where over half of its citizens are African American. According to…
Read
Random Post

God Does Not Love Trans People

This guest Transadvocate post comes from Natalie Reed. Reed describes herself as "a magical young woman who lives in the mists and pines of Vancouver, British Columbia, where she fends off the oppressive gloom and darkness basking in the warm…
Read

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.