Friday, September 18, 2009

An Unexpected Education

I came to law school to be a better activist and organizer, but I did not know how a legal education would actually achieve this goal. After taking a series of required classes, I realized that I was amassing an arsenal of tools that I could use to advocate for individuals and groups who are underrepresented in American society; however, I did not yet know how to put these tools into action. In order to learn how to utilize my new skills, I participated in a series of internship programs. While my experience with each of these internships was incredibly rewarding, I only truly began to understand the value of my legal education in the context of community organizing at my most recent position with the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF).

Working at TLDEF has taught me a great deal about the legal profession, generally, and about being a community organizer within that context. While I definitely learned professional skills such as legal writing and research, my most valuable legal education has come from observing the two attorneys in the office, Executive Director Michael Silverman and Staff Attorney Dru Levasseur. They taught me how to competently, responsibly, and respectfully advocate for clients, as well as how to use legal means to achieve broader community organizing efforts.

When I decided to intern at TLDEF, I knew that I would gain a legal education. What I did not realize was that I would also have the opportunity to help represent individuals who would change the way I see myself, as well as my future role as a lawyer and activist.

Thank You, Lateisha

Lateisha “Teish” Green was a twenty-two year old transgender woman who lived in Syracuse, New York, with her mother, Roxanne Green, her father, Albert Cannon, and her nineteen year old brother, Mark Cannon. On November 14, 2008, Teish, Mark (who is gay), and a transgender friend went to a house in their neighborhood where a group of people were hanging out, drinking, and listening to music in the front yard. When Mark drove up to the curb in front of the house, several individuals, including twenty year old Dwight DeLee, began talking about Mark, Teish, and their friend using anti-gay slurs. After this conversation, Dwight DeLee went into the house, retrieved a rifle, came out of the house with the rifle, walked directly to Mark’s car, raised the rifle to the car window, and pulled the trigger. The bullet grazed Mark’s shoulder and hit Teish’s arm; the bullet travelled through Teish’s arm into her chest, causing severe damage that almost immediately resulted in her death.

On July 10, 2009, TLDEF Executive Director Michael Silverman and I went to Syracuse, New York, to represent Lateisha Green’s family during the trial of Dwight DeLee. Andy Marra, a senior media strategist from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), also joined us in Syracuse to work with the media sources covering the trial. Michael, Andy, and I stayed in Syracuse for eight days, where we worked closely with the Green/Cannon family, as well as local community members and advocates.

For more information on the trial and our work in Syracuse, please read my TLDEF blog entries; there are a series of seven entries related to the trial.

Upon arriving in Syracuse, I had no idea what I was about to experience. I thought that I was arriving with an open mind, but as I spent more time with Teish’s family, my assumptions about them, and about myself, became much more evident.

Throughout the week, I learned that the Green/Cannon family does not see gender and sexuality the way that I do. They do not spend hours discussing the nature versus nurture debate, genetic predispositions, or the social implications of gender identity. For them, gender variation simply exists; it is not something that needs to be analyzed. Roxanne Green and Albert Cannon loved their child; whether she was Moses Cannon (her birth name), Lateisha Green (her chosen name), or simply Teish (her nickname), Roxanne and Albert loved and accepted her without question and without hesitation. At one point during the week, Roxanne and I were chatting, and she just looked at me and said something to the effect of, “Parents shouldn’t need to learn to accept their children, it shouldn’t be a question, it just is—they’re your kids, you just love them for who they are.” Albert overheard this conversation and added, “If parents can’t accept their kids, it’s not the kids who need the therapy, it’s the parents.”

Roxanne, Albert, and their entire extended family do not have to label each person’s sexuality; Roxanne refers to all non-heteronormative people simply as “happy.” They do not have long conversations about pronouns, politically correct terms, or labels of gender identity—they just accept people for who they are, without concern for their gender or sexuality.

When I went to Syracuse, I expected to talk about acceptance, understanding, and love; I expected to have long conversations about gender identity, gender expression, and sexuality; I expected to argue for the importance of laws that protect against gender motivated hate crimes. I was not open to learning about these people, I had already decided who they were and how we would relate. I was wrong.

The Green/Cannon family taught me the true definitions of acceptance, understanding, and love. They taught me that acceptance is easy and natural, that hate is what takes energy and effort. They taught me that while intellectual discussions of gender can be valuable, sometimes you have to set them aside in order to achieve true understanding. They taught me that love is not something earned, but something inherent. They convinced me that anti-hate crime statutes are essential, removing any doubt I once had about such legislation, from a place of love and compassion rather than legal analysis.

I went to Syracuse to learn, and I certainly got an education. Not only did I learn the legal lessons that I had hoped for, but I also learned that acceptance, understanding, and love can be the basis for discussion rather than the goal of an exchange. This understanding has helped me re-examine the way that I face interactions with both peers as well as prospective clients, and it has changed the way that I act as an organizer and as a lawyer.


Sharing my Education

After returning to New York, I realized that I saw myself, and my role as a legal advocate and community organizer, much differently than before I went to Syracuse. Now, I see legal advocacy as a means to learn and interact with people and communities with which I am unfamiliar. As a lawyer, I will be able to help these people, but they will also be able to help me; legal advocacy is not a one-dimensional relationship, but an exchange between people who have different skills and experiences. I never got the chance to meet Lateisha Green, but her family has changed my life. I have known for several years that I want to be a lawyer and community activist, but Teish’s family has taught me about the kind of person I want to be while fulfilling those roles.

The many lessons I learned from the attorneys at TLDEF, Andy Marra at GLAAD, the Green/Cannon family, and other TLDEF clients, have changed the way I see myself, my work, and my community. Now, I feel like I have a responsibility to share these lessons with my law school community, legal community, local Brooklyn community, and queer community. In order to do so, I have planned an event that will give attendees the opportunity to learn from all of these individuals. However, this event will also allow the Green/Cannon family to share their experiences with a new audience. When I was leaving Syracuse, Roxanne told me that the trial’s resolution could never bring Teish back; however, she expressed her hope that by sharing her experience, she can help prevent other parents from experiencing the loss of a child because of hatred.

At 7:00PM on October 7, 2009, there will be an event at Brooklyn Law School where Michael Silverman (TLDEF), Andy Marra (GLAAD), the Green/Cannon family, and other victims of anti-transgender hate crimes will share their knowledge, feelings, and experiences with anyone who wishes to attend. However, in order to make this happen, we need to raise money to cover the Green/Cannon family’s travel expenses. Please consider donating by clicking here, and please join us at the event. Thank you.

3 comments:

  1. Thank you. The story of Lateisha Green in context of your personal life journey made for good multi-layered reading: heart, mind, politics. I've just now made my donation. xo Kate B

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi, Laura! Thanks for inviting me over here.

    It's wonderful reading about your awakening, an awakening of the heart, or so it seems, as you worked on the LaTeisha Green case. I enjoyed following your blogs at TLDEF and tweets during the trial and sentencing. And I'm especially happy to see you keeping your mind (and heart) open to the world around you, and the people in it.

    The event you have planned sounds great! It is exactly this kind of event, where people can learn about the humanity of trans people and the impact of hate, not only on them, but on their families as well, that opens the hearts and minds of the general public. Good work, girl!

    Blessings,
    Abby

    ReplyDelete
  3. P.S. You might be interested in an event that I'm helping plan and will be presenting at. "TransForm Arizona: Uniting the T and the LGB" is a 3-day conference with speakers, workshops and lots of entertainment designed to help educate the LGB community, not just about the unique issues that affect trans people, but also how those issues intersect with the issues faced by the LGB community, and how we can work together for everyone's benefit. I know Phoenix is a long way from Brooklyn, but you would certainly be most welcome if you can make it. You can find all the details at http://transform.transmentors.org/.

    ReplyDelete