Anti-WEF activist arrested
'Living trans is not a crime!'
By Elijah Crane
New York
On Feb. 2, protesters braved a force of more than 10,000 New
York cops in order to confront the World Economic Forum.
Oppressed people of many nationalities and genders were
especially targeted as they asserted their legal right to
demonstrate.
As the anti-WEF protests were winding down for the day and
head-counts were the theme of the hour among affinity groups
and comrades in the struggle, the casualties of the day grew to
include Dean Spade and his supporters.
A gang of riot police arrested, assaulted and dragged Spade
and two of his supporters into custody around 5 p.m. His crime?
Attempting to use a public restroom in Grand Central
Station.
Spade is a female-to-male transgendered person, an activist
and a law student.
He described the situation in a statement distributed via
email: "I entered the 'men's' room, as is my custom, and was
followed in by a cop. As I was looking to see what stalls were
open, he approached and asked for my ID. I explained that I was
in the right bathroom, that I am transgender and I understood
his confusion, but I was just going to use the bathroom and
leave."
A friend went into the restroom after the cop, recognizing
that Spade could face trouble. The officer forcefully continued
the demand to see Spade's ID. The friend made an effort to
"vouch" for Spade, but to no avail.
Realizing that he was being denied the right to use the
restroom, Spade and his friend attempted to leave.
"At that point," the statement continued, "we tried to walk
past the cop and he physically restrained us by pushing us up
against the wall and blocking our exit while he radioed for
backup. Ultimately, we were thrown to the floor and dragged
(with me screaming 'I was just trying to pee! Help me!' to the
tourist and protester onlookers) through the station."
Another friend was also arrested while trying to advocate
for the two who were already detained.
Once in custody, Spade was thrown into the female
population. While it may have been safer in some ways, it was
another act of anti-trans bigotry. Why did he have to be
imprisoned at all? He was held for a total of 23 hours at three
different precincts.
And the transphobia was not isolated to the cops.
'Living trans is not a crime!'
When a court-appointed attorney spoke with Spade, his first
question was: Why was Spade in the men's room? When the
activist responded that he was transgender, the attorney
replied that he didn't need to know Spade's personal
business.
Yet this transphobic lawyer then asked all too personal
information regarding Spade's body. When Spade asked why he
needed to know, the attorney accused him of being unwilling to
cooperate.
Spade explained his response to this outrageous inquiry in
his statement: "Because I was unsure about what would happen to
me if he would not advocate for me vigorously, and because I
feared being given a bail I could not meet, I ultimately
suffered the indignity of having to satisfy his curiosity about
my genitalia by explaining it.
"Even then, he said dismissively about my transgender,
'Well, that is your personal business,' and left without giving
me any information about what would happen in the
courtroom."
Hours later when he was led into the courtroom for
arraignment, Spade found it filled with supporters wearing
stickers that read, "Living trans is not a crime."
News of the arrest traveled quickly. Supporters are
spreading his statement far and wide on the Internet.
Spade was released on his own recognizance. He has a court
date on March 6. He faces charges of disorderly conduct,
trespassing, resisting arrest and obstruction of government
administration.
Supporters plan to fill the courtroom to let the courts know
that transphobia is the crime.
Spade is working on a new law project focusing on the needs
of low-income transgender, transsexual, gender-queer and
gender-variant folks in New York City.
He concluded: "It was funny to spend a week writing a grant
about issues such as the discriminatory treatment of this
population in criminal justice contexts, as well as the
inadequacy of many lawyers to provide sensitive and appropriate
services to us, and then to experience these very problems
myself on the weekend. The experience has reinforced my
commitment to this work."
Elijah Crane is a transgender activist. He helped
organize participation in the Feb. 2 anti-WEF protest.
Reprinted from the Feb. 21, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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