REVIEW
'The Brandon Teena Story'
By Deirdre Sinnott (Al Dente)
The fact that there is a documentary about Brandon Teena-a
young, working class, transgender person who was murdered in a
small Nebraska town in December 1994-shows that there is a
significant and growing movement against trans oppression.
Many transgender people are murdered at the hands of bigots.
Trans people have been systematically oppressed by the cops and
the bosses for hundreds of years. If we know the names Brandon
Teena, Marsha P. Johnson and Venus Extravaganza-all killed by
bigots and trans oppression-it's only because of a growing
awareness of the lives and deaths of trans people. This is the
direct result of a movement for liberation.
The new documentary film, "The Brandon Teena Story,"
produced and directed by Susan Muska and Greta Olafsdottir, is
a respectful and important work. The most unfortunate aspect of
the film is the absence of its main character. We see Brandon
Teena only through photographs, people's memories, and
testimony from the men who raped and murdered him.
The most painful part of the film is an audio tape of
Brandon made by cops as they grilled him about being raped by
the men who would later kill him and two others. The cops
deliberately waited to arrest the pair until after the
murders.
Brandon's story of transitioning, love, murder and
oppression is told thoughtfully by friends and former
girlfriends. It was Falls City Sheriff Charles Laux, who
publicly exposed Brandon's genetic sex (female), who began the
cascade of violence that ended in the triple homicide of
Brandon Teena, Lisa Lambert and Phillip DeVine.
Lampert and DeVine were killed to try to protect the
identities of the murderers, John Lotter and Tom Nissen.
While there is a lot of information about Brandon Teena
available to the movement, this film is an important
contribution because it exposes the daily oppression
transgender people suffer at the hands of bigoted cops and the
sexist, transphobic, anti-lesbian/gay/bi system that oppresses
us all.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: [email protected]
Subscribe [email protected]
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page