{"id":4140,"date":"2008-02-04T01:16:21","date_gmt":"2008-02-04T08:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2008\/02\/04\/intersectionality-in-action-driving-while-black-trans-male\/"},"modified":"2008-02-04T01:16:21","modified_gmt":"2008-02-04T08:36:09","slug":"intersectionality-in-action-driving-while-black-trans-male","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=4140","title":{"rendered":"Intersectionality In Action: Driving While Black & Trans & Male"},"content":{"rendered":"

Via Fetch Me My Axe<\/a>, this interesting article in Colorlines Magazine<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

Trans people of color are finding that they have an extremely different relationship to gender transition than white people. London Dexter Ward, an LAPD cop who transitioned in 2004, sums it up this way: a white person who transitions to a male body \u201cjust became a man.\u201d By contrast, he says, \u201cI became a Black man. I became the enemy. \u201c<\/p>\n

In short, people of color know that racism works differently for men and women, and transgender people like Mitchell and Ward are getting to experience this from both sides of the gender equation. […]<\/p>\n

Louis Mitchell expected a lot of change when he began taking injections of hormones eight years ago to transition from a female body to a male one. He anticipated that he\u2019d grow a beard, which he eventually did and enjoys now. He knew his voice would deepen and that his relationship with his partner, family and friends would change in subtle and, he hoped, good ways, all of which happened.<\/p>\n

What he had not counted on was changing the way he drove.
\nWithin months of starting male hormones, \u201cI got pulled over 300 percent more than I had in the previous 23 years of driving, almost immediately. It was astounding,\u201d says Mitchell, who is Black and transitioned while living in the San Francisco area and now resides in Springfield, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

Targeted for \u201cdriving while Black\u201d was not new to Mitchell, who is 46 years old. For example, a few years before transitioning, he had been questioned by a cop for simply sitting in his own car late at night. But \u201che didn\u2019t really sweat me too much once he came up to the car and divined that I was female,\u201d Mitchell recalls.<\/p>\n

Now in a Black male body, however, Mitchell has been pulled aside for small infractions. When he and his wife moved from California to the East Coast, Mitchell refused to let her drive on the cross-country trip. \u201cShe drives too fast,\u201d he says, chuckling and adding, \u201cI didn\u2019t want to get pulled over. It took me a little bit longer [to drive cross country] \u2018cause I had to drive like a Black man. I can\u2019t be going 90 miles an hour down the highway. If I\u2019m going 56, I need to be concerned.\u201d As more people of color transition, Mitchell\u2019s experience is becoming an increasingly common one…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Via Fetch Me My Axe, this interesting article in Colorlines Magazine: Trans people of color are finding that they have an extremely different relationship to gender transition than white people. London Dexter Ward, an LAPD cop who transitioned in 2004, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,107,90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-race-racism-and-related-issues","category-sexism-hurts-men","category-transsexual-and-transgender-related-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}