Nineteen year old Abraham Biggs linked himself to a website streaming live video. In front of the camera, he purposefully OD'd on prescription meds. He lived in Broward County, Florida where he wasn't man enough to live. That's what he thought.
"I am in love with a girl and I know that I am not good enough for her," he wrote on a body-building forum. "I have come to believe that my life has all been meaningless. I keep trying and I keep failing. I have thought about and attempted suicide many times in the past." He wrote this on a body-building forum. He was trying to build his body, and this is what he wrote there. Connection?
Wendy Crane, an investigator at the Broward County Medical Examiner's office, is ABC News' source. She said, "People were egging him on and saying things like 'go ahead and do it, faggot." Faggot. Connection?
According to ABC News, Wired Magazine chimed in by reporting comments written in response to Abraham's suicidal posts—comments ranging from OMG to LOL. One commenter wrote, "hahaha hahahahha hahahahahah ahhaha." Another comment read, "Instant Darwinism …" which was seconded by, "fucking a nicely put." And guess what… other commenters called Abraham a "coward," a "faggot" and a "dick." Connection?
The connection is the bipolar gender system—the simplistic belief that there are men and there are women, and everyone else deserves to die. The bipolar gender/sexuality matrix kills a lot of people, that's what I want to say. Whether we kill ourselves, or people kill us because we're not real mean or real women… we end up dead, damn it. So are we allowed to mourn Abraham Biggs today, on Transgender Day of Remembrance? I am. Bless your heart, Abraham. I am so sorry you thought you weren't good enough.
I am so sorry that we as a culture haven't yet figured out how to deal with gender as a hierarchal system of oppression that kills kids like Abraham, as clearly as race kills kids, class kills kids, and sexuality kills kids. Gender as an oppressive system is as deadly as looks, ability, religion, age and citizenship—all hierarchal systems of oppression. Can we please remember that on this Transgender Day of Remembrance?
Okay, I'm gonna go cry now.
Kate