Jorge Paniagua

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Another Trans Victim from Dating App Robbery

Violence against transgender people continues to be a daunting issue within the LGBTQ+ community. Los Angeles, alone, recorded a nearly 13 percent increase in hate crimes toward LGBTQ+ people and black community members last year, as reported by The Los Angeles Times.

Yet, there are many transgender people who come face-to-face with assailants and live to tell their story. Jessica-Jean de la Vega, a youth education advocate for a Los Angeles-based trans health clinic, is one of them. 

De la Vega had downloaded the notorious LGBTQ+ dating/sex app, Grindr. She, like so many other LGBTQ+ people who frequent the app, was looking forward to simply meeting someone for a casual connection. However, she never expected to invite an assailant over — one with the intention to rob as much as he could. 

Before inviting the man over, De la Vega did not pick up on any red flags during their exchange on Grindr.  

“It was a totally normal conversation,” De la Vega said. “We had a full-blown conversation — pictures were sent, we talked to each other, there wasn’t anything assuming. He had mentioned he was on the DL — I said that’s fine. He sent me his actual photos. Everything matched when he got here.”

After the man made his way into De la Vega’s home, he violently pushes her down and pulls out a gun. “Value your life,” the assailant said while pointing his gun toward her.

“There’s like a sense of security you expect from being on this app that’s targeted toward queer people,” De la Vega said. “You don’t expect that to happen.”

The assailant stole De la Vega’s phone, wallet and even went as far as taking the flat-screen television in the living room, which belonged to her roommate. 

Yet, De la Vega feels fortunate that the altercation didn’t escalate to violent heights. If she hadn’t complied with his requests, she fears she might have become a part of a statistic already growing at an alarming rate. 

In 2018, 26 transgender people lost their lives by means of brutal violence. So far, in 2019, there have been more than 10 transgender people who have been murdered — many such as Dana Martin, a 31-year-old black transgender women, were fatally shot. Martin was found dead in her car — having lived her final moments in a roadside ditch somewhere in Alabama, according to Human Rights Campaign. 

“I’m really fortunate,” De la Vega said. “Someone else, two weeks later, was robbed by the same person. She got physically hurt, I did not.”

The person that De la Vega is referring to is Luna Lovebad, a 28-year-old transgender Latinx women with a career in music. Lovebad performed a musical set at LA Pride, the day after she was robbed by two men at gunpoint. According to Lovebad, after re-downloading the app in the weeks following the assault, she was messaged by an anonymous profile. The message read: “You was broke anyways bitch. Should’ve shot yo dumb ass,” as reported on her Instagram account.

“I think we face a lot more violence, just in general,” De la Vega said. “I mean we constantly see how many trans women have already died this year. And then, on top of all of the trans violence, they just have funeral services for trans woman in our community — it’s like we constantly face this.”

De la Verga remained off of Grindr immediately following the incident. However, she recently re-downloaded the application. Her reasoning: she deserves to live her life. Moreover, she believes it’s, oftentimes, difficult for LGBTQ+ people to date, or connect for casual fun, without the help of queer apps such as Grindr. 

However, she does admit that she is much more cautious about who she meets over the app.

“There are so many different things that can lead to violence [for transgender people],” De la Vega said. “Whether it be from Grindr, whether it be from anywhere else. You have to look at the disparities that transpeople face versus cis-folk. Because it’s not just trans women, it’s every person that falls outside of the gender binary that this happens to.”

De la Vega recently installed a security camera inside of her apartment — it directly faces the front door and is linked in real-time to her cell-phone. She says it makes her feel safer following such a traumatic incident. 

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Devoted to His Country, Dismissed by Trump

Rudy Akbarian is a transgender veteran of the United States Army. – Advertisement –

Akbarian, a descendent of Armenian ancestry, is not only filled with patriotism for serving in his country’s military but he is also willing to die for his country and defend its national ethos. Its ethos are, essentially, an amalgamation of ideals which include democracy, liberty and equality. 

He is often asked, in light of Donald Trump’s presidency and, most recently, the Supreme Court-approved ban on transgender individuals serving in the military, how he can remain devoted to serving a country which, oftentimes, seems to disown people like him. 

His response to that question: “I feel like the white man is not this country. This country is everything before — it’s diversity. This country is love, acceptance and willingness to love your neighbor and help your neighbor. That’s how I remember this country. Donald Trump has just given the racist white man a voice and that’s not what America is.”

Akbarian’s family lineage is one deeply affected by political oppression and violence overseas. For example, his great grandmother survived the Armenian genocide — she witnessed her mother’s beheading at the tender age of seven years old. Furthermore, Akbarian’s parents came to the United States as refugees from Iran — seeking asylum from violent political turmoil.

Transgender U.S. veteran, Rudy Akbarian, says he misses the feeling of putting on his uniform everyday. He still feels great patriotism for the country he served for six years.

“America saved my family’s life because they took them in,” Akbarian. “I’m the first born, the first natural born American. I have a lot of patriotism, a lot of love for this country — for how it opened its doors to my family and protected my family. I felt that I needed to do the same by protecting this country.” 

Akbarian served in the military for six years — before he retired, he served as a specialist in E-4.  In essence, he was one rank short of becoming a full-fledged sergeant. 

He began medically transitioning – while in the military – at the age of 23. He started the process as soon as he returned from boot camp and advanced individual training — he was merely a private in the military then. 

Back in July 2017, President Trump tweeted that one of his reasons for banning transgender people from the military was due to the “tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.” Akbarian claims he never asked for any financial assistance from the military during his transitioning process. Furthermore, his intent was far from disrupting the unit he worked in — Akbarian wanted to keep his transition as discreet as possible. 

After beginning hormone replacement therapy, the facial changes came sooner than expected. 

“I didn’t think that I was going to see changes so fast but, little did my Armenian-self know, that I was going to grow facial hair like I just came out of the womb with it,” Akbarian said. “I’m a really hairy guy.” 

At the time, the military was not “okay” with transitioning, according to Akbarian. He figured that he could begin transitioning and hide the fact until the facial changes become too evident to remain a secret. However, within his first year of hormone replacement therapy, his body hair became adamant. He knew then that he needed to begin having conversations with his fellow soldiers about why he suddenly had a five o’clock shadow at eight in the morning. 

He was wary of backlash from his higher-ups in the military — for instance, he assumed he would eventually have to resign from the military as a result of being transgender. However, Akbarian was greeted with tolerance, respect and a sincere desire, from his colleagues, to better understand his situation. 

“THEY [COMMANDING OFFICERS] WERE 100 PERCENT SUPPORTIVE AND, MOST OF THE TIME, THEY WERE LIKE, ‘WE DON’T EVEN SEE GENDER; WE JUST SEE SOLDIERS,” AKBARIAN SAID. “YOU GOT A MISSION, GO DO THE SH-T, GET IT DONE AND THAT’S IT. WE HAD A BUNCH OF CIS-GIRLS AND CIS-BOYS IN THE UNIT. EVERYBODY KIND OF MINGLED WITHIN EACH OTHER. WE SAW EACH OTHER AS FAMILY.”

His unit was a progressive one — so much that one day a U.S. Army major came out to his unit’s location to provide soldiers with “transgender training.” This program would provide cisgender soldiers with essential information to better understand their transgender counterparts in the military. 

“It was incredible,” Akbarian said. “I stepped up [during the training] and answered a bunch of questions that people had that they were too scared to ask. It was a really enlightening, eye-opening experience for both me and the people who were in my unit.

“Everytime I went on base, everytime I put on the uniform — I was happy to do so. In fact, I miss it so much. I think about it everyday.”

When Akbarian heard the news regarding the Supreme Court granting the Trump Administration’s request to bar transgender individuals from serving in the military, he said that he felt pained. 

“I thought it was a joke,” Akbarian said. “Then when I saw my trans military facebook friends talking about it and them freaking out, I was heartbroken. How? How can this happen in America? And how can somebody who has never served a day in life in his life — who avoided the draft God knows how many times — try to tell us that we can’t serve when we just want to protect the country?”

Akbarian said he never felt discriminated against while in the military. In fact, he felt at home. Although there were awkward moments — for example, there was one occasion when Akbarian was unsure which gendered showers were appropriate for him. The soldier felt welcome among his peers. 

“I’m happy that I’m no longer enlisted — that I’m a veteran now, technically,” Akbarian said. “I wish I could have re-enlisted but I’m glad that I didn’t because [the news] didn’t hurt as much. I’m not thinking about what I’m going to do next or where I’m going to go. But it still hurt, because there are people I know who are doing 20 years, who are doing multiple years, who are in such high ranks, who are trans, in the military and serving so honorably and courageously that are about to lose their career.” 

Following his departure from the military, Akbarian worked as an employment specialist for the Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Center. At The Center, he assisted homeless LGBTQ+ youth in finding employment opportunities. He is currently attending barber school.

“I offer haircuts to the LGBTQ community — free haircuts, I don’t take any money from LGBTQ people. Just totally donation-based,” Akbarian said. 

He still feels a significant amount of pride and patriotism as a veteran of the U.S. army. He said that he hopes the upcoming presidential election will bring about a progressive leader — one that both Democrats and Democratic Socialists could get behind to support.

“If Donald Trump wins 2020, he’s already destroyed America. He’s exposed the most horrid, racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic people that live and exist in America,” Akbarian said. “I don’t really know how much worse it can get. I’m really scared for America.”

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Long Beach City Officials Authorize Policies Protecting Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Citizens

Long Beach City officials, specifically North Long Beach Councilmember and Vice Mayor Rex Richardson, in collaboration with the Long Beach LGBTQ+ Center, are working conscientiously to make the city a safer, more-inclusive place for transgender and gender nonconforming people.

In an attempt to build all-embracing workplaces for transgender and gender nonconforming Long Beach employees throughout the city, officials a part of the Long Beach City Council passed a motion adopting a preferred name and pronoun policy for all Long Beach employees. In essence, the policy allows for employees to be identified with the name and/or pronoun they prefer to be identified by. The policy was enacted on November 13 and is expected to be in full effect within the next three months, according to Executive Director of the Long Beach LGBTQ Center Porter Gilberg.

“Preferred name and pronoun policies are a tool that employers use to ensure a safe and equitable work environment for employees,” Gilberg said regarding the motions passed by Long Beach city officials. “These policies also create opportunities to recruit the most talented workforce possible and signals to transgender and gender nonconforming job seekers that both their talents and identities will be recognized at work. This is a tremendous step forward for the City of Long Beach and one of the most significant policy achievements at the local level for the LGBTQ community in several years.”

It is not uncommon for the Center to work in collaboration with Long Beach City Council members. The Center normally assists in policy recommendations as well as co-hosting events for the city’s official events. Both institutions aim to make Long Beach a safe haven for LGBTQ+ members — this involves pro-LGBTQ+ policy making and opposition toward discrimination at both a city and, as a result of President Trump’s administration, federal level.

On November 20, Long Beach city officials also passed a motion instructing city staff to directly contact the Trump Administration to formally oppose proposed revisions to Title IX of the Education Amendments, which currently protects people from discrimination based on gender identity.

Title IX was enacted in 1972 by The United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, and “protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive Federal financial assistance,” according to The U.S. Department of Education’s website. The Trump Administration is considering rolling back acknowledgement and protections of transgender people, under federal civil rights law, by determining someone’s gender based on their genitalia at birth instead of by their individual choice, as reported by The New York Times.

“It’s critical that our community, including our elected leadership, continue to speak out in the face of bigotry being displayed by the Trump administration,” Gilberg said. “We value and celebrate diversity in Long Beach, which means we also provide support to people when they experience hostility and discrimination, especially when it’s being perpetuated by the federal government. By registering official opposition to these policies, the city of Long Beach is taking a stand on the right side of history.”

Both the preferred name and pronoun policy, as well as the proposed letter defending transgender rights under civil rights law for the Trump Administration, aim to create a welcoming environment for all transgender and non gender conforming people at both a city and federal level. Furthermore, the policies, lead by Councilmember Rex Richardson, attempt to defend LGBTQ+ people from the staunch Republican administration currently in power.