Brenda Ramirez on Objection!

One interesting point Richie makes on Objections! Treatment of Queers in Criminal Court is regarding the need for prosecutors to dehumanize people in order to justify giving them the death penalty. However, even more compelling is the way in which how easily race, class, and sexuality can influence the justification of a death penalty when the defendant deviates from being a wealthy, heterosexual white man.

Mata’s case led me to think about the way in which queer people are at a huge disadvantage because traditional ideas of sex and sexuality are likely to consistently put them in vulnerable positions when the law is involved. Not only are queer people more like to get sentenced longer for things that would be easily dismissed if the situation involved heterosexuals, but they are more likely to die in jail because of their sexuality. However, I think the most infuriating thing is the fact that, as Richie explains, the court systems play on these homophobic stereotypes despite hard evidence which proves innocence to justify killing someone -and it usually works.

            Richie’s reference to the similarities in Mata and Aileen Wuornos’ case raises cause for concern. I remember watching endless documentaries on Aileen and all of them depicted her as someone who hated men, a “butch” lesbian who took advantage of them and killed them. Very rarely did I ever find a documentary which detailed her childhood experiences with sexual abuse, neglect and how all of these traumas played into her murders. Much like with Mata, instead of being provided with proper therapy, she was sentenced to the death penalty and died with the portrayal of a monster.  Cases in which white, male, domestic terrorists have massacred groups of people have obtained more sympathy than queer people. People like Dylan Roof who committed acts of domestic terrorism are deemed by the media as “loners”, “disturbed”, “mentally unstable”, while queer people are demonized and dehumanized. 

            These unfortunate and reoccurring stories about queer and gender non-conforming people either being killed or unjustly charged with serious crimes because of their gender identity or sexuality reminds me of the Ally Lee Steinfeld case. Ally was stabbed in her genitals and had her eyes gauged out in Missouri. Despite the conditions in which she was left after her murder, Missouri police insist that the murder was not a hate-crime. Interestingly enough, many cases consisting of murders against trans people are not deemed hate-crimes and are hardly ever treated as such.

Why do you think it's so easy for the court system to dehumanize queer and gender non-conformists to the point that they can be charged with harsher crimes and sentences in comparison to their heterosexual counterparts even with proper evidence?