June 26th, 2015 marks one of the most important days in history for the LGBTQ

community; it was the day same sex marriage was legalized throughout all fifty states. People

celebrated this legislative victory with the introduction of the expression Love Wins. Although

this date signifies equality, inclusivity, and an amazing milestone for a highly marginalized

population, it did not solve all of the obstacles that pose a threat to the LGBTQ community. The

lack of urgency to cease anti-LGBTQ violence mirrors the rape culture that plagues todays

society; by failing to properly address the individuals responsible for the violence, we are therein

placing the blame on the victims. This serves to foster a society that condones division, hostility,

and sexual assault.

Individuals that transgress the normalized heteronormative structure that dominates our

society are more susceptible to alienation, shame, and physical harm. According to a research

overview of hate crimes committed against the LGTBQ community, In 2007 alone, 1265 hate

crimes were reported to the FBI, which is a 6-percent increase from 2006 (Campaign). This

statistic demonstrates a lack of respect and validation given to individuals that do not abide to

heteronormative tendencies, and further proves that homophobic violence is a relevant and

ubiquitous issue. Talia Bettcher, a philosophy professor at California State University, published

an article called Evil Deceivers and Make-Believers: Transphobic Violence and the Politics of

Illusion, in which she attests to the prevalence of LGBTQ hate crimes in todays society, and

references the story of a transgender woman named Gwen Araujo. After being forced to publicly

reveal her genitals, three men brutally beat and murdered her, then buried Gwen 150 miles away

in a forest. However, when her killers were being prosecuted in court, the slaying, they argued,

was committed in the heat of passion upon discovery of Araujos biological sex (Bettcher

44), which automatically places the blame on Gwen for her own murder. This specific example
of transphobic violence demonstrates that as a society, we condone circumstantial sexual

violence committed against another individual. It also indicates that a person receives validation

through the correlation between their genitals and sexual identity; In this framework, gender

presentation (attire, in particular) constitutes a gendered appearance, whereas the sexed body

constitutes the hidden, sexual reality. Expressions such as a man who dresses like a woman, a

man who lives as a woman, and even a woman who is biologically male all effectively

inscribe this situation (Bettcher 48). Gwens attackers claimed that they were subjected to a

deep sexual violation, and that it was her intent to maliciously deceive them. This insinuates

that Gwens, or any transgender individuals identity for that matter, is invalidated by societys

perception of gender and sex. More specifically, the rhetoric of deception appears deeply

connected to deployments of gender attributions that run contrary to a transpersons own self-

identifications (Bettcher 47). By accepting this trend of transferring the blame unto the victims,

todays society is therein reflecting the morals and ideals of modern rape culture, which

emphasizes that sexual violence is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture

(Womens). Not only does this trend foreshadow imminent danger for the LGBTQ community

as a whole, but it demonstrates a lack of empathy towards other marginalized populations that

are also susceptible to acts of hostility.

The heterosexual hierarchy has established a lens through which individuals perceive

each other. This lens, however, labels gender as a vital component when determining ones

identity. This is problematic because the act of gendering a person is what creates the false

notion that there is a relationship between an individuals genitals and sexual identity in the first

place. Judith Butler, in her book Gender Trouble, elaborates on this dilemma when she states, If

gender is the cultural meaning that the sexed body assumes, then a gender cannot be said to
follow from a sex in any one way. Taken to its logical limit, the sex/gender distinction suggests a

radical discontinuity between sexed bodies and culturally constructed genders (Subjects 6).

Butler additionally characterizes gender as a performance, in which a person is in a constant

process of actions without a subject to object relationship. These actions automatically place an

individual within the gender binary, and if they do not fit within the male or female categories,

they are considered a societal outcast. For example, in the film Paris Is Burning, a woman

named Venus Xtravaganza is an illustration of someone who did not fit within the gender binary;

she was a transgender woman who possessed a penis, and therefore, was a tangible resistance

against the heteronormative lens. By actively subverting the heteronormative hierarchy, She

passes as a light-skinned woman, but is- by virtue of a certain failure to pass completely-

clearly vulnerable to homophobic violence; ultimately, her life is taken presumably by a client

who, upon discovery of what she calls her little secret, mutilates her for having seduced him

(Bodies 129-130). Xtravaganza was subjected to homophobic violence because her perpetrator

committed the initial act of assuming a connection between her sexual identity and her genitals;

she appeared feminine, so her attacker expected her to have a vagina. Due to the heteronormative

lens that fabricates this connection and Xtravaganzas subversion of it, she was brutally

murdered and her killer was never identified. However, Xtravaganza was not killed simply

because she possessed a penis, but because her attacker gendered her and placed her within the

gender binary before their sexual encounter even began. When these components of a persons

identity dont align, such as in Xtravaganzas case, it further leads to homophobic violence

where the blame is placed on the victim.

In order to stop the unwarranted violence and hatred that the LGBTQ community is
vulnerable to, it is imperative to address the underlying constituents that promote it, which is the

act of gendering individuals in the first place and inferring about their identity based on a

socially constructed relationship between genitals and sexual identity. Failure to do so will

continue to cultivate a heteronormative hierarchy that not only mirrors modern rape culture, but

also disregards the mistreatment, disgust, and harassment of a marginalized community. The

pervasiveness of LGBTQ mistreatment makes living an intelligible life as a queer individual in

todays society near impossible. With that being said, there are ways in which counteracting the

hegemonic hierarchy could minimize anti-LGBTQ violence, and foster a society that condemns

hatred and cruelty as opposed to passively accepting it. The notion that a persons identity must

be in accordance with their biological make-up is a socially constructed fallacy that serves no

actual purpose rather than to reinforce heteronormativity. It enforces the idea that a person is

entitled to assuming ones identity based on something as trivial as what they are wearing or

what they look like. In order to effectively eradicate LGBTQ violence, we must first dismantle

this idea that there is a connection between genitals and gender, which then determines an

identitys validity or lack thereof. Butler addresses the abolishment of this fallacious perception

when she writes,

If gender is not tied to a sex, either causally or expressively, then gender is a kind

of action that can potentially proliferate beyond the binary limits imposed by the

apparent binary of sex. Indeed, gender would be a kind of cultural/corporeal

action that requires a new vocabulary that institutes and proliferates present

participles of various kinds, resignifiable and expansive categories that resist

both the binary and substantializing grammatical restrictions on gender

(Gender112).
Destroying this connection, as Butler explains, would allow gender to function as an identity that

a person actively chooses to become rather than a fixed assignment at birth. As the well-known

feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir iterates in her famous work, The Second Sex, One is

not born, but rather becomes, a woman. If this statement by Beauvoir pertained to all

individuals for the identify of their choosing, it would promote inclusivity and be a great starting

point in progressively tearing down the heteronormative hierarchy that condones anti-LGBTQ

violence and mirrors modern rape culture. A world in which we encourage individuals to grow

into their selfhood and allow them to determine the relationship between sex and gender for

themselves will be a world of empathy, peace, and compassion- not only for the LGBTQ

community, but for everyone. It will be a world where the expression Love Wins, finally rings

true.

Citations
Bettcher, Talia Mae. Evil Deceivers and Make-Believers: On Transphobic Violence and the

Politics of Illusion.

Butler, Judith. Bodies That Matter. On the Discursive Limits of Sex.

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble. Subversive Bodily Acts.

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble. Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire.

Campaign, Human Rights. "Hate Crimes and Violence Against LGBTQ People | Human Rights

Campaign." Human Rights Campaign. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2016.

"Women's Center." Womens Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Dec. 2016.