Faux Real

This bothers me. This really, really bothers me. Why the distance between the reporting and the truth?

The Kokomo Tribune has an article up about the incident entitled “Police looking into Kokomo man’s death“, however the victim was actually a trans woman. She was found dead in the parking lot of her apartment complex and was discovered by two of her friends. From what I’m hearing, they disagree with police statements that no “foul play” was involved. The Tribune, however, simply reports that a local man was found “unresponsive” in a parking lot and that “county coroners officials found no signs of foul play, however, the case remains under investigation”.

Kokomo is a reasonably populated factory town about thirty minutes away from here. It’s wildy blue collar, socially and economically, and always under the threat of factory layoffs and shutdowns, plus there seems to be a real divide between those who are working class and those who are white collar. In other words, it’s a hotbed of reactionary politics going both ways. That said: It’s not a long shot to think that the police department would play down the possibility of foul play — rumor has it (let’s say I have a few friends from Kokomo) that all sorts of violence are brushed off by the police department there, from domestic violence on up, and like many Indiana towns the fight against meth is at the forefront of their mission. Not the dignity of transpeople.

Bil points out that a hate crimes bill failed to pass in Indiana in part to a large amount of rhetoric deriding “protections for ‘homosexuals and crossdressers’” by politicians like Eric Miller, who sent emails to “family values” advocates statewide warning that this bill would be a threat to, of all things, churches and Christians.