Woman of the Day: Chrishaun (CeCe) Reed Mai’luv McDonald

Growing up, I remember learning of the accomplishments of many people in US and world history and more often than not, those people were men. Women received much less coverage. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned that the accomplishments of women have long been minimized, dismissed, or ignored.  This is another way that sexism has played out in society. Denying the accomplishments of women is an insult. It treats them as if they’re unimportant…as if they haven’t contributed significantly to events throughout human history. In this ongoing series, I’ll be highlighting notable women, historically important women, and those women who ought to be acknowledged.  My intent is to show that women have contributed to the course of human history and ought to be recognized, rather than ignored or overlooked. Born in 1989, today’s woman of the day is transgender prison-reform activist Chrishaun (CeCe) Reed Mai’luv McDonald.

Prison-reform activist and trans woman CeCe McDonald had groceries in mind when she and a group of friends (all African-American) took a stroll to a grocery store in June 2011. On the way, the group walked past a biker bar where Dean Schmitz and his girlfriend Molly Flaherty were drinking.

“Faggot-lovers”

“Niggers”

“Rapists”

“Look at that boy dressed as a girl, tucking his dick in!”

“Bitches with dicks”

Those transphobic, homophobic, and racist slurs were hurled by Schmitz and Flaherty, who taunted the group. Despite McDonald standing up for the group and demanding respect from their harassers, a fight ensued when Flaherty smashed a beer bottle across McDonald’s face, puncturing her salivary gland and leaving an open wound. After the fight ended, McDonald attempted to leave, but was pursued by an angry Schmitz. Once she became aware of this, she grabbed the only weapon she could find in her purse: a pair of fabric scissors. As Schmitz lunged at her, the scissors penetrated his chest, reaching three and a half inches deep and slashing his heart.  Schmitz died minutes later. Upon the arrival of the police, CeCe McDonald was arrested.

Throughout her trial, McDonald found support from the local trans and queer community. Billy Navarro Jr. of the Minnesota Transgender Health Coalition helped found the Free CeCe Campaign, while supporters clad in FREE CECE T-shirts packed the courtrooms for each of her hearings.

For 23 hours of the day, McDonald was kept in solitary confinement to “protect her” (two months after being imprisoned, she finally received treatment for the injuries she sustained in the fight). This, despite the inhumane nature of solitary confinement. Despite the fact that she was defending herself, McDonald was charged with second-degree murder and faced 40 years in prison. Pleading guilty to second-degree manslaughter because she did not want to go through an extended trial, McDonald spent 41 months in a state men’s prison-yes, another indignity on top of the metric fuckton of indignities she faced (should I remind you that the death of the racist bigot Dean Schmitz was SELF fucking DEFENSE?!)

In January 2014, after serving 19 months at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in St. Cloud, CeCe McDonald was released on parole (her sentence having been reduced due to good behavior and the 275 days she’d served prior to the her trial). Upon her release, she was greeted by fellow trans woman and star of the hit show Orange Is the New Black, Laverne Cox.  Today, CeCe uses her fame to speak out as an activist for prison reform. Along with Cox, CeCe will star in the documentary FREE CeCe, which confronts the culture of violence that surrounds trans women of color.

 

Click here to watch a HuffPost Live conversation with CeCe McDonald.

Sources:

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-transgender-crucible-20140730)

http://lgbthistorymonth.com/cece-mcdonald?tab=biography

 

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Woman of the Day: Chrishaun (CeCe) Reed Mai’luv McDonald
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