Say their names, mourn their loss

People who are gay are born this way. That mantra has been central in a fight for civil rights by LGBTQ folks and their supporters for generations.

If you went to the Chicago Pride Parade on Sunday, you might have seen a “born this way” sign. For many, it will always hold true. Lady Gaga made it an anthem in her 2011 hit song “Born This Way.”

But it’s not always so simple. Some people who are LGBTQ describe sexual orientation or gender identity as more nuanced. USA Today culture reporter Alia E. Dastagir on Tuesday wrote of the “born this way” narrative: “Some argue it excludes those who feel their sexuality is fluid, while others question why the dignity of gay people should rest on the notion that they were gay from their very first breath.”

Well said.

Our take: It doesn’t matter. Whether people believe they were born gay, bisexual, transgender or queer, or they believe they came to a particular identity over time — or they see no reason to put a fine point on the matter — they deserve no less acceptance and respect. All the multicolored flowers of a field are equally “normal.”

Tragically, there still can be grave danger in being “out.” We were reminded of that when we visited the Center on Halsted last week to view the exhibit “Say Our Names” by artist Lilly Wachowski.

Wachowski painted 27 vivid portraits of transgender men and women who were murdered in the United States in 2016. The exhibit can be viewed for free through July 11.

Wachowski and her sister Lana are transgender women well known for their work in the Hollywood film industry. They wrote the “The Matrix” trilogy.

The artist displayed the portraits on the gallery wall by the victims’ heights. The effect is powerfully personal. Most of the victims are African-American women, including Chicagoan T.T. Saffore. In September, Saffore, 28, was stabbed to death. Her body was found in the West Garfield Park neighborhood. Police are still investigating.

To describe Saffore, Wachowski includes a statement from a friend of Saffore’s. The friend, Jaliyah Armstrong, told the Windy City Times, “You could be going through a bad day, but once you saw [T.T.], she was such a happy, cheerful person, all that changed.”

A 16-year-old shooting victim from Iowa, Kedarie/Kandicee Johnson, also is included. Johnson was gender fluid, identifying as a boy and girl. Two men were charged in that fatal shooting.

In a statement, Wachowski said she began painting the portraits in late July 2016 as “an outlet of the overwhelming emotion I was feeling in the relentless waves of mortal acts of violence against trans people over the course of the year.” Her portraits, she added, are by no means considered a complete list of killings of transgender people.

In February, another transgender woman from Chicago, Tiara Richmond, 24, was shot to death in the Englewood neighborhood. Richmond also went by the name Keke Collier, according to Mic.com. Police said they are still investigating.

Against this backdrop of violence, LGBTQ people continue to fight for their civil rights. The Supreme Court ruling in 2015 that same-sex couples have a right to marry was a monumental shift toward acceptance, but it also triggered legislators around the country to enact bigoted laws that limit other civil rights.

Humans are complicated. A group of researchers led by Northwestern psychology professor J. Michael Bailey concluded in a report last year that “the most scientifically plausible causal hypotheses” for sexual orientation “are difficult to test.” The group found “considerably more evidence” supporting biological causes of sexual orientation than social causes, such as early sexual experiences or cultural acceptance of gays.

But Bailey and his colleagues were clear about this: The argument that people “choose” to be gay, as a matter of good science, is a non-starter.

“Applied to sexual orientation, it makes sense to say that people choose their sexual partners,” Bailey said, “but it doesn’t make sense to say that they choose their desires.”

What matters most is this: We study the portrait of Kedarie/Kandicee Johnson, the raised eyebrows and big smile, and wish this person were with us still.

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