[spectre] On the XX Boys at the Rubber Rose, Kael T. Block and Rape

[lotu5]

http://technotrannyslut.com/2007/11/12/on-the-xx-boys-at-the-rubber-rose-kael-t-block-and-rape/


On November 10th, the day that XX Boys show at the Rubber Rose was going 
to open, I was at the No Borders Camp. I headed over to the Queer 
Barrio, towards the Queers Against Borders banner, to let people going 
to SD on their way home know about the show. I walked up, told them 
about the show and was told by one of the youth there, “oh, that guy 
Kael T. Block raped my friend. He came into her room at night and raped 
her. He has a bad name all over San Francisco.”

This was the first time I had heard anything about the rape charges 
against Kael T. Block. Thank you all for your comments on my earlier 
post. I wish I had known earlier. In my opinion, the rapist will always 
claim innocence and the only option is to prioritize the voice of the 
victim. So, I do not want to have anything to do with Kael T. Block at 
all. As far as I can tell, the survivors testimonies are not online any 
longer, so I cannot link to them here.

Also, the same day that I learned about this, the Rubber Rose receive a 
phone call from one of the Kael’s victims, who was very, very upset 
about the show. This, I think, was the first they had heard of this 
situation as well. The survivor proceeded to email testimonies of other 
survivors and her own to the Rubber Rose. This was hours before the 
opening and the show was already hung. The owners of the Rubber Rose, 
Carly and Lea, decided to post a statement about the show and post the 
survivors stories and leave the show up for the opening, in order to 
support transgender visibility and bring the Kael’s crimes to light.

I think that the only conscientious way forward is for the Rubber Rose 
to take down the show immediately. I have told them so. As of today, the 
show was still up. I am awaiting a public statement from the Rubber Rose 
owners on this situation. I sincerely hope they issue a statement soon, 
because I have no desire to be associated with a gallery that would host 
Kael’s photos, even though I have known and loved Carly and Lea for so 
many years.

My understanding is that Kael has fled the US because of criminal 
charges against him in San Francisco and the state of California for 
this rape incident. My understanding is also that he hasn’t had a show 
in the United States since then, until now. Personally, I feel like this 
situation brings up a lot of issues regarding the way communities deal 
with rape and the way that the voices of the victims are silenced. I did 
find this one blog entry about how some in the SF queer community 
responded. Frankly, after reading the statements from the survivors, I 
don’t give a shit about what Kael has to say and I want to take no part 
in promoting or showing his work at all.

So, most importantly, I want to apologize to all the survivors of 
attacks by Kael T. Block for promoting the show at the Rubber Rose. I 
honestly did not know about the situation, and now that I know I am 
doing everything I can to make sure the show is taken down. My 
understanding is that the Rubber Rose is planning on taking down the 
show soon and are writing their statement about the situation. I feel 
responsible for issuing this public statement since I did work to spread 
the press release for the show around.

Further, I think this is additionally sad because FtM visibility is 
very, very important. I think that the photos are amazing, but I cannot 
look at them anymore because I’m haunted by wondering which of the 
models he raped, as the testimonies are all anonymous. Although this 
project does not represent all transgender people, as well, it will 
definitely serve to give some people more support for their conception 
that transgender people are mentally ill, unstable, dishonest, whatever 
other bullshit they might think.

I hope that people will see this as a call to do more work to bring 
visibility to the FtM community and the transgender community in all its 
amazing diversity and beauty. There’s no reason at all that people 
should feel like they have to choose to support Kael in order to show 
FtM or transgender solidarity.


-- 

blog: http://technotrannyslut.com
gpg:  0x5B77079C // encrypted email preferred
gaim/skype: djlotu5 // off the record messaging preferred