Brandon Teena
Brandon Teena (
December 12,
1972 -
December 31,
1993), born Teena Renae Brandon in
Lincoln, Nebraska and known simply as
Brandon, was a
transgender man who was
raped and
murdered in one of the most famous
American hate crimes of the
1990s. Brandon is the subject of the
Academy Award-winning
1999 film Boys Don't Cry, which was itself based on the
documentary film The Brandon Teena Story.
In 1993 Brandon, being
female-to-male,
identified and lived as a man. He was dating a local woman named
Lana Tisdel. On Christmas Day, two acquaintances -
John Lotter and
Marvin Thomas Nissen - discovered that Brandon had been born female and raped him in
Falls City, Nebraska. Brandon reported the rape to the local
sheriff, Charles B. Laux, who dismissed the allegations despite overwhelming medical evidence. When Lotter and Nissen discovered that Brandon had gone to the police, they murdered him,
Lisa Lambert, the woman with whom he was staying, and her friend, a black disabled man named Philip DeVine, on
December 31,
1993.
There is some controversy as to whether or not the three were murdered solely because of Brandon Teena. The two killers were members of a white supremacist organization and may have potentially been targeting Philip DeVine or both.
Laux was criticised after the murder for his lack of action and his attitude toward Brandon â€" at one point Laux referred to Brandon as "it" (see Trial details link). Nissen testified against Lotter and was given a life sentence; Lotter was sentenced to death and is currently on
Death Row.
At the time of his death Brandon had neither commenced
hormone therapy nor had
sex reassignment surgery. However, some note that Brandon had planned to have sex reassignment surgery. As with many other female-bodied persons who live as men, it has occasionally been claimed that Brandon was a
lesbian. However, there was no compelling evidence that this was true in Brandon's case (compare
homosexuality and transgender).
In 2006 the
Pet Shop Boys released a song called Girls Don't Cry (bonus track on UK issue of I'm with Stupid) about Brandon Teena.
*
List of transgender-related topics*
Transphobia*
Gwen Araujo, another murder victim related to transphobia
*
Remembering Our Dead*
Trial details*
Survivor bashing - bias motivated hate crimes*
Judith Halberstam and her article
The Brandon Teena Archive
