Brandon Teena was a gay youth who died in 1993. Her life events are thought-provoking, regretful and inspiring at the same time. When first writing this article, I bawled like a baby because I felt an innocent person who deserved a good life had died unjustly.
Brandon Teena was a female to male transgender. He was born in the wrong body so to speak. What a curse.
This is Brandon Teena.
Brandon Teena is said to be very charming, charismatic and a real ladies man. He was very popular with the girls. I can imagine why:
Name: Teena Renae Brandon
Born: 12th December 1972, Lincoln, Nebraska
Died: 31 December 1993 (aged 21), Humboldt, Nebraska.
Cause of Death: Murder by gunshot.
Pseudonyms: Billy Brinson, Teena Ray
Nationality: American
This is a cronological order of her life and till death.
*~ Teena was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. His father died before he was born. He has an older sister Tammy. He lived with his mother.
*~ His uncle sexually abused him and his sister when they were young. This can explain his preference for female.
*~ Brandon had always been a tomboy. He began dating a girl in his adolescence.
*~ Brandon wanted to be in the army but was rejected when he labelled his sex as 'male'.
*~ Brandon binded his breasts to look like a boy. He was said to be a very happy person - 'class clown'.
*~ He officially began cross-dressing and had several relationships.
*~ In the new town where he moved with his friends, he met Lana Tisdell, whom he was seriously in love with. He also made friends with John Lotter and Tom Nissen - both whom were ex convicts.
*~ Brandon was convinced by his mother to receive psychiatric evaluation and was diagnosed with having severe gender identity crisis. That was also when he told his mother than he had been raped by his uncle.
*~ In 1993, Brandon was arrested for forging cheques and spent a night in the women's lock-up. Thats when the townsfolk found out he was actually a female. And this was also the start of his disaster.
*~ During a Christmas Eve party, Lotter and Nissen forced Brandon in a bathroom to proof that he was female. They pulled his pants down while Tisdell just looked.
*~ Later that night, Lotter and Nissen forced him into a car, drove to a meat packing factory and brutally raped him. They threatened to silence him permanently if he told anyone.
* They took him to Nissen's house where Brandon escaped through Nissen's bathroom window. Brandon managed to flee and get Tisdell to lodge a police report.
*~ The Sheriff was more interested in Brandon's transexuality and found his questions rude so I guess he never filed a report. =\
*~ Lotter and Nissen managed to know of the report and sought out Brandon, who was staying with two other women. They killed(shot) Brandon and the two other women.
*~ Nissen and Lotter was charged with first degree murder and now serving life sentence.
These are other pictures of him.
This is his resting place:
Homophobia has got to stop. It doesnt matter what one's sexual orientation is, love is love. Everyone deserves to experience it! There are many straight people who still aren't open-minded about gays and lesbians. They need to know that their ignorance and hatred and prejudice could one day cause someone's death. THIS HAS GOT TO STOP.
Brandon Teena may had a colorful life but that doesnt mean he deserves to die. He was an innocent young man who had so much in life and would have been someone influential in the gay community. What a wasted lost life.
15 comments:
this is awesome! I couldn't agree more!
what a sad way to lose your life because someone else doesnt accept you for who you are. but it is good story and movie,just sad.
We must never forget Lotter and Nissen killed three people in order to hinder the ongoing Police Enquiry into their rape of Brandon. The ongoing Police enquiry was flawed but they did not know that because the investigating Police officer failed in his Law and Peace Keeping duties. The three potential trial witnesses killed were 2 women and a young Black African male, they were killed to silence them and so they could not testify in Court. Killing witnesses is a serious offence and the death penalty is appropriate.
I've met the real Lana. I'm a transgender male, though I am officially a male since Oct 30th, 2011. Back in 2006 I met her when I lived in Gardner Kansas. She does not look nothing like the Lana in the movie. From what I can remember, she was a few kids now and I believe was on drugs. I worked with her at Pizza Hut, and she would tell me great stories about Brandon and how she said I reminded her a lot like him. I was honored when she told me that. It makes me sad to know how people can be so hateful when another is different. So much hate and discrimination. I have to deal with it all the time, but they won't say it to my face. Just wanted to share a little something about Brandon and Lana. Still I wonder how she is doing these days.
Gage,
But you didn't keep Lana's email? She was his girlfriend?
OMG WHY DO PEOPLE HAVE TO ACT LIKE THIS I SAW THE MOVIE AND IT WAS SUPER SAD I WAS CRYING A LOT I HOPE NO ONE EVER FORGETS THAT BRANDON'S SPIRIT WILL ALWAYS BE WITH US
I have written this article with nothing but respect for Brandon.
You could see that I deleted several comments because they were simply too hurtful to me. I have no problems with negative comments but I have my limits.
I am not homophobic. MY OWN BEST FRIEND OF 10 YEARS is an FTM. I wrote this to spread awareness of how horrible the extent of gay-hating can reach. My English is not good hence my wording of several sentences may be misleading but keep it respectful. I dislike it when you bitch ON MY BLOG.
You can respectfully tell me in the ways I can ammend my article here because I had to edit a lot of parts simply because some of you unkindly had refuted my writing style. If I so choose to ignore your comments, I can. But I'd like to think I'm a respectful blog owner who cares about my readers' opinion so I pay attention to each and everyone of your comments.
There are limits of which I tolerate rude comments and I think if there's anymore rude comments about my writing style I will seriously ignore and simply delete the comment. I can't keep coming to an article I wrote a couple years ago and keep editing parts just so you can be satisfied. From now on, that kind of 'extra mileage' will not be done and you're gonna have to deal with whatever I have written here.
Period.
My cousin came out about 20 years ago and we are very close. My daughter is bi-sexual and I have a second cousin that is gay as well but very afraid to come out to his parents.
I deeply apologize if you thought my comments were pointed at you stating that you are homophobic as that was not my goal. However, I still have to respectfully disagree about calling this transgender young person 'gay' as these terms are not interchangeable. I have a lot of respect for Brandon in the fact that despite the difficulty he faced, he followed his heart. I have read up on him and have read several times that he did not consider himself a lesbian and considered himself a man.
No, there is absolutely noting at all wrong with gay people. I just think that there is lack of information as to what being transgender really means and that is the point I was trying to get across. I know that transgender people do not like to be called their biological sex. It would be like someone to keep calling me a 'He' or 'him' when it is apparent that I am a female - after awhile it would get very old and I would start to take offense to it. I can imagine that it is the same for those people out there that are transgender.
I reread my post as well and maybe it is the language barrier you brought up but I do not see any indication that I insisted you were homophobic or the like. You have invited us to express our opinions so that is what I did when I stated that I find calling Brandon a she and gay distasteful as I truly believe he would have been offended by these terms because he truly identified himself as male.
Unfortunately hatred towards homosexuality is too widespread these days and it does spill over to transgender people. And yes, even though Brandon was not gay his story is an excellent example of what gay hate and ignorance does.
Whether you delete this or not I ask you not to ignore the information I have shared about transgender people. The most important thing that I hope anyone gets out of this is that transgender does not imply any sort of sexual orientation.
My problem isn't with Brandon's dressing like a man or wanting to be a man but with the fact that he had intimate relations with heterosexual girls without their knowing he wasn't a man -- he lied to them. No, that doesn't cause him to deserve to be raped or shot -- of course, not. But it does make him a liar and not the angel he is portrayed as.
Several people I have spoken to here in Falls City believe that Lana knew that Brandon was trans-gender. I don't see how the comment of May 2013 would apply. He did not lie to Lana.
Everybody lies at times.That gives no reason for them to be killed!I have friends like this and I actually just think they are born feeling that way.If you have something negative to say I think you should keep to yourselves cause he isn't here to defend himself....
You need to know the difference between who we are and who we love. Brandon Teena would not be qualified as a "lesbian" if he identified as male. He would be considered a trangendered heterosexual.
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