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.
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