I had a post for today. But I can’t post it now. This thing is all that my mind can process at the moment.
What happens in that video is still, as far as I can tell from the internet discussions about it, fair treatment for someone like me . Or at least, it’s worthy of debate (if the victim is a real woman, string the abusers up. but if she’s only a tranny…). I mean… you wouldn’t want to be “politically correct” and rule these kind of beatings out in all cases.
Tonight, I’m emotionally in the bunker. The rest of the human race who doesn’t automatically condemn this seem like monsters to me after seeing this. And right now the world seems full of monsters.
Salad Bingo 
Oh Diana…how absolutely horrible. These kinds of things are so so horrendous and wrong, that anyone in the world thinking they are ok, makes it seem like the whole word does…that the only force out there is hate and prejudice. Hate and prejudice does exist for sure, but it is not the only thing that exists in the world. Peace and acceptance are much quieter, and I would argue stronger forces and they are very present in the world, even though at times like this it’s hard to see that. I’m thinking of you honey.
*nods*
When I first saw I was numb. I’m not much better now, hours later.
And we’re the dangerous ones? Isn’t that what they always tell us?
I haven’t seen the video. I don’t want to watch. I know what happened. I think there are a lot of monsters involved here: those who did it, those who stood by, those who stood by and filmed it, those who posted it, those who wrote vile comments. I hope the law can step in where human decency has failed badly.
Those who stood by. Those who filmed it AND stood by. Those who go onto the internet and defend it. Those who oppose it up until someone suggests the victim is a trans woman.
QED Ladies. I hope that this horrendous event is seen as a validation of what I have been trying to express to you for all these months now.
LITTLE HAS CHANGED IN 40 YEARS. Then the rules were brutally simple. “Pass” or die. Today that unfortunate truth has been obscured by the PC platitudes of “gender diversity and equality”.
I am truly sorry that the truth hurts. Perhaps this young person’s unfortunate experience will serve as yet another “wake up call” to REALITY
Unfortunately little will change as long as assaults like this are accepted. Media is a strong device. It can build up society as well as tear it down. This video shows media and societal cowardice, at it’s worst. Truthfully, as a culture we have come a long way but we still have a long way to go in terms of acceptance. It is the fear of the perceived “reality” that keeps so many transgendered and or LGBT individuals from seeking help and becoming authentic. Many would rather kill themselves than let themselves be killed. It becomes the only thing they can control.
But our family experience has been much MUCH different. Our true friends have remained our friends and in several cases the friendships are stronger. New friends have been made. Some of the family is accepting, some have become supportive, and the others, well it is what it is. I don’t think anyone can say that they agree with EVERYONE in their family, so I’m happy with the outcome.
Careers have not been damaged but actually they have flourished. Just yesterday, Diana’s boss was fighting to keep her from another department that wanted to take her. If anything, her role at work seems to be strengthened by the fact that she is now authentic. She is who she was meant to be.
I fully disagree that little has changed in the last 40yrs. Admittedly, change has been slow, but the changes themselves have been BIG.
-Forty years ago you would not have heard of anyone coming out in their teen years.
-Few knew the term transgender or transsexual before the 1970s and the definition of both have evolved greatly in the past 40 years. In the grand scheme this is a quicker evolution than that of the term “homosexual”
– Homosexual acts were documented as far back as ancient Greece. But the term “homosexual” was seen it print for the first time in 1869.
-40 years ago, lesbians were barely acknowledged and rarely if ever seen in public. Now, I see couples on a regular basis. In fact, there is a young couple that hangs out where I work and there is plenty of PDA. This would NOT have been the case 40 years ago.
**And let’s not forget about other minority groups**
-40 years ago, if a child was diagnosed with autism, it would be recommended that the child be institutionalized because autism = early schizophrenia. I know this first hand, having a sister that was diagnosed in the late 60s. Now, autism is common place and acceptance (although not clear understanding) is widespread. My sister was tormented and bullied all through school. Then when “Rainman” was released, people starting connecting the dots. Wow, he is just like K.
-40 years ago, interracial couples were rare and still looked upon as “odd”. Now, they are no only the norm in society but made very visual on TV.
-40 years ago bullying of all forms was accepted and expected. Boys will be boys after all. Everyone must go through the hazing process. Anti-hazing laws were passed in just the last 20 years.Anti-bullying laws are just now starting to be passed. it is the acceptance of bullying actions that has headed the creation of such laws.
-Does segregation still exist-yes But that is changing as well. Using my small hometown as an example, there were no Black or Hispanic families and any that moved in quickly moved out. By high school, there were 1 & 2 respectively. (o.2%) Now there are 41 (families 2.3%) This change has happened in <30yrs. Great-no, Progress-yes.
As long as we continue to accept and expect violence, it will continue. It should not be viewed as validation or vindication. It should be viewed as the gross mis-justice that it is.
Amen Ellen. Well put.
I find the beating appalling but I also find it irresponsible that either the cops would release or the news agency would print personal imformation about a victim. A rap sheet is no reason for someone to be exposed like that.
I’ve worked in broadcasting for a number of years and I find this another eample of the media bias. The reporter or police are trying to justify the beating by outing this person. The media is so intent anymore to put their own touch on stories rather then reporting the fact and letting people make up their own mind.
Ellen. I stand corrected. Media has changed and to some smaller degree, attitudes have indeed changed as well. What I see, however from this sad and unfortunate incident is that the media, (as well as the police), are “playing up” the “trans’ aspects, while ignoring the racial aspects.
This is a sad but easily understandable and explainable in light of the “liberal bias” of the media and the simmering racial discontent in this country. How much easier and more PC to highlight the “trans” issues, than to ADMIT to a much more obvious and dangerous and poitically embarassing, racial one.
From Teagan’s Blog, “Accept, Embrace, Live”…..
“PA rights would not have stopped this beating. Jenny Boylan has pointed out that the attackers didn’t pause to consider whether she was pre-op, or post-op, or a crossdresser, or a transsexual, in an effort to demonstrate why she stands with all trans people. May I use the same logic to suggest that the attackers also didn’t pause to consider whether or not she was in a geographic area where trans people had PA rights. Clearly, they didn’t pause to consider whether or not this was a hate crime. The Matthew Shepard Act gave her no protection. Why does anyone think or suggest that PA laws would have prevented this? That’s rubbish” ~Teagan
NB: PA=public accomodations, IE bathrooms.
They fired the person who videotaped it. This is a step in the right direction. He also deleted his facebook account and youtube account because many people who were horrified by all this let him know how wrong he was/is. As I said before, hate, violence and prejudice are much louder, but love, acceptance and hope are stronger and very much alive in our world.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/mcdonalds/mcdonalds-fires-employee-who-filmed-beating-102975
I don’t understand what it feels like to be transgender in our world, but I do know what it feels like to be victimized…to be deemed worthless. There are many things to be enraged about, including this story, but I would encourage people to not just focus on rage….focus also on hope. Just my two cents.
I do agree with Mahra2, and on many fronts. Like Mahra, I really do not know what it is like to “BE” transgendered. When I was little, I KNEW ‘something’ was wrong. As I grew older, I KNEW that it would take a miracle to fix, and I as grew older still, I was blessed and remain awed by that miracle.
I also know what it means and ” feels like to be victimized…to be deemed worthless”. A few short years after my successful transition and SRS, while still in my middle 20’s, I was attacked in my own home and raped by three men.
As I lay dazed on the floor after the attack, I made a very important and life enhancing decision. I consciously decided to NOT allow the RAGE, (is an inadequate word), the absolutely potentially life destroying OUTRAGE, to destroy my life or my future.
The fact that I was a well known “stripper” and my attackers were sons of “upstanding” families would ensure that any claims or reports to the police would not bode well for me or my future. I chose the line of least resistance. I left town and moved on. I left that potentially huge monkey on my back, my “rage”, on the floor, along with my torn clothing, blood, sweat and tears. I never looked back, but I learned many valuable lessons.
I carry those lessons with me today.
AnnRosa, as a fellow human being I want to say, I’m so sorry about what happened to you. I’m sorry if I offended you by saying I don’t know what it’s like to “be” trangendered. I meant no offense if I used the wrong terminology or if that felt badly to you. If it did, would you please explain that so I can understand?
Unfortunately, I can relate to your story, in many ways. I applaud you for sharing that story here. You speaking out about your past will help heal others and hopefully that knowledge will help you continue to heal. I recently read a book about healing trauma. The author said the only way people truly heal from trauma is by seeing the meaning in it. I am not suggesting there is meaning in what happened to you or that it’s ok that it happened to you, I don’t think that at all. I don’t feel that way about things that have happened to me either. There is no meaning in them….but I have found meaning now, when I share my story with someone who is struggling and it helps them. In that sharing I find some meaning and purpose, and that has helped me start to heal. Thank you for being so brave.
Mahra. I am far from offended. On the contrary I am very appreciative of you showing me the additional value in that particular “lesson”.
What I meant by not knowing what it “means to be transgender” is just that. I honestly have but the barest of understanding of what that means today. I transitioned in 1972. This was years before the so called “Standards of Care” were even published. The term “transgender” was not even invented until the mid 1980’s when a very outspoken self-professed transvestite, Charles, (Virginia) Prince coined the term to SEPARATE himself from those “self-mutilating gays”.
By this time I was well into my second marriage to a retired Navy “hippie bomb builder” who rode around in the back of an F-14 testing weapons systems and countermeasures for a medium sized civilian contractor, and had watched in horror as Dr. Rene Richard’s did his/her thing.
You see prior to the 1970’s or maybe even the 80’s, THERE WAS NO “transgender community”. There were no “support groups” or internet. Those few of us that made it through those “dark ages”, did so by doing what simply HAD to be done. We changed our morphological SEX, as quickly, quietly and exeditiously as possible.
There simply was no “transgender experience”. My guess is that those older, “late transitioners” apperaing today, are the ones that were unable to find help, or too afraid or ashamed to go seek it out like I did. The means were then, just as they exist today. Sadly however, I am not sure if the means to that end are any easier to find now, then they were then.