All state hate crime laws need to include gender identity! This is a key issue in the fight for the civil rights of transgendered people in the USA. And we continue to try and get ENDA passed.....

Sometimes I just want to scream!

Oh, and Day, yes, this "reporter" really needs to do some homework about this subject matter. Yet, my guess is that the majority of the general public is as gender-ignorant as this writer which is very much related to why this happened and does everywhere.

When is it going to stop?
 

This story also happened this week:

Police: Father kills 2 over daughter's girlfriend
© 2011 The Associated Press
April 20, 2011, 4:42PM


AUSTIN, Texas — A man upset over his high school-age daughter's lesbian relationship fatally shot her 24-year-old girlfriend and the girlfriend's mother, Austin police said Wednesday.
Jose Alfonso Aviles, 45, has been charged with capital murder. Police say Aviles shot to death Norma Hurtado, 24, and her mother, 57-year-old Maria Hurtado, on Monday night after knocking on their door.
Aviles was arrested early Tuesday morning in a wooded area in nearby Bexar County. He was expected to be transferred to the Travis County jail Wednesday, Austin police Sgt. Hector Reveles told The Associated Press. Reveles said he had no information on an attorney.
The Austin American-Statesman reported that police and court documents said Aviles' daughter was in the home at the time and found the two after the shooting, which police say came after a months-long feud between the families.
The daughter's "family was quite upset over this relationship," Austin police Lt. Gena Curtis told the newspaper. "This had been an ongoing dispute between these families and it turned tragic, into a horrific act of violence with the death of two individuals."
The daughter told police that she and Norma Hurtado had been involved in a lesbian relationship and that her father didn't approve.
The affidavit said a witness told police that the daughter's parents would send threatening text messages to Norma Hurtado. In one message, Aviles threatened to kill Hurtado and her mother, the document said.
Friends of the daughter said she had turned 18 last month. Reveles would not reveal the daughter's age, citing the investigation.
The Travis County district attorney's office has not determined whether the case will be classified as a hate crime.
"It is something we will have to take a look at after the investigation is more complete," said Jackie Wood, an assistant district attorney and a member of the office's hate crime task force.
Police also said they are looking for a second unidentified man who witnesses said fled the scene with Aviles in a green sport utility vehicle.
___
Information from: Austin American-Statesman, http://www.statesman.com

This crime victim will now be subjected to the routine victim-blaming so common in the media: She has a record, she was intoxicated, she's not a "perfect victim," she brought it on herself...etc. This shifting of accountability away from the perpetrators and onto the victim continues in the criminal justice system. This is one of the primary reasons crime victims do not speak out, and do not want charges filed.

I agree, hate crime laws do need to include gender identity and expression. In some ways I feel like "gender identity and expression" downplays the issue when it comes to transfolks, but I also recognise that it's hard to develop the language for it that includes all gender variant people. It also makes it easier for the general public to understand, I think. Anyways, all that to say that I agree...right now a new article I was reading had this quote from an investigator:

But none of these things cover her... It's also been reported that she has had SRS and I'm assuming that she's now "legally female" since the reporters have been so courteous as to not plaster her birth name in every single article like they do with many other transwomen (though they did mention it in first articles...why it's relevant I don't know). Her sexual orientation hasn't been revealed anywhere...one of her attackers apparently also started accusing her of "talking to her man" and spat in her face. Of course, that obviously clashes with them shouting "that's a dude, that's a dude and he's in the female washroom." So on the one hand the supposed worry is "she's talking to my man," and the other is this is "a dude in the female washroom"...there is no clear pattern of how they perceived her sexual orientation, but only that her sex/gender did not appear "normal" to them. They need to include gender/sex variant people in hate crime laws. Otherwise there will never be adequate protection for trans people and it's always going to be like this...a hate crime against a trans person occurs and they scramble to call it something that it isn't, or they just claim it's a "random" assault that has nothing to do with who they are.

Yeah, just read that new update saying she was intoxicated, and of course they must mention in every article that she was a sex-worker. Have the police claimed that this is relevant to the assault on her at all? Not that I've read, so it just seems like the media want to make sure we know she isn't as "innocent" as she seems. If it hadn't been caught on tape, I wonder how people would spin it to further question whether she was truly a victim. She was "lucky" in that sense, the video footage speaks volumes even though it was taken by an idiot who didn't care to help her.

Also, media like Fox are apparently continuing to put a racial spin on this. It's so angering, because it's obvious these people couldn't care less about a transwoman being beaten and are just using her pain to further their own racism. The horrific actions of her attackers had nothing to do with their race or her race.

I agree that it was not racially motivated.

-----------

Exactly! Think of how many victims are scrutinized by the defense at trial. They are re-victimized.

Every identity within the LGBTI-Q community/population is at risk for violence and for me, is the main reason I try support us all. I feel such a need for us to break-down obstacles within our diverse sub-communities under the Queer umbrella (every single one of them), communicate, organize, share resources, build political coalitions and fight this violence.

As Pride events are nearing here in the SF Bay Area, I continue to feel sadness with the separations that exist between the L-B-G and T-I-Q comunities. it is better than it used to be, but, we have a long way to go.

I really struggle with having 3 different "parades"- one for Gays, another for Dykes and one for Trans. On one hand, I understand this dynamic and individual celebration aspect, on the hand, I feel like it impedes really raising consciousness and money to fight these fights.

There was a rally yesterday to speak out against violence in light of what happened last week in Baltimore:

http://glaadblog.org/2011/04/26/lgbt...rce=feedburner

McDonalds reply to my e-mail
 

Hello *****:



Thank you for sharing your comments with McDonald's and for giving us an opportunity to share some information with you.

There's no room for violence under the Golden Arches. We strongly condemn the videotaped assault in one of our Baltimore franchised restaurants. Working with the authorities, we now have more facts, and we want to share our actions with you.

First and foremost, our thoughts are with the victim during this time.

Our franchisee is investigating the behavior and response of his employees. Action has been taken, and the crew member who made the video is no longer employed by his organization. Appropriate action regarding other employees will take place as warranted.

We want to reassure our customers that your neighborhood McDonald's is a safe, welcoming place for everyone. We share our customers' concern, and we are doing everything possible to make sure the right thing is done.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact McDonald's.



Jessica
McDonald's Customer Response Center

i read this article, and i'm wondering... wtf the victim's "rap sheet" has anything to do with anything? and bringing up her birth name?

you should come down to so. bay today :) ...we're having our dyke/trans march (hopefully since it's raining). we do it in conjunction with our larger pride celeb (tomorrow). we got crap from sf for doing it as a collab, which i don't understand..especially since we have a small community here and many of the trans people are also part of the lesbian community. i don't get the separation either..way i see it, we're all in it together.