It's been a terrible start to this year

[Marta]

On New Years Eve 2011, me and my aunt Kim (who is transgender) went to a bar downtown to celebrate new years and hang out since i finally turned old enough to drink and go to bars.  Well she is not 100% passable yet since she barely started taking hormones about 9 months ago. Well we were out having a good time and maybe a hour or so later this really annoying drunk came and stood next to us while we were talking and started yelling gay slurs at my aunt. We tried to ignore him and told him to go away but it's kinda hard to get a drunk to sit down and be quiet sometimes. Well he grabbed my aunt's purse and smashed it on the ground, and he broke it (it was a small hard shell purse) then finally he made her angry enough for her to get in his face. Not surprisingly he swung at her and got her in the face, then she tried to defend herself and his friend's all ganged up on my aunt and beat her. There was so much commotion that i could not even get close to her and i ended up having to go outside to call the cops. When the cops finally arrived they took everyone including my aunt who was just trying to defend herself. We had to get a friend to come and pay to get her out, when i saw her most of her clothing was ripped, she had on only one earring and they ripped a pretty expensive necklace she was wearing (which we never found) now she is paranoid of going out to have fun and very depressed. To make things worse she has a court date that she is paranoid about as well. I am so upset about this, just when she was making progress some jerk just couldn't mind his business 

[Bexi]

Sorry thats absolutely sh*t for your aunt. I won't apologise for the swear cos some people make me so angry at times. Wether they're drunk, idiotic, ignorant or just plain nasty, theres no excuse for such disgusting behaviour.

I really feel for your aunt. Especially at an early stage of her transistion, when shes still learning about herself and coming to grips with a whole new side to her, the reprehensible actions of some idiots have damaged her new found self confidence and belief.

RE: The Court, hopefully the people in the bar, or CCTV will back her up - that she was an unwilling victim in what is (basically) a hate-crime. From personal experience, going to court is quite taxing but hopefully if she thinks of it as an ending to a appaling incident, then maybe she can move on from this and regain her confidence and belief in humanity.

I know these words mean f***-all to her at this stage, but life goes on and she shouldnt let the actions of a bunch of morons define who she is.
x 

[V M]

I am so sorry to hear about this, it is terrible

Have you or your aunt looked into taking legal recourse against these thugs? I would imagine she sustained injuries, how is she doing physically?

I know this can be very psychologically damaging and am glad you are there to support her and see her through this, please be sure she knows that we here at Susan's are with her also

Hugs and best wishes to both of you

- Virginia

[Bird]

I'm sorry to hear this. Know that you can have our support should you need it, and I hope she gets over this sad memory.

*hug*

[MacKenzie]

  This is horrible, i'm so sorry Marta, people can be real douchebags when they're drunk. 

[Cindy]

So sorry to hear this.

Ok she was obviously the minority person who was attacked so she is the victim of an assault. She needs representation. I'm an Australian so I don't know how to do this in the USA, but you should be able to get free legal advice and representation form the local LGBTG associations. That will allow her to defend herself and be represented. She has been subject to property damage and theft, I think also aggravated theft. I'm not a lawyer this is just opinion. She should be able to sue through 'no win no pay' lawyers' against the people who attacked her from everything from assault to theft. This depends possibly on what she did when she confronted her assailant. The bar/hotel owners may also be at risk for allowing an affray on their premises and an assault and theft in public view with the lack of security to protect their patrons. Their license to sell alcohol should be subjected to question by the lawyers, this may be useful in seeking cooperation of the bar owners to release their surveillance videos.

She will also need a LOT of emotional support. Let her know you love her and support her. Try going out to small cafes and coffee places rather than bars. She may need some life lessons in how to live as a woman in a man's world. Sadly that is where we are.

Give my love and Hugs to her.

Cindy