I sure don't disagree about "trans panic" or "gay panic," Lokaeign. (Notice how there are not comparable "ftm panic" and "lesbian panic" situations?)
There's something about this so-called "fear" that I don't doubt is there at all; I just don't think it's what is claimed. The fear I think is a "fear" that one has somehow gone somewhere where others will "think" if they find out that I am "gay." I mean this guy's even said "all gay things must die."
Thus, it seems from the git that he has undermined his attorney's arguments with just that. What's this "fear" of gayness? How does that look and feel? And what is it really?
Most guys I know, or have known, mostly, say things like they think that being gay or mtf shows an inherent weakness of not only character and ability, etc but also a physical weakness.
So what the freak is it that they are so scared of since it cannot possibly be a real physical "fear?" Can it? At least they don't talk like it is. They are NOT afraid of gay males or women with transsexing histories until after the other is dead.
That's just totally ridiculous on the face of it. "Well, I saw her body lying there and I was afraid." Yep, no doubt. You were afraid of what? The retribution the state might give you?
OF course Ray the Clown didn't seem to even feel that. I mean there he was driving around in her sister's car and using her sister's credit-card, or attempting to. That doesn't show much fear if you ask me. Instead it indicates to me a callous belief that as long as someone he killed wasn't straight and "really" female that he'd be let off.
I have no doubt that this man was actually surprised and shocked that they'd arrest him for murdering "someone like her."
And that's the saddest part to me. The seemingly very real notion that our lives are not only without value but so valueless that we can be slain with impunity.
I don't get the idea that this judge believes that to be true. But here in Philly we do have one that seems to believe that and made a ruling recently that would tend to confirm that. Here's a summation on the case by
Mercedes Allen.
That a defendant might try is expected. That a judge might direct a ruling from the bench after hearing the evidence is appalling. But I suspect that in both instances, the perp and the judge, the movtivation is that "fear" and signifying that "I am not gay" in both of those cases.
Nichole
