Woman brutally beaten for being trans; San Antonio media and police dismiss it

[Shana A]

Woman brutally beaten for being trans; San Antonio media and police dismiss it

http://www.deeplyproblematic.com/2010/09/woman-brutally-beaten-for-being-trans.html

Trigger warning for description of violence against trans women .

A woman was brutally beaten this week for being trans. Media coverage has been scant, and little information has been released by the police, but here is what has been released: an unnanmed 24-year-old woman went on a date with a man with whom she had some kind of "arrangement". When he found out that she was trans, he thoroughly beat her around the face and left her at an apartment complex. She had to knock on a stranger's door begging for help to get medical and police attention.

The San Antonio police department are investigating this crime not as the hate crime it pretty clearly is, but as aggravated assault. This could have something to do with the fact that the Texas hate crime law excludes trans people (but of course, protects sexual orientation). But as John Wright of the Dallas Voice points out, "the new federal hate crimes law passed last year does protect transgender people and presumably could be used in this case. If the man beat the victim because she is transgender and not cisgender, then yeah, we'd say that's a hate crime."

[juliekins]

Apparently the newspaper piece, according to the blogger, used fluff language with respect to the perpetrator of this crime. "He was taken by surprise by a women who used to be a man, and snapped.

Beaten senseless equates to 'snapped'? Surprise, meaning 'amusingly caught off guard'?

Some day the news will report crimes against transwomen like any other cisgendered person. "A woman was senselessly beaten by an over powering sociopath and left for dead", would have been more appropriate a description.

[GinaDouglas]

Texas is a different country.  I wouldn't even visit there.

[Kate Thomas]

KENS 5 news story regarding  the incident.

http://www.kens5.com/home/SAPD-Man-snaps-brutally-beats-transgender-103637904.html

[Britney_413]

If the local police don't do anything about it then the victim should contact the FBI. Since there is a federal law prohibiting hate crimes if the local police fail to act it should be investigated as possible corruption and dealt with at a higher level.

A lot of these men who supposedly "snap" when they find out a girl is trans I believe is also often a lie. They knew they were trans to begin with and had some type of sexual fetish or fantasy they wanted to live out. They never respected the trans girl to begin with and either used her for their one-night fantasy and then flipped out later due to their own internalized phobias or she saw through them and broke it off and they blew up. A lot of these perpetrators are after trans people in the first place and are simply using the "surprise" factor as an excuse. Let someone try to brutally beat me up or worse and they are getting blown away with a 9 mm pistol. If other girls won't or can't stand up for themselves, fine but I'm not going to let myself be victimized. The Supreme Court even ruled that the police aren't obligated to protect the citizenry. If the police won't stand up for us, then we must stand up for ourselves. I'm tired of reading about hate crime murders against trans people every few days. If someone wants to try to rape, rob, or kill me I have absolutely no problem at all with putting that sicko straight into a bodybag where he belongs.