Nothing's been put here yet... and I think it's important what you are trying to do here, so I guess I should "break the ice," so to speak...
I guess the most compelling stories are probably also the most drastic, and having lived in the south for a while, I guess I have seen my fair share of discrimination, in particular towards Transgenders... One particular instance sticks out... (actually there was one other worse than this one, but I am not entirely sure it belongs here... So, I will keep it to myself for now...)
*** This took a lot for me to write, as I have never spoken of it to anyone except for one therapist, once...
I don't remember the date, I do remember it was in November and it was really late, definitely after midnight. It was a Saturday and I was just 21 (June 3rd), so I had been at a bar with some friends. I was kinda bummed cuz I had parked so far down the street, but it was okay, I was smart, I parked under a streetlight, like they tell you to do, right?.... I wasn't drinking much that night, and about the only buzz I had was from dancing and my plans were just to go home and sleep.
I guess before I go any further, I will make a confession... during these youthful days, it wasn't uncommon for me to work the streets time to time... I was just out of the army and finding work was proving difficult as a trans girl... anyway...
Well, of course there was more than just one bar in the area, there was the occasional people wandering the street... there was a rather loud couple of individuals walking up the street behind me, so I naturally quickened my pace and took out my keys.... just to be safe and got to my car. Then one of the guys called to me, so I just kinda looked up and waved, trying to be my courteous self. That was about when I realized they were alot closer than I thought and they were pretty much surrounding me, I recognized one guy as a "customer" but I'd never seen the other two.
Anyway, I tried to play it cool, the guys were definitely all drunk and making lewd comments... I didn't care too much about the actual comments like "oh you got really nice legs" and whatnot, it was the tone they were using, so I did the whole "thanks for the compliments, i really gotta get home" thing. At this point I was actually getting kinda nervous cuz there was no one else around and bein' one girl surrounding by 3 drunk guys was rather intimidating.... So, when I go to open the door, one of the guys leaned up on it, so I couldn't open it... this only increased my panic and they started asking me what my rush was and all that...
me being my typical, nice self just told them politely that I was tired and needed to sleep before work the next day... so the guy moves and said something along the lines of "well, just go then" or something, so I said goodnight and went to get into my car. Next thing I knew, my head was spinning and I was kinda laying with my back across the driver's seat. They grabbed me by the ankles and dragged me out of the car, and at this point I thought I was about to be raped, so I started kicking and swinging, biting... anything I could think of... then they just laid into me, kicking me mostly, while I was on the ground... they tore off my skirt and panties and were calling me "fag" and "queer" and all of the usual.... I think, just to humiliate me...
I guess I was humiliated, pretty bruised and beaten, but I thank God I didn't get raped or killed... Lord knows there was no way I could have stopped them, and no one there to help me....
I often wonder why I never called the cops... and never told a friend... but then I wonder if it would have helped. I mean, I can hear myself explaining "yeah I knew the guy cuz I gave him a blow job on Thursday for 20 bucks..." (I dunno if that's accurate, just makin' a point)... None of my good friends knew I worked the streets, I guess I was (and still am) ashamed of it... and I honestly didn't think that the cops were going to help out some beat up whore....
I don't think about it much any more, but it does creep up on me from time to time, mostly when I see people talking about hate crimes against TGs... I dunno why I decided to post it here, but maybe it'll help someone someday...
