Two Trans Women Shot In Dc

[Michelle 2010]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/2/dc-police-investigate-pattern-transgender-shooting/

Article well written, factual.

Michelle

[Guest Donna Jean]

..

Trans people that were picked out because of their gender identity.....

Sad.....

Dee Jay

[VickySGV]

The artilcle does indeed treat the victims as humans against whom a crime was committed. The fact that the crimes are being investigated as "serial" gives an index of how serious the law enforcement folks are taking the events. Even though it is mentioned that prostitution is a known activity in the area, neither of the victims has been "auto-identified" as a prostitute. The article also mentions the social needs of transgendered people that sometimes cause us to be in areas that are not to put it mildly, mainline of the best of social environments.

Small steps of progress, but steps they are.

[JJ]

Horrific events! At least the reporting is fair and unbiased. In fact explaining why a transwoman might be there at that time of night outside of prostitution is doing us an unexpected service. I hope this media attention causes results in a quick arrest but serial killers are so very hard to catch,

My heart goes out to the victims, their families and all trans people in that area who must now live in a climate of heightened fear.

Johnny

[Carolyn Marie]

This is very sad and very tragic. It does at least sound like the D.C. Police are taking this very seriously. Hopefully they will quickly identity the attacker and make an arrest.

This is a good place to remind everyone to avoid high risk behavior. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that hanging out in an area known for prostitution or other illegal activity in the wee hours of the morning is a very bad idea. This goes for anyone, particularly women (and I do include cisgen women). When you know you are in an at-risk class, you need to take the extra precautions to be safe.

HUGS

Carolyn Marie

[Guest Ashrynn]

I must agree with Carolyn, having grown up in San Francisco for a time.

It's well known to locals what areas should be avoided the moment the sun goes down, and for anyone in general it is a bad idea to be walking on the streets past midnight. Though this does seem targeted, it does look as if the police are working hard to resolve these shootings and any transgendered in the area should keep safe by not being out on the street that late at night.

[Guest Julie T]

All

I agree with these comments, and caution all you MTF that if you are presenting as women, or if you have transitioned and live full time, the operative word here is what? Women. We women are especially vulnerable all the time, but especially unescorted late at night, even in groups of two or three women. We are just seen as targets.

If you are to live your life as your chosen gender, and that chosen gender is female? Wouldn't it make sense to do as all women do? I mean learn how to prevent being a victim?

And my therapist explained this, a ciswoman who is raped is usually not killed, while an attempted rape on a preop trans girl is usually fatal when she is found out.

Please be careful? We are especially vulnerable.

Julie

[Guest Dawn D.]

We women are especially vulnerable all the time, but especially unescorted late at night, even in groups of two or three women. We are just seen as targets.

If you are to live your life as your chosen gender, and that chosen gender is female? Wouldn't it make sense to do as all women do? I mean learn how to prevent being a victim?

And my therapist explained this, a ciswoman who is raped is usually not killed, while an attempted rape on a preop trans girl is usually fatal when she is found out.

Please be careful? We are especially vulnerable.

Julie

Personally, I cannot emphasize this point well, or strong enough! These shootings (one resulting in a death) really are ringing in my hollow head right now.

This past weekend I was working alone in my store. I'm not open on the weekends, so I can catch up from the previous week. As a matter of habit I always check my messages on my phone system. One of the calls I received was from a man I know (actually a former employee). He knew me from before transition. When he first found out about me, he began making calls to me to show his support for me. Nothing nefarious at all.

Now though, this time the calls from him were quite different. The first one I listened to, he professed his admiration and his "love" for me. That really creeped me out. I didn't even let it finish and stopped it. Then I noticed that he'd called several times after that. I listened to the beginnings of a few more messages he'd left and like the first they were full of things like what he wanted to do to me. I was utterly repulsed. I simply found I didn't have the internal fortitude to listen all the way through any one of them. In all he'd called 22 separate times in the same day!

Honestly, I don't know what the last messages said. I won't listen to them. After thinking about they way he talked and the things he said, I began to feel all of a sudden very vulnerable. So much so, that I was unable to stay any longer at my office alone. I went home. I told my wife about it. She was furious at this fellow. I was just sick, literally. The next day though we talked it over and decided I needed to go to the authorities and turn him in. So I did. Interestingly, the Sheriff's Dept. never came to my house to take the report. They only took it over the phone and asked for the guy's phone number which I gave to them. And his name. They told me they were going to call him to tell him to stop.Two days later now and I haven't heard "boo" from them. Thankfully, I haven't heard from this fellow either! I'm giving them until tomorrow to get back to me with any results. In the mean time, I do have with me at all times now 'lethal personal protection'. It may be time once again to get a personal concealed carry permit. I don't like the thought of it, but, in light of what these two women went through, I'd like to even out the odds just a little bit.

Just more proof that you never know when, where, or how someone could be looking for you or already have you as a target in their sights. Being a woman, this is a first for me. It's scary as hell, and really hit's home at how vulnerable we can be.

Be careful out there! Everyone!

Dawn

[Guest Pioneer]

So wrong and so sad. Why can't stupid people mind their own business and let others (whoever they are) live their own lives? >: (

[Guest harry2001]

this is horra so sly

[Guest onlyhuman]

This makes me very sad.............

[Guest Kaitlyn16]

I hate stuff like this, it really doesn't make any sense. I can change videogame characters from male to female to better reflect how I feel about myself and I bet no one would even notice, let alone care, so why should real life be any different? If someone is more comfortable presenting themselves as another gender than that is no reason to kill them over it... That's just ignorant.

Maybe I'm just rationalizing the situation, but ever since I told my mom about my transgendered feelings, I really don't even know why I was so afraid. I mean in a way, your just changing your role to one that you are more comfortable playing right? If I am more comfortable 'playing' as a female, then why can't I? I have the same rights as you, Life, Liberty, and THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. If you don't like what I am doing to make myself happy, then fine. If you do like what I am doing than thats fine too.

I really like that roleplaying analogy haha... maybe thats how I should view life from now on?

[Guest Kelly-087]

I think it's really important for anyone to learn to defend themselves. It's not an entirely win situation in this case. Little can be done when someone is intent on simply shootings someone.. But even now, if someone approaches me on the street I always keep an eye on their body language, posture, and most importantly their hands.

It's pretty well taught in my Aikido class that if someone is hiding their hands, they're probably hiding more than just their hands.

It's sad that things are this way. I'm strongly considering moving from the US to a more friendly, or at least random violence lacking country because of events just like this.