Just because you move to a more accepting location does not mean that it’s “safe”

[Josie Beth]

https://www.advocate.com/crime/2019/8/30/trans-woman-beaten-oregon-beach-after-using-womens-restroom

 

The alleged perpetrator was from Idaho, a place that is more known for hostility towards transgender people than for acceptance. I could write a whole article delving into the socioeconomic and ecological reasons for this in former mining states but I’ll leave it be for the moment.

[Carolyn Marie]

I agree with your headline completely, Josie.  I live in Southern California, a place well known for its liberal attitudes and acceptance of LGBT people and casual lifestyle.  Nevertheless, there have been murders of trans women in Hollywood, West Hollywood and elsewhere.  Murders and other violence are committed by individuals, with individual circumstances.  Their actions aren't dependent upon the prevailing social climate or attitudes.  That's why it always seemed silly when someone says, "but this is a safe neighborhood; nothing like this ever happens here!"

 

Crap happens everywhere, all the time, and no neighborhood is immune to the possibility of crime and violence.  Probability says its more likely in one place over another place, but that's just statistics.  The bottom line is, always and everywhere, watch your back.

 

Carolyn Marie

[VickySGV]

Like Carolyn I am a So. California girl and know what she is talking about, in fact I can amplify it a bit by saying that one hour after I walked out of a CD club in North Hollywood and had gotten safely to my car and left the area, another CD was shot and killed a few hundred feet from where I had parked coming from the same Club I had been in.  I had known the CD briefly and we had chatted a time or two enough to vaguely remember that they had been thinking of Transitioning long before I knew I would take that path.  Later on I would be "loved" to the point of fear of assault by a group of "missionaries" trying to keep me from going to another club, and thankfully a security guard came out and escorted me in to it.   Someplace in here is a story I wrote about that experience from a "spiritual side", but it had been unpleasant at the time to a new Girl going out in her first times.

We do have to be careful especially in places where drugs or alcohol are in use.  The Oregon story in one or two other places I have read indicates that the wife who claimed harassment and the man who committed the beating were inebriated.

[Josie Beth]

Yes, they were both inebriated. It’s definitely not a good excuse. I really don’t think that the wife was assaulted. I think she knew from past experience that she could get her loutish husband to beat anyone up just because she said that so-and-so did this or that to besmirch her nonexistent honor. It’s common place in Idaho or Arkansas to run into women who are dying to have their man fight for them or with them after a few too many drinks. I wasn’t going to bring it up earlier but I’ll entertain the small urge to delve into those socioeconomic and ecological  issues present in Idaho and Montana specifically, which also has similarities to other places with similar behavior. Both states used to be mining hubs, but not just precious metals. Heavy metals, toxic substances, even things like asbestos. The socioeconomic and ecological impact that mining companies left in their wake after picking up and leaving are serious. So serious that Montana has quite possibly the highest alcoholism density per square mile in the region. Several people have attempted to move out to rural Montana and Idaho and were ostracized by people they described as both drunk and crazy simply because they were outsiders. Their fantasy of living life in the country and having hobby farms were completely ruined by stalkers and even threats to their lives. And they are straight cis men and women who are reporting the harassment. So from anecdote and some personal experience with it, it’s very obvious that a large enough chunk of the population is has serious psychological issues and they dump self medication in the form of alcohol and now prescription drugs on top of all that crazy. It’s like a bunch of human Molotov cocktails running around daring anyone to make them angry. I’m not going to post footnotes or references but they are plentiful. Nobody has to build a wall for these places because they won’t even let Americans in. Even if they look just like everyone else already there. Now I can go on to say that there’s similar kinds of people in the back woods around here but it’s because of the drugs and alcohol. But that’s pretty much anywhere you go. The difference is that people out where there’s not much people, tend to believe that they can get away with whatever they want to and they are used to being able to do that. So they have no concept of what is acceptable anywhere else. And they really don’t care. That’s the kind of upstanding citizens who battered this transgender women, and homeless on top of it, so talk about adding insult to injury. I’m pretty sure that in Oregon this will be a very hard lesson for them both, but I doubt they will even feel a shred of responsibility and can almost guarantee that if it had been in Idaho, the whole incident would have been whitewashed. Pun not intended, but what the heck...