Discrimination and Transphobia; Rears Its Ugly Head…

I was just going to write about going to see the play “Vagina Monologues” but I came across another item that I think fits in with the play’s theme, violence against women.

The news item is an “Outing” of a trans-woman by the police in Australia…

Transgender woman bashed because of police breach
From Australia's GenQ
Published Feb 8, 2008

Garrick Jacobson was unaware his girlfriend had a sex change, until the police told him he was "sleeping with a guy", a court heard yesterday.
"The officers were, like, paying me out," Jacobson recalled in a subsequent police interview.
"Just laughing their heads off, (saying) she's a bloke. You've been sleeping with a guy, ha ha ha."
The revelation pushed him "over the edge", Downing Centre Local Court heard, and just hours later he assaulted his then girlfriend Brigitte Fell at her inner Sydney home….

…. After being released from custody, he broke into Ms Fell's unit, yelling: "You didn't tell me you were actually a man - I'm going to smash you."
Jacobson said he slapped Ms Fell, who tumbled over a railing to the floor below and was knocked out.

This is just transphobia, the officer took his bigotry on Ms Fell and that hate almost caused her death. The officer is now on trial for revealing privacy information.

Last night, I went to see the “Vagina Monologues” with some friends. The “Vagina Monologues” are a series of short stories that were written by Eve Ensler that tell some women’s views about their vaginas. It is both funny and serious; it has stories about first loves and about rape in Sarajevo. One of the monologues is “They Beat the Girl Out of My Boy...Or So They Tried” and here is a video clip (not from last night but some other performance) of that monologue on YouTube…



However, the play is not without controversy; the major controversy is where a twenty-six year old woman rapes a thirteen old girl. In Eve Ensler defense of the play she says that was how victim described the rape to her in the interview and that she was only reporting it as she the rape was told to her.