The Masquerade Ball

Is that what police think of us? That we are just masquerading?

Trans people to police: We're not 'portrayals'
The Philadelphia Gay New
By Tim Cwiek
January 28, 2016

Trans folks are speaking out against a Pennsylvania State Police practice of categorizing anti-transgender hate crimes by male or female “portrayal.”

State police recently posted on its website an anti-trans hate-crime incident in Philadelphia, categorized as “female portrayal.”

“We’re trans people, we’re not portraying anything,” said Julie Chovanes, a trans woman and attorney. “How can we get accurate hate-crimes reporting from the police if they see us playing a role?”

Trans people’s humanity is denied by the language used by state police, Chovanes said.

“They don’t even give us personhood,” she added. “Since they don’t give us personhood, how can they recognize crimes against us? To them, we are portrayals, caricatures. And there’s no such thing as a crime against a portrayal or a caricature.”

The state police saying that they are only following FBI guidelines but…

FBI spokesperson C. Michael Riley said the FBI doesn’t recommend that anti-trans hate crimes have “portrayal” categories. He also said the FBI doesn’t convey its hate-crimes data to the public in such a manner.

“The FBI’s uniform crimes-reporting program is currently collaborating with a government working group to address specific issues on reporting anti-transgender bias crimes,” Riley added. “A decision to release additional information on working with and/or reporting data on transgender victims will be addressed at a later date.”

To me it sounds like that the Pennsylvania State Police are trying to weasel out of admitting that they are biased against trans people.