It's A Jungle Out There

That was the opening line in the theme song to the TV show Monk and it is, we should beware when we go out. There are a lot of people out there who hate our guts.

Three men arrested in attack on transgender woman at Corvallis 7-Eleven, police say
The Oregonian/OregonLive
By Jack Forrest
November 04, 2021


Corvallis police have arrested three men suspected of assaulting a transgender woman while she was working at a 7-Eleven convenience store last month, officials said.

Riley Westbrooks of Myrtle Creek and Dylan Guido of Roseburg, both 21, were arrested Thursday on suspicion of first-degree bias crime and third-degree assault. Kyle Rackley of Sutherlin, 22, also was arrested on suspicion of third-degree assault.

Crimes of bias or hate crimes, affect not only the target of violence but also the whole community.

A community reacts to alleged bias crime in Corvallis
Albany Democrat-Herald
By Joanna Mann
November 5, 2021


Local LGBTQ+ groups in Corvallis are still reeling from an assault police have labeled a bias crime at the 7-Eleven at 746 NW Kings Blvd. on Oct. 24 during which homophobic and transphobic slurs were allegedly directed at the victim.

Dharmakrishna Mirza, a transgender woman of color who lives in Corvallis, said although arrests have been made in connection with the incident, it is still a really difficult time in the transgender community.

“Through these kinds of incidents we see a lot of performative solidarity from OSU and various organizations,” Mirza said. “But what we don’t see is tangible commitments to our communities to keep us safe.”

She added that Corvallis is seen as an accepting and inclusive area for the LGBTQ+ community, but in her daily reality, she hears about violence and other instances of transphobia quite often.

That is what makes these crimes so much more horrendous is that it affects every LGBTQ+ in making them feel less safe in going out, it makes us wary of going out in public.

When we read about violence directed at us we think “hate crime” but proving a hate crime is much harder unless the perpetrator/s use hate speech it becomes a lot harder to prove because it goes to motive.

Using derogatory words are not a hate crime because it is protected by the First Amendment, there was a case at UConn a few years ago where a bunch of white drunk students were using the “N” word. They were arrested on hate crime charges but the charges were dropped because they didn’t threaten or didn’t assault anyone.

It rises above the First Amendment if they threaten violence or do violence like starting to push you.

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In the next article I mainly wanted to point out the headline in Pride Source…

8 Local and National Inspirational Transgender Leaders (Who Aren’t Caitlyn Jenner)

But the article has one glaring error, they say that Mara Keisling is the “founder and executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE)” she retired from NCTE this summer.