(Warning: The following video link shows real and brutal violence.)
This video, which surfaced on the internet yesterday morning, shows a transgender woman being beaten by two female customers at a McDonald’s restaurant in Baltimore, Maryland. The two young women appear to have attacked the woman after realizing she was transgender, brutally and violently kicking and hitting her as she curls into a ball on the ground. The physical violence, which eventually caused the woman to suffer a seizure on the floor of the same McDonald’s, is only in a piece of the injustice. Out of the employees and fellow customers in the store, only two feebly attempt to help the woman. The other stand by, cheering on the two attackers and filming the whole order on their camera phones, which is how the incident came to the attention of the public. Several shots in the video show store employees standing by and laughing as the woman suffers a seizure from her blows to the head, and one man can be heard telling the attackers to run before the police arrive.
Even more shocking is the news that one of the attackers has already been arrested on juvenile charges from the event, as she is only 14 years old. (Source: The Smoking Gun). Information on Vernon Hackett, the McDonald’s employee who filmed the attack, has also been revealed via his own Facebook and Twitter accounts, where evidence of his own transphobia is abundantly clear.
Media coverage of this incident has been quite limited– most of the information is only available through internet news outlets and blogs, and troublingly, these focus on the racial issues presented in the video rather than the clear issue of transphobia. While it has not been confirmed that the woman is indeed transgender, police reports do call the victim a woman, despite Vernon Hackett’s angry claim that: “[sic] Tha Title Of That Video Is A Lie….That Was Not A Female That Was Getting Beat Up…. That Was A Man….He Was Dressed Lik A Woman…. And He Was In Tha Females Bathroom Knowing He Was A Man…..”
Fox Nation, the conservative news outlet run by Fox News, has reported on the story under the false and misleading headline: ‘Woman’ Beat Up At McDonald’s Was A Male Cross-Dresser. The police reports, (which are available to view here and here) identify the woman as Ms. and use only female pronouns for her. The woman was using the women’s restroom in a public restaurant because she clearly identified herself as a woman. This is regardless of biology, regardless of sex– this is gender identity. Whether you are born with it or find it later on, we all have a right to a gender identity. This violent case shows how fear can turn human beings into monsters who terrorize innocent victims based on gender alone. Luckily this case garnered enough attention, probably due to the media of the video, to end in two arrests. However, many similar incidents of gender-based or LGBTQ violence occur day after day and go unreported.
We need to stop the fear and stigma that surrounds transgender people.
6 Comments
It is horrible, as is the ignorance surrounding it..this morning I saw an interview with the victim of the assault, telling her account of what happened. I posted it on my Facebook page and already have someone trying to make excuses for it to the effect of “she was talking to someone’s man” (what, the men of everyone involved in the assault? Does simply speaking to someone’s partner merit this type of thing? What??)
It would be too upsetting for me to watch that video. I’m sure it’ll get tons of views, too, but for the wrong reasons. This thought makes me want that video to be taken down and only used for prosecution purposes and maybe eventually to educate people about the hatred for trans people and gender variance that still exists.
There are definitely pros and cons to that video being public on the internet. The sad fact is that many videos of violence receive too many views and bad publicity– even in my own small hometown, videos of high schoolers fighting are seen all over Youtube, with friends standing by and egging their party on. I do understand what you are saying; the video is very hard to watch and made me sick, but I have to say I am glad I saw it, in a way, as it made me angry and want to do something to stop the mindset that that is somehow okay.
I hear what you’re saying, Brenna. I actually felt the same way after watching Mississippi Burning. That movie had a huge impact on me, and I think it can be a potent tool in showing people who didn’t live during that era just how horrible and ugly bigotry really was, and still is.
I shouldn’t have watched that, but I’m glad you posted it. This is all so sad.
This thought makes me want that video to be taken down and only used for prosecution purposes and maybe eventually to educate people about the hatred for trans people and gender variance that still exists