One of my girlfriends, who's also TS (about 4 months into transition), came over to my house sunday, to go swimming at the pool at the condominiums where I live. After swimming, she stayed over for a while, we watched some Orange is the New Black, and Game of Thrones. So it was pretty late when she left my condo. She lives in a really good part of town, in Northern Plano.
She got back to her condos, and found that the nearby parking garage was full. So she went to the next garage, a short distance away, and parked. She came out of the garage - she was wearing a pretty blonde wig, black blouse and skirt, black thigh highs, and 4" black heels. She actually looked really good, I thought. Hormones have been pretty good to her so far, but she still has a ways to go.
Well, as she walked by the swimming pool on the way to her building, she heard whistles, cat-calls, and shouts of "Hey baby! Come over here sugar!" from the patio of a condo across the parking lot. She ignored them, and kept walking. The guys (there were 4-5 of them) kept whistling at her and being annoying - and then one of the women that was with them said "I don't think that's a woman..." It was dark, so they couldn't see her well, but my friend is 6'2", and with 4" heels, she stands out. Also, her body is still that of a male athlete. It's getting better - but it's just not totally feminized yet.
Four of the guys keep shouting at her - but they jump the fence of the patio, jump a low chain fence, and start pursuing her! "Hey sugar! Come here! We just wanna talk to you a minute!"
She kicked off her heels, and started running for the nearest entrance and stairwell to lead to her condo. She gets to the door - they are gaining on her, gets through it (there's a coded electronic key fob needed to enter), slams the door and runs up the stairs. She runs up the stairs, and then pauses at the landing. She hears them struggling with the door as she waits at the top of the second floor stairwell. Then she hears the fateful sound of the door opening - one of them had a pass to her building.
She runs, they climb the stairs in pursuit, still calling after her - "Hey wait a minute sugar, we just wanna talk to you!" She sprints down the corridor - they are in hot pursuit. She reaches her condo, opens the door, slams it, and locks it. They see which hall she turns into though.
She leaves the lights off in the condo, and sits on her couch for a minute, gasping for breath. They stop in front of her door - she can see their shadows under it. They start pounding on the door, still shouting for her to come out for a minute so they can speak with her.
My friend freezes and waits. She hears another person come up after a while and say "c'mon, she's probably calling the cops, you should leave." They reply "Who cares? Who are the cops going to believe? The four of us, or that faggot in there?" Apparently though, the newcomer eventually convinced them to quit beating on her door, calm down, and leave, because after a while, they left.
My friend sat shivering on her couch for 45 minutes before texting me. "Got home had to park in the 5 story garage and had a problem occur walking home. Wished I stayed with u." I called her immediately, and got the story above. She sounded terrible - like she was in shock. She didn't understand why they chased her like that - she didn't say a WORD to them. She didn't even look at them - she was simply passing by. There was little doubt in my mind that the guys chased her because one of the women read her as trans, and that they intended, at a minimum, to beat her up. Of equal concern was that they knew where she lived, and had access to a pass from her building - maybe one of them lived there as well.
She reported it to her condo management - I insisted on that, and told her to file a police report as well. (She hasn't done that, and probably won't - I think she's afraid of police involvement - getting outed to her job, or who knows what else because of it.) The condo management was unhelpful - one of the women who worked there told her "Well, you really brought this on yourself! You are a MAN, not a WOMAN! And we don't approve of boys who have sex with other boys here - we're Christians here and that's just ungodly." So I'm not guessing she's going to get much help from them.
So I came to her place this afternoon, with another girlfriend, and we first calmed her down (she still seemed to be in shock - she wasn't real animated when we first arrived). We told her that she needed to break her lease, and move out - because those guys surely meant her grievous harm, and they know where she lives. I told her she could stay with me for 2-3 months while she looked for a condo or apartment in my neighborhood. I told her she had to leave her condos - they weren't safe. This was the second time something like this had happened to her there. I told her that a third incident seemed likely, and next time she was unlikely to get off lucky as she had the last two times, and would likely be injured badly. I didn't give her a lot of choice about moving in with me. It just isn't safe for her there. Her family has mostly abandoned her, and essentially all of her former friends bailed on her when she came out as trans. She doesn't have anywhere else to go - she talked about living in her car for a while, for God's sake!
She finally agreed to move in with me temporarily. It's not ideal - but she should be really safe down here in the gayborhood - at least from hate crimes.
Later this week she moves in with me and my grown son. (I talked to him about it already, he's OK with it, under the circumstances.)
Originally Posted by PaulaQ
I think though, that it's more animalistic than 'Gods law'. We like to think we're so sophisticated and above the animal kingdom, yet a few months back I watched a documentary about walruses and the male walruses would literally fight to the death another male walrus if his whiskers were different. As I watched this appalling reality, I couldn't help comparing it to our own lack of acceptance for each other's differences. We're nothing more than animals under all our intellectual BS.
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, but I can defiantly sympathise with your friend what with being a victim of hate crime too I've had my fare share of it what with being gay and all, if i can offer any help then Ill be more than happy to help, I got badly beaten up a few years ago because a group of guys didn't like the fact I was gay and dressed as a girl, the worrying part of it all was that I was just happily walking home at night minding my own business when these guys started calling me all sorts, lucky to escape with my life that night it makes you weary about going out I feel so vulnerable after that, my bf wont let me walk home alone anymore not after that, he's always with me now
