On January 3, when Donna Macklan went to visit a friend, two people viciously assaulted her, knocking her out of her wheelchair and hitting her with a shovel.
While they were doing this they screamed “you hermaphrodite” — she was beaten and abused in our community because of her gender identity.
This is completely and totally unacceptable. Or it should be.
We live in a community where lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LBGTI) people have a well founded fear for their safety in public.
This morning. I walked hand-in-hand with my partner in the local shopping centre. I’m male, she’s female. I got to experience a simple pleasure that many of my gay mates would be unable to without some degree of trepidation.
On a Friday night, they might well be taking their lives into their hands.
If you’re transgender, it’s worse.
There are a few people prepared to speak out against the more overt signs of homophobia in our community. It doesn’t stop a certain local Christian Democrat identity screaming “It’s Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve” every time I see him, but at least now he’s widely regarded as an idiot.
Community sentiment on transphobia lags way behind. You’re more likely to see the local paper print letters debating which prayers are more powerful than anything condemning bigotry.
I don’t want to live in a transphobic community. Do you? It seems we’ve got one of two options, leave, or change it. And leaving is a bit of a cop out.
[Republished from www.twincityfocus.com .]
