I feel awful for that woman in Newport. 😞

When a trans woman is beaten or killed, we all feel less safe.

The truth is that all women are unsafe. Girls and women are molested and raped every minute of every day. Girls and women are viciously and violently assaulted every minute of every day. Girls and women are viciously and violently murdered every minute of every day. Boys and men are also viciously and violently molested, raped, assaulted and murdered every minute of every day.

https://www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence

https://victimsofcrime.org/library/crime-information-and-statistics

I keep coming back to this post. When I see a transgender person living their truth, I smile. I hope they don’t think I’m smiling to be sinister, I’m smiling because I’m genuinely happy for them. It angers me other cannot love and let live, and believe you are a human. I wish I could be of more help. But you do have an ally in me.

@5 thank you. It means a lot to me that it reached someone.

@6 I didn’t see the interview, but discussing our personal details on the news isn’t appropriate for many of us. In one of the accounts it states she’s been on hormone replacement therapy for about a month.

I’m taking my time to address your post (I hope politely but directly).

“The one who got beat up” - the girl, woman, or lady using “the one” attacks her identity.

“He/she” - she. She’s female. Trans is an adjective describing a noun. The noun is woman, trans describes the process.

“5 O’clock shadow” - I’d rather not shave after being beat like that. Would you? I’d like to tell you what we go through because of facial hair. We don’t get pain pills. We apply an over the counter topical cream (5% lidocaine) we sit back. One follicle at a time a needle is inserted into the follicle, ZAP electricity is applied to kill (lol it only kills sometimes) the hair, YANK tweezers yank the hair. Poke, zap, yank - hours at a time for (usually 1-2 years).

“How is this a woman” - how are you a man? Does your dick make you a man? What the flying monkey is a man? Berny5 I don’t expect you to research sexual organs, but if you did you’d find that male and female anatomies are way more similar than they appear. Vaginoplasty repurposes existing flesh into our correct design.

Like anyone else we just need to piss sometimes. If I walked up to the piss trough next to you in a dress and “whipped it out” you might not beat the shit out of me, but someone eventually would.

If only society were as simple as biology. An orchiectomy to cut out the nuts would be wonderful.

All women, trans included have the human right to be and feel safe. It's our job as men to do better.

9 - I bet you think of yourself as an open-minded, cool person.

I'm a guy. I was raped by older boys at 8 and ended up with a 33 year old man at 15. I had sex with him until I was 30. Him and lots of his friends. Just so you know, boys get it too.

I'm not trying to make light of the societal pressures facing trans people, but maybe labels are a big part of the problem here. If you use clothing to express your sexuality, you're going to receive feedback on that whether positive or negative. To me that means wearing a mini skirt with fish nets is every bit as ridiculous as wearing a tee-shirt that says "I have a dick/pussy/other". Same with bathrooms: The sign on the door may as well read "people who shit/piss/other". I just think all bathrooms should be gender neutral. Women's bathrooms are not safer just because they have a sign on the door, since rapists are not known for their proclivity for following rules. And a men's room sign is not going to save men from the Kevin Spaceys of the world. But a single use gender neutral bathroom with a locking door? Now that's a place where you can relax, drop trou and really let 'er rip.

I don't know why my comment was deleted. But again, the person who was beat up looks like a man. I don't care how you dress or think, but if you look like a man and go into the woman's bathroom, it's very likely some people are going to think you're some kind of creep getting their jollies peeking into the stalls, and they might get very upset. This is not nuclear science, and it's unfortunate that the Mercury is finds political correctness more important than having an adult conversation.

@14 "... some kind of creep getting their jollies peeking into the stalls, and they might get very upset..."
Your assumptions do not give you the right to inflict violence. Your attack on "political correctness" is a thinly veiled excuse for rude anti-social behavior. Political correctness is what the religious right calls the golden rule, they had to rename it so they could feel good about themselves and not worry about wwjd.

15 - My deleted comment stated that there was no excuse for the assault. And there was nothing rude about my comment either. All I can think of is that some people can't deal with viewpoints that don't fit the party line. I expect that sort of thing from The Oregonian but not the Mercury.

15 - Also, by the way a little bit of information -- "politically correct" was a term used in discussions by leftists back in the 70's if not earlier. When arguing with another, a leftist would often claim that the other's viewpoint was politically incorrect. I was there at the time and heard it a lot.

@17 Ah now I understand Berny5 - you were there. A fossil incapable of growth, yearning for the way things were. Sad.

18 - There's nothing new about drag queens and sex changes, these have been going on for decades.