The Indepentent newspaper recently reported that hate crimes against transgenderd people have risen dramatically over the last few years and that we have now become the new target of homophobia.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/homophobia-exacts-a-chilling-price-as-hate-crimes-climb-2374674.html

So, have you felt more vulnerable than previously when going out en femme, or maybe people who accepted you in the past no longer do so.

Your views are welcomed.

Hi Carol, I would agree strongly with the proposition that these 'hate crimes' are on the increase, my own personal experience has taught 2 things 1. me to be very careful about assuming you know how people [even friends you've known for 30 years or more] will react ... 2. treat others as you are treated ... kindness with kindness, robust responses with the same, if a statistically small portion of society is seen to be undefended this can be interpreted as a targeting opportunity ... whether the schism is formed along faith/religious, ethnic, racial, gender, or lifestyle striations ...

Until I dated a TG MTF I was unaware of the verbal violence society is willing to inflict on people percieved as different

'***** us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?' [Bill Shakespeare's 'The Merchant of Venice'].

I have myself witnessed as well as been the target of violent prejudice and bigory, and I can assure it leaves you quite shaken, very angry, and self-concious/afraid, but worst of all it damages your trust in humanity/human nature ... Tollerance of a whole gamut of minorities is generally being erroded, and with that comes a rise in attacks, whether direct, indirect, verbal, physical, psychological, or sexual ... and the one thing we can be sure of is that these 'attacks' will go under/unreported.    I lost ALL but one of my friends when I began dating a TG woman, my job/career, accomodation, social life, and peace of mind were adversely impacted ... I wouldn't reverse my decision then, nor would I, even with hindsite, do so now. 

One has to consider that more of us are visible now, more of us will report hate crimes and more police and courts will act on those reports and the media will report them.  Appearance and actuality are not always the same.  Any TG should know that. .

The other side of the coin is that people are more aware of the TG community and more likely to notice us.  Those who commit hate crimes are likely to fear us.  Research showed that homophobia was directly linked to sexual response to homoerotica.  Fear of themself displaced onto us.  So perhaps there are more attacks.  Still, I suspect my first paragraph is closer to the truth.

I also suspect that the idea of being beaten by an aggressive TG is something those people would fear more than anything but admitting what they feel, deep down, to themselves.  That they are turned-on by something they see in us.  I taught self-defense psychology and confidence and the ability to confront visually will most often turn away someone looking for a victim.   Drunks, of course, have function loss in their brains, and do not count.  Their judgement is impaired.  Fortunately, so is their speed and coordination.

Of course, Carol and Wendy both raise some very serious issues and make some very good points above, however I think there is a fly in the cognitive ointment, which is to say that research can show almost anything ... depending on the aim of the research and the idea behind it ...

Does an increase in visbility automatically equates to an increase in the reporting of hate crime ... given that when confronted by shoddy customer service only 1 in 10 members of the public bother to complain ... the other 9 are more likely to moan about their experience to friends, or leave comments with sites 'on-line'!  I know it is not the same, however by comparison of human behaviour we can often detect recurring patterns.

On a more serious note, how many compalints made to the police of rape result in a conviction?

"The government estimates that as many as 95% of rapes are never reported to the police at all. Of the rapes that were reported from 2007 to 2008, only 6.5% resulted in a conviction on the charge of rape. The majority of convictions for rape resulted from an admission of guilt by the defendant, whereas less than one quarter of all those charged with rape were convicted following a successful trial".  [Source HM's Chief Inspectorate of Police, HM's Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate, Guardian article 13th March 2009, reporter Afua Hirsch]

While faith in the police is highly commendable it is for the main part misplaced, while attiitudes are changing, it is through pushing for changes in government policy to be implemented and by kicking up our heels [usually into posteriors] that the community has gained the protection and progress we now enjoy ... any TG could tell you that

"I also suspect that the idea of being beaten by an aggressive TG is something those people would fear' ... I am reminded of the allegory of a man in the street who passing a canine attacks and beats it for no visible reason, his defence was that the dog lifted its leg first - which he percieved to be threatening ... In our post 911 world fear isn't just a sponsor of self-defence - it is being used as a justification for criminal acts and moronic behaviour ... I won't go into it here but the increasing use of the 'Gay Panic Defence' in court to justify the assault and/or murder of is disturbing and disgusting ... especially when you consider the probability of a TG person using the same arguement in reverse is remote.   I have yet to research TG perpetrated rape, if anyone wants to contribute to this I am sure there would be at least one Assistant Forum Manager who'd be delighted to moderate that one.

The idea of an aggressive TG is such a dichotomy that I have to just take that on face value, my experience has been the exact opposite but hey-ho, these things - like research - are subjective not objective.

I admit the scenario above might well 'turn' some people 'on', but there again I am forced to bow to greater experiences ... I am after all just a rather ordinary man - sexuality never scared the pants off me!

"Research showed that homophobia was directly linked to sexual response to homoerotica".

Wendy is correct in 'Appearance and actuality are not always the same'.
The sentence is a good example.  What we have offered to us here appears to be obvious causality A = homoerotica B = sexual response ... c = homophobia ... but wait ... A + B does NOT equal C - no matter how much unspecified 'research' informs us otherwise, it is not an arguement - it is a fatally flawed point of logic, known as 'appeal to authority', it does not provide a 'link' between the 3 known values, any research student would know that.

In previous careers I drove armoured vehicles, from my point of view all the solutions to the worlds problems became a matter of the size of your weapon ... pun intended ... when I became a bar tender the worlds problems could be solved simply by the application of alcohol and partying [woo-hoo] ... as a retail manager I reckoned people would benefit from much more shopping therapy ... of course I completely lacked any objectivity and insight ... in a similar vein the statement that 'I taught self-defense psychology and confidence' made me fondly recall my own former youthful naivity.

While I agree that self confidence is part of the equation, ever looked at some of these male and female models, and thought they don't look any better than some of your friends/partners/relatives ... so it isn't just appearances ... how many of us think someone who is self-confidence is somehow sexier?  

Alcohol, as a child who grew up with alcoholics in the family, including my late mother, I feel this, as excuse go, is somewhere between 'a big boy done it and ran away' and 'I was accosted by a sexually aggressive TG person who was more socailly visible'.  If we, as a visible group publicise that one too widely perhaps some legal eagle will cite this article in court, and we will have shot ourselves in the Manolo Blahnik! 

The judicious use of Occums Razor and an avoidance of intelectual gymnastics like deus ex machina to explain the sheer randomness of life can lead to an outbreak of commonsense. 

Thus in real life when being abused/assaulted by homophobic assailant(s), you definetly do not think, 'hmmm I wonder if my MTF TG and I publically snogging made me a target' ... 'perhaps I should breathalise my protagonist before responding' or 'damn obviously that shorty-short dress must have triggered a homoerotic sexual response which got me abuse/attacked' ... 

I suspect that any need to understand what makes people homophobic ... drunk, turned-on, fearful, or otherwise ... is largely irrelevant, what is relevant is the need to make it unacceptable ... which is a whole different ball park.

I go everywhere (daytime or night time) in my home town of Burton on Trent, Staffordshire and I very rarely get a problem. In fact the opposite.

I just wear appropriate clothes / shoes that ensure I don't stand out more than the taller genetic females. (This is important!)

Whilst I would agree to a degree about your last statement, I also disagree to a certain extent too.  I have seen guys wearing makeup and sporting 'unusual' hairstyles/colour and girls who dress outlandishly whilst I am out shopping - they invariably draw a lot of attention to themselves, but no sniggers or bad comments are directed towards them in general.

However, whilst you and I and many others here, are able to go out in public without a problem, that right should be afforded to everybody without them going in fear of violence, public humiliation or worse, being directed towards them purely because we are who we are.  By saying that we should conform to a certain dress code is simply putting ourselves into tight little boxes just as we were forced into tight little boxes in our previous gender roles - i.e. we are replacing one prison with another one.

Just my thoughts on it though.

Hugs

Carol xx 

I take your point Carol, but those "guys wearing makeup and sporting 'unusual' hairstyles/colour and girls who dress outlandishly" are generally students and everyone expects them to express themselves like that. I have numerous young friends who either go college or are in Beauty, some have mohawks or green hair, etc. (The girl I know with green hair is beautiful, lucky girl!)

Adult genetic women (and I know you transitioned a long time ago) despite being able to wear a wide range of clothes (even mens) can get ridicule from other women if they wear innappropriate clothes or shoes. Think, Ooh, look what she's wearing today! A number of my female friends have commented on how bitchy other women can be

So it's not just TG peeps who can get comments, etc. it can be genetic females too...

You have to wear what's appropriate for your current activity and weather conditions... unless your dead pretty and can get away with it, which I'm not, unfortunately... so I have to be practical...

hugz, Mel. xx

Al,

You certainly have a creative mind.  "aggressive" does not mean "assaultive", check the definitions of the word and compare it to "passive".   Being confrontive works for gg's as well.  Predators do not want to be injured or exposed and are more likely to pursue prey that flees than prey that turns and confronts visually.  That amount of aggression is often enough to turn away a predator.  People who carry guns regularly develop a confident demeanor and report it continues even when they do not carry a gun, disuading aggressors.  I can understand someone who has experienced, but not studied and taught,  not fully comprehending the dynamics involved.  After a thousand or so actual confrontations and study they become more obvious.  I assure you it is far more complex than a few lines of text.  Basic courses on managing assaultive behavior, that I have taught, ran 12-30 hours and included outside reading.  Basic to it was understanding where in the aggression cycle the aggressor was, in order to know how to most effectively respond.  So please do not think that it is as simple as my statement;  I was not trying to teach a class, just make a point.  People who use this training also retrain every year or two to keep it sharp. (and here I am not even dealing with physical training, just the mental  and knowledge training)  None of this relates to warfare which requires a very different set of mental skills and knowledge as does police versus civilian training of the same subject.

  Lex parsimoniea is usually expressed in English as "Occam's razor" or "Ockham's razor", by the way.   However Occam's razor probaby led most of us to understand what Occum's razor really was :-) . 

Try separating my separate statements instead of mixing them together and creating a third condition.  They might make more sense then.  I apologize if I expressed them in a way that was confusing for you.  They were not meant to be premises, simply seperate statements.

As far as the research on homophobia:  People were questioned about their feelings regarding same-sex sexual preference.  They were then shown homoerotica and their physiological responses (did Willy get excited?) were measured.  One would think that it would tend to diminish sexual response, but EXPRESSED homophobes had far greater degree/percentage of MEASURED sexual response to homoerotica than expressed non-homophobes.   Of course, they could be lying about being homophobic, I suppose, but there WAS a clear correlation.

In any event, I do not wish to detract from the actual topic so I will stop here and suggest we address that instead.

Wendy:- "confidence and the ability to confront visually will most often turn away someone looking for a victim.."

Absolutely,I got a bloke in Retro the other night being funny/obnoxious with me. (Unusual, it has to be said, I've had loads of guys in the last few months trying to chat me up, despite me not being that pretty.) I just went to kick him in the groin. Guess what, he ran away, lol! Didn't see him again...

I had a bloke following me along the high street in Burton the other night. We'd just got a burger from a van (not together, I didn't know him) and he kept asking me to talk to him and wouldn't give up even when I kept changing direction. He didn't seem threatening, but because of my voice I didn't want to talk to him. (And it was 2:30am!) So I went to kick him in the groin and surprise, he backed off and left me alone, lol!

BTW, I'm not anti-men, I've got lots of nice male friends. (Mostly gay though, it has to be said!) But you've gotta stand up for yourself. (I didn't even really make a serious attempt at actual contact with their groin areas, but the mere threat will deter most men who are causing you a problem!)

Carol:- "have you felt more vulnerable than previously when going out en femme, or maybe people who accepted you in the past no longer do so."

See above, for the most part no. Confidence is key I find and the more people I meet and educate about what I am, the less problems I get. So education is another key. And also most women I talk to and befriend, the next time I see them, if they see someone causing me a problem, they will intervene and look after me, just I would if someone was hassling them. I've had to look after a couple of female friends who were receiving unwanted attention / harrassment. We look after each other! :-)

Trouble is, most people I meet for the first time (male and female) assume I fancy guys, whereas I like women. They usually seem very surprised when I tell them that. It quite amusing to see their face these days, tbh!

Since the passing of the GRA (gender recognition act), I think people have become more aware of their rights, to goods and services and equal treatment and are more inclined to report incidents.    But, like history would show, when homosexuality was decriminalised more people in general became aware of it and resented it.   Homophobia was an everyday occurence. with assaults and incedents  increaseing as more and more homosexuals went out in public.   The same can be said of transexuals, its becomong the in thing to hate,  

Hate Crime.

Hate Crime is a crime motivated by prejudice –  based on what someone’s identity is or what it is perceived to be.

The police definition is:

"any incident which constitutes a criminal offence, perceived by the victim or any other person, as being motivated by prejudice or hate"

The key to this definition is ‘perception’. If the victim or witness perceives that it was transphobic then it should be logged by the police as transphobic.

Even if the victim does not perceive it is a hate crime a witness may.

The police define transphobic hate crime as:

"any incident which is perceived to be Transphobic by the victim or any other person"

You do not have to prove you are trans to be a victim of transphobic hate crime. It is not like the other trans legislation where you have to say you are ‘intending to undergo, are undergoing or have undergone gender reassignment’.

Technically speaking, there is no separate offence as a ‘transphobic hate crime’ i.e someone cannot be prosecuted for transphobic hate crime. There are only Racial Aggravated offences – eg racial aggravated assault, racial aggravated criminal damage, racial aggravated harassment, racial aggravated public order. 

However  what usually happens is someone commits a crime which is motivated by transphobia (usually a Public Order offence or Harassment), then the transphobic element is ‘added on’ or ‘tagged’- as a transphobic incident.

Whether or not a crime has been committed or it is an incident, if there is a transphobic element, it has to be recorded by the police as a transphobic incident. (since April 2008 the Home Office has required the police to do this).

The Harrassment Act is covered in the UK law forum

http://gendersociety.com/forums/topic/7652/more-than-one-way-to-skin-a-cat