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Monday, April 25, 2011

Homo Trans Woman Brutally Attacked

Posted by Dan Savage on Mon, Apr 25, 2011 at 9:43 AM

She was dragged out of bathroom in a McDonald's in Baltimore and attacked by two women—both teenagers—and beaten nearly to death in front of a crowd of other customers and McDonalds employees. The attack only stopped after she had a seizure. A McDonald's employee filmed the attack and posted it to his YouTube account. (You can hear him laughing on the audio.) Other employees stood by and did nothing, other customers stood by and did nothing. One woman who tried to intervene—an older woman—was punched in the face. The McDonald's employee who filmed the attack—since fired—can be heard warning the attackers that the police were coming and they might want to get out of there. The video of the attack is here and it's not easy to watch. The Baltimore Sun has an interview with the victim:

 

Another heartbreaking video. But Chrissy Lee Polis is great: articulate and insightful and charismatic and composed. I'm not always comfortable with the way victims of anti-gay violence or discrimination are sometimes elevated to hero/activist status—not all of victims of discrimination are good spokespeople, not all are able to handle the pressure or the scrutiny, many wind up feeling used after attention turns to fresh victim/heroes—but this woman could put a face to the violence and discrimination that trans people endure in our society. And she needs a job. (Although she might own her very own McDonald's franchise soon.) I hope the national orgs are paying attention.

For readers in Baltimore and/or D.C.: there will be a candlelight vigil at the McDonalds where Polis was attacked at 7 P.M. this evening (6315 Kenwood Ave. in Rosedale, Baltimore).

 

Comments (10) RSS

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1
Why is everyone surprised when fast food employees don't get involved with disputes or violence in their place of employment? If I was getting paid $7.25/hour I for sure wouldn't be going above and beyond the call of duty. And odds are if an employee tried to intervene they'd get fired for that as well.

PROTIP: DO NOT GO TO McDONALDS IF YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR WELL BEING. REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT YOU'RE GONNA GET A BEATING, THAT SWILL IS NOT FOOD.
Posted by Graham on April 25, 2011 at 10:28 AM · Report
2
Don't worry, Graham, we wouldn't expect you to get involved whether you were homeless or a billionaire.
Posted by Todd Mecklem on April 25, 2011 at 10:39 AM · Report
3
@Graham - I like to think I'd get involved no matter how much I was making.
Posted by Reymont on April 25, 2011 at 11:23 AM · Report
4
@Reymont: We all want to believe that we'd interject ourselves into a violent situation when they arise. However, continual anecdotal evidence seems to indicate we as a culture will not do so: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Genoves… or http://m.gawker.com/5523739 .
Posted by Graham on April 25, 2011 at 11:41 AM · Report
5
While the collective "we" may not speak up during a beating, we can work to train ourselves as individuals to speak up (insert social psych reference). This is hard to do, but worth practicing in small ways now so that it would be less hard if someone is being beaten in front of you. Make eye contact. Say hello. Dude passes out on bus: call 911 and stay with him until firefighters show up. Relatively little stuff, but makes it more normal to, at the very least, call 911 if someone is being hit in front of you.

And yeah, this is a challenging thing to wrestle with: personal safety, how much do you trust the police, should someone intervene in this particular situation, what about the privacy of two people fighting? But if we don't at least think and talk about these situations, I think we often just shut down, assume it's not our problem, assume there is nothing we can do, etc. I find this all really hard to do personally, but I don't want to watch someone be beaten in front of me or hear someone beaten to death and do nothing.

Whoa, a little heavier than I was expecting. Sorry, Team Blogtown for the pontification...
Posted by catbot on April 25, 2011 at 12:31 PM · Report
6
My uncle Greg--this was during the '70s, I believe--was in Seattle and saw some guy stabbing a woman. Greg knocked the attacker down, held him down until someone else could grab him, and then tended to the victim's wounds (he's a doctor, though retired from that field these days). Guess he hadn't read that Wikipedia article about Kitty Genovese.
Posted by Todd Mecklem on April 25, 2011 at 3:16 PM · Report
7
Her grammar is atrocious. I think the trans community might prefer a spokesperson who can speak.

Also: People are dicks.
Posted by kiala on April 25, 2011 at 3:40 PM · Report
8
Yes, Kiala, it's a shame that she didn't take elocution lessons before being BEATEN NEARLY TO DEATH. Jeeze.
Posted by Todd Mecklem on April 25, 2011 at 7:31 PM · Report
9 Comment Pulled
10
Grammar critricism from the wanna-be celebrity who loves to tweet about herself and wikipedia links from the resident asshole. What a wonderful world. I miss Perez Hilton.
Posted by hohum on April 26, 2011 at 11:12 AM · Report

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