Hate Crimes

I'm very sorry for what happened to you, PH - and I totally understand the fear and frustration you described so well in your "Hate Crime" examples (sad to have to put those words in quotes, but there seems to be quite a bit of difference of opinion about what constitutes a hate crime)?

Anyway, I'm just grateful you survived. I also now live with PTSD, and I actually consider myself lucky for not having to deal with the cops: If I had to suffer such institutionalized insanity (blaming the victim), I'm pretty sure I'd have lost all faith in humanity. You must be a very strong person. Anyway, I appreciate folks sharing their experience(s) on this thread. It helps to get the word out about this kind of violence.

Also, it helps me to feel less alone. So I thank you all. Big time. Nobody deserves to be targeted due to race, sexual orientation, or being born "different" from the majority. Not hatred, but compassion - is what ultimately will make the world a safer place for us all.

--QP

 

I must confess IS, that even I had a tough time understanding the complexity of gender identification, until I learned the history of David Reimer. The excellent biography I read - was like a bright candle in a very dark room. And even though his end was tragic: I think there is still much to learn from his experience, and how other folks (both doctors and the general population) - might begin to approach such folks in a more compassionate light. He (David) was a good person, systematically destroyed by the world. And to simplify his death as a suicide - is letting society (especially doctors and psychologists) off the hook. David was not alone in his ultimate decision to destroy himself. More than one person helped him to lose all hope of ever living a "normal" life.

--QP

P.S. Here's some background info I found on Wikipedia:

David Reimer was born as a male identical twin in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His birth name was Bruce; his twin brother was named Brian. At the age of 6 months, after concern was raised about how both twins urinated, both boys were diagnosed with phimosis. They were referred for circumcision at the age of 8 months. On April 27, 1966, a Urologist performed the operation using the unconventional method of cauterization. The procedure did not go as doctors had planned, and David Reimer's penis was burned beyond surgical repair.[1]

Reimer's parents, concerned about their son's prospects for future happiness and sexual function without a penis, took him to Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore to see John Money, a psychologist who was developing a reputation as a pioneer in the field of sexual development and gender identity, based on his work with intersex patients. Money was a prominent proponent of the 'theory of Gender Neutrality'; that gender identity developed primarily as a result of social learning from early childhood and could be changed with the appropriate behavioral interventions. The Reimers had seen Money being interviewed on the Canadian news program This Hour Has Seven Days, where he discussed his theories about gender. He, and other physicians working with young children born with abnormal genitalia, believed that a penis could not be replaced but that a functional vagina could be constructed surgically, and that Reimer would be more likely to achieve successful, functional sexual maturation as a girl than as a boy.[2]

They persuaded his parents that sex reassignment would be in Reimer's best interest, and, at the age of 22 months, surgery was performed to remove his testes. He was reassigned to be raised as a female and given the name 'Brenda'. Psychological support for the reassignment and surgery was provided by John Money, who continued to see Reimer for years, both for treatment and to assess the outcome. This reassignment was considered an especially valid test case of the social learning concept of gender identity for two reasons. First, Reimer had a twin brother, Brian Reimer, who made an ideal control since the two not only shared genes and family environments, but they had shared the intrauterine environment as well. Second, this was reputed to be the first reassignment and reconstruction performed on a male infant who had no abnormality of prenatal or early postnatal sexual differentiation.

For several years, Money reported on Reimer's progress as the "John/Joan case," describing apparently successful female gender development, and using this case to support the feasibility of sex reassignment and surgical reconstruction even in non-intersex cases. Money wrote: "The child's behavior is so clearly that of an active little girl and so different from the boyish ways of her twin brother." Estrogen was given to Reimer when he reached adolescence to induce breast development. However, Reimer had experienced the visits to Baltimore as traumatic rather than therapeutic, and when Dr. Money started pressuring the family to bring him in for surgery during which a vagina would be created, the family discontinued the follow-up visits. John Money published nothing further about the case to suggest that the reassignment had not been successful.

Reimer's later account, written two decades later with John Colapinto, described how, contrary to Money's reports, when living as Brenda, Reimer did not identify as a girl. He was ostracized and bullied by peers, and neither frilly dresses nor female hormones made him feel female. By the age of 13, Reimer was experiencing suicidal depression, and told his parents he would commit suicide if they made him see John Money again. In 1980, Reimer's parents told him the truth about his gender reassignment, following advice from Reimer's endocrinologist and psychiatrist. At 14, Reimer decided to assume a male gender identity, calling himself David. By 1997, Reimer had undergone treatment to reverse the reassignment, including testosterone injections, a double mastectomy, and two phalloplasty operations. He also married a woman and became a stepfather to her 3 children.

His case came to international attention in 1997 when he told his story to Milton Diamond, an academic sexologist who persuaded Reimer to allow him to report the outcome in order to dissuade physicians from treating other infants similarly. Soon after, Reimer went public with his story and John Colapinto published a widely disseminated and influential account in Rolling Stone magazine in December 1997.[3] They went on to elaborate the story in a book, As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl.[2] - Wikipedia

 

I am very familiar with the story of David Reimer, and I think it demonstrates quite clearly, that gender identity, contrary to popular belief, has NOTHING whatsoever to do with envoironment, nor is it something that can be taught, or blamed on parental actions. David could not have known he was born a boy, as he was so young when the decision to raise him as female was made, as he wasn't even 2 years old at the time. But, despite the attempts to force him into the female mould, he knew deep within himself, that he was male. Although he was naturally born as the physical sex which he identfied as, what he went through as a child rings hauntingly true for many trans people, and intersex people who were brought up as the wrong gender, including myself.

It is the brain which tells you what gender you are, and the tragic case of David probably highlights that better than any other story ever could. My earliest childhood memories are from around 4 years old, and from that moment, I knew I was female. I can't describe the pain and anguish that I've suffered as a result of being brought up as the wrong gender. I also was extremely angry when I found out that I actually had been born mainly genetically female. And I know I am not the only one who has been originally diagnosed with ''gender dysphoria'' and medically classed as ''transsexual'', only to much later on discover that they were born with an intersex condition. I have spoken to one other girl online who was born with the exact same condition that I have who was brought up as male, and she says her life has been ruined also, due to the decision made by doctors to supposedly ''help'' us. I also know one guy who is mainly genetically male, but was brought up as female due to having a mistreated intersex condition. And was originally medically classed as a ''transsexual''. It is really abhorrant, and beyond belief that doctors feel that knowledge should be kept from us in ''our own best interests'', and parents are encouraged to never tell their kids the truth about the way they were born.

Whether people like it or not, the fact that gender has a neurological basis, is a concrete medical and scientific fact. There is overwhelming scientific evidence of this, which coupled with stories like David's really destroys the notion that people somehow ''choose'' to feel the opposite sex to that of which they were born. Operating on David did not work. Many intersex people have had their lives ruined because the wrong choice was made about what gender to bring them up at a young age. And why does this even happen anyway? It's simply to placate a bigoted, narrow minded society, who cannot accept any deviation where gender, or physical sex is concerned. Even taking transpeople out of the equation for a moment, you have intersex people, people born with chromosomal setups other than XX/XY which most people believe are the only ones in existence. (XXX, XO, YYX, and XXY are just some examples of this) And it is also possible to have genetic males who are XX, and genetic females who are XY. Most of society is in blissful ignorance about the true mechanics of gender, and even physical sex.

On a final note, and to show just how difficult it will be to rid people of their prejudices, I remember one time I got into an argument with a religious person. Yes, one of the ones who say ''God only makes man and woman, no inbetween''. When I asked him ''what about intersex people?'', he said there was no such thing. Unbelivable I know, but nonetheless, true. It just goes to show how completely out of touch with reality some people are, when it comes to issues like gender identity, and deviations from the norm where physical sex is concerned. Especially when religion is part of the equation.

 

Religion does seem (very much) at the core of the issue.

--QP

 

Right on. This insightful comment gets a two thumbs up (IMO). But you and I survived our close encounters with a hate crime. And I think that's why it is not taken as seriously as it would have been - had we not survived. Sad but true. Until someone has experienced that near death experience - they will not have the ability to understand. They have to be there - experience the fear and panic on a personal level. Otherwise, it remains purely academic.

--QP

 

Yes, I think all prejudice towards gay people has it's roots in religious oppression, started many centuries ago. Even though all homophobic people are not religious, the way religions ruled with an iron fist in times past has certainly washed off onto future generations. As for transpeople, they are not even mentioned in the bible (nor the Koran, I don't think), yet lots of religious people say ''God doesn't allow it''. I think transpeople are treated by a great deal in society as merely offshoots of homosexuality. Which could explain the prejudice from religious people, even though the issue is never expressly mentioned in the bible.

Intersex people though, are the ultimate proof that ''god only makes perfect man/perfect woman'' is an illusion, and a total falsehood. But it is safe to say that society in general religious or not, are seriously deluded about gender and it's mechanics. And that even physical sex isn't as cut and dried as most like to believe. Intersex people are proof that physical sex can deviate from the norm. And chromosomal ''abnormalities'' are proof that the much believed notion by most people that XX always equals female, and XY always equals male, is just another illusion. There is also scientific evidence to show that some transpeople, while being genetically one sex, have sex in brain structure opposite to the one suggested by the physical anatomy alone. It is a FACT that gender is not as black and white as most people think it is. But I think it will be a very long time, if ever, before general society's attitude to gender becomes more alligned with what is actually the scientific reality. Rather than the false reality that most seem to be blissfully happy in.

 

Looking back on all of it they were just that PIGS big ole' fucking oinkers with closed minds and the small town bull crap I live in today that has not changed much. The Churches that welcome you to this fine little city I live in will kindly unwelcome you right the hell out of here as well if you act in a way that they just don't like or agree with.

My own mother is brainwashed by her big old 'Sunday Morning Country Club' thus, her and I never speak of my sexuality and I have no friends here in the 3d, I stay to myself and in my apartment. This computer is my only way out of this fuckin hypocrite church ran town, full of racism and homophobia....the saddest thing of it all is that I am a Christian. Go figure, yet I will not step foot in a church.

 

Whatever happened to Love crimes?

 

I'd have thought they'd come under ''crimes of passion''.