Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance, which honors and commemorates the deaths of transgendered individuals who were murdered because of intolerance. The event comes a week after Duanna Johnson, a Memphis transgendered woman, was killed. Begun in 1999 to remember the life of Rita Hester, the event has spread across the globe, with memorial services and remembrances scheduled across the globe. Tracee McDaniel, who is organizing the Atlanta vigil, said of the day:
““It’s always emotional for me, but it’s always good to see we have support. We just need to keep awareness out there that there is discrimination against transgender people and until we get some kind of legal protections, employment protections, we will continue to raise awareness.”
You can find the location nearest you at Gender.org’s website.
Scott Rose
On Monday, November 17, 2008, Bradley Ingalls (aka Brad Ingalls) of Manhattan was sentenced for the 9/09/07 assault on his former domestic partner/victim,
Juan Carlos Cabrera that left Juan Carlos with a ruptured spleen.
The case number in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is 2007NY070791
In the 14 plus months that I spent advocating for the rights of that victim, I discovered
many ugly truths of how the gay community in New York City does not protect its
own.
Not only was a full array of evidence leads in the case not followed up on, and
not only as a result of that were full charges not brought against Brad Ingalls,
but additionally, the District Attorney re-victimized Juan Carlos in ways big and
small.
The full story of Ingalls’ prolonged sadistic abuse of Juan Carlos would make
any decent person’s hair stand on end. So would the full story of the D.A.’s
re-victimization of Juan Carlos.
Both Ingalls and the D.A. are able to operate as they do in part because the gay
community and the gay media pay so little attention to the issue of gay domestic
violence.
Gay leadership is so wrapped up in marital rights and related problems that they
fear drawing additional negative attention to the gay community by talking about
gay domestic violence, even though domestic violence occurs at the same rate between
straight couples.
Juan Carlos reports that in the two years he was held hostage to Ingalls’ death
threats and torture both physical and psychological, he would hear Ingalls talk
about his past live-in boyfriends, read victims.
What they seem to have in common with Juan Carlos is that they were all much younger,
smaller and poorer than Ingalls, who uses his money to attract victims.
In the two years Juan Carlos was entrapped by the vicious abuser Brad Ingalls, not
once was there any sign of life from those past live-in boyfriends. Not a Christmas
card, not a wave in the street, not a phone call; no sign of life.
Meanwhile, when Ingalls would control Juan Carlos by saying that if he did do, or
did not do, such and such a thing, he would kill him, Juan Carlos would respond
by saying “If you kill me, the police will find out.” Ingalls would respond
“The police won’t find out, because I’m going to cut your body into
little pieces.”
I had no luck trying to get the NYPD to investigate what had become of Ingalls’
past victims; but believe me I did try.
Why was I motivated to try?
Because the first day I visited Juan Carlos in the surgical intensive care unit
of St. Vincent Hospital Manhattan, a nurse took me aside and said “If he goes
back to living with the abuser, the next time, you will get a call that he is dead.
We see it all the time; it is very sad.”
Decent members of the gay community in New York City should be speaking up for victims
by sending the message to abusers that we will not tolerate them victimizing innocent
people.
These sadistic violent criminals are holding the most vulnerable members of the
gay community hostage to unspeakable acts of humiliation, degradation and violence
behind closed doors.
The criminals can present normal and even charming faces to the outside world.
Brad Ingalls for example over this past summer was featured as a NYC real estate
expert on Live with Regis.
Whereas he should and could have been charged with multiple felonies, he was only
charged with misdemeanor assault (for a ruptured spleen! I ask you?), pled guilty
in a plea bargain (after his lawyers had harassed the victim) and then one of his
defense attorneys, the lesbian Isabelle A. Kirshner, in court asked the judge to
take away that part of the sentence that requires Ingalls to undergo psychiatric
evaluation and 26 counseling sessions.
I bet that if Isabelle A. Kirshner had had her spleen ruptured by a domestic violence
offender she would not be asking a judge to let them out of counseling. This lawyer
is taking money from an abuser and attempting to free him from the obligation to
rehabilitate himself and in so doing she is endangering innocent people. This is
morally reprehensible and we should not allow her to continue in that vein.
Ingalls basically is free to abuse. He does not deserve the luxury of anonymity.
His conviction should be reported in the gay media. The story should be used as
a springboard to other stories, to warn young vulnerable gay people about the realities
of abusers. If you don’t report this story, and if you don’t run other
stories about gay domestic violence, you are contributing to a general social climate
that makes it tragically easy for abusers to commit their egregious crimes.
peterspiece
I really hate to write but I recently saw this person in action with a temper tantrum. He is a huge guy. Why can’t you tell us what his sentence was?
A few years ago, I found myself the victim of a horrendous gay entrapment scheme. As a gay male, I contacted all the agencies etc, I only got women, not one person was interested, not one gay attorney was interested. I bitterly have come to the conclusion that all these ‘Rights organizations’ are concerned with two things. Lesbian marriage and making sure show stores carry womens Birkenstocks in size 14 EEE.
Let’s talk about the barebacking in the gay community (joke word)…would be bad for business so shut up and be ‘GAY