https://youtu.be/_v0DYUcatUs
A reader sent us this irksome, yet entertaining video of some British boys harassing an obviously delirious tranny, with this note attached: “You guys might be interested in posting this – especially as HRC reads your journal so carefully and they need to be harshly reminded of their need to protect trans-people.”
We can’t quite hear what the woman says at the beginning – when that kid’s throwing trash at her – but it sounds like, “I’m used to it”. She then blocks out the taunts, saying, “I can’t see you”.
anon
Terrible and disgusting. What terrible transphobia, and they’re seem to think it is funny to call her ‘it’ and treat her like trash. Especially when it is unprovoked.
Thanks for posting this
Heather_L_James
I would love to express my outrage and hurt after watching that, but she was already making a spectacle of herself with the way she was dressed. Sadly, when most people picture trans persons, this is what they see; inappropriate, oversexualized clothing two sizes too small. Would a genetic woman in the same attire have been treated the same way? Probably not, but there definitely would have been catcalls and disapproving stares. Ok, let the flame war begin.
anon
Being dressed provocatively is not an invitation to be treated like an animal.
Megan J
Irksome, yet entertaining?
What is so entertaining about it?
Also, if I’m not mistaken, those are NZ men, not UK boys.
Heather_L_James
I never said it was, and I certainly hope you don’t treat animals with that much contempt. My gut reaction to that video still stands. In a perfect world people should be able to dress however they want, but we don’t live in that world. Meanwhile I don’t have employment protection because people keep perpetuating stereotypes.
Miss Understood
“Meanwhile I don’t have employment protection because people keep perpetuating stereotypes.”
She is NOT why you don’t have employment protection. She has as much right to dress like a freak as you have to do whatever it is you do. You are implying that YOU deserve respect but SHE doesn’t. You sound just like stupid fags that think drag queens are pulling them down. We are all nonconforming in some way or another. We should be fighting for the right not to conform, not just the right to be a conservative fag or a proper trannie.
hells kitchen guy
Disgraceful, but I’m a tad (jsut a tad) skeptical. Who was filming? Why a camera at that point? Maybe — maybe, I”m saying – this was staged?
Heather_L_James
Miss Understood you need to start living in the real world. In the real world people, regarless of birth gender, do not walk down the street in miniskirts that barely cover their asses and mesh tops that wouldn’t fit a five year old. I never said anything about respect, or that someone deserved to be treated in a certain way because of how he or she was dressed. The point remains my purely visceral reaction to that video was, “great, more fuel for the right-wing fire”. As bitter a truth as it is to accept, when Americans think of transsexuals, that is exactly what they imagine. Blame the media, blame society, blame whatever you want, but those are the facts. I am as non-conforming as they come; I’m 6’3″ in bare feet and I bring grocery store shopping carts to a halt no matter how I am dressed. All I am saying is be whoever the hell you want to be, but do it with a little class and dignity, please.
Dawster
i have to side with Heather here.
Heather DOES deserve respect, and the person in the video deserves less. why? Because Heather is working and striving for equal rights like the rest of straight America… and the person on the film is a drunk, annoying, and acting like a fool.
whether a person is in a dress or not is irrelevant and whether they are a tranny or not is beside the point. I saw EVERYONE being obnoxious.
there are those that are those working to break down walls – fighting for transgender rights (like in florida). there are others (like this video) who take full advantage of those rights without giving any respect to those on whose shoulders they stand.
we do not live in a perfect world. occasionally, we have to deal with obnoxious drunk straight guys and occasionally they have to deal with obnoxious boys in dresses. videos showing both occasionally pop up.
HOWEVER, there is NOT enough information on this tape for us to decided one way or another. we don’t know if it’s a drunk drag queen making a scene on the street… we don’t know if it’s a legitimate tranny trying to get home… we don’t know if the it was unprovoked or not… we don’t know if it’s Halloween… we don’t know what the scenario is.
our ASSUMPTION that the boy in a dress is a victim doesn’t mean it’s true.
(as a side note, people need to quite taking these “edited” videos without context. that “don’t tase me bro” tape that was first posted and circulated made the guy look like a completely unprovoked victim. once everyone else started posting their videos of what happened BEFORE the tasing… we got the bigger picture – he’s a douchebag. it’s never a good idea to voice strong opinions without as much information as possible.
Sam Osbourne
People suck.
Alexa
My first thought was that it was staged as well, but that may be because it was such a small snippet of what was presumably a longer recording. I’m with Dawster, these video excerpts are designed to just give one view of a story and need to be seen in context – though that’s not to say it makes what the boys said and did any less appalling.
Lena Dahlstrom
Obviously, there could’ve been more than meets the eye. But….
Unfortunately it appears to be part of a disturbing trend called “video beat downs,” where teens go out and harass, even assault, someone and post video of it online.
As far as the victim being drunk, would that be an acceptable reason for harassing her if she was black, or Jewish, or a gay man? Just saying…
Augusten
I only keep up with this blog to find insight into the dominant LGB-population’s opinion on transfolk. In all honesty, I am disgusted by both the reaction to an all-inclusive ENDA, and absolutely repulsed by the reaction to this video.
“A reader sent us this irksome, yet entertaining video of some British boys harassing an obviously delirious tranny…”
How is transphobia entertaining? Also, did you know that the term “tranny” is on par with the term “faggot”?
The fact that Queerty readers believe this woman brings transphobia upon herself by wearing clothing deemed ‘inappropriate’ or ‘too revealing’ is nauseating. This logic (or lack thereof) is on par with “those fags were kissing in front of me so I had every right to beat them with a nine-iron” or “she was wearing a tight skirt so obviously she invited rape”.
Admittedly, she is exuding the image most people get when they think of transfolk. However, this is absolutely no justification for her being humiliated in public.
“Meanwhile I don’t have employment protection because people keep perpetuating stereotypes.”
Perpetuating stereotypes? Darlin’, this woman is not singularly responsible for the representation of transfolk or the LGB (and sometimes, if rarely, T) population. Keep in mind that this vicious spectacle of transphobia has circulated the internet rapidly. People want to see stereotypes upheld – our responsibility in the trans-rights (and *any* civil rights) movement is to dispel the negative image thrust upon us, and to simultaneously allow for all transpeople to express themselves as they see fit. I mean, many of the people I know who have never “met a gay person before” have the image of a leather-bear in assless chaps at a pride parade as their shining example of who and what is gay.
So, let’s not victim-blame here. We do not know this woman’s life story, nor do we know how she identifies or how she lives her life. All we can do is ask ourselves one simple question: What do we do to *stop* transphobia? How do we make it safer for EVERYONE, not just transfolk who live in stealth?
sandy
“entertaining”?
Wow.
People do suck.
Megan J
Seconding what Augusten said.
I mean as legitimate as it always is to imply something along the lines of “that fucking slut had it coming did you see what she was wearing she was just asking for it and she was obviously drunk and delirious and she wasn’t acting as well-mannered as those nice adult boys in stylish sweaters throwing garbage at her look at her she’s just a stereotype clearly if you’re acting like what I see as a stereotype you don’t DESERVE rights,” I am having trouble here seeing it as anything but victim-blaming transphobia in its own right.
But maybe I’m just not living in the “real world” where people deserve to get bashed for not pandering to the bigots. Also for not having “class” like Heather James here. Clearly the only people who should be treated like they’re human are middle- or upper-class people.
AND HAY THANKS DAWSTER FOR CALLING US BOYS IN MOTHERFUCKING DRESSES THAT IS ALWAYS APPRECIATED
Afaik every trans person is a “legitimate tranny,” and everyone deserves respect (yes, even if they *aren’t acting straight/cisgender/whatever enough*).
I mean are you a legitimate faggot or what (well, as long as you don’t act like one it’s okay!)?
SeaFlood
Point-blank: Anyone who says she deserved it because of how she was dressed is a stone-age cretin who should have trash thrown at them for being stupid. I mean, didn’t that argument cease forever ago when feminists argued that how a woman is dressed doesn’t mean she asked to be raped? This woman did not ask to be treated the way she was treated. She does not give transfolks a bad name, Heather and Dawster, you both do it fine enough.
I can’t believe I read that CRAP.
Dawster
no one seems to be paying attention… and the indignation is very sweet – but it only shows that people like to bitch for the sake of bitching, not to actually accomplish anything.
i clearly stated that (1) she should not have been attacked for how she was dressed – she could have been attacked for how she was ACTING. i don’t care who you should be judged by your CHARACTER (not your clothes).
(2) i also said we do NOT have enough information to make a decision one way or another. it COULD be a boy in a dress. it COULD be a drag queen… who is an entertainer. it COULD be a tranny. it COULD be a woman trapped in a man’s body and trying to work through life with gender confusion. it COULD have be Halloween night. it COULD have been several other scenarios involving a boy in a dress, a guy with a large afro, and trash bags filled with stuff.
WE DON’T KNOW.
to make a judgment call one way or the other is short-sighted, narrow-minded, counter-productive, completely acidic and corrosive to the greater good of the community. if that’s they type of person you are, well then several comments here have displayed it perfectly.
the assumption that someone is instantly a victim just because they are in a similar situation as your own is faulty from the beginning. i don’t assume all gay people walk on water and are victims. not EVERYTHING in the world is homophobic based… sometimes people attack others because they are being an ass. i THINK that is what is happening here… but WE DON’T KNOW.
Dawster
and i just might also say that it pains me extremely to (1) have my actual thoughts glossed over and mis-quoted and (2) attacked and bitched at for something i don’t actually believe.
that is really REALLY terrible behavior to attack someone who is actually trying to HELP. to take thoughts out of context and then attack someone on them does NOTHING for our cause AS A WHOLE.
drakyn
You know, a lot of the cissexual girls at my high school and my university dress like that. Do they deserve to have trash thrown at them too? Or should they just get raped?
After all, they were asking for it with those short skirts, tight shirts, and loud voices.
/sarcasm