Police in Oregon have jailed a man for a brutal attack on a homeless, transgender woman that left her with a broken jaw.
Fred Costanza of Blackfoot, Idaho now faces the possibility of hate crime charges and is being held on $140,000 bail in connection with the attack. The victim, Lauren Jackson, testified before a grand jury on Thursday.
Related: Friends say Dayton shooter’s slain sibling was a transgender man
The attack happened at Agate Beach State Park in Newport, Oregon August 24. Jackson stopped to use the public ladies room there. Apparently, this panicked several other bystanders, who told Costanza that a transgender woman had entered the ladies room. Costanza then entered the restroom and attacked Jackson, pulling her by the hair and punching her ten times. The attack left her with multiple breaks in her jaw. She will require multiple surgeries to address the damage.
This is Lauren Jackson, a transgender person beaten at Agate Beach State Park for using the women’s restroom. More on the story #LiveOnK2 at 6pm pic.twitter.com/vpZCu6Bdpu
— Joe English (@JoeEnglishKATU) August 30, 2019
Demonstrators from local churches and queer advocacy groups gathered outside the courthouse during Jackson’s grand jury testimony to show their support for the woman. At the time of this writing, the district attorney has not announced if he will pursue hate crime charges in the matter.
controversial2019
Whilst I don’t condone violence in any way (words are just as powerful), this is a really difficult subject.
I am all for Trans-inclusivity, Trans-rights etc. but I also understand that for some, when a Male-looking female, enters a female restroom, it can be scary and cause alarm.
At first they won’t know that the female identifies as female; particularly if she’s especially masculine looking (as the victim above seems to be; she could easily be a guy with long hair).
Then once they come to find that she is a female, a trans female (if indeed they do) we have to expect some trepidation.
There are perverts out there. Perverts who would claim to be a different gender in order to sneak a peak at their ‘prey’. You might say it’s unlikely, but catfishing happens all the time where people lie about their genders to get photos or videos of their prey. It’s not a large step for one of those to then enter a restroom (looking like their born gender) and claim to be transgender; who’s going to be able to prove otherwise?
So although violence is in no way necessary (his violence would have also been OTT had a cis-Male entered a female restroom) whilst we have segregated restrooms, I don’t think we can be shocked if there is adverse reactions to transgender people in restrooms BECAUSE there is this fear culture of perverts lying about their gender identity in order to be perverts.
This is why we should have unisex toilets everywhere; get rid of segregating society.
Vince
Yeah except she identified her as a transgender when she came out of the bathroom to her boyfriend. Not to mention the boyfriend is a serial assaulter across multiple States.
1898
“Perverts who would claim to be a different gender in order to sneak a peak at their ‘prey’.
this is a red herring. i’ve never seen a documented case of this actually happening. there are, however, hundreds or perhaps thousands of documented cases of real trans people being beaten or killed simply because they dared to exist
“…claim to be transgender; who’s going to be able to prove otherwise?”
actually it would be very very easy for someone to prove they are legitimately transgender. they would simply provide documentation from their health care provider. these imaginary “fake trans perverts” everyone is so worried about would not be able to provide that documentation. this is not rocket science.
GabrielKing1660
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Smith David
I’m sorry but, dude does not look like a lady.
1898
1. your apology is not sincere
2. maybe she’s early in her transition. maybe she just started it. perhaps she’s been transition for a while but hasn’t been able to begin hormone therapy yet for a variety of legitimate reasons, including but not limited to inability to pay for the very expensive hormone therapy
Smith David
Full on peach fuzz. I mean come on man.
CarrieV
You’re correct about the peach fuzz. I hadn’t immediately noticed it for all the blood around.
However, some transfolk don’t have the money or even the HOME in this case, to keep up with appearances or Rx meds. She was homeless, perhaps she needed a place to shave and that bathroom was going to be it.
As the first poster said, this beating was overkill anyway. I hope Idaho catches up with the rest of the world in helping both its homeless and its transgender populations.
Rex Huskey
there will always be fringe trying to ride a cause
1898
there will always be trolls making asinine comments
marion
Which photo is of the Trans woman?
Jeton Ademaj
bingo.
controversial2019
@1898
I was talking about whilst at the restroom if someone claims to be trans who isn’t (simply to be a pervert) nobody will be able to prove otherwise AT THAT TIME.
I doubt Trans people will walk around with their paperwork on them (nor should they have to).