A transgender woman in Casper, Wyoming is recovering following a violent attack in a dog park. She also says hate motivated the attack.
Oil City News reports that Rilee Shipley had taken her dog out for a walk in her apartment complex’s dog park early on the morning of July 15. As she did, another resident entered the area with his dogs unleashed. Shipley asked the man to control his dogs, at which point, he became enraged.
“He called me the N-slur several times and if I had a problem I needed to come back and we could handle it,” she recalled.
Shipley–who, incidentally, is caucasian–reported the incident to the apartment complex management. That evening she returned to the dog park to walk her dog, at which point, the same neighbor, along with another man, happened on the scene. He began yelling obscenities, then entered the park and charged her.
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“As I was knocked down and putting the leash on my dog, he told me that me and my piece of sh*t dog deserve to die,” she said, “and he called me the N-slur again and the word ‘b*tch‘ and stomped me on the side of the head, and kicked my face into the fencepost.”
Following the attack, Shipley visited the Wyoming Medical Center’s E.R. where she received treatment for fractures to her face and skull. She will require corrective surgery for a fracture to her eye socket.
For Shipley, one thing is clear: she was the victim of a hate crime.
“To me in my mind, there’s no question about whether or not it was geared towards homophobia or transphobia,” she said, “especially with the ease with which he threw around the N-word at me.”
Shipley also claims homophobia and transphobia run rampant in Wyoming.
“Someone told me once, ‘this is Wyoming: we don’t take offense to gays, we take them to the fences,’” she told reporters, a reference to the murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard, who was beaten, tied to a fence and left for dead in a 1998 attack. He died of his injuries shortly thereafter, sparking national outcry.
“That’s been a fear of mine since I first came out and started transitioning, and to have lived through that is terrifying,” Shipley said.
Shipley has also launched a GoFundMe campaign to offset the cost of her medical bills.
Elsewhere in Wyoming recently, a bar in Cheyenne was caught selling t-shirts that promoted the murder of queer people as a cure for AIDS.
BoomerMyles
And yet JK Rowlings has experienced ZERO assaults.
inbama
Yeah, the trash in Wyoming that attacked this transwoman with a 5 o’clock shadow go on Twitter to get inspiration from J.K. Rowling’s tweets.
Honestly, there are good reasons why nobody believes our activists anymore.
Fname Optional Lname
Three articles on this attack all state that nobody has been arrested and the matter is under investigation. What? Do they really need to be that obvious about their bias? The landlord knew exactly who the attacker was when Rilee brought the issue to their attention which indicates that this person has been in trouble before. Let’s see how long it takes for their “investigation”. Considering that the attack took place on July 15th I would hope they would have at least spoken with the accused and maybe the person who was with him. This is unreal.
wikidBSTN
Wyoming IS offensive.
And to think, that crap state with barely enough “people” in it to fill a second-rate city gets two US Senators just like California.
Hank31
So this person claims to have been called the n-word even though they are clearly white. And they invoke homophobia, even though they don’t claim to be gay. And they invoke transphobia even though their own version of events is that the dispute was about dogs not being on a leash. I guess the GoFundMe is more lucrative if you can peg an injury to an “ism” rather than a fight over dogs.
Kangol2
You might be unaware of the fact that racists call non-Black people the n-word at times because they think it is the ultimate insult, but it does happen, so this is not surprising.
Moreover, not everyone parses out the difference between gay and trans, so someone who is viewed as not straight may be called “gay” as an insult or attacked because the homophobe/transphobe believes the person is gay/queer/different.
Third, whatever sparked the dispute, the attacker very likely might have used racist and anti-LGBTQ epithets. So the origin of the dispute is less important than the fact that this person was violently attacked and during that attack, the attacker expressed homophobic attitudes and used racist epithets. It’s not that hard to grasp.
Now, if this didn’t happen as reported, I imagine the authorities will figure it out. But given that we’re talking about Wyoming and given that Queerty had recently reported on another incident there, I don’t think this story is far-fetched.
DarkZephyr
You are pretending to be obtuse, I hope.
Hank31
“whatever sparked the dispute, the attacker very likely might have used racist and anti-LGBTQ epithets. ”
Literally no one involved in this story has even alleged that anyone used “anti-LGBTQ epithets.”
Mr. Stadnick
It is beyond me why anyone other than racists and haters would want to live in Wyoming. It maybe filled with natural beauty but being filled with hate overshadows making it very ugly.
wyohomophobe307
It’s ok Mr Staineddick we don’t want you here either
MainelyStories
Dear WyoHomoPhobe307,
It must be hot and dark in your closet. Interesting that you choose to read and follow Queerty! They are HOT aren’t they?