Transgender Woman Assaulted in Seattle

Several news sources are reporting that a transgender woman was assaulted while she was waiting on the bus yesterday afternoon. This situation is happening far too often. So many transgender people are assaulted or murdered solely because they are or were transgender.
The question as a community is how do we empower ourselves to counter this hate. How do we protect ourselves from those who would do us harm?

The police are investigating this as a hate crime, as they should. Unfortunately, the police report mis-identifies the victim as male. A spokeswoman for the SPD later clarified that the victim identifies as female. I am ready to bet that she said as much at the scene. Whether this is because the woman's identifying documents show she is male or female is beside the point. This situation presents an opportunity to learn. The Seattle Police Department needs to make sure that all officers are presented with culturally competent training. Perhaps the officer would have asked whether or not the woman is transgender and could have added a note about her gender identity in his report instead of simply identifying her as male.

Thankfully, they arrested the suspect. Why someone who is arrested dozens of times for assault and drugs is allowed to walk the streets is beyond me. He was also convicted of malicious harassment in 2003. The first action that should be taken is for those of us in a position to do so offer to become her advocate as she navigates the legal system. She needs to know that others care about what happened to her. The second action should be to check in with the Police Department to evaluate whether or not additional cultural competency training would be beneficial.