A 19-year old cis lesbian woman was beaten unconscious and robbed after she tried to use the women's restroom at a McDonald's in the US
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/05/lesbian-teen-beaten-unconscious-robbed-at-mcdonalds/Open linkView original on lemmy.world778
Comments118
The US is utterly fucked. Nothing short of a revolution will save them.
Why the fuck does she need a lawyer to press charges? Assault is a crime against the state. It's supposed to be the police and the state prosecutor who deal with this.
The state will fail to accomplish anything meaningful in prosecution - a bad deal or bungled case. Plus there's the notoriety the case is already generating. She'll need to file a civil suit as well, and she'll need someone making sure everything is OK on her end (the attacker doesn't counter-sue for instance).
I've been the victim of hate crime, you think you're gonna get a justice boner and fight it to the core, but in reality the simplest/safest answer for the victim is to shut up and make it disappear. You're already traumatized, fighting is confusing and painful.
Governmental agencies are abandoning their written duties for the current regime, including cops. Doesn't help that cops are being trained that the public is the enemy. Also, regular investigations and crime solving has been steadily going down. Demographically, conservative-racist people is the biggest group to be in law enforcement, meaning they will be less likely to help someone that's different. Just recently, the DOJ is refusing to enforce court rulings in favor of the orange king. It's horrible, and dire, and too many in power seem to not care or trying to ignore it.
The reply you got is spot on, and so are you. Often, you don't get choice as a victim, the state/county/city/whatever is charging a crime whether you like it or not.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_fallacy
The DA is supposed to seek criminal charges in criminal cases with enough evidence to prosecute. If the victim of any crime in the US wants financial restitution (for hospital bills, lost wages, etc.), they need an attorney to pursue a civil suit.
A civil suit, yes. But the description was to press charges. I thought it implied a private prosecution, rather than a suit over damages.
In the US, there is no justice unless you can afford a lawyer.
I was assaulted at an inpatient institution last December. My stay was illegally upgraded to involuntary; I was denied the ability to file a grievance or speak with a patient advocate. I was also placed on the female ward as a passing transgender man and outed to all other patients. They did not provide me with discharge paperwork; as a consequence, I lost my job.
I cannot afford a lawyer; there will be no justice for this.
I’m so sorry this happened to you 💜
That sounds horrifying. Sorry this happened to you. If you have the energy and haven't done so already, please there are trans friendly law firms in quite a few countries. Hope things get better for you.
The revolution would be led by nazis who think trump is too soft
I thoight those types just move to South Africa?
We already had a revolution, we let the conservatives live and breed until they won the elections, Idiocracy
TERFs will try to blame trans people for this.
They're already blaming black people for it because the perpetrator happened to be black
"This never would've happened in my christian fascist dictatorship... The perpetrator should've been white!"
"and state sponsored!"
Who is "they"?
Assholes. Transphobes included
I'm not surprised that transphobes in general are being racist about it. TERFs (emphasis on the R.F.) being racist is more surprising to me in this day and age. The current tactic of TERFs is to try to sound as progressive and reasonable as possible in order to couch their transphobia in an air of clean rationality. I don't usually see them say racist stuff like that.
Y'all Yankees spend more time complaining about TERFs than homophobes it seems
Why do you think that is
Transphobia also hurts cisgender people.
I would know. I was hurt by it too. It doesn't involve bathrooms btw.
I'm not sure this had anything to do with transphobia. The attackers just sound homophobic; they probably saw her hair and don't know or care that the slur they picked isn't for girls. It's sad that she's going through this. Their girlfriends robbing them after they had been beaten down speaks volumes about what sort of people they are.
It generally really sucks to be a victim of a hate crime.
oh yea it does, one of my family members was misgendered as a man when she went into the womans bathroom one time, eventhough she isnt, by an demographics that have a wierd reaction to asian people.
The more stories about this I hear, the more I just question the reason why gender norms even exist. And I mean that in general.
Like, what do you mean men shouldn't act flamboyant and vulnerable? What do you mean little girls should always be seen playing with Barbie dolls (or in the context of my country, Fulla dolls)? Growing up, I never understood why making this distinction beyond the biological and sexual stuff was even necessary. Aren't we all humans at the end of the day?
100% all humans at the Endo of the day.
The reason a lot of it exists is to communicate social roles, because social role mediates interaction. The earliest division of social role was biological sex, and so that's commonly an aspect in gender.
How gender is expressed is a complex interaction between socially agreed upon norms, how the individual interprets their gender, how others interpret that, and so on.
Individual gender is a matter of psychological, biological and social factors which influence how an individual chooses to understand themselves in the context of society and also how they present themselves to society.
The socialization part is where we teach people the behavior needed to express genders, and is where the genderd toys come in, amongst other things.
All that to say, what we need is a way to communicate social role, and what we have to do that is loosely tied to sex and dominated by an imnense amount of social momentum. In a sane world the genders would be split into a lot more pieces.
Understood.
You're getting there, keep going.
This looks more like homophobic cunts rather than transphobic cunts.
The venn diagram is a near circle.
I really should've read the article better. But both are really bad for society.
These are all exactly the same people, if that's not clear.
But 'you can always tell'...
This was a homophobic hate crime, trans people weren't mentioned. The bigots actually guessed correctly in this case.
Huh, it seems you're right.
A fair point, I'll put my hands up that I didn't read the article before commenting, and made some assumptions based on the headline.
This woman will never feel safe using a public restroom again.
Not should anyone, in places like this! Yokes! Yikes, even!
That's their ultimate goal. Make women fearful and unwelcomed in public spaces. Hiding behind trans bigotry is just a win win in their eyes.
Awful, just awful.
Y'all, don't go anywhere without some means of self-defense. A pocket stun gun costs $20, or if you live in a country where they're banned, carry a pocket corkscrew with a foil cutter on the end.
Stun guns, while potentially being intimidating to a lone attacker, are surprisingly ineffective if actually used for defense.
Pepper spray, specifically the type that uses a stream instead of a fine mist, is far more effective at stopping an attack and giving an opportunity to escape.
I recommend POM pepper spray, personally. The smaller versions are 50 state legal.
Yeah I've been hit by a few stun guns, but not the police kind. It hurts sure and it makes a scary noise, but if I were intent on violence they would not stop me.
The police kind might actually kill you.
But also are still only 60% effective and can be defeated with a thick coat, besides you need to have the exact distance between prongs for intramuscular incapacitation, too close, too far, or one prong miss will all likely fail to adequately incapacitate the attacker.
It's a good option, no doubt.
I have a slock, which is a lock on a piece of pantyhose. It can be untied and left in my bag and nobody will know what it is at an airport.
Two rolls of quarters are entirely legal to carry, and act as makeshift brass knuckles in a pinch. The additional mass will make you break your knuckles, but you'll be shattering their bones as well.
Shattering your knuckles sounds like a bad idea, especially if your initial defense does not incapacitate your attacker, as it may render you unable to continue to fight back.
As Despoticruin mentioned, a 'tactical' style flashlight or pen would be better options, and you can temporarily blind or disorient the attacker(s) with a flashlight as they close the distance.
Should be mentioned any close-in physical defense like that should be a last resort tactic if you cannot escape, and in those situations, a defender would massively benefit from being physically fit and somewhat knowledgeable on how to fight, preferably from classes where you learn to both dish out and take a punch.
Even then, those tools won't give you much of an edge if you're outnumbered. Pepper spray is still the best non-lethal option for areas that allow you to carry it.
If you go this route then hammer, don't punch. I hear that those small steel flashlights with the castellated heads are perfect for exactly that kind of swing.
You can put a bit more force into a punch from a standing position because you can use your legs, but using a weapon that adds mass to your hands can very easily cause permanent damage if you punch. Using strikes takes advantage of the weapon itself to take the majority of the recoil. The combination of the added mass usually makes the weaponed strike hit harder than an unassisted punch either way.
Fitspacks are always a bad idea. If you want something legal to carry, start keeping your keys on a locking carbiner rated for rock climbing. If it has a kilonewton (kN) rating stamped in it, it is suitable. This won't collapse on your hand and no amount of force any human is capable of generating will break it, but anyone whose nose you drive it into at maximum effort is likely to remember the experience. This should also be legal to carry anywhere.
Definitely not a bad way to go in a pinch.
How sure are we that she was attacked because she was perceived as trans? This could be a simple mugging.
EDIT- nevermind I actually read the article, this was a hate crime
It sounds like it was more of a general biggotry thing than Trans, specifically m
Yet if we followed conservative logic, they want all trans people to use their birth assigned bathroom. But that means you’ll still have manly, bearded dudes walking into the women’s room because a lot of trans men are manlier than many cis men.
So even by conservative rules, you will still have people who very much look like cis men walking into the women’s room
They don't want trans people in bathrooms or anywhere else. They want to disappear trans people, either by re-assimilating them into their "designated" sex, or if they are too far gone, just plain old disappearing.
Exactly. They just don’t want them to exist and they don’t care how this happens. This is the ultimate impossible goal they’re trying to achieve. I feel awful for the lgbtq community, because violence against them will only get worse.
They don't think in a logical framework, they just keep punching and mandating and screaming until the ick goes away.
This is the take I'm surprised isn't talked about more. If the point is to keep "male passing" people out of women's restrooms, then you have to accept trans men as men and let them use their assigned rooms as well. Like there's no "win" condition for the right on this argument and idk why more people aren't pointing this out. If they're already clutching pearls over butch looking women, what happens when Elliot page strolls in with a suit jacket and no shirt on?
This conservative’s brain crashed just thinking of the concept
https://youtube.com/shorts/e50LMx4XLKA
Fuck that host. "This is something we can talk about more... " Video was cut, but you can tell she was going to change the subject.
The point is to keep making non cis folks illegal, the rules are just stepping stones to the ultimate goal of eradication.
They will cheer on the violence.
They want us in basements, closets, or graves.
Most don't care which. Some won't settle for basements.
This is more common still for trans people who are earlier on in their transition but the media doesn't talk about it. This violence was intended for a trans person so why do people only care when it impacts the cis? This ultimately says that violence towards trans people is ok but that it is a problem when those who aren't trans are impacted.
Not sure about this. There's way much more cis women that trans women, so attacks on "trans women" could have more cis women victims just because of the number if cis vs trans women.
Purely as numbers, this isn't crazy, but since the size of affected demographics is so different, you have to look at proportions rather than just figures
Did you read the article?
So, no.
And I've see n similar reports that did indeed involve trans people so... also no.
I dont understand why she engaged at all or what was to gain by sharing she was lesbian.
For the people you want to reach with these kinds of stories, it is. I don't think there's much use in preaching to the choir.
I see your point totally... the main people that are suffering are trans and that matters. This headline hopefully brings awareness to cis people, and maybe even make anti trans people think "hang on, there's a risk to ME". But it does miss that trans people are at horrible risk in so many ways
And so it continues...
It's a nasty can of worms that never should have been opened.
Hit the gym
Do both. Both are good
How can there be a cis lesbian?
You might be confused on the terms. Cis is the opposite of trans. You can be attracted to members of your same gender without being trans. It's much more common to be cis and homosexual than to be trans.
I think you are confused on what cis means
The prefix cis- is Latin and means on this side of.
I'm still confused.
This should clear up your confusion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisgender
Ah, so cis- is the exact opposite of trans- in Latin.
The adjectives cis and lesbian refer to different attributes. Cis refers to gender identity, so her gender matches her sex assigned at birth (in this case, a woman assigned female at birth). A lesbian refers to her sexual attraction, so a woman who is attracted to other women.
What confuses you about that?
I guess I don't know what cis means. Pretty sure I'm clear on lesbian, but I guess you never know.
A trans woman who's attracted to other women would be a trans lesbian, if that's what was tripping you up.
Cis = cisgender = she was assigned female at birth and is not transgender
Nice. I appreciate the simple explanation. And fuck this place for downvoting people looking for explanations. Just lemmy flavoured reddit dickheads.
Cisgender means "gender match (birth) genitals"
Cis is short for cisgender. It's the antonym of transgender. Has nothing to do with sexuality.
Cis-het would be cisgender, heterosexual.
Trans comes from "on the other side" as cis comes from "on the same side".
I think a lot of people don't. The word 'cis' seems to have been invented because some people object to the term biologically-female or biologically-male, but that's generally what it means.
Cis and trans have existed since Ancient Rome was a thing
So has the french language but it still isn't going to adequately convey the meaning of biological sex to most Americans.
No, French did not exist at the same time as the Roman Empire.
Thank you for that information. I hope you have a pleasant weekend.
To add, cisgender is not that new of a word, it's been around since the 90s in English. Using the term "biological male/female" is an immidate red flag as it carries with it the insinuation that trans identities are not ligitimate; you could just say "not trans." Hence the heavy use by right wingers and bigots.
Thank you for your response.
Specifically transphobes prefer saying biological this and that rather than use a trans persons gender identity as a way to purposefully invalidate them
If you know how to create an account and post here, you also know how to look up words.
It's about having a conversation. Who knows, maybe a bunch of people that were confused on terms learned from this.
🧐
You are clearly overestimating the American public education system.
Okay, I'll never ask a question about anything I don't know ever again.
Please suck my genitals on your way to go fuck yourself.
They are called a removed and then are beaten bloody for it?
Yes, your country is a fucking armpit for a number of reasons (I think at last count 347089088 reasons). But it'd be real cool if bigotry wasn't one of them.
Agreed
The good bits of the planet are the bits of the arctic not controlled by Russia or the USA. I'm sure the Canadian arctic is just as nice as the Scandinavian arctic.
The reason so many people down voted you and this got reported so many times is likely a combination of:
It happening more than it should, which makes it a fit for this sub.
Her identity was the reason she was attacked, she wasn't a random victim.
I don't think you're actually trying to be bigoted, but figured if I wasn't going to remove your comment I should at least try to clear things up.
Oh, well I guess rampant violence excuses their bigotry
So then why excuse the violence?
That sounds very much like excusing the violence through normalcy
Huh?
So what? Does that make it better?
So what? Does something need to be unique to be awful? And who even said it was unique?
Idk man, I'm sure I've seen posts about "common violence" before