Bullying the Trans Girl
I wrote the other day about my long elevator ride with two rather sketchy men standing behind me on a tiny elevator. Fortunately, nothing happened...but it could have. Read on to a couple of Connie's experiences:
"I can relate to your trepidation in the elevator. The fact that we are, as you said in your earlier post, low hanging fruit, there are those would find much delight in exercising power over us. This is true for both cis and transgender women, but more probable for us. I have been accosted a few times, but I was also assaulted once. It was in the form of a one-two slap to each side of my head from behind, and although the slaps weren't hard enough to really hurt me physically, I can still feel the pain of them just thinking about it now. Your description of being on the elevator brought it all back.
My incident was that of a bully who hit me more as a provocation, to which I wisely decided to avoid retaliation. There were no witnesses to the assault, but I did make noise so as to draw enough attention to have a small crowd gather. Having had that experience, I would rather brave the elements than get on a parking garage elevator if I saw a sketchy looking character on it when the door opened. We need to be aware of the dangers, and not be lulled into a false sense of security because we've found a place of acceptance - whether that be one segment of society or in general. There are still bad people out there. In fact, I'm going straight to Groupon now to see if that nifty purse-size taser/flashlight/ alarm is still available."
You are so right! Maybe I should have added though, I thought they were getting off the elevator on the same floor I was getting on. I was not careful enough though.
"I can relate to your trepidation in the elevator. The fact that we are, as you said in your earlier post, low hanging fruit, there are those would find much delight in exercising power over us. This is true for both cis and transgender women, but more probable for us. I have been accosted a few times, but I was also assaulted once. It was in the form of a one-two slap to each side of my head from behind, and although the slaps weren't hard enough to really hurt me physically, I can still feel the pain of them just thinking about it now. Your description of being on the elevator brought it all back.
My incident was that of a bully who hit me more as a provocation, to which I wisely decided to avoid retaliation. There were no witnesses to the assault, but I did make noise so as to draw enough attention to have a small crowd gather. Having had that experience, I would rather brave the elements than get on a parking garage elevator if I saw a sketchy looking character on it when the door opened. We need to be aware of the dangers, and not be lulled into a false sense of security because we've found a place of acceptance - whether that be one segment of society or in general. There are still bad people out there. In fact, I'm going straight to Groupon now to see if that nifty purse-size taser/flashlight/ alarm is still available."
You are so right! Maybe I should have added though, I thought they were getting off the elevator on the same floor I was getting on. I was not careful enough though.
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