Suspect Arrested In Brutal Attack On PR Transwoman

I've written about the spike in anti trans murders and assaults in Puerto Rico and speculated that one of the causes of it is the anti trans attitudes and trans hate doctrine coming out of the Catholic Church. since 2003.


Ironically on the same April 18 day that Chrissy Polis was getting attacked in the Baltimore 'burbs, Francheska Gonzalez was minding her own business pumping gas in her car at a Rio Piedras, PR gas station when she was viciously assaulted.

According to an April 20 Radio Isla interview with Francheska's mother Olga Vazquez, she was kicked in the head and all over her body by her assailants.  Gonzalez suffered a fractured vertebrae and bruises all over her body as a result..

22 year old Jose Ortiz, one of the assailants in Gonzalez's attack was recently arrested after police responded to reports that a group of men were robbing and assaulting trans women in San Juan's Santurce neighborhood.

Gonzalez picked him out of a police lineup, and he will be charged on Wednesday April 27..

"We are satisfied that the suspect has been identified. Now we call upon the authorities to investigate the hate angle on this case, but foremost to do justice," Pedro Julio Serrano of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force told EDGE.. "Anti-LGBT violence cannot be condoned and the government has to send a message that it will not tolerate any bias attack against the LGBT community or any other community."

Pray for Francheska's speedy recovery from her injuries and hope that justice is done in this case as well.
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Pam's Ponderings-Trans People Must Stand Up For Themselves

TransGriot Note:  Commentary from author Pamela Hayes

There has been so much buzz about the trans girl who was attacked and beaten by a couple of female thugs in a McDonald’s. I have not seen the video and I have no desire to watch footage of any person being punched, kicked, throttled or however the attack was administered.

A number of sites have reported the story, followed by comments galore. The poor child was disrespected when she was assaulted and many of the comments that followed were appalling and insensitive.

Conversely, there were some intelligent comments from people, who felt the beating was wrong, that the perpetrators should pull serious jail time.

The trans woman was accused of misleading people, called a freak and a he/she. Some folks said they felt no compassion for her. One man made an interesting comment about if a guy is going to live as a woman and if he doesn’t want any hassle or shit, that he better make sure that he can keep it on the low (in secret) because if someone realizes what “he” is doing, trouble will follow.

Well, there’s only a small percentage of trans women who can live without questions being raised about them and even if questions are raised, no one has a right attacking anybody because they disapprove of who that person is.

If a trans girl is clocked, trouble shouldn’t follow, but it usually does, which is a perfect segue into reiterating that trans women should learn self-defense.

Some people said that the victim in the Mickey Dee’s brawl didn’t fight back, that she allowed her assailants to punch and kick her and did nothing to physically defend herself.

That is a classic symptom of low self-esteem. Over the years, I've known a number of trans women who have been beat up by family members, other trans people, strangers on the street and they did not fight back. Did not swear out warrants on people who beat her. One t-girl was severely beaten by her brothers while her mother watched and did nothing. The t-girl should have had her brothers arrested. They didn't think twice about putting their hands on her, so why should she be concerned about them being thrown in jail and getting criminal records? 

Hey, I could go out there and get my ass kicked, but I ASSURE you that I’m going to get some punches in. And I will make every effort do damage.

Back to trans women and self-esteem. Many of the girls have low self-esteem. Which is deepened when they allow store clerks, nasty citizens to insult, ridicule, and degrade them and not utter a word in defense of themselves.
Human beings are not wired like that. Someone insults a person, usually they don’t accept it and move on. That’s not natural. And for a trans woman to accept such behavior from people, I wonder if she feels that she deserves it.

Also, if any person allows such indignities to take place, it is going to damage them emotionally. Hurt them psychologically, which could lead to depression as well as physical repercussions. Studies say that ulcers and other gastrointestinal disturbances are brought on by stress. And a trans person lives with put-downs, criticism, discrimination, familial rejection and all that is most definitely stress. A trans woman can make her life less stressful simply by fighting back. Simply by defending herself physically or verbally.

One t-girl told me that when people make stage whispers about her, that she has to ignore it. She can’t speak out. “Why the hell not?” I asked, totally confounded.

“See, I’m supposedly a real woman. So if someone suggested I was a man by calling me he or sir, I’m not suppose to realize they’re even talking about me.”

She actually said that to me. And it sounds like nonsense. I’ll concede that if they don’t say anything to a trans woman directly, she could ignore it and pretend as if the slur was not directed at them. Some things are not worth addressing. Some fool off at a distance saying, “That’s a man” is one of those things. But if someone is in a trans woman’s face calling her, he, him, sir and it, she cannot pretend that that is not aimed at her.

Also, I’ve lived long enough as a trans woman to say unequivocally that people who instigate trouble with other people are usually insecure and have low self-esteem. Secure, confident people do not go around bullying other people.

And looks are not everything, but ever notice that people who fuck with others tend to look like shit? They rarely look like cover girls, swimsuit models or models for men’s fitness magazines. Most of them are unattractive losers. And if necessary, t-women should inform them of that. She will feel better for it.

In closing, if you allow people to talk trash to you and don't say anything in defense of yourself, you're giving them permission to haul off and hit you.

The Bathroom Predators Are Cis People

One of the memes coming from 'white' wing opponents and the haters that are used to attack trans rights bills is that ciswomen would be in danger of violence or sexual assault if transwomen are allowed to use female restrooms like we have since 1953 without incident.

But as the following video shot at a Baltimore area McDonald's shows, they got it bassackwards.   In reality it's transwomen and our cissisters with ambiguous gender cues who have to fear for our lives and our human dignity when we visit public restrooms.   

Either we've been violently attacked by ciswomen or thrown out of bathrooms by misguided cispeople for simply needing to relieve ourselves .

The Mickey D's in question if y'all want to picket is located at 6315 Kenwood Avenue in Rosedale, MD.  The video of the April 18 assault was shot by Vernon Hackett, an employee (for now) of the McDonalds in question.

TRIGGER WARNING for this one.



Okay, What's up with trans women and McDonald's attacks? There was the July 10, 2006 Christina Sforza one in New York, then the one that happened in Memphis, now we have this one in the Baltimore 'burbs.




And you Gay, Inc peeps and short time well-to-do Maryland transwomen apologists for them wanted to compromise with Del Joseline Pena-Melnyk and the now departed EQ MD executive director Morgan Meneses-Sheets on public accommodations language in the thankfully dead HB 235? 

This is fracking why there is NO COMPROMISING on public accommodations language in trans rights bills.   It also emphatically points out that when it comes to who the real bathroom predators are, they are overwhelmingly cis people.

Trans Murder Rocks Brazil

Brazil is the largest country on the South American continent.  It is not only one that is fast becoming an emerging economic powerhouse, they hope the upcoming 2014 World Cup soccer tournament and the 2016 Olympics will demonstrate that fact to the world.

Brazil is also one of the largest nations to have a female president in Dilma Roussef.

Brazil has another distinction it's not proud of.  It is a very dangerous place to live if you're a transwoman.


Brazil is Roman Catholic, and thanks to the hate speech against transpeople implanted into the Vatican by if former advisor Paul McHugh and disseminated from Pope Benedict XVI, hate crimes and violence against transpeople in Catholic countries such as Brazil has spiked up.

According to local TBLG rights groups in the country, there were over 250 murders in Brazil last year involving TBLG people. 

One of the names we'll probably be reciting later this year at the Transgender Day of Remembrance is Priscila Brandao. 

Priscila's mother wanted her trans child to have a better life than pursuing sex work in the mean streets of Belo Horizonte, so a year ago she asked her brother in law to give her a job.     

Just eight months earlier before her life was cut short the 22 year old transwoman was interviewed with her mother expressing a bold hope for the future and a determination that she would succeed at her job as a mattress store manager in Belo Horizonte.

Now she's dead, shot seven times by three men as the crime was caught on surveillance tape.   One of the men has been arrested..

(trigger alert for violence)



A hate crimes law has been proposed in Brazil, and activists in the country are pushing President Rousseff to support its passage.

It won't bring Priscila back, but it's a step in reminding Brazilians that all its citizens are valuable, including its trans ones.