Almost a year to the day after the murder of Brianna Ghey another teenage trans girl who cannot be named was also stabbed in Harrow. The trial of her attackers has begun and the UK press are reporting on it in favour of the attackers.
Multiple UK press outlets have reported on the story as the trial begins with headlines or commentary that shifts blame for the attack onto the victim for being transgender. Specifically they are reporting the claim by the attackers that this transgender girl did not disclose her transgender status or otherwise lied about it before engaging in a sexual act with one of the attackers. Whilst The Press is also omitting details such as the fact this woman was filmed during the sex act without her knowledge or consent.
The full story is that two teens were flirting in a Snapchat group and eventually decided to make it physical. The victim went to one of her attacker’s houses and while there one of his friends contacted him to tell him she was trans. He asked her, she denied it and they proceeded to get intimate. However during this intimacy the victim was unaware that her attacker had positioned his phone camera and was streaming the event via Facetime. A recording of which was shared on social media.
During this the attacker was contacted again to be told the victim is transgender and he threatened her with a knife. At knife point she outed herself and was told to leave and she did. Her attacker then told the Snapchat group she lied to him and its reported that they turned on her immediately launching into slurs and threats of violence, including stabbing. The victim apologised and believed her apology had been accepted.
Over a week after the hook up with her attacker, the victim was lured to a roller-skating event where she believed she would just be hanging out with friends. Instead the group came dressed in dark clothing with masks and weapons with the intent of brutalising her for being transgender. She was stabbed 9 times during the onslaught and when found by paramedics is reported to have had a low pulse.
The attack was recorded by the attackers and footage of the incident was shared on social media.
UK Press outlets are choosing to focus on attempting to manufacture a “queer panic defense” in which the actions of the attackers are excused due to the victim’s gender identity or sexual orientation. While also actively ommitting details which harm that; such as the fact that this attacker was recording sex without consent or that the attack happened over a week after the sex act took place.
This kind of defense is usually employed during trials to get the perpetrator of a crime a lighter or even no sentence at all. In this case however I believe the UK press are leaning on it as a means of legitimising attacks like this against our communities in society. They aren’t trying to convince a jury they’re trying to convince the general public.
This follows a pattern by UK press outlets over the last decade to reduce the humanity of trans people down to nothing; some of the attackers in the mob would have been 10 years old when this began. All they have ever been told about us is hate, hate, hate, hate, hate. So I am equal parts saddened but also unsurprised to see attacks like this happen. This was the inevitable outcome of unchecked hatred against trans people in the media day in day out.
These attackers are absolutely 100% responsible for their own actions, no half-arsed queer panic defense will change that. But the responsibility for attacks like this also lands on the UK press and politicians who have directly contributed to creating this animosity around us.
Between the initial reporting of this attack and now the reporting on the trial of the attack the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) released guidance on “Deception as to Sex”. The guidance appears to create a criminal charge for transgender people who do not disclose our status as transgender for any amount of intimacy. The idea being that any consent given to intimacy with a transgender person is invalidated by not knowing they were trans before you started. As if the consent is given to the gender identity of a person specifically and not to the person as a whole.
The guidance suggests that everyone has a right to decide what’s important to them before engaging in sexual encounters and places the onus on trans people to disclose rather than anyone who takes a liking to us to find out. It also probably does not allow for “sex by deception” charges to be applied after someone didn’t reveal they were a bigoted piece of shit until after intimacy, unsurprisingly.
That’s because this isn’t guidance surrounding deceptive practices and sexual intercourse the vast majority of which are cis people lying to other cis people. No. It’s literally just criminalising trans people for attempting to keep ourselves safe. In the case above the victim reports that she didn’t out herself sooner because she had been attacked before for doing so. Via the CPS guidance it is not unlikely that – after being brutalised and stabbed 9 times for being transgender – she may face charges for having reportedly denied she is transgender.
She was 100% right not to have! The man secretly filmed their sex act and pulled a knife on her before plotting for over a week with a group of his friends to attack her. He and his friends are pieces of shit no one should ever go near ever again; but you wouldn’t know that reading the UK Press or CPS guidance.