Hi girls
I thought I should draw your attention to a forum post that has just appeared on Crossdresser Heaven. I'm repeating some of the thread here, but if you are able to go the original post then there are some links to the original story. I make no apologies for the repetition; I think it's something that people need to be aware of.
Belladonna Bluest wrote a forum post drawing attention to the tragic suicide of Brittini Blaire Summerlin (aka Rev. Bubba Copeland), the mayor of Smiths Station in Alabama and pastor at First Baptist Church, Phenix City. This happened yesterday.
Belladonna wrote:
"Our fellow cross dressing sister Brittini Blaire Summerlin / Rev. Bubba Copeland (1961-2023), has taken her own life after being outed by the media. Her photos (which were taken by her wife) were posted online. She released a statement on Thursday, before taking her own life on Friday afternoon. It is very unfortunate and sad, her statement fell on deaf ears: “What I do in private life has nothing to do with what I do in my holy life,” Copeland said. “Does this have any effect on me being mayor, that I sometimes put on a dress or sometimes put on makeup? Does that have anything to do whatsoever with me being mayor or being a pastor?”
In one of the responses to that post, Lauren Mugnaia said ‘It is so hard to read about this tragedy. I am emotionally moved and have to say to all my sisters, be careful out there, it is an increasingly dangerous place’
I found myself wanting to know … well, is it? Is it increasingly dangerous?
So I did a bit of digging about the situation here in the UK. The most obvious place to turn to was the National Crime Statistics.
*Spoiler alert: Yes … it IS an increasingly dangerous place*
In the year ending March 2023, the figures show that there were 4,732 hate crimes against transgender people in the UK, which is a rise of 11% on the previous year. I don’t want to get political, and I hope no-one will wade in and try to make this about politics in any way, but the Home Office report on the figures said that: “Transgender issues have been heavily discussed by politicians, the media and on social media over the last year, which may have led to an increase in these offences”. The report also states that transgender-based hate crimes are less likely to result in a charge or court summons than other hate crimes.
The LGBQT+ anti-abuse charity Galop pointed out that the increase in anti-transgender hate crime is ACTUALLY far higher, since the government’s own research indicates that over 90% of anti-LGBQT+ crimes go unreported.
So, thank you Belladonna for highlighting this tragic story. I’m going to quote what she said at the end of her post, since it bears repeating:
We are not doing anything illegal, violent/directly harmful to any living being. We are literally playing dress up. The same way actor/actresses do in movies and theatre plays. It is unfortunate for a human life to be lost because of the shame and guilt of cross dressing. Our hobby/craft/lifestyle is no different from someone who builds model train sets in their home. We have nothing to fear or be ashamed of. In fact, many of us should be proud of who we are as people, contributing to this big melting pot called life and how good we look en femme.
I’m so glad that younger people are much more accepting of our community than their older counterparts, but the positive effect of that is going to take a good while to filter through into wider society.
Stay safe, girls.
Hugs to all
Ellie x
With all of the dog whistling going on - that we are pedophiles, groomers, rapists, and whatever else some groups want to label us as, and then post and echo those dog whistles widely and often. It will absolutely affect some of the followers to take harmful actions against members of the community. Those of us who are out and living 24/7 shouldn't fear exposure in the same ways that a crossdresser might, but we can still feel fear. We are out there 24/7, so we make a more ready target in that regard. And there is doxxing to deal with, where these sources of disinformation and outright lies will publish names and addresses of individuals, their family, and sometimes their friends. If that's not trying to tell the followers where to go and implying what to do, I'm not sure what is.
Because it was part of my business many decades ago, I keep up on crime statistics in general and pay special attention to hate crimes. Yes, violence against anyone on the LGBTQ spectrum is up a lot, and trans folks are more likely to be assaulted than anyone else in that group.
I've taken self defense courses, helped teach a few, and I encourage everyone to learn these skills. This doesn't mean just take a class. You have to practice enough that your responses are automatic because if you have to think about your response you've already lost. Get a bunch of friends together, take some courses, and practice. Practice a lot. The life you save just might be your best friend's.
Yes! I taught martial arts for years and years. The folks that would just come occasionally fell behind rapidly compared to those that were there and practicing all the time. I'd also teach a women's self-defense class at times. Usually a seven week program, once a week. Those classes were focused on only a few techniques, but practiced over and over. And I encouraged the students to practice on their own. And to take another class regularly, whether from me or another instructor. To paraphrase Bruce Lee, "I don't fear the person who has practiced 10,000 kicks. I fear the person who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." This need to practice goes for anything you plan to use for your defense, including guns. If you are a gun owner, going to the range regularly and shooting regularly is vital to being able to use it in a real-life situation.
I couldn't agree more. I've been a musician since I was 8, started learning about self defense when I as teen and was a semi-pro road racer for many years. I have an intimate understanding about the importance of muscle memory and regular practice. I also used to shoot trap competitively and still practice with all my firearms every week. I need to find a good self defense group here, as I no longer have anyone to practice with and I know I'm very rusty in some areas. I would be thrilled if I could find a group that wants and assistant instructor because I think you learn better and reinforce it when you're trying to pass it on to someone else.
I personally try not to watch the news, soo much negativity out there that I get way to depressed. However from personal experience as the one on the bad end of hate crimes and otherwise. I can not agree more with the ladies here saying get some training in defense. I am a black belt in a couple styles and have been training for three decades. And you know what, the one hate crime that went physical.... Hold on here is the story.
Long ago before Covid, yeah that long, I was at a nice friendly dance club in Harrisburg. Me and my friend were out for a girls night out. I of course had a few drinks but was far from drunk, plus I had been dancing all night and an hour or two of dancing and just about any drink gets used up. The club was not busy, just so so in the middle, like one person per five sqft or so. It was around 1:30am and time to head back home. I was parked across and down the street. Plus I was dressed for a night out meaning a tight short skirt and 5 inch heels, so not in the best for running or defending. My friend went to get me some water as I was hot and I sat down on the blue vinyl couch near the door, probably not smart as club couches are dirty, but before covid peeps and my feet hurt. Any way this young guy came over and sat down, clearly drunk. Next thing I knew he was yelling things I wont repeat, took me a few seconds to realize his yelling was at me. I got up and started to back away and he jumped up and popped me in the side of the head. I had used the cover up defense with out thinking so not much of anything. I was continuing backing off, and trying to relax him with words. Also trying to get the attention of the bouncer near the door. Lucky for me the bouncer noticed quickly and stepped in, arm bared and booted the guy out the door. When me and my friend did finally leave, we waited 30 mins or so, his girl friend was still across the street yelling at us. We went the other way and got in the car quickly. Nothing else happened. Sure it was not a horrible experience but not fun either.
Take aways: be in a public place with a friend, my martial arts cover saved me from getting KO'ed, notice I did not get all ninja on him but was trying to tactically exit and flee the scene, pay attention to your surroundings, have a big burly bouncer handy, there was nothing to trigger the guy but me being me so impossible to predict.
I have also been on the end of random people randomly going out of their way to use hate speech and stuff at me, sure it is far and in-between but does happen. My motto is to ignore them and get away ASAP as noting good can come out of such people no matter what I do.
So take care ladies and I hope you never experience this type of stuff.
Miriya
Anecdotally, here in the US the hate crimes seemed to rise sharply in the run up to the 2016 presidential election cycle.
But it had nothing to do with a certain candidate making it known that you could freely hate whoever you wanted.
That was the opening of Pandora's Box. It might be able to be closed again, but it will takes a generation, at least, to clean up the debris it released.
