27 January 2013

How Much Is A Transgender Woman's Life Worth?

If you fire shots into a car with three transgender women, what kind of a sentence you should expect?

Depends.

If you're a police officer in Washington, DC, you can expect to get--are you ready?--three years of supervised probation, 100 hours of community service and a $150 fine.

So, a transgender woman's life is worth one year of probation, 33.3 hours of community service and $50.  The next time I go to DC, I'll be very happy to know that I'm such a valuable commodity.

Actually, our lives are worth even less than that:  Those transgender women were accompanied by friends.

Officer Kenneth Furr received the sentence I mentioned for shooting into the car in August 2011. While drunk, he approached a transgender prostitute for sex.  When she refused, he followed her into a CVS store and pointed a gun at her outside the store. After Furr drove away, the woman and her friends followed him until he stopped and fired his gun at them.

Furr claims he was acting in "self defense".  Right.  Just like Matthew Shepard's killers acted out of "gay panic".   


At least Furr has been suspended without pay.  Even if that hadn't happened, Furr would have a harsher sentence than others who have committed similar crimes against transgender people.