One community
When a recent shooting leaves Houston transgenders on edge, all of us should notice.
Transgender residents of our city shouldn’t be left to confront their rising fears alone.
Monica Roberts has a theory about her native city of Houston, and it isn’t pretty.
As awareness of the transgender community has grown, so has a backlash that has left many transgender Houstonians like her feeling more endangered than ever.
That’s a troubling assessment coming from Roberts, who transitioned 25 years ago and is a leader in the trans community. And it’s a disheartening prospect for a city that prides itself on diversity and openness. But Roberts’ fear is easily understood when we hear about incidents like the Jan. 24 shooting at the Chevron gas station at 10414 Richmond Ave. in west Houston.
A man chased a transgender woman through the parking lot and shot at her repeatedly in broad daylight. First responders found Candice Elease Pinky lying in the doorway and took her to the hospital, where she was treated for shots through her throat and hands and released two or three days later. She told us Thursday she is still in pain but recovering. A police spokesman said two liaison officers have been working directly with the LGBTQ community to allay fears that may have arisen from the shooting.
That’s a reassuring response. But convincing transgender Houstonians that they are welcome will take more than outreach from law enforcement. It will take each of us who say we support equity and diversity to walk the walk in our daily lives.
Certainly, we’ve come far in our general acceptance of transgender men, women and children living as our friends, co-workers and neighbors. Even just 10 years ago, the notion of one’s gender not matching one’s outward anatomy was foreign enough to most that it was rarely mentioned in mainstream conversation.
Now though, issues regarding the trans community get a lot of ink, much of it supportive, and even folks for whom gender has never been complicated are aware that for hundreds of thousands of Americans — some estimate more than 1 million, with 125,000 in Texas — that isn’t the case.
Part of this awareness has stemmed from high-profile political fights, such as the 2015 campaign in Houston to repeal the city’s antidiscrimination ordinance. For all the ugly rhetoric, it was also true that many leaders in Houston stood up for transgender residents. Statewide, a similar set of mixed messages were sent two years later, when a coalition of big business and progressive groups came together to beat back the so-called bathroom bill in the 2017 Texas Legislature.
Unfortunately, the harshest language often leaves the most lasting impressions. All the condemnation has left many in the transgender community feeling like targets. Roberts says hateful words make it easier for those who would harass or harm transgender people. Perhaps surprisingly, Roberts also argues that the 2015 Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage also inadvertantly placed a bigger target on the trans community.
“The right-wing,” she told the Editorial Board, “has decided to switch targets, and we’re it.”
Her theory is not easily documented through statistics. The Houston Police Department keeps track of confirmed hate crimes, and last year just one confirmed case was reported to have involved a victim targeted due to gender identity. At the same time,
confirmed crimes against people due to their race or sexual orientation leaped in 2018. And overall, hate crimes nearly tripled from the year before reaching 32 confirmed reports.
But statistics rarely tell the whole story, especially in an area where so many abusive encounters never rise to the level of actual crimes, and even many of those that do go unreported. An overheard whisper while standing in line at the grocery store can shake a person’s sense of belonging as easily as a threatened punch.
It’s easy to understand how a community under attack for years in political speeches, TV ad campaigns, and casual conversation can feel besieged. It’s easy to imagine the trans community feeling besieged.
But it’s not so hard for those of us who welcome and appreciate our trans neighbors to let them know it.
The gas station shooting will echo for a while. Rattled nerves will take a while to calm.
Spokesman Kese Smith urged all Houstonians to come forward with any information they may have about the incident.
Time will tell what precisely motivated the shooter in this case. Pinky says she has no idea why she was shot. But in the meantime, transgender residents of our city shouldn’t be left to confront their rising fears alone. All of us should recognize that when one part of our city feels unwelcome or unsafe, it affects everyone. We’re one city, after all.