Another sister attacked

(Possible trigger warning - linked article includes a description of the object used to attack, and of her injuries)

You wonder why I make some efforts to preserve my anonymity? This is why.

I bring you the sad news that yet another of my sisters has been brutally assaulted, this time in Queens. Two men accosted her as she walked home from a nightclub, at 2:30am on the 19th. Shouting "faggot" in Spanish at her, they beat her until a passing motorist stopped to threaten to call police. Police found her nearly naked, and bleeding on the sidewalk. The object used to assault her was found nearby.

The two men continued their night of astounding bravery by running away, but were arrested by police shortly after, and charged with assault with intent to cause physical injury with a weapon, and released on their own recognizance.

Despite shouting anti-gay slurs at her in Spanish while they attacked her, the assailants have not been charged with any hate crime, as the Queens Co. DA has declined to even investigate it as such.

There are a whole bunch of things I could point out about this: that it's just about the most obviously hate-based crime I've heard of in a while, that calling it only assault leaves out that they were only stopped from killing her by the passerby - why isn't it attempted murder, exactly? - that there was no bail set for two men who tried to kill a random stranger on the street.

That people will be saying it was her fault for walking alone on the street late at night, or that she'd been drinking, or blah blah victim-blaming blah.

On average, at least one transgender person is killed in the US each month. It seems only by the intervention of "good fortune" that Ms. Mora didn't join so many of our sisters and brothers already listed at the Transgender Day of Remembrance site.

Please, if you have the time, consider writing a polite but firm e-mail to the Queens Co. DA's office, reminding them that hate crime laws are only as effective as the prosecutors' willingness to use them when appropriate.

I'm sure I can safely speak for the rest of Shakesville in saying we hope that Ms. Mora returns to full health soon, and that she sees justice for this appalling hate crime.