Hi, I'm new here - I hope this post jives with the theme of the sub. O.K. so, there's a MtF person who posts at the trans pages on Reddit who got my attention simply because of his extreme vitriol towards women. It's actually unsettling; frankly, I think he's a loose cannon. He rails on about how "cis" lesbians have done him wrong by not immediately accepting him and dating him - he does not ever miss a chance to denigrate lesbians and straight women alike. His post history reveals he's been in jail for physically attacking a woman, and he was also expelled from his high school for "making terroristic threats" (his words). As I'm not sure if this site allows me to state his screen name, I'll hold off for now, but I have a feeling a bunch of you might know exactly whom I'm talking about. Anyway, he posted a story the other day that was (if true, which is a big IF with this guy) really alarming in how much it demonstrated his weak grasp of reality and hatred of women. Thankfully, it seems to have been almost immediately removed by the mods - I'm hoping at least one of them saw it and realized how completely unhinged it sounded, especially since a kid was involved. Here's the cached link: https://removeddit.com/r/MtF/comments/n0h467/i_spent_two_weeks_in_the_icu_and_will_need_years/ Anyway, here's the story. Get ready, there's a lot to unpack:

I spent two weeks in the ICU and will need years of therapy after being a victim of a transphobic hate crime at the hands of a TERF.

submitted 2 days ago by XXXXXXXXXXX to /r/MtF

Hello beautiful ladies. I’m back after what feels like forever. Three weeks ago, I was the victim of a brutal attack. I spent two weeks in the intensive care unit after a head injury leading to a 2 day coma and 1.5 weeks in the hospital to monitor my brain as well as injuries to my face, neck, chest, groin, and legs. My memory is not the best and I am working with a therapist to try and regain as much as possible. I must be mindful as I don’t want to trigger any PTSD or trauma from the event. But I feel as a trans woman who owes everything to the trans community, I must tell and warn other white privileged trans women to be on guard. We are in severe danger too. Well, here goes.

I normally shop at a grocery store near my house but that day I went to one closer to my job. On the way out I saw a 7-8 year old girl completely alone in the parking lot. I have a younger sister and cousins myself which is where my empathy came from and why I was very worried. I approached and asked if she was okay. If she needed it, she could come with me into the store and we’d ask the store to call someone. Since it was raining, she was waiting for her mom to pull the car around. I noticed a fear in her voice and she went wide-eyed when her mom pulled up. I asked again if she was really okay and she started crying. Her mom gets out of the car and yells at her to get in. I don’t know what it was but I had a feminine intuition that this woman was no good. On top of her swearing at the child, she looked like a rejected cast member of Teen Mom or a stereotypical abusive white trash mother. As someone with an abusive mother herself I recognized the signs too well.

Before she could get in, I stopped the little girl and tried to intervene calmly to tell her that she could tell me if she needed help. This woman started screaming the girl’s name and tried putting her into the car. I held the girl back because the woman was getting more upset and more handsy. I said that she needed to calm down or that I would call the police. The woman grabbed the child violently from me and pushed her behind while yelling “get in the car”. She came forward to assault me but I instinctively lurched forward to hold her. She pepper sprayed me directly in the eyes. Totally defenseless, I received several punches to the neck, face, head, chest, stomach and kicks to the groin and legs. I was brutally beaten after falling unconscious from the first blow.

Luckily a male employee from the store came out and stopped the woman before the police and ambulances could arrive. The paramedics determined that the worst of my injuries was a TBI (traumatic brain injury) from a blow to the head. I was ‘asleep’ in a coma for 2 days and when I awoke I stayed for another week and a half. My brain tissue was not severely impacted but my rehabilitation (getting back on my feet) might take longer because of the extent of my physical injuries. The hospital would not release me until my tests were clear and until they were sure that I would be able to recover at home with rehabilitation.

After I came out of my coma, I was questioned by law enforcement as to whether or not I had provoked the attack. The police force was extremely biased at first because of their judgements given my record, being an trans woman, and the other people involved being a small girl and her mother. Being questioned like a criminal while recovering in an ICU is traumatizing to say the least. But luck was on my side since the security footage and the wonderful grocery employee who witnessed the end of the attack gave evidence and a witness statement that the woman was assaulting me after I was already unconscious. The conclusion of their investigation is that any ‘provoking’ is not justifiable enough for beating someone past the point of unconsciousness. TERFs may wonder what happened to this piece of shit woman. Her ‘injuries’ were scrapes, bruises, and sprains that are characteristic of what happens to your own body when you beat someone.

The woman who assaulted me used transphobic language which may have been coincidentally very similar to TERF rhetoric in her accounts to the police. I am settling only for her daughter’s wellbeing on the condition that she pays my medical expenses not covered by insurance. I also want to press charges on the police for police misconduct.

Unexpectedly, my story did have something good come out of it. A new chapter in my life has begun. Before the attack had happened, I really wanted to leave the Midwest and to go somewhere trans-friendly. But after the attack I had time to think about how it feels like. I want to become an activist and a voice for trans people...and if not trans people, then maybe an activist for abused children. I want to make sure that children who are being abused know that they have adults like myself on their side.

I mean, WOW. I would sooooo love to hear the mother's side of this. I'm guessing: it's raining, so she takes the chance to have her child wait at the curb to be picked up so she doesn't get soaked, and the next thing she knows a man is not only talking to her kid but then actively holding her back from entering the car (based on his "feminine intuition", no less). WTF?! Again, I'm not sure if this story is true, but if it is...I just don't have words. I post this story just to demonstrate that when we read comments from some MtF people berating and censuring women (and vice versa) for having boundaries, this is the absolutely clueless mindset that's behind those keyboards. Just oblivious.