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Trans ‘Sex by Deception’: What Are We Really Protecting Cis Men From?
How we make trans people pay the price for cis men’s shame
Content warning: discussion of violent assault, transphobia, and homophobia.
This week details emerged about the brutal assault of a transgender teenager who was lured to a roller disco and then stabbed repeatedly by a group of teens.
The attempted murder happened after the trans girl, sixteen at the time, was forced to out herself as trans after engaging in sexual acts with a boy.
The case raises issues about the role of the law in enforcing transphobia and homophobia and illustrates how trans people often pay the price for the shame cis people are made to feel for being attracted to us.
According to testimony given in court, the girl was invited to a boy's house. Without the girl knowing, the boy was filming them for a live stream. Someone watching the stream texted the boy to tell him the girl was transgender, at which point he apparently questioned her. Fearful of his reaction, given the abuse she had received for being trans in the past, she said that she wasn’t.
The pair then engaged in oral sex (all being live-streamed without her consent— which is illegal), after which someone again contacted the…
