Trans Woman Verbally Attacked On Green Line Metro
metroweekly.comNBC Washington. The video of the altercation, which has been viewed more than a half-million times on Twitter, has led to Gowan receiving threats.Gowan noted that the phrasing used by the man during his rant echoes rhetoric used in debates over how public schools should deal with issued related LGBTQ identity.Those debates have intensified in recent months as several states — most notably, Florida and Alabama — have proposed or passed so-called “parental rights” bills that critics say constitute bans on all LGBTQ content.
Most conservatives believe that sexual orientation and gender identity should not be mentioned in schools at all — even in secondary-level classrooms or in subjects like history, science, or sex education.
If such subjects are introduced, parents must be notified beforehand and consent to having their children present when discussed.Liberals argue that barring all talk of identity stifles students’ free speech rights and, more importantly, sends a negative message to LGBTQ-identifying children, or the children of same-sex couples, that there is something wrong with them — which can exacerbate feelings of isolation, depression, anxiety, and even suicidal ideation.In Gowan’s case, a Metro Transit Police officer on patrol boarded the train and asked, “Y’all good?” Gowan replied: “No, This guy’s been harassing me.” The attacker responded: “That guy’s looking at me weird.”Gowan expressed disappointment that other passengers didn’t intervene.“It would have really helped if one of the five or so other people on the train had come over and pretended that they knew me, pretended that they were my mom or my gran,” she said.In a statement, Metro said that the officer who boarded the train interviewed both Gowan.
