What is Hate Crime?

The problem with genderality has been a worldwide issue, as for the genderqueer Sasha Fleischman. No one can really explain why so many people have an issue with people of not one gender. It has been a problem that has been going on for a long time, and the situation doesn't seem to be getting any better. In this case it didn't seem so for Sasha either. There has been many cases of hate crimes leading towards people's gender and sexuality. In one case a trans women was murdered in Chicago for being mistaken as a man.

To start off, gender based crimes are usually used as a bullying tactic against people of multiple genders with low self of stem. Most trans people are more likely to be harassed or assaulted. According to the article The Fire On Bus 57 in Oakland,the 2011 National transgender Discrimination Survey found that 13% of transgender or gender-nonconforming respondents identified as a gender not listed here. Also Sasha's father was once beaten up while jogging by some men in a pick up truck who thought he was gay because he wore a friendship bracelet that symbolizes he supports the LGBTQ community. That shows the hate some people give to the LGBTQ community and how they will act on them.

Unforcunatley, Sasha was a victim in a very upsetting prank. Richard Thomas was on the same bus as Sasha when the incident happened. Richard was also the one who had set Sasha's skirt on fire while Sasha was sleep leading to a very bad scar on Sasha's leg. The next day Richard Thomas was arrested. He was asked questions about how he felt about dudes in skirts, and he replied I wouldn't say i hate gay people, but that i don't like it when they want to tell the whole world that they are what they are. Richard says that it was just supposed to be a prank and that he didnt mean for the skirt to catch on fire. Richard was later sentenced to 3 years in state prison for aggravated mayhem and assault.

After that, Richard would soon come to write a letter to Sasha and her parents apologizing and explaining his actions, on how his crime was not meant to be against Sasha's sexuality/gender. Just a prank gone way to far. Eventually coming back home from the hospital Sasha was questioned by reporters and a lot of people were there to support Sasha. A Lot of people seen this as a hate crime against someone of a different gender. This just happened to be a bad prank in a bad place at the wrong time.

This article shows how things can go from bad to worst so fast. This case was probably seen as a hate crime but it shouldn't. The definition of a hate crime is motivated by racial, sexual, or other prejudice, typically one involving violence. Even according to Phyllis B. Gerstenfeld, a criminal justice professor at California state University, Stanislaus, don't have as much to do with the victim as they do the offender and their adolescents in general. That wasn't the case with Richard as written in his letter. In conclusion people will have seen this case leading to people as judging Richard as a homophobic but, he is not just a confused boy who made a horrible mistake in prison facing the consequences of his actions.

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