Violence against transgendered/transsexual people is all too common. This morning, I woke up to find a flyer with the following information on it. I’m horrified and I feel unsafe and I hate what Public Safety and the Police did to Ruby.
September 24, 2009
Dear Member of Mount Holyoke College and Resident of the Pioneer Valley,
It has been reported:
There was an act of anti-trans violence and possible racial profiling committed by the Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, and Smith College joint Public Safety force and additionally the Amherst Police department.
“Ruby” was a visitor of the pioneer valley and identifies as a transwoman of color. Ruby was seeking refuge at Hampshire College with a friend after being evicted fromher home because of her transexuality. She had been trespassed from Hampshire campus a year and half ago while attending a lecture with friends from the college. On the night of the incident at hand, Public Safety entered the host’s mod, and the Assistant Director of Public Safety has given several different reasons for entry. A witness, in the mod living room, reports Public Safety’s call to the Hampshire Housing Director: regarding closed doors to private rooms: “We can’t go in there [closed doors to private rooms], but you can.”
Ruby was hiding under her host’s bed. Public Safety physically pulled Ruby out from under the bed. The officers made transphobic jabs, mocking her outfit and victimizing her due to her feminine appearance. When last seen by her friends, she was wearing her own skirt; when picked up from jail, she was wearing a foreign pair of pants and said, “I was still wearing my skirt,” leading her friends to believe that she was pressured by officers to change her clothing. Hampshire Public safety then took Ruby into custody and transported her to Amherst Police. There, she says, “I was aggressively and sexually violated at the station by [an officer] in the presence of three others.” Eight friends paid her bail, however her detention continued for two hours thereafter. During her detention the Police threatened Ruby. She explained, “[I] was lectured on how I would be raped by ‘a big guy with romance on his mind’ if I was caught again at Hampshire College.” The issue here is with both the joint Public safety Department (which is something we must react to as a campus) and with the Amherst Police Department (which we need to react to as citizens).
Officers who work on our campus discriminated and threatened an individual based onher gender identity, gender presentation, and race.
This threatens the safety of gender variant people, threatens the safety of people of color, and threatens the safety of all people of our community, because:
Public Safety discriminated, and
Public safety harassed.
End Complacency. Demand Equality. Come together on Thursday evening in Torrey at 9:30 P.M.
Sincerely,
Concerned Members of MHC and the Pioneer Valley
Wow.
I was skeptical when all the buzz about the HPV vaccine began. 
Gender Agenda 