2024-03-29 15:35 (금)
맥도널드 매장에서 성 전환자 공격당해 [AP통신]
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맥도널드 매장에서 성 전환자 공격당해 [AP통신]
  • 김희광 기자
  • 승인 2011.04.26 14:52
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로즈데일, 메릴랜드 (AP) - 25일 미국 메릴랜드 주 볼티모어군 검찰당국은 맥도널드 매장에서 한 성전환여성이 공격당하는 비디오가 인터넷에 올라온 사건이 증오에 의한 범죄에 해당하는 가를 검토하고 있는 것으로 밝혀졌다.

매릴랜드 주 로즈데일의 한 패스트푸드 매점의 화장실에서 발생한 폭행사건에서 한 여인이 폭행을 당하고 발작상태를 일으키는 영상이 인터넷에 올라왔는데 이 사건의 용의자인 18세의 한 남성에게 1-2급 폭행죄와 14세 소녀는 청소년범죄 용의자로 체포했다고 한다.

폭행당한 여인은 그녀가 화장실을 사용하려고 하자 한 소녀가 남자가 여자화장실에 있다고 외치면서 폭행했다고 말했다. 폭행을 휘두른 두 여인은 성전환여성이 여자화장실 사용하는데 대해서 다투었다고 말한 것으로 검찰은 밝혔다.

이 폭행사건의 목격자에 의하면 두 소녀가 한사람을 폭행하고 있는데 아무도 싸움을 말리지 않고 한 구경꾼은 휴대전화로 촬영까지 하고 있었다고 한다. 그 사람은 점원이 폭행당한 사람이 여자가 아니고 성전환자라고 알고 있었느냐고 물어 왔으나 자신은 나는 그런 문제에 관심이 없다고 말했다. 그는 자신의 가족들도 지난 주 비디오를 보기 전까지는 성 전환자에 대한 폭행사건이 얼마나 끔찍했는지 알지를 못하더라고 말했다.

25일 밤, 200여명이 맥도널드 음식점 앞에 항의시위하기 위해 운집하자 그날 밤 영업을 정지하고 도로가 막히는 사태가 발생했다.

미국에서는 성 전환자에 대한 범죄는 증오에 의한 범죄로 규정하고 있는데 이들에 대한 주택과 취업의 보조, 지원을 요구하는 운동가들은 이번 폭행사건은 얼마나 성 전환자들에 대한 차별이 심각한 가를 보여 주는 증거라고 말하고 있다.

성 전환자 보호법은 매릴랜드 주 하원을 통과했으나 상원에서는 아직까지도 토의되지 않고 있다. 성전환자 보호법을 발의한 의원을 동료의원들이 지난주의 사건 비디오를 보도록 촉구하고 차기 회기에 법안을 공동 발의하도록 요청하고 있다.

(영문기사 원문)Prosecutors review charges in attack at McDonald's
ROSEDALE, Maryland (AP) — Baltimore County prosecutors are reviewing whether further charges, including hate crimes counts, are warranted in an attack on a transgender woman at a McDonald's that was caught on video, authorities said Monday.

The review of the April 18 beating also will determine whether others will be charged, State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger said Monday.

The video posted online shows a woman being attacked outside the restroom of the fast-food restaurant in Rosedale and apparently having a seizure. Teonna Monae Brown, 18, was arrested Friday and charged with first- and second-degree assault. A 14-year-old girl has been charged as a juvenile.

The woman beaten, 22-year-old Chrissy Lee Polis, told The Baltimore Sun that before she was attacked she heard a teen say Polis was a man using the women's restroom and accused Polis of talking to her man. The 14-year-old told police that she and Brown fought with Polis over using the restroom, according to charging documents.

Vicky Thoms said she walked into the restaurant to find the two teens beating Polis. No one was helping the woman and one bystander was even recording the attack with his cell phone camera, she said. When she stepped up and asked the girls to stop, Thoms ended up getting punched in the face herself, she said.

"She hit me like a man would hit and she was 14 years old," she said.

Afterward, a man behind the counter asked Thoms if she realized that the person being beaten was a not a woman and was transgendered.

"I told him, 'No I didn't and I don't care,'" she said. "He said he worked with her and she had a smart mouth — in other words, she deserved it."

Since the attack, Thoms said her nerves are shot and she can't stop crying. She told her family about it, but they didn't understand how awful the situation was until they saw the video on television last week.

"They couldn't watch it," she said.

More than 200 people gathered in the parking lot of the McDonald's, for a rally Monday night. The restaurant had closed for the evening in support, and the roads around it were clogged.

Between embraces from strangers who applauded her intervention, Thoms said she was overwhelmed by the response.

Polis decided not to attend, but Thoms said she wished that she had come so she could give her a hug.

Michael Strebeck, 43, came with his 15-year old daughter, Lindsay, who was upset by the attack. He grew up blocks away and had worked at the McDonald's briefly and the Jiffy Lube next door for years.

"I think (the attack) should never have happened, but it should have been stopped and the police called sooner. That's why I'm here."

 

 

Crimes against transgender people are included in the state's hate crime law, but advocates who pushed for a bill that would have extended housing and employment protections say this shows that discrimination against the group is real. The bill passed the House, but was never brought to the Senate floor for a vote.

 

Bill sponsor Delegate Joseline Pena-Melnyk asked her fellow lawmakers to view the video of the attack that went viral last week and consider being a co-sponsor of a stronger bill in next year's session.

 

"Incidents such as this illustrate why the transgender community in Maryland and elsewhere needs to be protected through antidiscrimination legislation," she wrote in the email.


 

김희광 기자 april4241@naver.com


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