‘Fucking f**got!’
Heading home from your job at the local bar late one evening, these haunting words pierce angrily through the near-pitch darkness of the alleyway to your left as you are passing by. Turning slightly in puzzlement, you can just about make out in the darkness the hulking shapes of two large men, towering threateningly above the slumped body of a young woman, her limbs cradling her wiry torso in a vain attempt at some kind of defensive foetal position beneath them. Your curiosity turns to horror as you notice the small but widening puddle of blood beginning to pool beneath her head. Before you can even react physically, the men land a series of devastating blows upon the woman’s already defeated body. You recognise the unmistakable sound of ribs cracking beneath the heavy leather boots of her assailants, and know that in some way you have to act. Only a step closer from where you first noticed her, and you notice something unusual about the young woman. Her hair seems lopsided somehow, as though the whole structure sits loose on her head. ‘A wig?’ you think incredulously. Another vicious kick from the man on her left, and you see the woman’s makeup running freely from her face as tears stream down her bloody cheeks. Finally, you can make out the faint impression of what could be a beard shadow. The strange insult of the woman’s attackers finally registers to you, as you at last recognise that the distraught and broken woman beneath them is transgender. It’s only a moment longer before the two hulking skinheads eventually lift their eyes from their intended prey and notice you standing before them in the darkness. A bolt of fear jolts through you, and you find yourself frozen in place. ‘The fuck you looking at, dickhead?!’ roars one of the men, turning his heavily muscled body toward you as you look on.
A long moment passes. You want to move, but find that the adrenaline coursing through your veins means that you simply can’t, at least for the moment.
‘Said what you looking at, dickhead?! You some kind of tr**ny chaser? Jog on you dickhead before I knock you the fuck out!’
Your body is released from the vicelike grip of your pre-fight or flight response.
Essentially, you have two options here.
1. Walk away. There’s no point getting assaulted for the sake of some tr**ny on the street anyway.
2. Challenge them, just as you intended to do before you noticed the woman’s features.