Woman brutally beaten for using women’s toilet in fast-food restaurant

Trigger warning: violence against trans women
Restroom panic, sometimes also known as bathroom panic; the terms mean the same. They refer to the sense of moral outrage and indignation experienced by some cis people on realising that trans people (generally trans women) use the same public toilets as they do. It’s an irrational fear grounded in the transphobic notion that trans women, regardless of our legal, medical or surgical status should be denied access to restrooms consistent with our gender presentation.
Too often the reasoning behind this idea seems to be that we will assault cis women if we’re not kept out of public toilets. Yet no proponent of this cissexist justification has ever come up with irrefutable proof – court case reports, police records, press reports, just one thing – to show that even one trans woman has ever attacked or otherwise assaulted a cis woman in one of “their” restrooms. Quite the reverse, in fact: there have been numerous instances of trans women being harassed and assaulted by cis people in public conveniences without fear of reprisal.
The latest manifestation of this ciscentric hysteria reached new depths last Monday, 18 April, in a McDonald’s restaurant in Baltimore with a vicious assault being captured on cellphone video:
The video shows two women — one of them a 14-year-old girl — repeatedly kicking and punching the 22-year-old victim in the head, as an employee of the Rosedale restaurant and a patron try to intervene. Others can be heard laughing, and men are seen standing idly by.
Toward the end of the video, one of the suspects lands a punishing blow to the victim’s head, and she appears to have a seizure. A man’s voice tells the women to run because police are coming.[Baltimore Sun]
Trigger warning: Here is a link to the video of the attack [YouTube]
As far as I know, the victim is still in hospital, where she was taken after the attack, and no update has yet been issued regarding her condition.
I have seen numerous commentaries online (Google News) and two themes are emerging. First, that the attack was motivated by race (the victim is white, her attackers are black). In my opinion, this is reverse racism and has no place in any discussion of this attack. In addition, it overlooks the fact that one of the attackers is herself quoted as saying that the fight was “over using a bathroom.” (Baltimore Sun). Finally, it ignores the published statistics showing that over 70% of transphobic violence is against women of colour (WoC). (Trans Murder Monitoring project) In that context, this attack is an exception to the norm – not that that makes it any better.
The second emerging commentary seems to be a call for the dismissal of the restaurant staff for failing to step in and stop the attack. In my view, this is a kneejerk reaction and I wonder what practical benefit it would have. Disciplinary action should certainly be taken by McDonalds but let’s not forget that any of the other customers could have intervened. One did, eventually – and another recorded the now viral cellphone video. So what action should be taken against those customers? It seems to me that education on trans issues should be a priority here, in the hope that the seeds of attitudinal change can be planted.
I believe it’s time to stop centring cis women’s unfounded concerns above the safety of trans women. Like it or not, trans women are women and, as such, we have as much right as any other woman not to be brutally assaulted when using public toilets.

(Cross-posted from Bird of Paradox)