Reply #47: One of the kids at my high school was in transition- she'd had hormones and top surgery

[LeftyMom]

but was waiting to turn 18 to get her bottom surgery done (her parents were supportive.) Nobody ever abused her- if any guy had thought about it half the girls in school would have beat their ass, she was enormously popular. And I didn't grow up someplace enormously enlightened, and that was more than ten years ago.

Don't excuse homophobic violence by making it sound inevitable and blaming the victim for risking it. It's not inevitable. Violence is a choice people make, not something they do automatically. The choice lies with those who choose bigotry or not, not the people whose only choice is to be themselves or die inside, which is no choice at all.