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At a rally at Cal State University Long Beach yesterday, the transgender man who was attacked on campus earlier this month said the suspect carved the words "it" into his chest. "For those of you who don't know why 'it' is such a derogatory term, it takes away a person's humanity. It takes away their personhood. It makes them less than human," Colle Carpenter he said at a rally. Carpenter was attacked on the evening of April 15th in a campus restroom. Carpenter's shirt was pulled over his shoulders and head as his chest was slashed. The attacker apparently knew his name beforehand.
Beyond the crime itself, controversy stirred because the school community wasn't notified in a timely fashion. Carpenter, however, said although officials did not go public with the information, that they have been focused on the investigation.